I looked up as my office door opened and Jax walked inside. He had a look in his eyes that I hadn’t seen for days.
‘Please tell me you have some good news for me,’ I pleaded.
‘Hugo is awake,’ he said with a smile.
An hour later, I was walking into yet another hospital room. Hugo was sitting up in bed and a nurse was dressing his bandages. She turned to me as though she was about to ask me to leave, and then she must have recognized me. There were few people in this city who didn’t know my face or my name.
‘I’ll just be a few minutes, Mr Montoya,’ she said.
I nodded and watched her working. Chewing my lip and willing her to hurry the fuck up. After what felt like five hours rather than five minutes, she finally walked out of the room.
‘I’m sorry, Boss,’ Hugo said before I could speak. ‘I …’ he shook his head as tears filled his eyes.
‘I know you are,’ I nodded. ‘But can you tell me anything? Anything at all that might help me find them?’
He closed his eyes for a few seconds. ‘They came out of nowhere. A huge black SUV. They knew we’d been at that clinic. They didn’t follow us. I always check, Boss. They knew we would be turning into that junction on Seventh and they were waiting for us.’
‘How many of them?’ I snapped.
He frowned as if trying desperately to remember. ‘I saw three, I think. But there could have been more. There probably were. But as soon as they hit us, well, I was in and out. I heard three gunshots. And I heard them talking to each other. At least one of them was Spanish.’
I swallowed as my heart hammered in my chest imagining what Alana and Lucia had been through, what they were still going through.
‘What did they say? Think Hugo. Anything is important.’
‘I heard snippets mostly. They referred to the boss,’ and then he looked up at me and opened his mouth as if to speak but for some reason he was hesitating.
‘What is it? What else did they say?’
He swallowed. ‘One of them said the boss said do what you want with his puta, but don’t touch the girl.’
I felt like someone had hit me in the solar plexus with a baseball bat. My knees buckled. All I could see was Alana’s beautiful face. Imagine what those animals might be doing to her. Jax put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed, grounding me back to the present.
‘We’re going to find them, amigo. I promise you,’ he growled.
I turned to him and nodded before taking a deep lungful of air. Now was not the time to think about these things. Now wasn’t the time for fear or worry. Only my rage and anger were of any use to me right now, and that was all I could focus on, because to think about anything else would have made me completely useless to both her and Lucia.
‘If Lucia is important then I want you to redouble your efforts in Chicago, Jax. Find out who the fuck has got my wife!’ I snarled.
‘I’m on it,’ he said and then he walked out of the room.
I turned back to Hugo. ‘Get yourself back on your feet as soon as you can. And if you remember anything else, you call me right away.’
He nodded. ‘I will, Boss.’
