Tirone (The Night Skulls MC #2)(84)
My VP patted my shoulder. “We’re all here, Prez. Ain’t going nowhere.”
“Texas and Marshall are running things at the compound,” Fort said.
“Where’s Hook?”
“Guarding Jo’s room.”
I nodded, wiping my eyes with the heel of my palm. “Thank you, brothers.”
“Go see your wife. We’ll handle Rex.”
I went to Jo’s room, but only Hook was inside. “Where is she?”
“They took her to X-ray,” he said.
“Why?”
“She said she was having some pain in her pelvis. The doctor came and ordered some X-ray scans. They took her there a few minutes ago.”
“What the fuck? Why didn’t you tell me?” I headed out of the room. “And why didn’t you go with them?”
He walked with me. “I did, but they said I couldn’t go in with her so I came back to find you. Fort told me you were with Rex. I reckoned I’d better wait for you in her room. I could hear y’all fighting from here.”
“Where’s the fucking scan room?”
He pointed to the elevator. “Third floor.”
When we went up, something was off. People were walking faster than normal, their faces blanching as they met mine. I stopped the first nurse I hit. “Where’s my wife? Jo Lazzarini. She came up for X-ray.”
“She…she asked to go to the bathroom before the scan. But…”
“But what?”
“When she took too long, I went in to see if she needed any help,” she swallowed, “but she wasn’t there.”
“What do you mean she wasn’t there? Where the fuck did she go?”
She shrugged, shrinking in fear. “We looked for her everywhere on this floor with no luck. I called security to look for her on the other floors.”
“The fuck!” I scurried with Hook, searching for her, while I called Molar to check with the security. Did someone take her from right under my nose? The Lanzas? The fucking Larvins?
We combed the hospital inside and out, but she was nowhere to be found. No one saw her leaving or saw anyone taking her.
“Joooo!” I screamed my lungs out in the middle of the street. Where the fuck did she go? All her belongings were still in the hospital. Someone must have taken her.
“We’ll find her, Prez,” Hook said. “She couldn’t have gone far.”
“Stay with Rex,” Molar said as he mounted his bike. “We’ll find Jo.”
“No. I’ll go. Y’all stay with him.” I straddled mine. “If it’s the Lanzas or the Larvins who took Jo, they might snatch Rex, too.”
Unless…
Know this when you call the shots, Prez. I will never side with Michele’s enemies. I’d rather give myself to the Larvins than see that day.
No. No, no, NO! “Fuck!”
CHAPTER 47
Jo
“My name is Jocasta Larvin. Your boss has been dying to meet me for a very long time.”
The bodyguards at the gates, fully alert, radioed the news. Voices transmitted back and forth through their devices until the gates buzzed open. Then, after searching me for weapons and wires, they each held me by the arm and escorted me in.
The mansion was tucked away in a forested corner of North Houston. The grand entrance accommodated at least a thousand guests with gorgeous gardens, an ample, circular driveway around a majestic Italian fountain and glorious, European antique fixtures.
When another bodyguard opened the front door, decadent marble floors greeted me and led to an incredible reception with stunning stairwells and chandeliers. “Wow. Is this a rental or did they buy the whole thing?”
With a stone face, the bodyguard just glared at me.
“It is a rental.” A man in his late thirties, wearing a light gray suit, came down the hallway. “For now.”
“I believe this is about to change…Don Lanza.”
“I believe so, too.” Smirking, he took my hand, and then he kissed the back in a greeting. “Piacere.”
My body ached as if bitten by a snake. “Is there a place we can talk?”
He nodded at the bodyguard holding me like a prisoner to let go, and then Enzio Lanza gestured for me to walk with him. I might as well be walking to my own self-dug grave, but I did it anyway.
We arrived at a cozy room that overlooked one of the gardens, and he offered me a seat. He sank in an armchair and crossed his legs. “Would you like something to drink?”
“No thanks.”
“Where’s Furore? I thought when I finally had the pleasure to meet you he’d be with you. He’s been keeping me waiting for a while. My wife was pretty upset when you declined our invitation to our son’s party.”
“I’m sure you and she understand we couldn’t make it.”
He stared at me with piercing eyes, leaning forward, the skulls and thorns on his wrist poking out. “I must admit it was very clever. Was it your idea? Like it is your idea to come here today?”
“Furore is my husband, Don Lanza. We’re a team. A family. His word is mine. Rest assured whatever I say here it’s binding for him as if it’s coming from his own mouth.”