Chapter 143
Enzo
The call came like a blade across his throat.
Static. A hiss. Then–her voice, faint and broken, dragging his name out of the dark.
“Enzo…”
The sound gutted him. It was her. Alive. Weak, but alive.
Then silence.
The line didn’t disconnect, just… held.
Enzo slammed the phone onto the table, speaker on. His men froze. The room went still except for the pulse racing in his ears.
Jake’s hands were already flying across the keys. “It’s coming from a burner. Signal’s bouncing–whoever set it up masked it to hell. Give me time.”
Enzo didn’t have time. His knuckles pressed white against the steel table. Every instinct screamed at him to move, to tear the city apart with his bare hands until he found her. But he couldn’t–not when this line was the only tether he had.
The silence stretched–then a sound cut through. Beep–beep–beep. A steady rhythm, soft and mechanical.
His chest locked. A monitor. A heart monitor.
Her heart.
6
It was like being dragged underwater and breaking the surface in the same breath–drowning and alive all at once. Proof she was still here, somewhere, fighting.
Twenty–seven minutes.
That’s how long the line held. Twenty–seven minutes of beep–beep–beep, each note hammering through the speakers and straight into his ribs.
Every sound in the room bent around it. Boots shifting restlessly. Magazines slamming into rifles. Gino pacing tight circles, muttering curses. Dom leaning too close to the speaker, whispering half–prayers, half–threats. Jake hammering at the keys, teeth bared with frustration.
And Enzo–Enzo sat unmoving, fists closed around the small key that hung on his chain. The edges bit hard into his palm, grounding him in the storm. He hadn’t blinked in twenty–seven minutes. Couldn’t. Not when each beep confirmed her heartbeat, and every pause between clawed another strip of flesh off his chest.
His body was wrecked. Forty–eight plus hours without sleep. Two days of hunting, of tearing through Russian warehouses, backroom clubs, strip joints, and safehouses. His knuckles split open, bruises blooming along his ribs. None of it mattered. He’d burn his city to ash if it brought him back to her.
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11:01 Wed, Oct 8 M…
Chapter 143
Jake cursed, slammed a palm on the desk. “It’s bouncing off half the fucking grid. Whoever rigged this phone wanted it untraceable. We’re narrowing it down–slowly–but it could be anywhere in Vegas.”
Enzo’s jaw ground tight. “Then tip the grid apart. I don’t care if you burn every server in the city. You find her.”
“Yes, boss.”
Beep–beep–beep.
A woman’s voice cut through. Calm. Curious. “Hello? Who is this? This phone was left in my patient’s room-”
Enzo rose slow, the chair screeching back under him. His voice carved the air sharp and merciless. “You’re standing with her. Which hospital?”
The woman’s breath caught. Then, soft, like she knew she was crossing a line she could never uncross:
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