Mogul (33 page)

Donny burst through the door, knocking the
larger man aside. “She’s right where I want her,” he assured before
he turned to face Leo. “I’m here to see you.”

“What? Why? I gave you all the information
you needed to get your revenge.”

Donny walked further into the room, and
Julian and Holly emerged from the bedroom from the commotion. “The
gang’s all here,” he said. He took a gun from his jacket and
pointed at the couple who cowered in the door frame. “Have a seat,”
he said.

They sent a frightened glance over to Leo,
who gave a slight nod of the head. His mind raced how to handle
this wet dynamite. All three took a seat.

“So, what’s the problem?” Leo wanted to
know.

Donny laughed. “Funny you should ask,” he
said as he kept his gun trained on his captive audience. “Because
that’s what I’ve been asking myself all night, ever since you
called me and told me about Baylee.”

Leo cleared his throat. “And?”

Donny grabbed a chair and sat facing them.
“Well, I was thinking. You told me that that asshole Vanni had
spent the whole night with his fat pig of a girlfriend. So I got to
thinking… if this guy Carnevale didn’t pull the plug on my sister…
who did?”

Julian began to fidget in between Holly and
Leo, which drew her attention. With a sinking stomach she realized
that he had been gone most of the night – out with Leo, like usual.
She assumed they were out getting drunk and laid. What Donny was
suggesting…

Leo shrugged off his concern. “He’s so loaded
he could pay to get it done while he had an airtight alibi. It’s
the easy way to get rid of his biggest problem.”

“Yeah, but see the settlement stated that if
she died, we’d get all the money. Why would he still do that, when
it risked his going to jail? Things just don’t add up.”

Leo gulped. He had counted on this hick being
too stupid to add two plus two. “Does it matter, man?” he asked.
“Your sister wouldn’t be there in the first place if it hadn’t been
for him. He should pay for what he’s done.”

“Oh, he’s going to pay, all right,” Donny
assured. “Every one that crossed us is going to pay.”

“It was Leo,” Julian spit out as he jumped
from the sofa.

“Julian!” Holly hissed, knowing he was
signing their death warrant by admitting anything.

“He wanted Andy gone so he could manipulate
Vanni, get in good with him like he did before. He needed Vanni
weak and compromised so he could fuck with his mind, make him do
whatever he wanted to. Probably get him hooked on drugs again, just
like he did me.”

“You weak son of a bitch,” Leo growled.

“Not weak enough to do your dirty work,”
Julian exploded. “You couldn’t even pull her plug. You had to get
me high so that I’d do it.”

“What did you say?” Donny thundered, and
Holly jumped up in front of Julian.

“He doesn’t know what he’s saying. Leo did
get him hooked on drugs, he’s been out of his mind for weeks… ever
since I lost my baby.”

Leo jumped up too. “He’s the reason you lost
your baby, you stupid twat. And now you’re defending him.”

“Wait a second,” Donny interrupted as he
leveled the gun back on Leo. “You said Vanni was the reason she
lost her baby. You said he forced himself on her just like he did
on my Baylee.”

Holly shook her head. “No, Donny. Vanni
hasn’t seen me since the day I told him I was on bed rest. Leo has
been lying to you and manipulating you just like he’s done to
everyone.”

This information sent Donny into a tailspin.
He hopped up and began to pace, waving the gun around as he
processed the betrayal.

So Holly put the last nail in Leo’s coffin.
“He’s the one that got Vanni hooked on booze and drugs, and he’s
the one who told Vanni to go pay for prostitutes. If it weren’t for
Leo, Vanni would have never picked up Baylee at all, much less
drove them off a cliff.”

There were angry tears in Donny’s eyes as he
turned on Leo. “Is that true?”

“Who are you going to believe?” Leo
challenged. “Me? Or some little whore who gets paid to spread her
legs?”

Thanks to a silencer on the end of his
pistol, no one in the luxury high rise heard the bullet explode
from the chamber of Donny’s gun. In an instant it blew a hole right
through the center of Leo’s forehead, spilling his brains from the
back of his shattered skull before he collapsed in a heap.

Holly stifled her scream as she watched Leo
drop.

Donny walked over to where Leo lay in a
bloody pile, before he glanced back up at the other two accomplices
in the room. Julian put his hands on Holly’s shoulders as she
shielded him from Donny’s wrath. He advanced on them.

“You need to move,” he told Holly. He really
didn’t want to rough up a woman, but he was going to make Julian
pay, with or without her standing in between them.

“Please. You got what you wanted. Leo was the
one who did this,” Holly pleaded.

“Why are you defending this piece of trash?”
Donny wanted to know. “He killed your baby. Don’t you fucking
care?”

Holly dissolved into bitter sobs. “Of course
I care,” she said. “I died inside that day.” Then she uttered the
sad, hard truth of her entire life. “But I need him. He’s all I’ve
got.”

“Not anymore,” Donny told her as he swung on
her, knocking her easily away before he flung his whole body toward
Julian. He could have shot him like he shot Leo – but this asshole
deserved to suffer for what he had done.

Julian met each punch with one of his own.
They thrashed around the living room, and Holly tried on wobbly
feet to get in between, only to receive blow after blow meant for
someone else. Effortlessly Donny lifted her tiny, frail body and
flung her across the room, where she landed right into the middle
of her glass coffee table. It shattered around her and she felt the
warm trickle of blood slide through her scalp. She could barely
hear their muffled blows as blood pooled around her ears, and she
reached for her cell phone that had been knocked to the floor.

The minute Vanni received her frantic text he
showed it to Maggie and Graham. All three jumped in Graham’s car
and sped downtown. Vanni didn’t even bother with the elevator. He
took the stairs two at a time until he reached Holly’s floor. The
door had been broken into and police were already swarming. Vanni
forced his way through, where he found Holly on a stretcher. She
had been badly beaten and was covered in blood, with several bad
lacerations on her face and neck.

As he approached Vanni made the sickening
discovery that she was clearly no longer pregnant. “Holly,” he said
as he sank to his knees. “What happened?”

Another gurney was rolled from her bedroom,
where a body was covered from head to toe.

A tear rolled from her puffy, swollen eye as
she looked at him. “I’m sorry,” she croaked. “It’s all my
fault.”

“What’s your fault?” Vanni demanded
softly.

Graham and Maggie finally entered the room
and Maggie rushed to the aid of another person the EMT was
desperately trying to revive. It was Julian, who had been shot
right through the chest.

Vanni turned to Holly. “What happened,
Holly?”

“I lost the baby,” she said with considerable
effort. It was obvious she had been badly injured.

“Today?” he wanted to know.

She shook her head, and winced from the pain.
“In May,” she confessed. “Right after I saw you the last time.”

It was another blow that would have brought
Vanni to his knees had he not already been there. His son had died
and she never bothered to tell him after nearly a month. His throat
ached as he asked, “Why did you lie to me?”

It opened the floodgates. Holly used her
remaining strength to weep with all the bitter regret that eaten
away at her soul for the last few weeks. From under the blanket she
withdrew the bear that she had created with Vanni as a loving gift
for their son. After he died, the bear had become a replacement.
The paramedics found her clutching it to her bloody body when they
broke into the apartment. “I didn’t want to believe it,” she
answered. “When I talked to you I could still pretend that
everything was okay.”

He looked around the trashed apartment.
Nothing was okay. Was this what she had to live with? “What
happened?” he asked again.

An emergency medical technician came to check
her vitals. “I think we need to get you to the hospital,” she said
to Holly, but Holly shook her head. She somehow sensed she wouldn’t
make it that far, and this was way too important. She glanced back
at Vanni.

“I’ve lied to you about everything,” she
admitted. “Julian wasn’t my brother. He was my ex, the one I told
you about. Leo got him hooked back on drugs and he was the reason
why I lost the baby. And he was crazed that he had ruined our plan
to get you away from Graham and start another label. We were going
to run it when he took over Dreaming in Blue. That’s always been
the plan, even when we came back out to L.A.” His jaw clenched as
he listened. Andy had been right. Graham had been right. And he had
been a damned fool. “That was when Leo told him there was still
something we could do to save our plan.”

A vice closed Vanni’s throat. “Which
was?”

“We had to get rid of Andy,” she said. His
ground his teeth together as she went on. “At first he tried to
gaslight Andy at your house, with all those packages. But then when
Graham installed security cameras, Leo went after Donny Wilke, to
stoke his anger towards you so he could have the perfect fall guy.
He was just crazy enough to manipulate, and Leo knew all the right
buttons to push. I’m pretty sure that’s who attacked her in your
home a few weeks ago.”

“And you knew this?” he bit out between
clenched teeth.

She shook her head. “I only found out today.
I swear to God. Donny showed up at the door enraged that someone
had pulled the plugs on Baylee. She died last night. He’s lost his
mind. He went after Julian so I told him that Leo was the one he
was truly after. He shot him right between the eyes, right in front
of me.” She gasped back painful tears. “Then he came after Julian.
I tried to stop him but…”

She didn’t go on, but her broken body was
context enough. “Where’s Donny now?” Vanni asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t know. I blacked
out. But he and Leo were talking about his getting his revenge
against you. I think he’s going to go after Andy again.”

He nodded. “He already did. She was taken
from our house. We don’t know where she is.”

Holly closed her eyes. Her heart sank. From
the state Donny was in, she knew that Andy would bear the brunt of
his aggression. When her eyes opened there were real tears there.
She had never meant for it to get so out of control. Now everything
was lost. She had no baby, no Julian… no Vanni.

She knew saying she was sorry would never
make up to him what he had lost, but she couldn’t let go of what
little life she had left without saying it. “I’m sorry, Vanni,” she
whispered as the gurney she was on was lifted. “I really did love
you,” she whispered. “I never lied about that. You were the best
thing that ever happened to me.” She weakly grasped his hand and
placed the bloody, dirty bear into his care. “His name is Angelo,”
she whispered before she closed her eyes and gave up all fight that
was left. The paramedic rolled her from the room as Vanni grasped
the bear to his aching chest in a wail of pain unlike any he’d ever
known.

A hand fell on Vanni’s shoulder. It was
Graham. He had overheard everything. Vanni covered Graham’s hand
with his own as he broke down a little more.

Graham’s phone rang and he quickly answered
it. “Yes.” He paused. “Yes, I understand. Thank you.”

Vanni rose to his feet to face him.
“What?”

Graham took a deep breath. “We had stopped
monitoring your house a few weeks after Andy moved out, but I had
my guys check the security feed from Redondo Beach to see if we
could get any clues. He’s at your house, Vanni. That’s where he
took her. He’s not even trying to hide it.”

Vanni nodded and rushed behind Graham and
Maggie as they headed for the door.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Redondo Beach, California

June 17, 2011

Andy stopped struggling against her
restraints when Donny vaulted over the railing and landed on their
deck with a thud. He wore no covering over his face, so she knew it
was the same man who had attacked her before. She also knew he was
the brother of the hooker Vanni had almost killed in the car
accident the year before.

Clearly this was his idea of payback.

He prowled the room like a hungry cheetah,
fixated with the front window as if he were waiting for something…
or someone.

She winced slightly. She was no stranger to
the Braxton-Hicks contractions she had been having for the last
weeks, but that one was particularly powerful. She felt like she
was suffocating on the towel in her mouth, and she found herself
unable to catch her breath, so it took several minutes for her to
recover. She counted in her head and tried to calm her body using
only her mind.

But when she glanced down at her tummy under
the nightgown, she realized that her abdomen was tightening and
growing painful again. Her panicked eyes glanced back up at the man
who held her captive. She tried to communicate through the towel,
but he was beyond hearing her.

He had gone off the deep end, she could tell
by the blood on his clothes and the look in his eyes. She had no
way to know that he had killed several people in cold blood – one
with his bare hands. But she sensed that he was beyond reason.

When the third contraction hit within twenty
minutes, Andy knew she had to fight for the life of her child. She
thrashed where she sat to get his attention.