“She’s my wife, Luca,” I replied, needlessly. “She might be Ciro’s heart and your soul, but she’s my fucking everything. If Gio sees her as a threat to his crown, that’s a concern.”
I could see Luca’s shoulders relax. He knew I wasn’t challenging him, and I knew he wasn’t challenging me. We were just doing what we always did when it came to Frankie; we were protecting her.
Ciro stood up from the couch. “Does he see her as a threat?”
Before Luca could answer, his phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and his eyes shot my way before his brows furrowed. “It’s Francesca,” he told us.
Ciro chuckled. “She must be pissed at Nix for being gone so long. She’s trying to salvage her pride by calling you to see where the fuck he’s at.”
Luca rolled his eyes, and it always threw me when he did that. It made him look young and Luca’s never been young, even when he was. He swiped his finger and held the phone up to his ear. “Francesca.” Not even a second later, his entire body stilled, and my heart dropped to my feet.
Luca has never reacted to Francesca’s voice like that.
I watched, the blood in my veins frozen, as Luca placed the phone on the desk and hit the speaker function. The voice that filled the room didn’t belong to Frankie.
“Did you hear me?”
Luca’s jaw ticked, but his voice sounded smooth as bourbon. “I do believe I missed that,” he replied. “I’ll need you to repeat yourself.”
The man’s voice was full of contempt. “Of course, you missed it,” the man sneered. “Because people like you don’t have to listen to anyone, do they?”
“I assure you, I listen to people all the time,” Luca countered smoothly. “It’s what makes me good at what I do.”
“Well, then listen well,” the man snapped. “If you want your precious Frankie back in one piece, you’ll give me what I want.”
For the first time in years, I felt rage unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.
I also felt fear.
Luca’s eyes stayed on mine. I knew he was silently willing me to keep my shit together. “Are you sure you have the right number, first of all?”
“I really don’t care which one of you assholes I’m talking to,” he replied. “But Frankie’s contact list has one P, two C, and three L. I might not be the head of the great Benetti Family, but it’s not hard to deduce that P is for Phoenix, C is for Ciro, and L is for Luca. The only thing I don’t know is who put those diamonds on her finger. But I do know I’m talking to Luca Benetti.”
The motherfucker really had Frankie.
I placed those goddamn rings on her finger just this morning. No one outside the Benettis could possibly know about them unless they knew who Frankie was, and they’d seen her since this morning. I wanted to believe she was in our bed where I left her, but I also wasn’t one to live in denial.
Luca didn’t offer up any confirming information. He simply asked, “What is it you want?”
“I want ten million dollars,” he answered. “Ten million with no bullshit, and you get her back unharmed.”
Ten million wasn’t shit. I had accumulated more than ten million in the past six years with all the high-profile hits I’ve done. And I knew Ciro had just about as much money as I had. I didn’t even pretend to know what Luca was worth, but ten million between the three of us wasn’t shit.
But this wasn’t about money.
Someone dared to touch Frankie, and he wasn’t going to live long enough to spend a penny of the ten million he was demanding.
“Ten million,” Luca repeated. “And you think she’s worth ten million dollars to me? To us?”
The man’s voice suddenly sounded doubtful. His confidence wavering. “Be…because she’s…she’s Ciro Mancini’s sister,” he stuttered. “She’s…she’s Church.”
“And where would I take this ten million dollars?” Luca asked. “Are we going to PayPal it?”
“Don’t talk to me like I’m stupid!” he yelled.
I felt Ciro come stand next to me, but I couldn’t look at him. I knew if I did, I’d lose my shit in spectacular fashion. Because Frankie meant different things to the each of us, what we were feeling at this moment differed from one another, but those feelings were equally strong.
“Then quit playing games and tell me what you want,” Luca retorted, his voice still relaxed. “If you’re calling me to demand a ransom, I assume you already have a plan in place. Quit wasting time.”
“I want ten million in cash brought to Cedar Creek,” he said. “Call me when you are on your way with the money. Once you reach Cedar Creek, call me for further direction.” This had all the makings of a bad action movie. This man was either high, stupid, or desperate. It didn’t really matter which because he was going to die for daring to go near Frankie.
“I’ll have the money in an hour,” Luca told him. “It’ll take another hour to reach Cedar Creek.”
“I look forward to hearing from you in an hour,” was his reply. “I also know I don’t have to tell you to come alone, Mr. Benetti. Come alone or Frankie doesn’t make it home unscathed.” Luca’s lip curled, and I knew he was close to losing shit.
We all were.
The second the phone went dead, I grabbed the glass tumbler Luca had been drinking from earlier and threw it across the room. “Motherfucker!” I roared.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Ciro chanted, his voice low and deadly.
“He gave us an hour,” Luca said. “We can make it to Cedar Creek in about forty
