I pointed at a dark-haired man on the screen. He dressed in a black suit and had a tattoo on his neck. “I know him. He’s Cal Kurti’s bodyguard.”
“I don’t see Kurti anywhere on the feeds,” he shot back.
“He’ll be at the final destination, waiting for her,” Marcello interjected.
“What can I do?” Aiden asked.
I glared at him. “You’ve done enough. Wait here with your grandfather.”
“No,” he snapped. “I’m going with you.”
He knew better than to talk back to me, but Aiden was always a pain in my ass. The Knights followed orders, knew their place. Aiden was just as stubborn as his twin.
Marcello climbed into our helicopter beside Drake, Bastian, and Damian.
“Fine,” I told Aiden. “But don’t get in the way.”
“I thought we were past this,” he shot back. “Haven’t I earned my place among the Knights?”
“We don’t have time to measure dicks right now. Your sister has less than twenty-four hours before she disappears from the map.”
Aiden held my gaze for a moment, his jaw flexed. “You better find her, Salvatore. If she dies, this is on you, too.”
I raised my hand and pointed at the second helicopter on the helipad. A few of the Knights waited beside it.
“Go before I change my mind. We don’t have time to waste.”
With an irritated scowl plastered on his face, he followed my command.
Fucking pain in my ass.
The Wellington twins would be the death of me.
Alex
I awoke on a hard, dirty mattress in a windowless room with stone floors and walls. My heart raced as I sat up and glanced around the space, dimly lit by a lightbulb that hung from a cord at the center of the room.
Every bone and muscle in my body hurt as if I’d been in a car accident. But my aches and pains were nothing compared to the pounding migraine penetrating my skull. Red marks ringed my wrists from how tight the men had bound them. I stretched out my legs and noted the bruises covering my pale skin, my arms equally battered and dried with blood.
What did they do to me?
How did I sleep through this?
I reached for my necklace and almost cried when my hand swept over my bare skin. They had taken my gift from Luca, a beautiful diamond and sapphire necklace. He’d given me a lot of things over the years, but this one was my favorite. It was the same necklace his mother had worn in pictures.
Hours or days could have passed since they had taken me. It was hard to tell with no windows or signs of life. Was I still in the United States? They had mentioned an auction but not a location. Even Luca hadn’t known where they were holding it.
My stomach rolled at the thought of being sold to a man crueler than Luca. For years, I had thought he was the worst human alive. But I’d always known there were much worse men than him. If only I hadn’t run from Aiden. He begged me to hear him out, and I was too much of a hothead to listen to him.
This was my fault.
I would never have left the Salvatore Estate if Luca had told me the truth. I had asked him about Aiden, and he lied right to my face. He could have told me Aiden was living in our old house. I shouldn’t have had to hear about it from Madeline Laveau.
The room spun as I tried to refocus my attention. I was in a basement or some underground location where no one would find me. From what I could tell, there wasn’t a door. The walls looked like one unified piece.
After the room stopped spinning, I got off the bed and ran my palms against the walls, attempting to find a door. I searched for an outline, anything that could lead to the outside. It wasn’t like they used magic tricks to lock me inside my cage.
Desperate to escape, I dropped to my knees and patted at the edges of the perimeter. I made it halfway around the room, on hands and knees, when I heard a robotic movement coming from behind me.
Confused, I glanced over my shoulder. The only thing accompanying me in that room was my paranoia.
You’re losing your mind.
Convinced I was insane, I got back to work, sliding along the cold floor, the cuts on my knees stinging from the dirt.
I stopped moving when I heard the sound again. My vision blurred as I tried to focus, but then I finally saw it. In the far corner of the room, I spotted a tiny black circle. It looked like a camera lens. It hadn’t even occurred to me these animals were watching me.
I got up from the floor and moved toward the camera, swaying from side to side. The drugs they’d pumped into me were still in my system. Staring up at the camera, I raised my middle fingers. Luca wouldn’t back down from them, and neither would I. Whatever it took, I was ready to fight my way out of there.