Wrong Moves

Playlist for this chapter: Enemy (Orchestral Version) by Imagine Dragons.

* NICHOLAS *

"Ace!" I heard Jake yell as he came running. "You're here. Come on, this way." He led me towards the cellar and I followed him, walking briskly, my eyes bloodshot. We entered one of the cells and I saw the man I had tortured the other day, dead. A bullet straight through is head.

"How did this happen?" I growled slowly and Jake came forward, handing me a piece of paper. "The fuck is this?" I asked him.

"It was near the body." He said and I snatched the paper from his hands, my eyes scanning it quickly until all I saw was red.

"Wrong move, buddy... Wrong move... I'll be waiting for you"

- Your good friend, Gio.

I crumpled the paper in my hands. "How the fuck did they get in?" I said slowly. "How?!" I screamed now and everyone flinched except Jake. "Who was on duty?" I asked Jake, snapping my head toward him.

"Your men were drugged, Ace. Strongly. Knocked 'em out so bad they're still not awake." He said solemnly and I could hear the anger in his voice.

"Fai lavorare gli uomini immediatamente. TROVALO." (Get the men to work immediately. FIND HIM.) I hissed and Jacob gave me a curt nod, and I went out of the cellar and towards my office, slamming the door behind me.

I sat in my chair behind my desk, running my hands through my hair. I eyed the crumpled piece of paper and threw it into the bin, taking out my phone from my coat pocket and opening Jake's contact.

"Schedule a meeting in 20." I texted him and he messaged back immediately.

"Done."

I sighed heavily, thinking over strategies and after exactly 20 minutes, a few men in suits came into my office.

"Ace." My uncle said.

"Zio." I said and he settled down, so did the other men, all part of the mafia.

"We heard." My uncle Stefano spoke and I grunted in response.

"Then you know why I called you. Where's zio Salvatore?" I asked him and he shook his head.

"Bastard's stuck in traffic." He chuckled and so did the other men along with him but they all shut up when they saw my unamused expression. Just then Jake came in with my uncle Salvatore behind him and they both sat down, making themselves comfortable.

"Let's sort this shit out." I spoke without wasting another moment and everyone nodded or grunted in response.

An hour passed and we were nowhere near a new plan. Zero leads. Nessuno. (Zero). It was nearly dawn and my head was pounding, when my phone chimed with a message that I sat up straight on seeing the contact.

"Tutto bene?" (Everything alright?) Stefano asked and I glanced at him.

"Bene." (Fine.) I answered, getting comfortable in my chair again and opening the message from Dove.

"Sorry for texting so late. I felt like I needed to say thanks again. For everything... Sticking up for me and helping me out in my... situations... and for pizza. It was delicious. Hope to hear from you soon and hope everything's alright at work. You seemed tense. Anyways, bye."

I read her message over and over again as a grin formed on my face.

"No problem. Everything's fine. Thanks for asking." I messaged her back and saw that she read it immediately and I saw the dots appear and disappear.

She must be thinking whether or not she should text me back.

"You still up?" She finally sent her message.

"Yeah. Emergency at work. You?" I texted her and she replied immediately.

"Couldn't sleep." I smirked at her response knowing full well what kept her up, my thoughts drifting off to the very not-innocent kiss in the pool, her sweet body and her soft laugh.

"Ace." My uncle called and my smirk fell as I glanced up at him then back down at my phone.

"I have to go. Duty calls. You should sleep." I messaged her and put my phone aside, focusing on the matters at hand. My phone screen lit up and I immediately unlocked the new message.

"Something the matter? You seem very interesting in that thing." Salvatore spoke up and I glared at him, while Jake gave me a knowing look so I gave him one in return which made his smirk fall right off of his face.

"You were saying?" I raised my eyebrow at him and he cleared his throat before carrying on with saying whatever he was before.

"Okay... You should get some sleep while you can too." With that I closed my phone, giving my full attention to the men in front of me who expected a answer from me, folding my hands in my lap as I glanced at each and every one of them, my mind thinking of new leads, strategies, hell anything, but it kept drifting off to one person only.

She's driving me crazy and she's not even here.