Untangle Me

Chapter 17

Vincenzo

I'm already sporting the meanest headache when my office door suddenly bursts open. I'm not surprised when Leo stumbles inside. After all, he's the only one that can- and does- disturb me like this without any consequences.

Perks of growing up with me, I guess.

"What is it?" I ask, clearly showing my disinterest.

It's not that I want to be an actual jerk all the time but ever since my mother called me all those days ago, telling me the girl I believed dead for eight months had entered her flower shop, I've been on edge.

That's an understatement. I'm not on edge, I am fucking confused about my emotions and furious with myself for feeling so much in the first place.

First, I was happy. I couldn't believe Giada was alive so I sent my men. But then she started sprouting that Sofia bullshit and I came to a conclusion. The girl I met in that cell wasn't who I used to know.

And my mind came up with a simple explanation for everything. An explanation that turned my joy into pure, undeluded hatred for that wicked woman.

Still, my idiotic body reacted to her as strongly as ever. I still craved her, still itched to touch and mark that smooth skin of hers. So I did.

And I hated myself for it.

She felt the same, sounded the same and her body responded like it used to. It messed with my head and I couldn't afford it. So I stopped being a dumbass and put Leo in charge of her, telling him to take care of it and not to tell me anything about her.

And speaking of the devil, Leo says the last words I want to hear. "It's her."

I take a closer look at him for the first time tonight. He's a pale, sweaty mess, breathing heavily as if he had just run all the way to me from wherever the hell he came from. His disheveled appearance is enough to get my attention even as I reply, "I don't want to hear about it."

Now my friend looks straight-up pissed. He clenches his teeth, stalks over to me, and slams his fist down on my table, not even wincing when he makes contact with the solid wood.

"Enough of this ridiculous behaviour, you bloody coward!" I attempt to interrupt him but he doesn't let me. "No! Don't even try to give me some excuse! I was just knocked out, okay? Yeah, gun to the head. So my patience is wearing thin."

"Who?" I finally burst. "I swear to god, Leo, you better tell me who the hell hit you. I'll take care of them."

"This isn't about me, as much as I appreciate that. But to answer your question, it was Dante. Don't interrupt me!" he adds quickly, knowing damn well I was about to go ballistic.

Luciano Dante... I hate that slug. He does his job well enough so I chose to keep him around. He was loyal and did the dirty work no one else wanted to do.

That doesn't mean I like him. And he doesn't like me either. Ever since the incident, that is. Since then things went south with him and he started giving me even weirder vibes than before.

He's never stopped blaming me for his own sloppiness.

I look at Leo, forcing myself to stay on topic as he hesitates. "Okay, fuck, I really hate being the messenger but," he trails off, searching my eyes intently.

Meanwhile, I'm losing my patience. "Spit it out," I tell him.

"He has her. Dante has her and... they're gone," my friend finally says. With those few words, the world stops in its tracks.

"What?" I ask silently, my voice not containing a sliver of emotion. There's nothing within me but I'm not naïve enough to trust it. I know this is the quiet before the storm. The moment of peace before the dam breaks.

"I heard Tucelli tell Messina how Dante was gone again. I asked about it and he said their roommate has been missing several nights in a row, only returning late at night. When I went to look for him, I stumbled over Giada's knocked-out guard.

"Dante was in her cell when I got there but she seemed fine. More than fine, she helped him knock me out! When I woke up they were gone. Security from the back entrance rushed to tell me how no one was able to stop them from escaping right after I woke up," Leo explains in one breath.

My mind is spinning, thoughts upon thoughts clouding my ability to think clearly as I absorb the information.

"What are you telling me this for?" I finally ask. "He's a traitor and decided to take the dead weight with him, so what? Good riddance, if you ask me." I'm seething, hating myself for each word I speak even though I should mean them.

Giada is a traitor and so is Dante. They deserve each other.

"What?!" Leo snaps at me, completely out of it now. "Dude, what is wrong with you? How can you say something like that? You know what kind of monster he is. You know what he'll do to her!"

"Calm down. You just said they worked together," I say, willing the words to be true.

"You're full of shit if you try to tell me you think they're partners. Hell, you know her! No idea what compelled you to treat her the way you did when she arrived here but I've stayed off your back for too long. Now snap out of whatever scene you've lost yourself in and get moving!"

My friend tries to pull me to my feet but I don't budge, shaking my head instead. Leo's wrong. She left with Dante, helped him hurt Leo, for god's sake. She might as well be partners with him since she sure as hell isn't the Giada I used to know.

"Enzo, we need to help her! She doesn't know what she's getting herself into. You should've seen the way he talked to me in her cell. It was like meeting a whole new person. He was almost charming, for fuck's sake," Leo adds.

"But why would he-" I attempt to ask but my friend cuts me off.

"I don't know but we don't have time to figure it out right now. Please, Enzo, I don't want her to end like his usual victims." And that's what gets to me. The unconcealed desperation in my friend's voice as he expresses concern for an old friend.

It breaks the dam within me.

I'm on my feet in a flash, hands shaking at my sides as I stride towards the elevator. "Order for backup," I tell Leo absently as he follows me.

He barks orders into his wristband but the sound is only static in my ears. Shit, shit, shit! If what Leo said is true and Giada really has been blindsided then we're in deep shit.

"How long since they left?" I ask absently when we reach the garage beneath my building. We head straight for the closest car, a black Audi with tinted windows, even though neither of us knows where to go.

"I don't know man, maybe thirty minutes?" he answers, running his hands through his short afro.

I breathe out a curse. "Any leads?"

"Security says they stole a car. A crew has already tracked it to an empty parking lot twenty minutes from here but they're nowhere near," my friend says.

"Of course, they're not fucking there. He's no amateur!"

"I'm just telling you what we know. Stop taking your shit out on me. This could have all been prevented if you hadn't been such a prick in the first place!"

"I'm this close to knocking you out again, don't test me. Where do we go?" I demand instead of giving his words any more thought. Now is not the time.

"Where does he take his usual victims?" Leo asks, thinking out loud.

"He has his own floor in one of my buildings with all the equipment he might need but he wouldn't go there. No, this is personal," I mutter, racking my brain for possibilities.

Come on, I think. I must know it, I can feel how close the answer is but it stays just out of my reach.

Then it clicks.

"The warehouse! Of course, it's the fucking warehouse!" I exclaim, finally starting the car and leaving the garage.

In the blink of an eye, Leo and I are on the road, going way above the speed limit. I don't care though. Now that I know where we need to be, I can't possibly get there fast enough.

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How'd y'all like his pov? Lmk:))