My Mafia Ex-Husband

Chapter 9- Cassandra

I was almost to the door of the market when I felt a burning sensation in my arm. Then a second one hitting my shoulder. I got the wind knocked out of me. I dropped and fell against the door.

My babies! Where are my babies? Santino protect them please. They are my life. My body felt so heavy. Was I just shot. It felt like time had stopped. I heard voices murmuring in the distance. I heard Henry yelling. Giovanni? How did he get here so fast? My body was being lifted. Santino’s voice above me.

“Hold on my love.”

“My babies…where?”

“Henry took them to Mother. They are fine. We are taking you to the clinic. Do not fall asleep.”

Was the last thing I heard. I was dreaming of running. I have no idea where I am at. Just the feeling that I needed to get out of wherever it was. I heard my sister’s voice. Her anger. Her hatred for me. My father belittling me for exercising my skills and intelligence.

You are to marry and produce heirs. That is, it. No one wants a smart-ass wife with an opinion. No one wants someone who can think and strategize. Do you think you are better than men? Being intelligent, outspoken and opinionated is not appealing in our world!

So what if I was smart! Why not use a gift from the heavens? Men are stupid. There is no way to sugar coat this crap. My last thought was of my husband. My babies. My loves.

“She will be just fine. The bullet grazed her arm, we stitched that up. However, the bullet that went through her shoulder did a little damage to the muscle, but it went straight through. She will be out for a while. She does have a nasty bump on the back of her head. Once she wakes, we will check for concussion systems.

I was so tired I could not open my eyes. I felt my hands being held by warms ones, kisses to my knuckles. I heard my babies…momma, momma, momma owie, momma owie.

“Yes, my boys, momma has an owie. The doctors are helping her. We will take care of momma when she wakes up okay. She will be okay. Momma is very strong.” Santino whispered. I felt like s**t after running from him, but I had no choice. My sister wanted everything I had.

I felt little kisses on my forehead, little hands on my face. I want to see babies so badly. Heavens above, give me strength to open my eyes.

“Momma see me. Momma see brother. Momma see dah-dah.” Danila yelled over Santino’s shoulder from the door. Santoni turned quickly and Henry grabbed Danilo and held him as Santino rushed to my bedside.

“Baby, your awake. I am so sorry I was not there.”

“No…it’s…not…your fault. You p-protected…our babies.” I whispered.

“Save your strength, the doctor is coming back. The babies are fine. They wanted their momma as badly as I do.” Santino held my hand to his lips.

“Your sons are strong just like their momma. Mother and Millie are here, is it okay with you for the boys to come with us. I am taking everyone to my home. Will is here and I have two more officers with us. No one will get to them.” Henry squeezed my other hand and held his hand over my head and whispered a Native American prayer.

“Thank you, my brother. I take it you have someone in custody. Correct? Please, have Santino with you during questioning. I feel his heart right now. He needs this. Also take my little gadget so I can listen in. Love you too!” I closed my eyes, and a single tear slipped down from the eye.

“I need to speak with Silvia. I have a bad feeling.” I gestured for a phone.

“My love, we will get a hold of her after you rest for a bit.” Santino was pleading.

“Mi amore, I need to make sure she is ok. I feel in my gut this may have something to do with one of our assignments.”

“How do you know?”

“The last assignment was with the Russian mob. The second in command was trying to eliminate the pakhan. His last words to me were to ‘watch my back, a sniper could take me out when least expected.” I was trying to sit up as a nurse cranked up the bed just a bit.

“What the f**k. My love, here is my phone. Gerardo, I need you to locate Silvia NOW”

“On it, boss.” Came across in a whisper. I looked up at Santino and he had an earpiece in his ear as he cupped my face.

“No answer on Silvia’s private line.”

“Try Damion’s please.” I said as the nurse gave me a small paper cup with water.

“HELLO! Where is my wife you piece of s**t!” Damion yelled into the phone.

“Damion, it’s me. How long ago? Any clues? Santino, I need a laptop.”

Gerardo suddenly walked in with laptop and handed it to me. Damion told us that Silvia was on her way back from the doctor’s office and he had just got off his private jet. They were going to meet at the house and celebrate. Silvia was seven weeks pregnant.

Shit!

I need to move fast. I adjusted myself in the bed. My arm was freaking killing me. I asked Henry for my bag. He knew what I was looking for. He pulled out my headset. I was able to find a voice adapter for my laptop. It came in handy for situations…like this.

I scrambled to locate city cameras around Silvia’s doctors’ office and home. Her driver drove her to the appointment. He waited for her to come out. We were able to watch the car movement to four blocks from her home.

There was an ambush and a corner of the country path to Silvia’s and Damion’s home. They live up in the hidden hills in the outskirts of Chicago. Damion has links to ex-military co-ops and stays in contact with his team. He has several teams of mercenaries.

Damion’s team are in Sonora, Mexico. A team of ten, deadly mercenaries. Eight men and two women. I met them while I was in Oregon briefly. They came through town on a ‘visit’. I am pretty sure they were checking on me as a favor to Damion.

Another team base in New York, five women and two men. I was able to assist them in hacking into the harbor security cameras when one of the trafficking ships was raided by surprise. They were able to rescue fifty women and twenty children.

The third team is in Miami, Florida. Five women and ten men. A little larger team due to the fact that the tourist Islands are so close and have a large amount of drug and trafficking activity.

There is a fourth team in Russia. A sixth team in Italy. Sicily to be precise. I found out that my mother’s family is still living there. Strange coincidence.

My mind drifted for a moment, back track with Silvia’s abductors. There was a white SUV with blacked out windows. Which really did not cause any attention. There were over one hundred vehicles with the same description.

We watched how the white SUV cut across the land and stopped by the side of the road. Making it look like the driver was in distress. Silvia’s driver stopped and started to get out and approach the SUV. The window rolled down and we could see the tip of a gun.

One shot and Silvia’s driver, Ronnie, went down. Silvia had jumped out of the opposite side of her vehicle and was running toward the tree covered wooded area. Two men had jumped out of the white SUV and ran in opposite directions to surround Silvia.

We lost the view but after a few moments. Both had ahold of Silvia. On hold of her legs and the other was holding her up from behind. She was putting up a hell of a fight. Then a 3rd man got out of the white SUV and approached with a cloth. He held it over Silvia’s mouth until she stopped moving.

They will pay, dearly. My cousin saved me. I owe her everything.

“Damion, I need you to take deep breath. You wife and baby need you to control yourself. You can release your demons when we get her back. And I mean GET HER BACK. You get my meaning. I need you to get a hold of New York and have them ready in thirty.”

“Gordie, I need my baby-girl back with me.” I heard it in his voice. Terrified.