The Foiled Plan (War of Sins Book 2)

Pebbles gnaw their way into my flesh as I let my weight rest on my knees, simply staring ahead. A bleakness unlike anything I’ve ever experienced washes over me, my body frozen on the spot and unable to do anything.

I keep looking ahead, willing this one moment to be just a bad dream.

You lied to me.

I did lie to her. But I never lied to her about the most important thing.

She is my heart. She is my everything.

There’s absolutely no way to quantify what I feel for her, or the fact that she’s so deep within my soul that I no longer see myself as a separate being from her.

But now that she’s gone…

I gulp down, squeezing my eyes shut and praying it’s just a bad dream.

Carlos was right. I shouldn’t have done this on my own, leaving myself open and vulnerable—for her to see just how pathetic I am.

For the entire period of my captivity I’d been fed countless drugs, the moments of lucidity few and far in between. During that time, Lucero had been the only thing keeping me sane, tethering me to the real world when my consciousness was about to slip from me.

Maybe that’s why whenever I return to that state, her name is the only one on my lips.

I’ve seen tapes of myself in the throes of my hallucinations. I’ve seen how aggressive and out of control I’d been. And all for one reason—because she wasn’t there.

But this… to call her by Lucero’s nickname… There aren’t hell fires hot enough to punish me for my stupidity and for my fucking mouth.

How the fuck…

I shake my head. Eyes closed, features tense, I can only replay the events in my mind as I remember them.

The night is a blur—as it always is. When I’d woken up uncuffed and seen a piece of glass around, as well as stains of blood on the sheets, I’d known something must have gone wrong.

Oh, something went very, very wrong.

In the distance, I can still spot her figure as she opens the gate, heading for the car just outside.

That image is enough to pull me out of my shocked state and give me the spur I needed to finally move.

I order my limbs to obey, my mind solely recovering and honing in on one purpose.

I can’t let her go.

I’ll do whatever it takes. I’ll fucking chain her to my bed until I can convince I speak the truth—that she’s the only one in my heart.

She’s the only fucking woman for me. Now or ever.

And nothing and absolutely no one will take her away from me. Not even her.

I can’t let her leave me.

More than anything, I don’t think she understood just how true my words were. I couldn’t go on without her. Because without her I have nothing.

No family. No happiness. No purpose.

In such a short period of time, she’d become my everything.

My resolve strengthening by the moment, I put one foot in front of the other as I start sprinting, bursting through the gates and running after the car.

I don’t care that I am butt naked, or that there are some old ladies staring at me from the sidelines. I simply dash forward.

‘Noelle,’ I yell her name, running at full speed and hoping I can catch up with the car.

I’m barefoot, and the debris on the ground is already making a mess of the soles of my feet. Still, I push forward, unable to imagine not getting to her.

‘Noelle! Come back,’ I keep yelling.

A few seconds and I think I am getting closer to the car. Raising my arms up, I wave them around, hoping she’d see me in the mirror and tell her brother to stop.

It’s not her that sees me though. It’s her brother.

And as he makes a quick U turn, he changes gears as he goes on to the highway. No matter how much training I’ve had, and no matter how steely my resolve is, there’s absolutely no way I’m going to catch up with them.

And he’s never going to stop.

‘No!’ I sink to my knees, yelling at the top of my lungs.

My entire being is rebelling at the thought of Noelle leaving me.

She wants to divorce me…

Well, she might as well try. I’m never going to sign my name on that piece of paper.

When she married me, she married me forever.

Until death do us apart.

And If I have something to say about it, not even then.

If she thinks that leaving me now means she can leave me for good, she’s wrong. I don’t care what I have to do to prove to her that I’m sincere and that she’s my only one.

I’ll fucking do it.

Realizing I need to pick my battles carefully, I slowly trudge my way back to the house, careful to avoid detection. The last thing I need is for someone to call the cops on me for public indecency.

Spotting a cardboard by the side of the road, I grab it and place it in front of my crotch, pushing my chin up as I walk back, avoiding to meet the inquiring stares of the grandmas by the side of the road.

‘Fuck it,’ I mutter softly under my breath as I finally close the door behind me, stepping inside the house and looking at the vast emptiness with an equal empty heart.

I went and did it this time, didn’t I?

I limp around the house as I find some clothes to put on before getting my phone.

All along a side of me has been going mad with worry that I would fuck something up—that I wouldn’t be worthy of her. And the truth is, with that fear foremost in my mind, I’d put on my best front. I’d shown her my good side while carefully stashing away the bad. I’d done my best to paint myself as the good guy, earn her trust and make her see me as her protector rather than her tormentor.

In the process, I lied to her.

I lied about my past, and the fact that I have more blood staining my hands than anyone—Michele included, since I’d been the catalyst for his fall from grace. If anything, everything he’s done is on me because I’d been too cowardly. Too wrapped up in my own perfect world that I hadn’t deigned to imagine his wouldn’t be equally as perfect.

I lied about the fire, and I never openly told her I’d been there that night.

But more than anything, I lied to her about my nature.

Knowing her past and trauma, I only showed her my caring and gentle side. I did everything to make her comfortable and get her to open up to me—get her to trust me. To do that, though, I suppressed everything more that she awakens in me.

Aware of her issue with violence, I suppressed my unnatural urge to do harm to anyone who dares to look at her the wrong way. Instead, I pushed everything down, wanting to avoid another incident like the one at the amusement park.

Then there’s also her need for independence, and the fact that she’s been so smothered by her family that she craves to make her own decisions and feel like she’s taking her life in her own hands. For that, I’ve had to push down my need for her—this unnatural need to own her that I know it’s not normal.

But as I’ve realized since her, nothing about her is normal.

She makes me act in ways I’ve never thought possible—ways I’ve previously thought inconceivable.

I remember a couple years ago when Sisi was telling me about her relationship with Vlad and the ways he made her feel—like they were one half of the same whole. I’d thought it preposterous back then, because how can one being depend so much on another? Their codependency had struck me as silly, and in my head, I’d thought it would never happen to me.

I thought myself impervious to that.

Yet it took only one woman to shake me—one slip of a woman who challenged me at every turn but sought comfort in my arms in times of danger. That dichotomy soon proved to be my kryptonite.

She could go toe to toe with me and hold her own ground, but she could also display an addictive vulnerability. She touched something primal inside of me. She activated sides of me I never even knew I had.

And because of that I know no other woman would do—ever.

I clench my fists by my side, breathing through my nose as I try to calm myself.

Instead of giving in to my rage and destroying the entire house, I dial up Carlos, needing some friendly advice. In my current state, I can barely think properly, and I know that to win her back I’ll need all my wits about me.

‘Don’t say I didn’t tell you,’ Carlos mutters when I give him a rundown of the events.

‘I didn’t think… Fuck,’ I curse.

‘You knew how you react to the drug, but you still preferred to not tell her about it. You’re a fucking idiot, my friend.’

‘Don’t I know it,’ I sigh. ‘I’m wrapping things up here and I’m coming back to the city. Noelle said she’s staying with her brother, Amo. Can you check where that is? I want to know all her moves, at all times.’

‘Right. I’ll see what I can do about that, but Amo isn’t that easy to pin down. He has houses all around the country, and often likes to switch things up at the last minute. But I’ll get some eyes on him, don’t worry.’

‘Good. I’ll see you in the city then,’ I say as I hang up.

Packing everything up, I linger as my fingers brush against the garnet necklace.

Another tidbit I’d avoided telling Noelle is that having the necklace with me when I’m in a drugged up state helps me. It calms me in a way that little else does.

But admitting such a thing would have meant opening myself up to even more questions. Ultimately, she would have wanted to know why it’s her necklace that calms me of all things. And even I don’t have an answer to that.

It simply does.

Maybe I should have gotten rid of it…

In theory it would be so easy. In practice though…

I shake myself, pocketing the necklace and getting everything to the car.

The ride to the city is smooth, and it takes me a couple of hours to get to the brownstone.

To my everlasting surprise, though, I come face to face with Cisco, his wife and their newborn.

‘I didn’t expect you here,’ I mumble.

He frowns.

‘Didn’t Noelle tell you? We’re staying in the city until our flight to Rome in a couple of days. On that note, where is she?’ He asks as he looks behind me.

‘She’s with Amo. We had a small squabble and she’s staying with him for the time being.’

‘A squabble?’ He narrows his eyes at me.

Just at that moment, though, his phone rings.

‘Yes? Yes, this is Cisco DeVille. He what?’ a brief pause before he nods. ‘I see. I’ll be there soon.’

Hanging up, he sets his mismatched eyes on me, the lighter one glinting in the sunlight as he stares at me for a moment.

‘That was the police. Amo was rushed to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the head. He’s in emergency surgery.’

My eyes widen at his words, my heart stopping in my chest.

‘Noelle?’ I ask on a whisper.

‘No sign of her. There was a car accident and they found him alone at the site.’

I take a deep breath.

Missing means she’s alive—captured.

Not dead.

This is good…

Fuck!

I take a deep breath. In and out as I dim my feelings in favor of my brain. I need all my faculties about me to get to the bottom of this.

‘I’m coming with you,’ I tell him as he walks towards the living room where Yuyu is seated on the couch with her infant son.

‘We are coming with you,’ she notes, getting to her feet.

‘You heard?’ Cisco asks in a tight voice, and Yuyu nods.

‘Noelle couldn’t have just disappeared. Someone must have taken her,’ I interject.

‘I agree. And until we have more information, we can’t do anything. Amo is the only one who might know what’s going on, and he’s…’

‘It will take time,’ I curse. ‘One moment,’ my voice breaks. ‘One moment I’m away from her and this happens…’

Shaking my head, I pivot as I take out my phone, calling everyone I know and asking for help.

And as we head to the hospital, while Cisco and Yuyu talk with the doctor, I am on the sidelines interrogating the police.

‘And there are no cameras on that highway?’

‘Not in that spot. There is one a few meters away…’

‘I want to see it.’

‘We can’t just…’

‘I want to see it,’ I reiterate, more forcefully.

My heart is clamoring in my chest, my brain overheating at the mere thought that something might have happened to my pretty girl.

No, that’s unacceptable.

Noelle is fine and I will find her.

Even if I have to fucking kill everyone who stands in my way.

A heated discussion with the policeman in charge and I’m led to the station. Cisco and Yuyu stay behind to wait for the diagnosis in Amo’s case, but they promised to let me know if they have any news.

In the meanwhile, I manage to get access to the footage, and as I scour every camera near the site at the time of the accident, I notice something.

‘That,’ I point towards a black car. ‘It’s the only one with tinted windows.’

‘It’s not that uncommon.’

‘No, but in this case it is,’ I mention. ‘We’ve watched out for every other car, and while the camera does have blind spots, it gives us a pretty good idea of who’s inside the car,’ I explain with a sigh.

I would have preferred not to involve the police in this, but the only one who could have accessed the feed is Panchito. As it stands, I still don’t fully trust him. There might not be any obvious signs pointing towards him aiding Michele at that time, but my gut tells me something else. And if his loyalties are questionable, I can’t in good faith count on him to find Noelle’s location—I don’t know how I could trust that.

Instead, I make do with what I have—intimidation and the reputation of my family’s name. That and Cisco’s own influence with the police seems to have worked wonders in coaxing them to pull up the feed from the highway.

‘Can you run the car plate?’

The officer operating the computer gazes up at me, his brows furrowed.

Not having enough patience, I tell him his superior has given me carte blanche to their system. Well, I might be exaggerating just a little, but time is of essence here.

He works on the plate while I try to rack my brain and come up with anyone who would have a grudge against me.

With Michele out of the picture, there isn’t anyone that comes to mind. But it could be anyone with a grudge against Guerra or DeVille.

‘It’s a rental,’ the officer’s comment gets my attention. ‘It was returned a little while ago too. The client paid cash.’

‘Any description of the client?

He gives me a short description that could be literally anyone, and I already feel like I’m losing my mind.

‘Thanks,’ I say as I leave the station, already on the phone with Carlos to see if he’d had more luck than me.

‘If this was a kidnapping, they will contact you sooner or later,’ he tells me, and that doesn’t warm me in the least.

By then, they will have had access to Noelle for hours. They could…

I close my eyes, panic unlike any I’ve ever known bubbling inside of me. And as I get behind my wheel, I realize I can’t move.

My hands are trembling, my entire field of view is foggy and I can’t help the tears that start pouring down my face.

My fault. This is all fucking my fault.

I bang my hands against the steering wheel, the tension in me mounting to an unbearable crescendo.

‘I’ll get you back, pretty girl,’ I promise, both to her and to myself. ‘I swear on my life that I’ll get you back or I’ll die trying.’

Because without her… I have nothing.

I blink my tears away, staring into the distance as I watch people walk up and down the street, going about their regular day.

How I wish we were like them too. That we didn’t have this much fucking baggage behind us.

But the more I stare, the more her words echo in my brain.

Maybe in another life you would have met me first instead of her. And maybe you would have fallen in love with me first.

What if something happens to her… What if something happens to her and she’ll die believing I didn’t love her. That I…

I bring my fist to my mouth as it opens on a soundless moan, my shoulders slumping with the magnitude of the emotions I’m feeling.

I love her. I love her more than anything. But why the fuck couldn’t I say the words? If only I’d done that, none of this would have happened.

It’s all my fucking fault.

If she’d heard me say those three words, she wouldn’t have left. And now, she wouldn’t be missing.

I’m losing it.

I know I am.

My brain cannot cope as I remember word after word of what she said. But most of all, it hurts that she was right.

I loved Lucero, that’s true. But I loved her with the innocent heart of a first love. She was my haven when my life was pure hell. In her I found the briefest respite from my torment and I was able to borrow strength from her when I had none.

With Noelle, however… There’s no comparison.

She makes me feel everything a thousand times stronger. With her, everything is more potent—my senses themselves are overtaken by her.

Scent. Sight. Hearing. Smell. Taste.

Everything converges in her.

I used to consider my condition a burden before—it made me different, and it made me perceive the world differently.

Not in this case. It allows me to explore her in ways that are not possible without linking all those senses together. When I’m with her, they meld together in an intoxicating combination that makes me so full of her, we’re no longer two different beings.

Her essence is everywhere within me. She permeates every atom of my being, until all I know is her sweet, heavenly taste.

How does one compare that to…anything?

Starting the engine, my hands are still trembling on the wheel as images of my Noelle battered and hurt cloud my mind.

I’m not in my right mind to drive.

Leaving my car behind, I end up taking a cab back to the house—because it’s not home anymore if she’s not there.

Cisco and his wife are still at the hospital, so as I climb the stairs, I’m relieved that I won’t have to deal with anyone else. I don’t think I could bear to do that now.

Heading straight to the piano room, I take a seat on the bench, running my fingers all over the keys.

‘Fuck,’ I curse out loud, my helplessness getting a rise out of me.

How am I supposed to simply wait until whoever took her reaches out to make demands? How?

Knowing they might…

I close my eyes, a sigh escaping my lips as I bring my head down on the keys, a deep sound reverberating in the room.

Still, it warms me like nothing else, because I feel her.

I feel her in the simple action of sitting by the piano, feeling it’s planes and angles and imagining she was here. It was her beloved space after all—her passion.

And seeing her play… I don’t think I’ve known greater joy than hearing those notes as they envelop my entire body, encapsulating me in her thoughts and feelings. Her music simply brings me to heaven.

Taking a deep breath, I straighten my back as I tentatively bring my fingers on to the keys. My mother taught me the basics, but it’s been years since I attempted anything on my own. Yet it’s the thought of her piece, the one she’d written specifically for me, that spurs me into movement.

I lay a finger down, marveling at the sound that comes out. I repeat the action until I manage to string together enough notes to create a pleasant melody. It’s not hers, but it’s the only thing that connects us now.

I’ve never had a passion before—not like her—just like I’ve never had a goal.

All along I’ve been merely existing and reacting to things happening to me.

Until her.

In my teenage years, I did my best to go under the radar. There was no time for hobbies when my entire existence was centered around keeping my disguise in place. My guilt had wrecked me so much I’d stopped dreaming.

I went to college because it was expected of me, and to my mother’s dismay, I chose to study geology. I liked it well enough, I suppose, but nothing more than that.

Maybe when I was younger, I had aspirations. Maybe… But that’s a lifetime ago and a lot of things have changed since.

She changed me.

She opened my eyes to living and for the first time I experienced pure happiness.

That also meant she became the center of my world—my passion. She’s the only reason I want to do better, to plan and to dream.

And if she’s gone…

I continue playing, the notes awkward from my unpracticed hands. My eyes are foggy, and I can barely see in front of me.

If she’s not there, then neither am I…

In such a short time she’s become so essential to my being that if anything happened to her, I would not survive.

I lose track of time as I continue to fiddle with the keys. My phone blares to life next to me, Cisco’s name on the screen.

Immediately, I pick up, knowing it must be something related to Amo.

‘How is it?’

‘He’s out of danger. Just waking up.’

‘And? Did he say anything? Did he see who took her.’

‘That’s just the thing, Raf. He did…’

‘And?’

‘He said it was your brother,’ Cisco replies.

I pause, unsure I heard him right.

‘My brother?’ I repeat.

‘Yes, he said it was Michele who crashed into their car.’

‘You do realize we both saw him die. Is Amo ok? He just survived a head wound, maybe he’s talking shit,’ I say a little more aggressively than I would have wanted.

‘No, he is sure,’ Cisco sighs. ‘Look, we were both there. But we were also concerned with Noelle. Maybe…’

‘He died, Cisco. I saw him fucking get shot before falling off a building. He doesn’t have nine lives,’ I mutter.

‘No. But if he had inside help to figure out our plans, couldn’t he have made a plan of his own?’ He counters.

I bring my hand up, massaging my forehead.

‘He’s sure?’

‘Positive.’

‘Thanks.’

Hanging up, I head out, going straight to the warehouse.