"What are you guys gonna do?" Angelo asked as we waited outside Dom and Lilly's house. He seemed slightly worried, and overly on edge. "Just hang out?"

"Yeah probably," I shrugged. I was a bad liar and he knew that, so anything was going to make me look guilty of something.

The front door swung open, revealing both a disheveled Lilly and Dom. Dom, looking caught quite off guard, straightened up after seeing Angelo, "Welcome to our humble abode," he made a swooping hand gesture, "Come on in."

I grabbed Sophia's hand after giving Angelo a quick kiss, and then followed Lilly inside.

"I thought you said you were coming over later," she whisper yelled at me.

"Yeah, I said that like five hours ago. It is later."

"Oh," she paused to pick up a few couch pillows off the floor. The room was a mess. "Time flies. So are we really doing this?" She asked super quietly. "Out of the country?" She mouthed.

I nodded.

"Alright," Lilly stood up tall as Dom came into the room. "Are you gonna watch some tv?" She asked and he nodded before plopping down onto the fluffy white couch.

"What's up, SoSo?" Dom asked as Sophia hopped up onto the couch with him, sitting as close as she could have without actually crawling into his lap. She just smiled up at him.

The girl was in love with her dad's best friend.

Lilly waltzed into the kitchen and I followed her in, "Do you want a drink, babe?" She crossed her fingers, hoping he'd say yes.

"Yeah, sure."

"Water ok?"

"That's fine."

I watched as Lilly grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it to the brim with ice water. She then took a pill bottle from out of the purse she had lying on the counter and popped one of the dissolving capsules in it.

"What is that?" I asked oh so very quietly.

"Sleepy drugs," she mixed the remainder in before gliding back out into the living room to hand Dom the glass.

"Thanks, love."

"No problem," she took Sophia off the couch, much to her dismay, just as Dom took a rather large gulp. "Chloe, there's duct tape in the top drawer. Grab it. We gotta move fast," she set Sophia on her feet before lunging for the cell phone that Dom was sluggishly trying to get to on the coffee table.

"What'd you do, Lillian?" Dom's eyes wandered around the room woozily as I came back to hand Lilly the tape. "Why?"

"Have to help a friend. I'm so sorry," Lilly proceeded to tie Dom's wrists and ankles together as he laid motionless.

-----------

"Where are we going?" Sophia asked as the three of us rushed through the airport. Our plane was about to leave and it was the last one to Los Angeles for hours. We didn't have hours, we barely had minutes before one of Angelo's men saw the security footage and sent people to retrieve us.

I had one shot and I wasn't going to let anything ruin it.

I picked Sophia up and continued to run. Her small legs were holding us back slightly, but it was a problem easily fixed.

"Where's daddy?" She asked, water forming in her eyes. She wasn't stupid, she knew something was happening, she just wasn't one hundred percent sure what. The fact that Angelo wasn't around probably terrified her three year old self.

"We're going to visit some family," I answered. Soph never really met my side of the family. Last time any of them saw her she was still a newborn.

"Without daddy?"

"He's busy. Who else is gonna watch Bandit?"

I was being played.

By my own family, three year old included.

I go to get Chloe and Soph to bring them home because it was the time Chloe had said to be there, and what do I find upon arrival?

No one but fucking Dom, and he's no help because he was tied up.

"Did they say anything?!" I yelled and paced anxiously around the room just as a few more of my men walked into the house. "Anything at all?"

Dom shook his head, "No. They took my phone though. It has a tracker. Are you really confused as to where they'd be going?" He looked at me as if I was an idiot. I wasn't the one who let three girls tie me up and leave the country though.

"Find them!"

Sophia was getting harder and harder to travel with. Every minute that went by had some mention of Angelo and how much she already missed him. She wouldn't even go to bed because she was crying too hard.

"People are going to think we're murdering her," Lilly screeched before climbing onto the bed opposite of the one Soph and I were on. We had landed in Los Angeles not too long ago and decided to get some sleep before an eventful day tomorrow.

So far it seemed like we were in the clear. No one resembling anyone working for Angelo had shown themselves, then again, why would they? I just hoped for a few good hours without him knowing.

I had to know what deal these people wanted to make and if they actually had my family. It'd be nice to know who these people even were.

Soph had finally settled down after what could have easily been a handful of hours later. Sometimes I wondered if she'd cry as hard for me if she was left with Angelo. Maybe she just had crazy attachment problems.

Sleep wasn't hard to find as soon as I stopped thinking about the terrible mistake I had just made.

____________________

"A hotel," Lilly mouthed and jotted down a few words on her notepad. "Alone," she added. "Half an hour," she looked up at me, slightly scared. As if I was going to do something. She was the man in this relationship, not me. "She'll be there. Alone," Lilly said to the guy on the phone before hanging up. "We gotta go."

"What'd he say?" I asked while picking a still very much asleep Soph off the bed.

"The guy wants you to meet him at the Four Seasons Restaurant in a half hour. You have to be alone," she took Soph away from me. "Or else."

A loud, obnoxious ringing started playing somewhere in the room before I could even think about backing out of this situation.

"Shit!" Lilly put Soph back on the bed before racing over to the desk in the corner. She grabbed the cell phone that she had taken from Dom before we left and looked at it as if it were going to attack her, "It's Tony."

Why do we still even have that? I'm sure it has a tracker! "Don't freaking answer it!" I snapped.

But since she's Lilly and Lilly doesn't listen, Lilly answered it, "What the hell do you want, scuzball?" Her face changed almost instantly, from carefree to shock and slight concern, "I didn't know it was you, the caller thingy said Tony. Sorry." I gave her a confused stare and she mouthed "Angelo".

Uh oh.

Their conversation went from a semi civil English convo, to an all out Italian shouting match. I wished I could understand the language in times like these.

Lilly went silent, before ending the call by throwing the phone at the wall, "We gotta go. They're on their way," she raced past me and grabbed Soph again.

"What do you mean by that? Where are they?" I followed her out of the motel room and to the rental car. "Who all is they?"

"Like ten miles away...at the airport. And the usual, ya know, Angelo, Dom probably so he can murder me before someone else does, Tony, and most likely some scary ones we've never even seen before."

______________

I sat at one of the tables in the Four Seasons restaurant, alone, like I had been instructed. My heart raced as fast as what I presumed the speed of light was. I didn't know who I would be faced with in the coming minutes but I knew, that it wasn't going to be good.

I looked at the glass of ice water in front of me as a shadow was cast over it. I wasn't the only one sitting here anymore.

I looked up and was met by two unfriendly looking people. I knew the girl, but the man was a mystery I didn't want to solve.

What had I gotten myself into?

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