•KINLEY•I stood in the kitchen of our new home unpacking boxes of plates Gianni had ordered.Renato was playing on his play mat on the floor.Gianni was pacing between the rooms while on the phone and I was trying to hear what he was saying because he looked worried, but I wasn't able to hear what he was saying."Baby, I need to go and meet Barney. Luca is on his way to wait here with you.""Is it about Jodie?""We think that he may have an idea of where Callum is.""Okay, let me know?""I will." He kissed me goodbye before leaving.A part of me wanted to go with him, but I also wanted to spend more time with Renato and bond with him more than what I had been.I finished unpacking the kitchenware and made Renato something to eat and was busy feeding him when Luca walked in."Sorry, I'm late. We had an incident and my son's school.""What happened? Is he okay?""He's fine. He fell off the monkey bars.""Oh gosh, taking after his father, I see."Luca chuckled and took the spoon from me
•KINLEY•I was in the kitchen plating breakfast of eggs and bacon when Gianni walked in."Morning. Are you in a better mood now?"I shot him a glare, "No.""Right." He took a seat at the table, "Are we going to talk about this, or are you just planning on treating me like shit?"I put my plate down before getting the coffee pot, "I'm not treating you like shit.""Yes, you are. You asked for a divorce and left me. We weren't together when I was with Jodie. I didn't cheat on you.""Did you ever hear me saying that you cheated on me? But if you want to go there, fine. We never divorced, so yeah, technically that's cheating."Gianni looked at me as if I had lost my mind, "You left me, Gattina."I sighed, "Can we please not do this right now? I'm trying to cope with everything, and I'm not in the right frame of mind.""What must we do to fix this? I don't like this arguing and tension between us.""I don't know, Gianni. I think we've already established that I don't have a clue on how to h
•GIANNI•Sitting in Euphoria with Kinley felt strange after so long.After Luca had picked up Renato I took Kinley out for dinner before she decided she wanted to dance.In all truth, I wanted to go home, but being in this environment was becoming an issue for my drug problem.I sipped on my drink while keeping my eyes on Kinley who was dancing. I was sitting at a table near the VIP room."Hey, I haven't seen you here in a while." Janet was standing beside me suddenly, her hand leaning against the back of my chair.I guessed she must have been on duty dancing for the night judging by her attire of sparkly underwear."Yeah, Kinley wanted to come by," I motioned to my wife."I heard rumors that she returned, I had no idea they were true. We didn't think she would be back."I nodded, but I wasn't really interested in having this conversation with her.Kinley and I were already having enough issues, I didn't need to make it worse by entertaining a woman I used to sleep with."She looks li
•KINLEY•My eyes felt heavy as opened them, my body aching.I looked around the whole room in despair, everything coming back to me in a rush as I realized I lost the car.Gianni was gone.My body protested in pain as I forced myself to sit up before I ripped the various tubes from my body and got to my feet.It felt like I had been run over by a train.I slowly made my way over to the mirror in the room and gasped at the sight.My forehead was bandaged and the nose and side of my face were a mix of black and purple bruising. My bottom lip was split open.Despite looking like something out of a horror movie, I made my way to the door and walked out, wincing in pain with every step I took."What are you doing? Mrs. Esposito, you need to get back to bed." An elderly nurse said as she came over to me."I need to find my husband.""Kinley!"I looked over to see Barney coming toward us with concern etched on his face."Did you find Gianni?"He shook his head, "Not yet. Luca went over to No
•KINLEY• I paced the warehouse while waiting for Fin to return. "He's crossed us and now he's run off," Barney said. "No, he's late that's all." Just as the words left my mouth the door opened and Fin walked in. I shot Barney an 'I told you so' look. "Noah hasn't had any contact with Callum, but I gave him a call." "And?" "He's meeting me tomorrow morning. I asked if he was involved with Gianni being taken and he laughed and said we would talk about it tomorrow." I turned to Luca, "You're coming with me to that meeting." Luca made a face, "With? Wouldn't you rather wait here while we go? We'll bring him back here." I shook my head, "No. I'm going." Barney gave Luca a pointed look, "This is why he locked her in a room." "Barney shut up," I exclaimed with a roll of my eyes. Fin took a seat, "So what's the plan, temp boss?" "Where are you meeting him? Is it secluded or public?" "Public." "Okay, try and get him into your car. Luca, you hide in the backseat and when he's in,
•KINLEY•As expected, the police visited me, but KIng assured me he would take care of that.Unfortunately, he couldn't do much about the press and the moment I stepped out of the house I was blinded by flashes from all the cameras, as well as bombarded with stupid questions. All of which I refused to answer.Barney and Luca had advised me not to utter a word to anyone, so I kept my mouth shut as I made my way to the car.Even though I actually wanted to scream at them all.When I got into the car I slammed the door shut, "It's day one of this crap and I already want to rip their eyes out."Luca chuckled in the driver's seat, "It'll die down once we have Gianni back.""Right. Where are Barney and Fin?""Getting ready to meet Callum. Barney is waiting and watching. We'll get there and stay out of sight until Fin gives the signal.""What is the signal?"Luca hesitated, making a face, "Uh, I admit that we didn't actually discuss it."I stared at him in disbelief as we drove away from the
•KINLEY•My half-drunken coffee sat in front of me with empty pain pill sachets scattered across the table.My head hurt and my eyes felt heavy.It was already halfway through the night and neither Callum nor Noah was talking.I glanced over to where Barney and Luca were talking amongst themselves while shooting glances over at our hostages.I looked over at Fin, thinking over what he said earlier. He was sleeping across two strategically placed chairs and looked a bit odd considering his large build.I took a sip of my now cold coffee while trying to think what our next move should be.And then an idea came over me.I got up and went over to Fin, crouching down I shook him."What?" He asked as he opened his eyes with confusion."Come outside, I have an idea, but I need your input on it." I got up and walked out without waiting.A few minutes later Fin walked out, still rubbing his eyes, "Okay, what is it?""Jodie was in a relationship with Callum, right?""Yeah, I guess," he shrugged
•KINLEY•My heart was racing in my chest as I followed behind Luca.Callum, who was still restrained had brought us to a pretty normal-looking house.I don't know why this surprised me, but I had been imagining something else.Barney and a few men had surrounded the sides and back yard while Luca and Fin walked towards the front with me and around five or six others.Luca had instructed I was to stay behind them and handed me a gun.The moment my feet made it into the house my heart dropped.It was empty, void of furniture or any further signs of inhabitants.It was as if I could feel my soul drop in despair.They searched the house while I stood silently in the empty living room, staring at nothing.Fin walked back in shaking his head, "I'm sorry, he's not here."I nodded, "Kinda figured that."He leaned back against the wall, "We'll get them. Barney and Luca are out talking to the neighbors, King is on his way."I nodded again looking away with a heavy sigh, "Jodie is good."Fin wal