by Alessa Thorn
“Silas,” Dante said as he and Leo joined him.
“Leo, get into the security cameras right fucking now,” he growled, showing them the purse. “I think she’s been taken.”
“If she has, they wouldn’t have gotten far. We really did see her minutes ago,” Leo replied, tapping away on his phone. He and Izabella had gotten into the system days ago, and he repeated the steps while Silas fought to get air into his lungs.
“I’ll message Athena. She and Kon are outside. Maybe they have seen something,” Dante said quickly, reading Silas’s rage on his face.
“If they knew who Izabella was, why would they take her and not Athena? They were together most of the night,” Silas muttered.
“Here, I have her!” Leo said, turning to show the screen of his phone to them. “This is five minutes ago. She was in this spot.” Ice filled Silas’s veins as he watched the curator approach Izabella. They were talking together, right before her face froze.
“Can we get sound on this?” he asked, and Leo shook his head.
“Not on the phone, but I will on my laptop.”
“Look! Why would she go with him like that? She’s smiling like a maniac,” Dante interrupted.
“They went this way,” Leo pointed, and they followed him as he followed the footage. “Wait…they’ve disappeared.”
“How can they just disappear?” Silas growled.
“Oy, over here,” Dante said, gesturing at them from across the hallway. He was in front of a gray and silver door. “Let’s see where this goes.” He swiped a key card over the panel and opened it. Silas’s hand went to the gun tucked into the back of his pants as they stepped inside the dark space.
Leo held up his phone light until Dante found a switch. Light flooded the narrow concrete tunnel around them.
“What is this? A service hall?” Dante asked.
“Escape route,” Silas and Leo said at the same time.
“It’s not wide enough to be used for service,” Leo added.
Silas kept his gun out and low as they followed the tunnel. He tried to drop into the calm place where he went on a mission, but his emotions were too erratic. The tunnel turned sharply, and they came to an iron door a few minutes later.
“Should we barge on in or wait?” Dante asked. Silas was already pulling it open. Cold, icy air rushed over them. They were by the riverbank, and there was no sign of Izabella or de Tremelay.
“Fuck!” Silas growled, putting his gun away and pulling out his phone. He rang Athena. “Where the fuck are you?”
“At the hotel. I’ve been trying to call you!” Athena replied. “What’s wrong?”
“Izabella has been taken, and I’m worried you’re next. Pack your shit and be ready to leave. We’ll be there soon. Go to my room. I’m worried they know about yours,” Silas replied, picking up his pace.
“If she was taken, it’s because they want her for something. Maybe in exchange for Athena. They won’t hurt her, Silas,” Dante said beside him.
“We don’t fucking know that. They wanted Athena, and she was right there! Why take Izabella? It makes no sense.”
Leo came up beside him. “I’m already in the city’s traffic cameras. We will find her, Silas, even if it’s not a ransom. Iz is also one of the smartest people I’ve met. She’ll find a way to let us know where she is.”
Silas gripped Izabella’s red purse tighter, his chest aching. Getting taken again was Izabella’s worst nightmare come true. She wasn’t going to be thinking clear like she usually would.
You saved her once. You can do it again, he reminded himself. He only needed her to hold on until then.
Back at the hotel, Athena and Kon were waiting in Silas’s room with their gear. He tried to swallow down his emotions when he smelled Izabella’s perfume as soon as he walked in the door.
“What’s happened?” Kon asked.
“Catch them up, boss, and we’ll get our stuff,” Dante said, and he and Leo disappeared.
Silas pulled off his jacket and ran his hands through his hair. This was so far from the way he wanted this night to go. He told Kon and Athena about losing sight of Izabella, the footage, and the tunnel.
“This is my fault. I shouldn’t have left,” Athena murmured, hugging herself.
“Doesn’t matter now. It’s done, Cub.” Silas grabbed some clothes and got changed in the bathroom.
Behind a closed door, all his worry and panic rushed to the surface. He needed to get his shit together. He wasn’t any good to Izabella if he was freaking out. He washed his face with icy water, mind racing.
Why did she leave her bag behind?
Leo had shown him the footage. Izabella had purposely dropped it. They could’ve tracked her phone. Why dump it? It didn’t make sense. Neither did her not fighting back or shouting for help. Iz could fight because Silas had made sure of it. And yet, she had gone with that curator willingly.
“Silas! We found something,” Athena called.
Silas toweled off his face and went to see what the fuss was about. The room was packed with people, Dante and Leo sitting on the couch side by side, with Athena and Kon looking over the back of them.
“I got a hold of the footage and audio. Listen. This guy is a magic user,” Leo said. Silas watched the footage again, heard them talking about chaos magic, and saw the second the magic hit Iz.
“Fuck. I knew she wouldn’t have gone with him willingly.” Silas ran his hands through his hair. “He didn’t tell her to drop her bag, which means she still did it for a reason.”
“Did you look in it?” Athena asked, grabbing the purse off the bed before tipping out its contents.
“Her phone could’ve been tracked,” Dante said with a frown. “I’m sure it would’ve been the first thing they would have taken off her.”
“It’s the program! Toss it to me,” Leo demanded, and Athena handed it over. “We are all so stupid. Her program was going to copy Gadal’s phone if we identified him. Maybe she did it for this asshole after Athena’s reaction to him.”
Silas groaned. “Of course. Fuck, I’m dumb.” He had been in such a panic he hadn’t thought about why they were at the gallery to begin with. It was sloppy of him.
“What do you think her password would be? I can hack it, but it’ll take time,” Leo asked.
“Try her birthday?” Athena suggested and told him the date. He shook his head. Iz wouldn’t do anything that obvious. It had to be something important to her.
The tattoo… Silas took the phone and typed in the line of numbers of the day they had met. The phone screen opened, and a hand clenched around his heart.
“How…what did you put in?” Athena asked.
“Belarus,” was all Silas said, and her expression twisted in understanding.
“Fuck. Please tell me the program got something,” she asked Leo.
Leo didn’t reply, eyes on his screen as his thumb typed on Iz’s phone. Silas left him to it, went to the minibar, and downed a tiny bottle of whiskey.
“I know this isn’t going to be much of a comfort to you, but I don’t think the curator will kill her straight away. We have time to find her, Silas,” Kon said softly.
“You’re right. That doesn’t do shit to comfort me, Basty,” Silas replied, drinking another little bottle.
Kon wasn’t deterred by his tone. “You heard the audio. De Tremelay wants you to suffer. He’s going to want you to watch whatever he has planned, so we can expect him to make contact soon enough.”
“I’ve got something on the curator’s phone, but it might also be another problem,” Leo called.
“Tell me,” Silas replied.
“It’s moving at a rapid rate. If I had to guess, I’d say he’s in a plane.”
“Fuck! Just what we need.”
“At least we have a way to track him for now,” Athena said. She sat down in the armchair and let out a tired sound. “I think it’s him. Gadal.”
“Your reasoning?” Silas asked.
“
It’s his voice. I recognized it at the gallery. That’s why I had to leave. He—He is the one I remember who made me dance against my will. He used that same magic to get Iz. I can’t remember his face the night in Russia, but that voice has been in my nightmares ever since.”
Kon sat down on the arm of Athena’s chair. “We know he’s involved with the Secret Chiefs and that he hurt you. We can ask him what his super-secret code name is when we get the fucker.”
They would have to be quick because when Silas got his hands on him, there wouldn’t be anything left to question.
The next three hours were some of the worst in Silas’s life. He had worked in all sorts of hellish places, doing jobs that could have killed him.
None of that compared to waiting and not being able to do a fucking thing while the woman he loved was in the hands of his enemy.
That exact situation was one of the reasons he had never wanted a serious relationship with anyone. If you cared about something, there would always be some asshole ready to exploit it.
Izabella had been kidnapped because of who she was to Silas, no other reason. It was his fault, and he didn’t know how he was going to live with it or if Izabella would ever forgive him for it.
“Wake up, everyone. They are finally on the ground,” Leo said, snapping Silas out of his hate spiral.
“Where?”
“Toulouse, France,” Leo said.
The name jolted Silas’s memory. “The camera signal.”
“What?” Dante asked sleepily.
“The camera we found in Russia. Iz said that the last tower its signal bounced off was in Toulouse,” Silas said and clapped his hands. “Alright, asses up. We need to get ourselves on a plane out of here.”
“Leo has one,” Dante said, making all their heads whip to him.
“Sure he does,” Athena replied, rolling her eyes.
Leo looked up from his keyboard. “Actually, I do.”
“And your asshole brother did say it was waiting in a hangar at the airport…all alone,” Dante pointed out with a grin.
“Wait, you met his brother? When?” Kon snapped.
“Rodrigo was at the gallery,” Leo replied.
“Fuck, Leo!” Kon let out a string of curses at him in Turkish. “You didn’t think to mention it earlier?”
“We had bigger things to worry about.”
“Pissing off the Colleonis is something pretty fucking big to worry about!”
“You’re a fucking Colleoni?” Athena shouted.
“Fight about it later, kids.” Silas got between them. He glanced at the hacker. “But Leo, you’ll be coming clean as soon as we are on that plane. Understood?”
“Let’s just get on the plane first,” Leo grumbled. He cursed and rubbed at his face. “I never wanted to have to be this person again.”
“Your brother looked like he had a stick up his ass and was angry about it. I can smack you around a bit to help you get in character if you like?” Dante offered.
“You can try.” Leo smiled coldly at him. “But you’re not going to be much help rescuing Izabella after I break your hand.”
Dante only laughed. “That’s it! That’s the prick look right there. See? It’s working already.”
27
Thick snow was falling by the time they arrived at the private hangars at Pulkovo Airport. It had taken Leo a whole three minutes on his phone to find out which hangar had the Colleoni plane in it.
Worrying about the fallout of stealing a plane was still secondary to getting Izabella back. Silas’s moral code had gone out of the window as soon as de Tremelay had put his hands on his woman.
“So what’s your fiancée’s name?” Dante pressed Leo in the seat behind him.
“None of your business.”
“Don’t be like that, baby boy,” Dante crooned.
“Call me that again, and you’ll regret it.”
Leo really should’ve known that Dante was like a dog with a bone when he wanted to know something. Leo had a story all right, and Silas hoped it was a damn good one. He had always been smart enough to give the Colleonis a wide fucking berth.
He knew the kid had a past, but being the son of a family that was basically mercenary royalty wasn’t something Silas would’ve guessed in a million years.
“Just tell me. Why does it matter?”
“It doesn’t matter. I just don’t want to tell you,” Leo replied. “Why do you care? Are you jealous?”
“Why would I be?” Dante snorted. “You prefer dick even if your family doesn’t want to acknowledge it. I got a better chance of getting into your pants than she does.”
“You both rank in the same place on the never-in-a-million-years list.”
“Burrnnn,” Athena piped in because there was never an argument she didn’t want to add her two cents to.
How could you leave me alone with these fucking kids, Bella? Silas groaned, missing her on a whole new level. She was always the one to keep their volatile group balanced out. She was the calm voice of reason that the hot-headed assholes needed.
The taxi pulled in, and Silas gave him a hefty tip as the others unloaded. He grabbed his and Izabella’s bags and followed Leo towards the hangar’s entrance.
Leo passed his bag to Dante. “Carry this.”
“You’re giving me your dildo collection? Leo, I’m touched.”
“Colleonis don’t carry their own bags,” Leo said and growled when Dante started shaking it. “If you break my laptop with your bullshit, I’ll break your knees.”
“Apologies, boss, it won’t happen again,” Dante replied with a mocking pout.
God have mercy. Silas was going to kill them all if they didn’t get their shit together.
Leo took a deep breath, and something shifted behind his features. He had finally dropped his mask and showed the face he had hidden from them all. He was a straight-up, dead-eyed killer…and he had fooled them all.
When everyone else flinched back, Dante stepped forward, head tilting as he studied him.
Silas shook his head. Dante had always managed to find the craziest motherfucker around him and decided that was the person he wanted to hit on. He might have finally met someone he couldn’t fuck with.
Leo’s lip only lifted in a slight sneer, daring Dante to start something.
“Let’s get this over with,” Leo said through clenched teeth. He turned on his heel and strode off like the whole world was his.
“Fucking little Leo got some teeth,” Athena whistled under her breath as they followed him.
The two guards seemed to freeze in shock as Leo bore down on them. He barked at them in Italian to get the plane ready.
“Ah, signore, where is your brother? Shouldn’t we wait for him?” one asked, eyeing up Silas and the others.
“Rodrigo has other business in the city. Well? What are you gawking at?”
“We didn’t expect you, that’s all. It has been too long, signore,” the guard replied with a respectful bow of his head.
Leo gave him a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “It’s nice to be back. Now, get moving, I have to get to France. My mother needs me to fix an urgent problem for her.”
At the mention of his mother, both guards straightened and jumped into action, leading them inside and onto the plane with no further questions.
They produced a sleepy pilot from somewhere, but Leo told them not to wait for flight attendants. They were in too much of a hurry and could look after themselves. Silas had never seen private services hustle so quickly.
“Good to know how the other half lives,” Athena said, flopping down onto one of the plush leather chairs. “Leo, you should’ve taken the plane when you left.”
“He was lucky to get away with all of his skin intact,” Kon replied before Leo could. He had been quieter than usual since the hotel, and Silas doubted it was a good thing.
“And of course, you knew who his family was?” Dante said, brows drawn together.
“Don’t blame,
Kon. I asked him not to tell anyone,” Leo replied before Kon could. “I didn’t want to be Leonardo Colleoni ever again. I was Leo Riva until tonight. I had to be. Part of the reason of my leaving was that my mother had me blacklisted. If anyone was caught hiring me for hacking or wet work, they would get one of her famous gold bullets in the head. Kon was the only one who would hire me, knowing who I really was. He helped me set up my new identity.”
Leo went to the bar and pulled out an expensive bottle of wine. He poured a large glass and lifted the bottle. “Anyone?”
“I’ll take some of that,” Athena said quickly. Leo filled a glass and passed it to her before taking his seat.
“If any of you want something, come and help yourself. My brother might be an insufferable bastard, but he always had good taste in alcohol.”
“Why give all of this up?” Dante asked, gesturing at the plane and general opulence around them.
“Because I didn’t want it anymore.”
Silas crossed his arms. “The Colleonis aren’t a family. They are a legacy. Mercenary royalty. They’ve been famous condottieri since the 1400’s, so why leave that? Might as well spit it out, kid.”
“My family has always been neutral ground for mafia, governments, gangsters, anyone that wanted to hire any of our army of mercenaries.” Leo had a large mouthful of wine. “Before my father was murdered a few years ago, I would never have dreamed of leaving my family. I was the closest to him, the most like him. He married into the family and the name. He was…the calm one. My mother changed when he was killed over a deal with one of the mafia families in Naples. She was beside herself in her grief and sent me to take her revenge out on the family.”
Leo leaned back in his chair, swirling the dark red liquid in his glass. “So I did. I killed them all. The men responsible and their followers who were there that night, but I refused to kill any of their…innocents. My mother was furious. If she had been in her right mind, she would have never issued such an order. I refused to do it, so she ordered others to do it, and they didn’t hesitate. After that, I knew I couldn’t stay. I wouldn’t be a part of a family that would commit that kind of atrocity, and I threatened to expose every single assassination, every business transaction, every shady dealing the family was a part of if they didn’t let me go.”
