Closing Nets

Closing Nets

Aria's POV

The phone rang at three in the morning, cutting through my thoughts like a knife.
Marco replied before the second ring. "What?"
I sat up in bed, watching his face change from sleepy to stone-cold rage in seconds.
"When?" he asked, his voice deadly quiet.
Luca burst through the door without knocking, still in his clothes from yesterday. "Marco, we have a problem."
"I know." Marco hung up and looked at me. "Get dressed. Now."
"What's happening?" " Vincent took Isabella. "
My blood turned to ice. Isabella was Marco's fifteen-year-old cousin - sweet, innocent, and totally unaware of what her family really did for a living.
"How?" I asked, throwing on pants and a sweater.
"She was walking home from her friend's house," Luca said grimly. "Three blocks from her front door. Witnesses saw a black van."
Dmitri emerged in the doorway, his face dark with rage. "I have men checking every camera in a ten-block area."
"It won't matter," Kai said quietly from behind him. "Vincent wants us to know he has her. He'll make contact soon."
As if called by his words, Marco's phone rang again.
"Put it on speaker," I said quickly.
Marco paused, then pressed the button. Vincent's words filled the room like poison.
"Hello, grandson-in-law. I trust you're all awake now?"
"Where is she?" Marco demanded.
"Safe. For now. Isabella is such a pretty girl. Reminds me of her mother at that age."
I watched Marco's jaw clench. Isabella's mother had died in a car accident that everyone thought wasn't really an accident.
"What do you want?" Luca asked.
"My niece, of course. A simple deal - Aria for Isabella. You have two hours to decide."
"No," all four men said at the same time.
Vincent laughed. "I expected that. Which is why I'm going to let you listen to this."
Isabella's voice came through the phone, scared and shaking. "Marco? Marco, help me! I don't know where I am, and these men-"
The line went dead.
The silence in the room was deafening.
"We'll find her," Dmitri said, cracking his fingers. "I'll tear this city apart piece by piece."
"He's expecting that," Kai noted. "This is a trap designed to make us act without thinking."
"Then what do you suggest?" Marco snapped. "Let him hurt her?"
"We're not trading Aria," Luca said strongly. "That's not even a discussion."
I looked at them all. "Yes, you are."
"No." Marco's speech was absolute. "Never."
"She's fifteen years old!"
"And you're the key to everything," Dmitri said, his ice-blue eyes focused. "Vincent gets you, and every family in the city falls under his control."
"I don't care about the families!"
"Well, we do," Luca said quietly. "And we care about you more than anything else in this world."
The way he said it made my heart skip. These four dangerous men, who could have anyone they wanted, had somehow picked me. And I was starting to realize I'd picked them too.
"There has to be another way," I said.
Kai pulled out his laptop, fingers flying over the keys. "I'm tracking his known traits. Safe houses, stores, anything he might use."
"That could take hours," Marco said. "Isabella doesn't have hours."
My phone buzzed with a text message. Unknown number.
Want to see your friend again? Come to Pier 47. Alone. You have one hour.
I showed them the message. Dmitri swore in Russian.
"It's a trap," Luca said instantly.
"Of course it's a trap," I answered. "But what choice do we have?"
"Every choice," Marco said, pulling me against his chest. "We'll find another way."
For a moment, I let myself feel safe in his arms. When had this happened? When had I stopped being their prisoner and started being their... what? Their girlfriend? Their wife? Their everything?
"I love you," I whispered against his chest, the words slipping out before I could stop them.
Marco went very still. "What?"
I pulled back to look at all four of them. "I love all of you. I don't know how or when it happened, but I do."
Dmitri's face went soft in a way I'd never seen before. Luca smiled that dangerous smile, but his eyes were warm. Kai simply nodded, like he'd known all along.
"Which is why," Marco said roughly, "we're never letting Vincent have you."
"And we're never letting him hurt Isabella," I added.
"Then we go in smart," Kai said. "Together." "He said alone. "
"He says a lot of things," Dmitri grinned. "Doesn't mean we have to listen."
We spent the next thirty minutes planning. Kai would provide sniper assistance from a nearby building. Dmitri would make a distraction on the far side of the pier. Luca would disable Vincent's escape options. And Marco would stay close enough to reach me if things went bad.
"This is insane," I said as we prepared to leave.
"Welcome to our world," Marco answered, checking his weapons. "Insanity keeps us alive."
As we drove through the dark streets toward the pier, my phone rang again. Vincent.
"Having second thoughts, granddaughter?"
"I'm coming," I said. "But if you hurt Isabella-"
"You'll what? You're still just a college girl playing dress-up in a world you don't understand."
"Try me."
Vincent laughed. "Oh, I plan to. You have no idea what I have planned for you."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Let's just say your father's death wasn't an accident. And neither was your mother's. Everything that's happened to you has been part of a very long plan."
My world turned. "What?"
"See you soon, Aria. And don't bother bringing your guard dogs. I have enough weapons to sink a battleship."
The line went dead just as we pulled up to the pier.
Through the car window, I could see Vincent waiting at the end of the wooden path. But he wasn't alone.
Standing next to him was a man I recognized from old photos.
My father. Professor James Cross. Very much living.