61. Dante

Chapter 61

Dante

W hen the phone went dead I hurried to the door, yanked it open, and yelled as I hurried through the hallway.

“Giotto! Giotto!”

He appeared at the end of the hallway.

“Inform Andrea and the others right now. I need backup. Get my car.”

I tossed him the keys and went back into my office to grab my gun and phone, by the time I had opened my front door my Range Rover was waiting outside.

I went over to the driver’s seat to pull the door open, and Giotto immediately jumped out. I heard the second vehicle behind us starting, and in no time we were zooming out of the compound.

I wasn’t sure exactly where she was. I searched my memories back to my days with him. Ugo didn’t own a townhouse in the city then, but this could be a recent purchase. He would take her to a place most of his men didn’t know about. By the time we arrived in Manhattan, I still didn’t have a clue and I was forced to call the one person that I would have preferred not to. What if he insisted on interfering?

Detective Hudgens picked up on the second ring. “Are you calling to return our witness to us?”

“Does Ugo have any homes in the city?” I asked.

He paused for a moment and then he replied. “Why do you need that information? And why would I give it to you?”

“Because he has Zola and I’m heading over there right now.”

“Are you out of your fucking mind?”

“No, I’m trying to get to her because he’ll fucking kill her.” I was irritated by his questions. It made me want to smash the phone to pieces.

“Um, we’ll search for this and get back to you. Thanks for the tip. In the meantime, I need you to wait till you hear from us and not do anything rash. We’ll handle this.”

I slammed my fist on the steering wheel. I knew he was going to do this to me. “Stop being stupid, Hudgens. If he kills her before you get to her, imagine the scandal. You could even lose your job. Let me do it. I know him. I know how he operates. This way we both get what we want.”

He paused, then sighed. “I’ll find where she is and-”

“I’ll call you back in ten minutes,” I said and ended the call.

I could feel Giotto’s gaze turn to me. He’d probably never seen me so riled up. I went as far as Greenwich Village, and then I had to stop because I didn’t have any clue where to go, and I didn’t want any delays if I had to cross Brooklyn Bridge. Ten minutes was up so I called Hudgens once again.

“What’s the address?” I asked.

“This is off the record,” he said.

“Sure, whatever.”

“He has a property in Greenwich Village and that puts us forty-five minutes away without traffic. Too far to get there quickly. How far away are you?”

“Ten,” I replied. “Give me the full address?”

He gave it to me and I repeated it aloud so that Giotto could hear it and key it into the GPS system.

“Don’t do anything rash. This is-,” Hudgens started to say but I ended the call and threw the phone aside.