“I know…shitty. But her drug-dealing brother ran up a gambling tab…and it was all part of a plan. Their father killed my father….”
“What in the entire fuck is wrong with you all?”
All eyes went to Nova.
“Like honestly…just when I think it can’t get any crazier, here you come. Simone probably got some damn sense and got out of dodge.”
She took a breath and I realized this sounded insane. She waved me on while rubbing her pregnant belly and I continued.
“I told her last night…all of it and she left. I haven’t seen her since…”
“Maybe she’s at a hotel?” Liam suggested.
“She could be. My gut just feels weird.”
“Who else does she know?” Val asked. “We should start with known associates.”
Nova frowned. “Once you leave the Thieves Guild, you don’t go back…but maybe Max would know something. I’ll give him a call.”
“I have her phone,” I said. “Her employees are pretty close to her. And maybe that damn brother of hers knows where she is.”
“Let’s start there,” Liam stated, his green eyes flashing with excitement. They lived for this shit. Hunting. Killing. Torturing. “The kids will be coming in for breakfast. Don’t want to alarm them. Val and I will run her credit card information. See if there’s been any activity.”
I almost stopped to ask how but then I remembered who in the hell I worked for. “The Bratva takes care of you, if you take care of the Bratva,” I could hear my uncle’s words in the back of my mind. Giving a nod, I went back out to the car to retrieve the phone.
I wanted to scream.
Anxiety was running extensively through my mind. A little bit of sweat had appeared on my brow. To cool down, I touched my head against the window of the passenger door before opening it.
Going through Simone’s contacts, I tried to remember all of the people from Tainted Ink. Realizing that would be dumb as hell, I just started looking through messages. At the top of the messages was a pinned group text. Everyone that I was looking for was located there.
Debating over how to approach the situation, I just fired off a text.
Good morning, this is Lucien Petrovich. I’m Simone’s boyfriend. Has anyone heard from her or seen her? She left her phone at home last night.
I didn’t stop there, I found Albie’s number and texted him as well. It wasn’t even twenty seconds later and he was calling.
“What in the hell do you mean Simone didn’t come home?”
“Take it she’s not there with you?”
“No, she’s not. I saw her last night but she was asking questions about me torching her building,” Albie said.
“Well did you?”
“Fuck no. Stay on task…what in the fuck happened to make my sister just leave without her phone…”
Before I could explain, he told me to shut the fuck up.
“Drop your location, I’m showing up!”
Albie had some base in his voice and I wasn’t in the mood to appreciate it. However, the more people looking for Simone the better. I rattled off directions to him, not giving a shit how he felt, and hung up.
My Little Angel…where have you gone and disappeared to?
Messages started to come in from the Tainted Ink crew. Everyone agreed that they hadn’t seen Simone since the day before. Out of six people, only four had responded though.
Rina, Mallory, AJ, and Brandon.
