Chapter 9: Your choice

A man was standing in the corner of the street, he was wearing his caramel-colored coat and cigarette butts were all over the place from where he was standing. His phone was vibrating nonstop and he had no intention of answering it. 

He continued to spy on a woman in blue scrubs as she walked from her car to her apartment, he saw which floor the woman lived and he continued to stand there as if he was waiting and eyeing an important prey. 

This went on for two days until one unfortunate afternoon. 

"I need a nurse here." the man bellowed and his voice sounded commanding and dangerous. 

As the only available ER nurse, Isabelle went to check on the man from the outpatient bed, 

"Is there any problem here?" She asked with pleasure. 

"Now, I know why my cousin is protective of you, Bella."

Isabelle's facial expression immediately changed and took steps backward before she finally left the hospital bed. She went to the information desk and asked for the patient's file but surprisingly there was not a file for him. It was as if he sat in the hospital bed and called for attention before disappearing. 

"Did you see a man there?"

Her colleagues became bewildered and even wondered if she was fine. There was not any patient in that bed the whole time. They even joke she might have seen a ghost or something. 

"When did you last sleep?"

"Ahh…" 

Truth to be told she had not gotten any good night's sleep since she came home from Dominic's place, and it became even more concerning when she saw cigarette butts outside her apartment building. 

She badly wanted to call Dominic but she could not dial his number, fearing the obvious. Getting stuck in the middle of mafia business was not the future she wanted. 

[Long time no talk, stranger.]

"I know. It has been so busy lately, so do you want to catch up or something?"

[Sorry, slugger, I know we did not end on a good note the last time you went to the apartment. I was just so stressed with the Rossi business now I am handling the Cartel's drug trafficking case, I will be swamped for the next few months.]

"The police department made a huge drug bust, congratulations, Captain."

[Nahh, the captain position was only perfunctory, after all the commissioner wanted to have concrete evidence against the family because we summoned them for prosecution.] 

"Well, good luck with work then."

Isabelle put her phone down and checked her surrounding before getting into her car, the anxiety was killing her as if she was being watched and anytime a coyote would ponce on her and feast on her flesh;

She got inside her car without much trouble and placed her bag on the passenger seat when a gun was pointed at the back of her head, 

"Well, hello, future cousin-in-law, nice to meet you." the same voice from the ER resounded and it was as if all of her fears crept up and suffocated her. 

"Let me introduce myself once more, I'm Antonio Rossi your boyfriend tried to kill."

"He is—"

And with a loud bang on her head, she lost consciousness and her vision turned to black. 

No one noticed anything different as her red sedan drove away from the hospital parking lot just like usual. 

***

"Can you ping her cellphone?" I asked Code as he was violently wakened up from his dream next door.

"Boss, can you chill down? I just woke up." 

"Can you do it a little bit faster, Isabelle is in danger!" 

"Sir, we have a team tracking down Antonio's movement. According to Edward, he had not seen him for three days now. He took a medical leave three days ago and Edward forgot to check on it."

"Just do whatever you can and give me an update. Any news, Code?"

"I am not a supercomputer, and don't pressure me I don't do well under pressure." 

Richard left with another group and this time they had a lead to where Antonio was. He checked into a hotel after being demoted from the family, he had no assets to his name so they had to check everyone who worked with him for clues. 

My people ran around the city since dawn and no news of Isabelle's whereabouts until Code X managed to ping her cellphone. 

"That's a lake, right?" my fears enveloped me as it was the same place where my mother's accident happened. 

"What the fuck is she doing there?" 

I drove towards the coordinates Code X provided and found an abandoned car and her cell phone. There was no note whatsoever but there was a blood trail on the leather seat. 

"FUCK!!!" 

Police and forensic team came to the accident site and found myself unable to move or make sane decisions. Emily arrived when she heard of what happened and we were running out of time for kidnapping cases the 24 hours were crucial unless we knew what was the intention. 

"Do you have any clue as to who would do this?"

"My people are looking for it now."

"What's your nature of relationship with the victim?"

"She's…" I looked at the rearview mirror and saw the obvious desperation in my eyes, "Her fiance." 

"We will check on the tapes from the hospital there might have been clues." 

"Cross-check the fingerprints with Antonio Rossi." 

The request was sudden and suspicious so the officer looked at me before she realized I was the Dominic Rossi. If I was involved then the whole family was involved. Mafia business was after all dirty and brutally cruel. I could not contain my emotions any longer and badly wanted to shoot anyone on sight. Luckily, I traveled light and did not bring my gun with me as I was focused on finding her. 

"Sir, you have to see this." 

Richard handed his iPad to me and saw a CCTV clip from the hospital and there he was Antonio Rossi talking to her in broad daylight.

"Find him." I crushed the iPad with one hand, 

"Richard, when you find him don't hesitate to kill."

I drove back to the condominium and waited for Code's call, he was the best thing I had right now. I was unstable, my mind kept drifting to plausible scenarios, Antonio might kill her or worse make her suffer. Isabelle was never a part of this war, why the hell did I crag her into this?!

Emily busted my front door open, her eyes were swollen from tears, and she was mad, disappointed, and flustered. She ran up to me the moment she saw me standing in my living room. As she drew nearer, a sharp and hard slap reached my face, 

"You promised me, Dom! You promise you won't drag her into our lives!" 

"Look—"

"No! I don't want to hear your excuses, find her! Find her fast!" 

Emily grew up with us, she saw how we deal with things. When she first heard of another Rossi in town, she knew Antonio was bad news, their records were thrice removed from the family due to drugs and human trafficking offenses. No one knew Antonio's father was even alive so when he walked into the mansion claiming he was a Rossi all eyes were on him but whenever he screwed up, they all turn a blind eye to his actions. 

"What the hell?!"

"There's nothing we can do right now, all we need is to wait. I have Richard scour the whole city, and we have set up search teams to Solar City and Muerta. Wherever that scumbag is, we will find him. So calm the f down."

"We both know how dangerous Antonio is, we saw it in our eyes two years ago. We can't let that man destroy what Grandpa worked so hard to protect. Find her."

***

Cars screeching and noisy engines awakened the woman in the back seat, Isabelle was still dizzy from getting her head conked by the handgun a while ago. She slowly opened her eyes and realized there was a black bag covering her head. Her hands were bound by a tape, she could hear people beside her whispering in hush tones. 

"What should we do?" kidnapper #1 asked 

"I don't know, I was called last night and now I'm kidnapping someone." Kidnapper #2

"Did you who this person is? Have you not heard?"

"What do you mean? Who is she?"

"She's the secret lover of the young master! If we get caught he'll surely kill us! He did that before why couldn't he do it now?"

"Should we call Richard and give him an intel?"

"FOOLS!" This time it was a different voice, his voice was deeper and more commanding, "If you betray Antonio now all of us will die including that woman. So, shut up and do your job properly."

Isabelle got the idea. Antonio kidnapped her as leverage for whatever he was playing against Dominic. They all thought Dominic would drop whatever he was doing just to look for her, to Isabelle she was just another woman in Dominic's life - insignificant and a waste of time. 

"Hey, dumb dumbs! Do you really think the mafia boss will drop anything just for me? Are you crazy? He is "the mafia boss" the Shadow and the leader of the Rossi family. Just let me go, I swear I won't rat you out. So let me go."

"Do you think we will trust you? You are Dominic's woman, you must be extraordinary!" Kidnapper #1 bellowed. 

"Look if I was extraordinary, then I am extraordinarily poor! I'm still paying my student loans. So, please, for the common good and my future, let me go."

"Shut up woman! Do you want to get hurt again?"

Isabelle rolled her eyes under the covers as she realized it was pointless to argue with these mosquito-brained thugs. 

They arrived in an abandoned villa, it was not owned by Rossi but it was a place prepared by Antonio's mystery friend. Antonio together with the three guards settled for the afternoon and placed Isabelle in a secure location.

The place was located remotely and accessing the outside world was a challenge but not implausible. The three took turns guarding her, what could she do, her hands and feet were bound and there was no way she would want to run away in a place like this. 

As Isabelle chose to calm down and decided not to cause more trouble (for now) she drifted to a long sleep as if she was drugged. 

Well, she was drugged. 

"She passed out, sir."

"Good. What do you think would be a good gift to my cousin? His lover's left ear? Her hazel eyes or toes?"

"Calm down, my friend. Look at the big picture of your future. Right now, you have no money, influence, or name in our world. For some families, you are the orphan who waltzs back to the Rossi Mansion after the fall of your father. You are a remnant of the past! A has-been!" 

"If you want to have your revenge, think like Dominic. Use your resources and take them down one by one!" 

"So what do you suggest?"

"Infiltrate the Rossi family with its most important division," 

"The Tiger?"

The man laughed and he could not believe what a simpleton Antonio was, out of the people he encountered in the business, Antonio ranked first as the stupidest accomplice. Luckily for Antonio, he was useful, for now.

"No. Have you heard of the Whale?"

"I saw Secretary Han but their operations are very discreet only the heads know about it."

"Then you should know the dark side of the Rossi family, then." 

Despite the changes in the family business, the real Rossi would not deny their inclination to arm smuggling, paid mercenaries, black ops, and even gambling. These were maintained by Secretary Han for years and they only answer to him and Tobias. They were the "independent" contractors of the Rossi. Infiltrating the Whale would be a wise choice for Antonio. 

"If we use the girl as your leverage, you can easily get into the Whale division and learn Secretary Han's way and remove him. You'll immediately control half of the Rossi without wasting energy."

"What does Dominic know about the Whale?"

"Dominic never knew the dark side of the Whale division, he was removed from the country when they reestablished the division. So choose your next steps wisely."

"You are indeed a friend. I'll let him suffer for a little while. Plus, that woman smelled nice, she's one of a kind, my type."

"Then ravish yourself."

The mystery man gave him a dirty smile and immediately gave a nasty idea of how to torture Dominic as he continued his wild goose chase on their whereabouts. 

—

The lights outside Isabelle's apartment seemed to have been a blurred symbolism of her fate fading right before my eyes. Her disappearance had given me a rollercoaster of emotions and without knowing what to do next drove me mad. 

I could not go home and see my cousin Emily crying her balls out, all my energy was spent looking for her but just like I said when my mom died, 'we are just human.' 

This was the third time my phone vibrated, I had no intention of answering it until Code hacked into my car, 

[Boss, we found them. I've sent the coordinates to Richard.]

"Give me the location now!" 

Breaking probably all traffic rules, I sped my car to the location and I could see Richard had set up a parameter for the extraction. 

"Boss, we checked the whole area and this place is full of landmines. Without a proper map, we might be walking to our death." 

"FUCK!!!" 

My voice echoed throughout the whole valley, frightening almost every living being in the area, and this time Richard chose not to say anything. 

"Find that bastard and kill him!"

My people were about to leave when an unknown fire was shot at us,

"Find it!"

I docked and immediately searched for the enemy when my phone rang, 

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?!"

[Chill out, couz, you never lose your cool even at the brink of death. Just because of a girl—]

"I swear to blow up your useless brain into pieces if you lay a finger on her."

Trying my best to calm my nerves down when I heard Isabelle whimpering on the other line and shouting for help.

[Tsk, tsk, tsk… she looked so fresh and smelled so nice. I never thought this was your gal type. You should have said so, I could spare one or two of my bitches.]

"Be a man, Antonio. And face me!"

[Tsk, tsk, that's not how you beg, Dominic. Well, let me teach you how.]

"Fuck you!"

Antonio continued to laugh and Isabelle's voice faded out in the background, 

[Your choice, dear cousin, a favor or your woman.]

"Never!"

[Well that settles everything then. I'll return her to you when I'm done playing. Thanks for the treat.]

"Hey idiot, if you think I'm bluffing, then rethink your choices correctly. Touch just one strand of Isabelle's hair, I will deliver you to Satan myself."

I could hear him smirking before answering [Watch out your 6, Shadow.] 

Antonio dropped the call and before the line disconnected one of the landmines exploded. 

"Isabelle!" 

A vision of a woman running in our direction stopped everything as I saw the person blow up into pieces.