DeLuca (Mafia Romance)

Carlo

“Where the fuck is she?” I yelled into the phone. I knew it was no use, no one knew where she was. She told me she was going into the city this afternoon for a meeting but that had been a lie. When it past eight that evening with no word from her I called her assistant at the main office and she had told me there was no meeting that afternoon. In fact, Mia had told her she had some personal business to take care of and would be unreachable for the day.

“Sir, we’re trying to find her but her cell was left at the estate and her car is parked at the office in Seattle, which is as far as we’ve been able to track her. There has been no activity on any of her cards and she hasn’t used her name for any sort of travel. I’m sorry, Sir, but it looks like she was pretty thorough. I don’t think we are going to find her until she wants to be found.” Enzo’s voice came through the phone sounding calm.

“Call me if you find anything,” I snapped into the phone and disconnected before he could respond.

I started pacing in front of my desk, “What the fuck is she doing?” I asked to no one in particular. Angelo was on the computer trying to search for any sign of Mia.

“The good thing is that we’re pretty sure she did this willingly. It doesn’t seem like she was taken by force since she lied about where she was going and purposely left her cards and phone,” Angelo said from his post behind the computer.

“That doesn’t mean whatever she had planned didn’t backfire. You and I both have a pretty good fucking idea of what she was, is, trying to do. FUCK!”

“We don’t know that for sure. We don’t have anything to go on right now and assuming the worst isn’t going to help us find her any faster. At this point, the best solution is to wait until morning. If she isn’t back by then, we go after the Kashnikovs.”

“But if they have her now she could be dead by morning!” I shouted as I continued my pacing, running my hands through my hair. This is why I don’t make personal attachments. I was going fucking insane. It was midnight and she had only been gone for eight hours. Jesus, I couldn’t even imagine what I would do if she was hurt.

“If we go in half-cocked without a plan and they do have her, they might panic and kill her. And if they don’t have her, we just showed our hand. There are too many unknowns right now Carlo. Besides, Mia is intelligent and well trained. I don’t like this situation any more than you do but if she did do what we think, she would have been smart about it. Obviously from the way she took off and covered her tracks she had thought this through. Have some faith in her, we’ll get her back,” Angelo said with more confidence than I felt.”I swear if she has so much as one hair out of place when we get her back, I won’t rest until I see every last one of those fuckers burn.” Mia

My heart was pounding so hard in my chest I was sure he could hear it as he entered the elevator and pressed the button for the lobby. He gave me a sidelong onceover and a head nod, I smiled weakly in return.

He didn’t know.

I was tempted to try and take him out now, two birds with one stone, but I immediately dismissed the idea as foolish. I needed time to prepare and plan, and I definitely wanted to take my time with this one. I was certain it was his call to kill Gina and I wanted to make sure his end was slow and painful, even more so than his brother’s.

As the car descended I noticed Ivan glance at me again, lingering on the half obstructed view of my face.

Fuck! Did he recognize me? How is that even possible, am I acting suspicious?

“How much?” he asked with is twisted smirk.

What the fuck?

It took me a second to realize that he thought I was a prostitute. I covered my face with my hands and stifled a laugh, “Oh god, I am like never wearing this dress again, I don’t-I mean I’m not like a hooker.”

What the fuck was that?

My nerves were getting the best of me, the first thing I could think of was to play up the part of ditzy party girl. I just hoped he couldn’t see through the act. I could feel my hands starting to tremble. Shit! I quickly rubbed my nose and sniffed loudly a few times. Maybe if he thought I was high it would help make sense of why I was acting like such a fucking spaz.

Ivan immediately took the bait. Raising an eyebrow and smirking, he reached into the breast pocket of his suit and pulled out a card, handing it to me. “Well if you want to make some money let me know, we are always looking for new girls,” he said.

I looked at the card in my hands.

Ivan Kashnikov, OwnerNôvelDrama.Org holds text © rights.

The Red Dragon

251 NW Broadway St, Portland, OR 97209

“Are you, like a pimp?” I asked keeping up the valley girl act.

He smirked at me, “It’s a gentlemen’s club, we are always looking for new dancers, and you look like you can move.”

My skin was crawling but I played along, we only had three more floors before the lobby. “Maybe I will,” I said with a slightly defiant tone. “Is the money good?”

“Come and find out, we’re holding auditions for new dancers next Friday at seven at that address,” he smirked again as the doors opened, he winked at me and strode into the deserted lobby.

My stomach rolled as the doors closed again and I began my final descent into the parking garage. I pulled out my phone and opened the Facebook app. Mouse had set us each up with a dummy profile that couldn’t be linked back to either of us. I posted a stupid cat meme and tagged him in it with the caption:

LOL!!!

Each exclamation point signifying an hour of security footage he needed to erase. Since it was a high end hotel they didn’t use a closed circuit surveillance system, a fact that Mouse had discovered the week before. Instead they used an internet based system that was easy enough for an experienced hacker like Mouse to infiltrate. He had been messing around for the last two days on the system, dropping feeds and making it seem like there was an issue with the software or platform connection. Eventually I’m sure someone would piece together the timeline but initially it would look like another glitch.

The doors to the elevator opened and I made my way out of the underground parking garage and onto the street with a cruel smile stretched across my face.