We’re moving. Where, I’m not sure. Probably not back into the club.
I struggle to open my eyes, but my eyelids are so heavy.
I’m floating away on a cloud, bouncing as they carry me. I hear a loud bang and a rush of cool air chills my bare skin.
Are we outside?
“Aria!”
Somewhere in the depths of my mind, I hear a voice.
Vince’s voice.
A gunshot explodes into the air, and then another.
My mouth opens but no words come out. I can’t think. I can’t see. I can’t feel anything right now.
“Open the door!” One of men shouts.
Open what door? Where are we right now?
More gunshots fire, and my body is lowered onto a hard surface before a loud slamming sound reverberates between my ears.
“Vince!” My mind screams, my mouth having no ability to echo the word.
I try to pull myself up, but my head feels like a lead weight.
“Get her to the new location,” one of the men mutters, his words thick in the haze of my mind. “And let the guys know Vincenzo Marcone is at the club. But he won’t stay long. They need to torch the place. Now.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Vincenzo
“Fuck!” I scream, pointing my gun at the retreating van and emptying my clip into the night air.
“Vince!” Diego shouts as he runs from the club with Ant, Tommy, and Cristian in tow.
“This is my place, Vince!” Ant growls, stomping toward me. “Where the fuck do you get off shooting it up like a goddamn lunatic? You could have killed someone!”
I take a few deep breaths, rubbing the side of the gun against my temple, the metal cooling my searing skin. “I was trying to hit the van that kidnappers just dumped Aria into.”
Ant’s brows furrow. “Kidnapped? What the hell are you talking about? Why would someone kidnap her?”
I look at Diego with a raised eyebrow and he shrugs. “I didn’t have time to fill him in.”
“Fill me in on what?” he yells. “And why the fuck am I the last to know about what is going on in my own nightclub?”
I point to Cristian. “Get Alek down here as soon as possible,” I grumble. Then I pull my phone out of my pocket and dial Paolo’s number, ignoring Ant’s incessant rants.
“Vince? What’s going on? Did you find her?”
I expel a sharp breath and tilt my head toward the night sky, staring at the twinkling stars above me as Paolo’s normally calm voice rises in panic. Right now, Aria could just as well be one of those stars, hidden in a cast of millions, a needle in a haystack. The van was unmarked and could be headed anywhere right now.
How am I going to find her?
How am I going to save her?
Christ, how could I have left her in the first place?
This is on me. Nikola got to her because of me!
“I had her…” I say, my voice trailing off. I scrub a hand down the front of my face. “But she was taken. I didn’t get outside fast enough to stop them.”
“Fanculo!” Paolo shouts. “Stop who? How could you let that happen?”
“Nikola planned an ambush,” I say through gritted teeth. “He was watching her the other night, just like you thought. The pictures prove that. Nikola knew she was at that club, that she killed his operative. And he had his guy tell her Viviere was the next place they’d hit, knowing she’d show up here looking for revenge.”
“Figlio di putana,” Paolo mutters. “Why not kidnap her last night then? Why wait until tonight?”
“I don’t know. Maybe Nikola’s guy was too busy trying to get off with the girl he was fucking and forgot to pay closer attention to the real reason he was there.”
“If that operative knew Aria would be there last night, he’d have been looking out for her,” Paolo says. “Unless he was a complete idiota, he’d have been waiting for her to show up. He could have taken her right then if Nikola had given the order!”
“She literally caught him with his pants down. I don’t think he was too focused on killing Aria at that point.”
“It doesn’t make sense to me. And where did they take her? Did you get a license plate number?”
“No plate,” I say, watching Diego speak to Ant in a hushed whisper. Ant’s facial expressions change with rapid speed until one sticks.
The murderous one.
That’s definitely directed at me.
“You know what he’ll do to her, Vince,” Paolo says, his voice grave. “She’s as good as dead unless we get to her before he does.”
“I’m gonna find her, Paolo. This ends tonight. All of it. Wait for my call.” I click off the phone just in time for Ant to charge at me. “When did you think it might be a good time to mention that my nightclub has become a target for a fucking Croatian sex-trafficking ring? And that you killed the head of the organization and put a target on all of us as a result?”
I glare at Diego. “Thanks for getting him up to speed.”
Diego salutes me. “I figured it was time for another ass-kicking.”
“Why the hell did they pick Viviere, Vince?” Ant yells, grabbing me by the shirt collar. “Is this retaliation because you let your cock do your thinking for you? Does that sound familiar? Because we’ve all heard those words come out of your mouth before! How does it feel to know you’re exactly like us, the brothers who are constantly running shit into the ground because they don’t think with the heads on their shoulders? Huh? You like it when the shoe’s on the other goddamn foot?”
I shove him away from me and he stumbles backward, his eyes still blazing with fury. “Don’t you forget who I am, Ant. I am the boss of this family!”
“You’re an arrogant prick!” he shouts, leaping at me and swinging his fists into my side. “You walk around with a pole up your ass, all high, mighty, and untouchable. Because you never fuck up, right? You never make bad decisions for the family!” His deep voice ripples with heated sarcasm, and the punches keep flying. I block his fists and flip him over, pinning him to the ground and locking his arm behind him.
“You’re a real piece of work,” Ant grunts, panting a little bit. “So goddamn condescending. You’d be nothing without us!”
“Oh, is that what you think? Let me just tell you that without me, you’d all be dead in ditches by now,” I hiss, pulling myself and Ant off the ground. “I made mistakes. I’m not perfect. But I’m trying to fix this shit, once and for all!”
“How? By dragging my club and our whole family into your fucking funnel cloud?” Ant shouts, taking another swing at me and missing. He never was the fighter in the family. Much better with a gun.
Which is unfortunate for me, since he’s always packing and has a damn short fuse.
“Well, well. I have to admit, I was a little pissed off that I wasn’t invited to the family meeting earlier, but judging by the looks of you two assholes, maybe it was a good thing I was left out.” Alek’s taunting voice echoes in the night air and I turn around, catching the smirk on his face.
I stand over Ant, my breaths labored as I glare at him. “Alek, I need you to get in touch with your magical Dark Web unicorns, the ones who helped us track Julia.”
Ant’s eyes narrow, but the grimace on his face fades slightly.
Julia, Ant’s wife, had been kidnapped a couple of years ago by a psychopath whose family had been terrorizing ours for years. It was Alek who’d helped us track her location using some tech geniuses he has on his payroll. Muscle is fine and good, but sometimes you need the gurus to fill in the gaps.
“Do I want to know what’s going on?” he asks.
“I’m sure Diego can fill you in,” I snip, pulling Ant off the ground. He dusts himself off and pushes his hair back.
“Hey, he needed to know what the hell was going on,” Diego says. “And, by the way, if you hadn’t fucked up in the first place, there’d be nothing to tell.”
I look at him, my jaw twitching. “That’s rich,
coming from you of all people. Like you haven’t caused enough damage to this family with your own dumbass moves.”
Diego’s nostrils flare and Cristian pulls him back, same as Alek does to me.
“Let’s go inside and figure this all out,” Alek says in a low voice, looking around. The polizia haven’t shown up yet, but it’s only a matter of time before they do. “I’ll make a call and we’ll come up with a plan, okay?”
Tommy pulls open the back door and we all walk back inside. He grabs my arm, pulling me aside as everyone else files into Ant’s office.
“Stop being so defensive,” he murmurs. “It’s in the past. The important thing for you to remember is that even though you constantly rub our faces in mistakes we’ve made, we’d never watch you go down in flames. Yeah, we might enjoy watching you get your ass singed a little.” He snickers. “But we’re here for you, even if you don’t deserve it.” He gives me a punch in the shoulder. “And we’re gonna find Aria. Shit, anything to keep you getting laid on the regular. And I’ll start decorating your houses with dildos to keep a smile plastered on that ugly ass face of yours.”
“It doesn’t make sense, Tommy,” I murmur, stepping back into the club. “He’s been watching her. Why tonight? Why would he—?”
My mind stutters to a screeching stop as Tommy’s words echo between my ears.
We’d never watch you go down in flames. We’re here for you, even if you don’t deserve it.
Fuck me.
Nikola has been watching, waiting for the exact right time to avenge his brother’s death.
This isn’t just about Aria.
There’s another reason why he told her to come to Ant’s club.
Well, five reasons, to be exact.
Me and my brothers.
Alek, unfortunately, would be collateral damage.
I grab Tommy’s arm and rush into Ant’s office. “We need to shut this place down!”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Ant scoffs. “I just called my friend down at the station and told him it was a false alarm. The place is packed! Nobody is gonna come back to finish any job, Vince!”
“You’re right,” I say in a choked voice. “They aren’t coming back. They don’t need to because we’re all right here!”
“Jesus Christ,” Cristian mutters, slamming his hand on the desk, exactly where I had Aria naked not too long ago.
“Ant, get your security guys in place and have them shut the club down. We need everyone out of here now!”
Alek is busy muttering into his phone, so I look at my other brothers. “I don’t know how much time we have, but the hit is coming. It’s the only thing that makes sense, the only thing that will keep us distracted and far away from Aria.”
Diego, Cristian, and Tommy exchange a look as Ant kicks over a chair.
“My club,” he groans. “Vince, I’m gonna kick your ass for this, I swear!”
I roll my eyes. “If you don’t get moving, there might not be any of my ass left to kick.”
“What the hell are we supposed to do? Get everyone out, and then what? Sit around and play with our dicks?”
“Vince,” Alek calls over to me. “I’ve got a location.”
“Already?” I ask, a seed of doubt sprouting in my gut. “How the hell is that even possible?”
“These guys are good,” Alek says. “Very fucking good. And they know the Dark Web like it’s their own cock.”
I nod. “Good. Where are we headed?”
“They’re sending me the address now. But there’s a problem.”
“What the fuck more crap is gonna be hurled at us now?”
“Plenty.” Alek sighs. “The location is an abandoned warehouse at the Port of Palermo. And there are boats waiting, according to the surveillance feeds my guys just hacked.”
I squeeze my eyes shut for a split second.
I thought I understood the meaning of karma.
Give a little shit, get a little bit back.
I was so wrong.
Because I’m pretty sure that this full lifetime dose of payback being injected straight into my heart like an adrenaline shot is really what karma is all about.
“We need to split up,” I grunt. “Alek and Tommy, you come with me. Diego and Cristian, help Ant get this place cleared out and then go home and gather all the wives and kids together in one spot. Make sure they’re all safe.”
“You need more backup,” Diego says. “You don’t know how many guys will be there.”
“Don’t worry, I’m on it.” I nod toward Tommy and Alek. “Let’s go.”
Alek lets out a deep sigh. “Jesus, the shit I do for love. You know, before I married into your family, I had my own enemies to deal with. Now I’ve got fucking double.”
“Yeah, and because we married into your family, I have a whole set of new ones,” I grumble, pounding him in the shoulder, which because of his enormous size, is just about eye-level for me.
“Touché,” he quips, following me out of the office. “So let’s find these bastards and gut them so we can cross at least one enemy off our combined list.”
I jog toward the main area of the club next to Ant. Security is busy shuttling people out of every exit. I don’t see smiles, I don’t hear laughter.
I just see a lot of fear.
It’s the same fear that grips me.
The unknown is a scary fucking reality.
Thankfully, most of the patrons are moving quickly, and even the drunkest ones are now sober because of the eerie threat hanging over the club.
I nod toward Alek and Tommy. “Come on, I’m parked right out back. Ant has this under control.” I jog over to the door, stopping dead when I hear Ant’s alarmed voice.
“Guys!” Ant barks at us from about ten feet away. “Get the fuck—!”
And before the rest of his warning hits my ears, we’re engulfed in a sea of showering glass, metal, and wood, the explosion hurling us backward through the air before we finally crash to the ground in a heap.
My head throbs, the force of my skull slamming into the ground making my vision blur.
They detonated a bomb in the middle of Ant’s pride and joy, knowing we were all sitting ducks in ground zero.
A distraction of the most destructive kind.
Nikola’s fucking hit.
His message to us.
And his revenge on me.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Aria
A splitting pain explodes between my temples as I force open my eyes, the stench of marijuana mixed with urine making my stomach knot. I want to cry out, but my mouth is so damn dry it feels like someone scooped a handful of sand into it. Even if I could manage to separate my swollen lips, I’d never be able to conjure up enough energy to utter a single syllable.
A tingling sensation in my arms shoots out to my fingertips and I blink fast, my heart hammering in my chest.
Holy fuck.
I’m tied to this bed.
I shiver, a chill slithering across my prickled skin. I wiggle around as the breeze gets stronger, letting out a gasp when I look down at my body.
My clothes are gone.
I’m wearing nothing but a bra and panties.
And they aren’t mine.
A weak cry somehow escapes my throat as I struggle to lift my aching head from the pillow, only for it to crash right back down again.
Like a block of cement.
My eyes fall to my arm, and I cringe at the dot of dried blood on my skin.
I’ve been drugged, but by who?
I squeeze my eyes shut, my breaths coming in short, sharp gasps.
Where am I? And how the hell did I get here?
Why can’t I remember anything?
Muffled sounds from outside get louder until a hand reaches for the large curtain, forcing it back. A short man with a mustache walks into the space and over to where I lay shivering on the crappy mattress. He lets out a low chuckle and licks his lips, running his hand down the front of my
abdomen and then sliding it into my panties. He shoves his fingers into my pussy, making me yelp and my body spasm. He stares down at me, letting out another gravelly laugh.
“That pussy is nice and tight,” he says in a heavily accented voice. “I’m going to be the next one who gets to fuck it,” he growls, stepping closer. His leering expression makes my gut twist. Bile rises in my throat as he continues to drive his fingers deeper inside of me. Tear stream from my eyes as I press my legs tightly together.
“Please stop,” I weep, a sob rising in my chest. “Please don’t do this!”
The curtain peels back again and another man walks into the space.
No, God, no! Please tell me I’m hallucinating! If he’s here, that can only mean one thing.
I failed.
Tall, dark, muscular with the same evil grin that haunted me throughout my teenage years, the man who stole my innocence and yanked away everything good in my life.
And the same man who swore I’d pay for my sins against the family once he found me.
My uncle, Nikola Lovrić.
The corners of Nikola’s lips curl into a menacing sneer as he directs his hard gaze to the man standing over me. One of his hands is still stuffed into my panties, the other stuffed into his own pants as he strokes his dick.
“Didn’t I tell you to stay out of here?” Nikola sneers at the pervert who, despite the interruption, looks damn ready to come.
Perv pulls his hand out of my panties and doesn’t even have the sense to look scared. “If I’m buying, I’m doing a test drive first. I wanna know how tight her pussy is, how firm her tits are, and how deep she can—”
“That’s not how this works,” Nikola says in a scarily calm voice that makes the hairs on my arms stand on end, the same way it always has. “You were given very specific instructions, and you ignored them.”
“I’m paying a lot of cash for my pussy,” Perv says in a terse voice. “I have rights!”
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