Little Bambina

Thirty-four

Luca

I groan annoyed by the sound of my phone ringing. Who could be calling me at this time?

I surely hope it's my bambina as I texted her goodnight and she never replied. I waited 2 hours before deciding to call it a night. She must've fallen asleep early.

I look at the caller ID and see that's it's Ramirez calling. Why would he be calling me at this time, if it's business we can discuss that at a proper time but in this line of work business is 24/7.

"Ramirez?" I answer groggily.

"She's gone. Someone took her. Come now." He says then hangs up.

My heart stops beating.

It's like time has stopped.

The earth has stopped rotating.

My worst nightmare has come to life.

I clench my hands into fists breaking my phone in the process.

My mind is in slow motion, refusing to accept what I just heard.

The thought of her being hurt or worse brings me back to life from my shock and I jump into autopilot. I quickly get dressed and go into my walk-in safe which is also a panic room. I grab one of my backup phones. I look at the array of guns deciding which ones to take with me.

I need to be quick about this. Time is ticking and every passing second is precious time wasted on finding my girl.

I decide to just take as many as I can. Some handguns, a riffle, knives and bullets. I cannot afford to run out of bullets.

Within 10 short minutes I'm entering the estate of Ramirez and I'm not surprised to not see any cop cars in sight.

I get out of my car and take long strides trying not to run. I have to remain clear minded and calm or else I'll blow up every single building in this city.

"Ramirez?!" I call out once I enter the house. I see a few men and women around some talking on phones some on computers in the living room and others handling weapons. They must be his soldiers. A part of me is glad to see them since I didn't even think of calling my men for assistance.

I walk around and end up in my girl's bedroom where I find Ramirez seated on her bed with his face in his hands.

"Ramirez?" I call him and he looks at me. I can see that he's been crying. He's eyes are red and slightly puffed up. He stands up walks towards me then grabs me by my shirt's collars.

"You did this. You took her with you to Mexico when you went there to deal with whatever shit you had to. You put her in danger. You exposed her to danger. You better hope we find her alive or I'll kill you."

I can see the hurt in his eyes and how much he's holding himself back from kicking my ass.

I remove his hands from my shirt and take a step back.

"I can swear to you that she was no where near anything I was doing. I kept her in a different city far from where I was doing business."

He just tsk-ed.

"Whoever took her is someone from either side. We both have enemies. But right now I need you to tell me everything. What happened?"

He sighs.

"The power went out an hour ago. I expected my backup generators to go on automatically but that didn't happen. I went to check on the power switch but it wasn't working so I decided to go check on the generators and that's when I saw that the front door was opened. Forced open. I grabbed one of my pistols I hide in the hallway and made my way here to check on Allison. I called out for her multiple times but she didn't respond. I knew she was gone then. I knew right then and there that she was taken."

He walks to her bathroom and I follow him. The sight before me makes my blood boil. There's a pool of blood on the floor.

That's my girl's blood.

"I found this." He says with so much pain in his voice.

"I knew this day will come when she would be taken away from me. I just wish I had prepared her for it."

I squat and touch the blood with my fingers then smell it. Whoever did this, I will make them bleed to death for spilling her blood. I will find their loved ones and do the same to them.

"And no one has called or communicated claiming responsibility? No ransom requests?" I ask him.

"No, nothing of that sort. That is how I know that it's personal. From your side or mine."

"Mr. Ramirez, it seems like the generators have been jammed that's why they didn't automatically switch on. Take a look." A young boy who seems to be in his teens walks in with a tablet and we look at the pictures.

"Aren't there any cameras in the house or outside?" I ask. "When the power was cut they stopped working so we have nothing." The boy responds. Ramirez sighs then walks out and the boy follows suit.

"Young boy?" I call him and he turns back to face me. "It's Toby, sir. My name's Toby."

"Toby, I need you to go around and see if there's any place around the estate, within a 3 miles perimeter, that has cameras we can look into around the time all this happened. Gas stations, shops, houses with doorbell cameras, traffic cameras, anything and everything. Find me something I can work with and give me feedback within 30 minutes. Also, get someone to clean this blood up. Get the blood bottled up and bring it to me." I instruct him then step out of the bathroom to find Ramirez seated on Bambina's bed again.

"Look, sitting here on her bed isn't going to help find her. Stop wallowing and get to work."

"There's nothing I can do!" He shouts in frustration.

"There's a lot we can do. She's depending on us to find her and bring her back home. We need to start thinking of everyone we know of who is capable of taking her and go after them. Get your emotions in check, Ramirez. I know that she is your daughter and this is hard to handle but you need to remain strong and calm."

I sit next to him. "Think of everyone, and I mean everyone. Not just enemies, anyone who has ever been suspicious to you, competitors in the business, anyone you've done business with, anyone you've pissed off even those who you think you're on good terms with." I voice out and he just nods his head.

I will have to get someone to help him out, he seems out of it and severely affected by all this. I will have to take charge and lead.

I will find my girl and kill anyone in my way.