Keeping his bride

Luca

M

Y EARS ARE still ringing from the deafening explosion that just happened, and it takes me several long minutes to gather my composure and take in my surroundings.

The house around us is burning and smoke fills up my lungs as I take a deep breath. Coughing, I struggle to crawl out from under the rubble of what used to be my desk and fail miserably. I’m stuck under here. Blood trickles down my forehead and into my eyes as I call out for my men.This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.

Some of them answer. I guess some is better than none.

Someone grabs me, pulling me out from under the charred desk. Benito.

“Gather what we can, and let’s get the fuck out of here,” I instruct him. A huge hole in the side of the mansion is our exit point as we carry out as much equipment as we can.

“Mr. Vitale,” my head IT guy, Aldo, says when he emerges. He looks worse for wear; his dark hair disheveled, his face blackened with soot and his glasses askew on his young face.

“Yes,” I answer quickly, wa ting to know what he knows.

“I was able to trace the signal that triggered the explosions. It didn’t come from Constantine or any outside source. It came from inside our own network. It took a little while to trace the source, but I know it was from a phone on or near the property that generated the explosions.”

“Fuck!” I hiss, looking around at my group of men. I know none of them are responsible, but then who? Who the fuck would want to hurt us? Who the fuck would try to kill us?

Realization suddenly dawns on me, and I demand,

“Where’s Verona?”

“You sent her away with Dante,” Benito says slowly, no doubt thinking I hit my head too damn hard and forgot.

“Track the SUV. I want to know exactly where they are.”

“It’s going to take a few minutes to get the servers back online,” Aldo instructs as he sits down on the grass with a laptop.

“Hurry the fuck up!” I tell him through clenched teeth. My gut is telling me Dante is somehow behind this and that Verona is in trouble. And the fact that I handed my most prized possession, my queen, over to that bastard makes my chest ache like someone is thrusting a thousand knives into the dark cavity.

“We need to move everyone to the underground bunker on the other side of the property,” Benito says hurriedly. “I doubt if Dante knew about it. He might be ready to set off more bombs in the main house, and we can’t risk losing anyone else.”

I nod in agreement. “Yes, let’s move to the bunker.” Normally, I don’t worry about my own life; but if I’m dead, who the hell is going to save Verona? I need to stay alive… for her.

AFTER WE’RE all safe in the bunker and our generators are up and running, along with the backup servers, Aldo, informs me that the tracker on the SUV stopped at a small gas station outside of the city.

I go to him and look at the map. “That’s not in the direction of the safehouse. He’s not taking her there. He’s taking her somewhere else.” I stare at the time that has passed since the SUV stopped. Twenty-five minutes. Dante didn’t simply stop to fuel up. He ditched the car, knowing we would be tracking him. “Get the surveillance footage from the store. They abandoned the SUV. We need to know where they went.”

“Right away, sir,” Aldo tells me.

Benito walks into the bunker with one of our staff that has a nursing background. She looks around the place warily as she’s escorted straight to me. “You have some wounds that need to be addressed,” Benito says.

I wipe at the blood still streaming down my face. “Head wounds always bleed hard and fast,” I say, shrugging him off.

“You can’t help Verona if you’re passed out cold,” he informs me, making me rethink my decision.

“Fine,” I say with a huff. Then, I look at the young brunette, who is practically shaking with fear. “Quickly,” I instruct her.

“Yes, sir,” she says with a nod before reaching into her medical bag for what she needs.

As she’s cleaning the wound and stitching me up and I’m trying not to curse and move from the pain, Aldo tells me he has the footage. “They left in a small four-door sedan.”

“Trace the license plate. See if we can get a hit on any of the cameras in the area,” I say. “Fuck!” I yell at the girl when she pierces my skin at a articularly sensitive area around my temple.

“I’m sorry, sir,” she says.

I close my eyes and curse under my breath. “It’s all right. Keep going. Hurry,” I tell her.

Three more sutures are in when my phone in my pocket begins to ring. I’m quick to answer it without even glancing at the caller ID. I hear nothing at first, but then voices begin to speak, having their own private conversation.

Furrowing my brows, I pull the phone back and stare at the caller ID.

Verona’s name on the screen has my heart skipping a beat. I call for Aldo and tell him to connect the phone to a laptop to trace the call and to put the call on speaker so that we can hear the conversation.

Hearing Verona’s sweet, melodic voice has an instant calming effect. But then when I hear Dante’s much deeper, crueler voice, the anger builds right back up inside of me. My hands clench at my sides as I listen to him tell her that he killed her mother.

Verona’s sobs fill the room, and it’s almost too much to bear.

“I’m done, sir,” the little nurse tells me, and I wave her away.

Benito escorts her out of the bunker before returning to my side, listening intently to the call.

When Dante begins to talk about killing my mother, my anger reaches a fever pitch. “That son of a bitch!” I roar.

I let the enemy into my home. The man that I’ve hunted for so long was right under my nose this entire time. He will suffer for his crimes. I will make him pay ten-fold. I will paint this entire fucking city with his blood.

I hear Verona and Dante struggling, and the phone falls, her screams fading off into the distance. “I will burn this entire world to the fucking ground until my wife is back in my arms,” I tell everyone in the room, making it crystal clear of my intentions. “How long until you get their exact location?” I ask Aldo.

He looks up from his laptop and pushes his glasses up higher on his nose. “Almost got it, sir.”

I turn to Benito. “Let’s get the vehicles ready. Aldo can alert us on the way where we need to go. We can head to the gas station first, and hopefully have the information we need by the time we get there.”

Benito nods in agreement, but he seems hesitant about something. Coming closer, he says lowly, “I need to tell you something private, boss.”

“What is it?” The look on his face is something I’ve never seen before. Emotion. Benito is always so stoic, it’s hard to remember that he’s an actual person and not a fucking robot. And, shit, I don’t think my heart can take any more devastating news.

“Your wife requested a pregnancy test this morning. She wanted discretion, and I gave that to her. But I thought you should know.”

Pregnancy test? Verona is pregnant?

My legs suddenly give out, and I stumble into a nearby chair.

“I didn’t see the test results,” Benito informs me.

But I already know the result. I can feel it down in my dark fucking soul. Verona is pregnant. She hasn’t had her period in a while, and I would know since I haven’t been able to stop myself from being inside of her every waking moment.

She’s pregnant with our baby. And Dante has them.

Clenching my fists, I rise and look at Benito. “We need to go. Now!” I demand.

He motions to several men in the room, and all of us run out of the bunker and to the SUVs in the garage so fast that it’s a blur. All I can focus on is my wife and getting to her as quickly as possible.

Horrible thoughts barrage me as we fly out of the driveway and down the road. Verona didn’t want to leave, and I made her go. I forced her to leave with Dante, the very man who killed both of our mothers.

If anything happens to Verona or the baby, I’ll never be able to forgive myself.