Ares turned his narrow-eyed glare at Mannix. "Is there any chance this is some kind of joke? A Christmas prank or some shit?"
"I've put out feelers," I said. "Since it probably has something do with us, someone will reach out with some kind of ultimatum."
As far I was concerned, whatever they wanted, they could have it, as long as they didn't hurt her. I wasn't going to think about the possibility of losing her. It couldn't happen. She was the centre of my entire universe. If they took her away from me, I was going to tear down the entire fucking world.
"Motherfuckers." Mannix scowled.
He picked up his phone and started to send off text messages to probably everyone he knew. No doubt threatening them with everything he could think of if she didn't turn up on our doorstep in five minutes. Two minutes would suit me better, but I doubted either would happen.
People didn't take someone like Kennedy Knight without a reason. Whatever that reason was, they wouldn't just disappear. For that I was grateful. Someone took our woman because they wanted something from us. So let them ask.
"Has either of you pissed off someone new recently?" I asked.
"Probably," Mannix said with a shrug. "Comes with the territory, but everyone should know better than to touch her."
"What about you? Tortured anyone's cousin recently? Their brother, perhaps?" Ares asked.
"Highly likely," I said easily. "Also comes with the territory. Why come after her though? Why not come straight after us?"
Okay, I knew the answer to that. We were three highly trained, objectively violent mobsters. We were connected and usually armed.
Kennedy was a much easier target than any of us.
"One of us should have gone with her," I said.
She should have been safe with Chelsea, but clearly they'd let their guard down. I could be angry at Chelsea, but I wasn't going to be. I adored my sister and I knew she wouldn't want any harm to come to Kennedy either. The two were like siblings.
"Everyone is on the lookout for her," Mannix said, scowling like that wasn't even remotely sufficient.
It wasn't. I wanted to tear every house in Dusk Bay down to the studs to make sure she wasn't inside. Unfortunately, that would take time. We'd have to start with this.
"This is bullshit." Ares pushed himself away from the counter and stalked from one end of the kitchen to the other. "If they want something, they should just ask. We could have told them to fuck off without them doing this to her."
His hands curled into fists that he might put straight through the wall if that would help. If she wasn't returned soon.
I pointed out, "We might have told them yes. Why do criminals always have to resort to criminal behaviour?"
They both slid me a look. Brows creased in matching frowns. I'd appreciate how cute they both were, but right now, fury burned me up inside the same as it was to them.
"Because they're assholes," Mannix concluded. He placed his phone down on the countertop. A moment later, it started to ring. We all stared at it.
"Who is it?" Ares asked, side-eye like it might explode.
Mannix picked it up carefully. "It's an unknown caller."
"Of course it is.” I smirked. "The moment we know who they were, they're dead meat. I'd keep my identity a secret too."
Mannix pressed on the screen to answer the call.
"What?" he snapped.
"Mannix Cassani." The voice on the other side of the phone was soft and sounded artificial, like someone was using AI to communicate with us.
Didn't they know what that shit did to the planet?
"Yep," Mannix said simply.
"What do you want?" I asked.
