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Life was a routine now.
All they did was wake up, and head to their stations.
There was no time to brush for them to brush their teeth, have breakfast, change. No, because they needed every single second that they could have.
"Oh fuck, this isn't good," Zane had announced first thing in the morning. "Guys, we got a lot of dead bodies."
Everyone had directed their attention to Zane.
"Hailey's dead. We can't use her anymore. And Carlo isn't third in command, he's the boss which means Andre and Alessandro are dead. This is a complete takeover..."
It wasn't hard to figure out that Carlo had killed Andre and Alessandro. Whether he sent out a hit or did it with his own hands, it didn't matter anymore, because this meant the Marcello Family has been wiped cleaned.
There is no longer a Marcello.
"Fuck!" Luca yelled as he threw the vase that was near him before storming out of the room.
Arlo got up, "I'll check up on him."
Arlo quickly went towards the direction Luca was heading in and realized he had stopped in Stella's room.
They stood side by side on the balcony as Luca lit his cigarette, and Arlo did the same.
"We'll find her."
"When!? We've been doing this for days and we haven't got a clue as to where he is holding Stella. We messed up his shipments and he is still in hiding."
"And we'll find her. Luca, she's strong, and she loves you. She's not going to leave you behind, she won't go down without a fight."
Luca inhaled the smoke, "I can't go through it again. It hurt so much the first time."
"And you won't. We're in this together," Arlo patted his back, "I'm going to join the rest, but you on the other hand. Go to bed. Sleep, even if it's for ten minutes. You being tired isn't going to do anything."
Luca's eyes were bloodshot red, and no one could count exactly how many cups of caffeine and alcohol he had in the past few days.
No matter how much alcohol he had consumed, he never passed out. Though many were hoping that he did just so he could close his eyes.
Timmy had been a great addition to the team. He worked fast and well with the others even though most of them gave him the cold shoulder.
He worked hard though.
Everyone worked hard.
But they all knew that it didn't matter because if there was no progress, no results in finding Stella, there was no point.
Most of them didn't want to admit it, but they had lost faith. Tyler and people back in New York had faith, Luca had faith, but the rest only continued to work because they weren't allowed to stop.
"Guys, let's take a two-minute break. Go use the washroom, bring something to eat, wash up," Elijah said while looking around. "Where's Luca?"
Ryder stretched his arms, "Sleeping."
"How?"
"Arlo slipped sleeping pills into his coffee. He needed it."
Elijah nodded.
++++++++++
There was nothing else to do but think.
Every minute that had passed, she was thinking, and no one knew exactly what she was thinking about. All they knew was that the wheels in her head were spinning.
People would go to her cell to do their daily rounds and Scarlett would cry for them to take her instead, but that normally ended up in Scarlett getting kicked or punched. Scarlett wouldn't have got hurt as much if she had just kept her mouth shut.
Stella had lost count of just how many times they had whipped her, but each time that they did, it got easier to endure.
Weirdly enough, the pain would be gone when they whipped her, but it would come back when they left her alone.
She hated the feeling that sometimes she wished they had continued just so the pain would be gone.
They would ask her questions, but her vision was so blurry, and she found that she couldn't hear. She could see their mouths moving, but she couldn't depict what they were saying. And because she didn't answer them, they hurt her again and again until she passed out.
The men there believed they broke her, that she became insane because they would find her whispering to herself, repeating her own name. And they found joy in seeing that because it made them feel powerful.
And while they had their fun, Carlo had his enjoyment by watching through the security cameras, but he's bored now.
It was time to return the used.
++++++++++
Luca's phone had started training, waking him up. And when he had seen that it was an unknown number, he jumped out of Stella's bed and ran downstairs.
"An unknown number is calling, I want you to start tracking the moment I picked up the phone."
"Yes, boss." Zane responded, quickly hooking up the phone to the system.
"Luca...how are you?" Carlo's voice bounced off every wall in the building.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and paid attention to what Carlo was saying.
"Get to the point," Luca demanded.
"I believe I have something you want, and I believe you have something I want. Right now, you probably have someone tracking my number, so bring yourself and another person to this location. You have three hours. Chop chop."
"I swear to god if you touched a single strand of her hair. I will fucking kill you."
Carlo laughed, "Don't worry...I didn't touch her since that little incident."
The beep of the phone ending echoed through the house before it was interrupted by a notification.
Stella's voice had started playing through the speakers and all they heard now was her repeating her name.
"I have the location," Zane announced.
"Arlo and I are going to get the van ready. Elijah, you're in charge of weapons. Zane, I want you to forward the address to the GPS that is set up in the van. Ryder, you get everything you need, needles, bandages."
Everyone started running, getting their things as fast as they could.
"Tyler, what are you doing?" Luca asked when he noticed Tyler following him.
"Going to save Stella."
"No. I don't know what's going to happen tonight, and I'm not going to let you get hurt in the process. Stella won't forgive me if something happened to you, so you're going to stay here."
Tyler scoffed, "I think you're forgetting your place. I'm the Don, and Stella is the princess of La Cosa Nostra, this is my problem as much as it is yours. You're wasting time trying to argue with me."
And he was right, so they hurried into the car, and drove off.
++++++++++
The moment he had stepped out of the car, guns were raised and pointed at him.
Elijah had looked at Luca with his gun raised as well, seeing what signal he would give them. But Luca just put a hand up and they all knew, they had to stand down.
"So, which guy are you bringing with you, Luca?"
"Elijah."
Carlo chuckled, "Pat them down." Carlo had said, waving his gun in Luca's direction.
His firearms were taken out, including the knife he had hidden.
Pat after pat, they took something off of him. Wallet, coins, a travel-size perfume that he had kept with him in case Stella ever needed it, and his lighter for his cigarettes.
"Must you take everything I have on me?" He asked.
Carlo smiled and shrugged, "Precaution."
After confirming that Luca and Elijah no longer had anything that could be used as a weapon, they cuffed their hands and legs. Then, they pulled them along into the building, leading them to what had seemed to be the ballroom.
"You sick fuck. What did you do to her?" Luca snarled, the fresh smell of blood seeping into his nose.
Elijah's eyes widened, and all he could really see was red, but he couldn't lose his temper. This was their only chance of saving her.
She was tied up and even at first glance, you could tell she was whipped like an animal. Her arms and legs were scarred, and blood gushed out of her bandages. The tight dress that they had put her in showed all her bones, showing she was malnourished.
Stella was there physically, but not mentally.
Whatever they had given her was good because she didn't feel pain. In fact, she didn't feel anything at all.
"You said you didn't touch her after that incident."
"And that's true, I didn't. My men did this piece of art," he said as he dragged a finger on Stella's chin causing her to grunt. "Taught them well didn't I?"
Seeing her in this position was hard, painful even.
"So your men did that because she didn't want to marry you? Are you kidding me?!"
"You still think this is between me and her. Oh, this is good." Carlo laughs bounced off the walls. "This is because of you."
Luca scoffed, "I met you a couple months ago, pretty boy."
"You killed my sister."
"And who's your 'sister'?" Luca asked, occasionally glancing back at Stella to see how she was holding up.
"You would know her by the name Amber Evans, but we called her Davina." Carlo walked back and forth, "I told her... You were no good, but she insisted that you were good, the love of her life. And now she's dead all because of you!"
Luca felt all the blood drain from his face. He hadn't heard of that name in so long and his heart was wrenched with pain, but he had to remember, she was in the past. And his forever was sitting in front of him, dying, and there was no way he would let the same thing happen again.
"You wouldn't trust me on this, but I didn't kill her. I would never. Not when I slept, ate, and breathed for her. And when she was gone, it killed me. Who do you think set up the funeral? I did. I don't set up funerals for people I don't care about."
Surprisingly to both of them, a tear slipped out of Luca's eye.
"But my wife, who is in front of me right now is dying, so what do you want?"
Elijah was holding Stella's hand, trying his best to console her, but he was sure she didn't even notice he was there.
"An eye for an eye," Carlo said, placing the revolver into Luca's hand while another person placed one onto Stella's head.
Luca already knew this was what Carlo wanted.
He knew what he was walking into, and he accepted the fact he wouldn't be walking out of here today.
Elijah's head snapped towards Luca.
He yelled, "Hell no! Are you insane?"
"Control your puppet."
Luca had disregarded Elijah's plea. "This is between you and me, so I need her safety to be guaranteed after I'm gone. If it isn't, expect my men to be after you, and when that happens, even the devil wouldn't be able to save you," He responded and in a swift move-
Bang!
He wasn't lying when he said he would do anything for her, that there were no lines he wouldn't cross.
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