Automatic guns sound from outside and the windows smash, everyone dives to the floor. A piece of the broken glass flies at speed and hits my upper arm and my chair is knocked over to its side, I fall heavily onto the floor.
“Oww.” I screw up my face in pain. To the sound of crazed gunfire, I feel something warm under my face and drag my eyes open to see that it’s a puddle of blood. The cut in my arm is deep…I feel the pulse in my shoulder as I bleed.
Giuliano’s beautiful face comes into my mind and my heart hurts.
He can’t be gone…no, I can’t do this. I can’t live in a world without him.
Did he suffer?
Tears roll down my face and drip to the floor, heartbreak and blood blend together to make a red river of devastation.
I hope I die.
Would they bury us together?
The guns fall silent, and in the distance, I hear a man cry, “He’s down.”
Giuliano
His face falls. “What are you doing?”
I click the trigger as I pull it back. “Where the fuck is she?” I growl.
“I don’t know, I just woke up. I swear,” he stammers. “It’s me…Giuliano.”
“What are you doing?” Alex snaps. “Giuliano, stop it.”
“Take his guns and his phone,” I demand.
Valentino leans down and takes his gun from his pocket.
“And the other ones,” I say.
He pats him down and finds another gun strapped to his shin, along with a large knife.
Val’s brow furrows and his eyes meet mine.
“Get him up,” I demand as I snatch his phone from Val. “Take him down to the car.” I begin to walk off.
“What are you doing?” Carlo cries. “I don’t know what’s happening, one minute I’m skiing, the next I wake up on a mountain.”
Something snaps deep inside of me, and I march back and grab Carlo by the throat. “One person was dragged to that helicopter. One,” I cry as I stare at his lying face. My nostrils flare as I struggle for control, I’ve never wanted to kill someone so bad in all my life. “And the person who dragged her there had a size fourteen foot.”
His face drops and I know that I’m right.
“It was you!”
“It wasn’t…I swear.”
“Liar,” I scream in his face. “They had inside information, what country we were in, what ski lodge we were at, what mountain she was on.” I step back from him, disgust filling my every cell.
“You’ve got the wrong man.”
“Tie him up and put him in the trunk of my car.”
“This wasn’t me!” he cries. “Come on, Giuliano. You’re my best friend.”
“She’d better be alive….” I turn and march off.
“Or what?” he calls from behind me.
I turn, adrenaline surging through my bloodstream,
Val puts his hand over my chest to hold me back, knowing I’m about to lose my living shit and kill him right here, right now.
“Or…your death is not only imminent…I’m going to cut you up alive.”
Our eyes are locked.
“Tie him up.” I reach into my jacket and pass over a bag of cable ties.
I’ve come prepared.
Val takes them and ties his hands and feet together and they load him onto the back of the skimobile, we drive down the mountain in silence.
We haven’t had a close friend betray us before. This is new territory, another level of fucked up.
“Take him to the main road on the ski, Val and I will pick him up in the car. We can’t transfer him here, someone will see.”
They keep driving down the hill and Val and I go up to the room and grab the keys to the car and go down into the basement parking lot, Val gets into the driver seat and we pull out, it’s snowing again.
We drive in silence.
“Are you sure about this?” he mutters.
“Yep.”
His eyes flick over to me. “What if you’ve got it wrong?”
“I haven’t.” I dig Carlo’s phone out of my pocket and turn it on, I punch in his passcode.
Val frowns as he watches. “You know his code?”
“I’m with him every day, of course I see what his passcode is.”
“Do you know mine?”
“Eleven sixty- five.”
Val smirks. “Not bad.”
I go through his messages until I get to the last one sent.
Bring the chopper,
she’ll be on top of the mountain in thirty minutes.
Three guards tops
I close my eyes, the blinding betrayal hurting more than it should.
Val’s eyes flick between me and the road. “What does it say?”
I read it out. “Bring the chopper, she’ll be on top of the mountain in thirty minutes. Three guards tops.”
“Fuck.” Val runs his hand through his hair and then snaps and punches the steering wheel with force.
We see the skimobile on the side of the road and we pull over, I pop the trunk and they throw him in. Val goes behind the car and I hear him connect some punches as he loses control.
He gets back in the car and I pull out in silence, Val open and closes his hand as he tries to get some feeling back into it.
We drive in silence for a few minutes. “What now?” Val sighs.
“I’m going through the call register now.” I go through the calls made and incoming and one number keeps coming up.
I call my men who are already trying to track Francesca’s phone from the tower.
“Hey, boss. Her phone is still not showing up anywhere.”
“Run this number for me.”
“Okay.”
I read out the number.
“Give me ten.”
“Okay.” I hang up and look over to Val.
“Now what?”
“We wait.” I pull the car over to the side of the road in a parking bay and we sit in silence.
The snow floats down onto the car.
“You alright?” I ask.
“It’s my fault she’s dead.”
I roll my lips, choosing to remain silent.
“I told her she was safe with me.”
“We thought she was.”
His nostrils flare as if grappling for control. “Her mother when I told her….”
Hell.
My phone rings and I answer, “Yes.”
“We’ve got a match; the phone is sixty kilometers from where you are now. I’ll send the coordinates.”
Thank fuck.