“And this was shaping up to be a good night,” he muttered.
Connor chuckled. He had no idea just how true that was.
“It’ll blow over,” Connor said, pulling his phone out to text Owen. “The boss won’t be happy, but he knows we can’t control the actions of every asshole that walks through the door.”
Ollie narrowed his eyes on Connor. “You seem to be in a hell of a good mood.”
“I’m always in a good mood.”
Ollie laughed, exhaling a cloud of smoke. “Yeah, right. You can’t lie to me. We’ve known each other too long.”
Connor grinned. He had a point. Ollie was an old friend from high school, and Connor was the one that got him involved in the organization about ten years ago. When Owen took over the mafia a few years back, moving Connor up to a higher rank, he was quick to make sure that Ollie was on his crew. Connor was in charge of a street team that worked on drug running and keeping this gambling ring successful. It was a lot of responsibility, so he needed people he could trust.
“So, what is it?” Ollie asked, tossing his cigarette butt on the ground and stamping it out with the heel of his boot. “You get laid or something?”
“Maybe.”
Ollie grinned. “Good for you. It’s been too long since you got your dick wet.”
“What do you know about it?” he grumbled, knowing that Ollie was right. He was a busy man, and it had been months since he took the time to enjoy himself like that.
“I’m just saying, you’ve been in a shitty mood. This woman did us all a favor. Who is she, anyway?”
“No one. Just some woman.”
That was a complete lie, but he couldn’t tell Ollie the truth. He wouldn’t understand. Alessia wasn’t really a part of the Italian mafia, despite who her father was. She wasn’t their enemy at all.
* * *
Owen didn’t seem too concerned about what happened at the casino last night, but Connor wondered if he was wrong about that when he was called into the boss man’s office. It was early in the afternoon when he arrived, and it was a shock to see Alessia’s car parked in the back of the building. Going inside, he found her in Owen’s office, sipping from a to-go coffee cup and looking like she didn’t get much sleep at all.
His first instinct was to go to her and place an arm around her shoulders. The urge to have some kind of physical contact with her was strong, but he stopped himself, taking a seat on the couch across from her, next to Owen.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“I was up late last night,” she started, and just the reference to the night before sent a blast of heat through his body. “I was researching the names we found.”
Connor had already filled Owen in on what they’d gotten from Mancini’s house, so he was up to speed on that. Hedidn’tmention sleeping with Alessia, which was why he was sitting next to Owen instead of with her.
“Did you find something?” he asked.
She nodded. “I had to expand my research, but I discovered that there are wealthy men all across the United States with matching last names.”
“That doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” Owen said.
“Maybe not, but I was able to discover that at least three of them are supposed to travel to Misso City in two weeks. Supposedly, they are coming for business, and it took a hell of a lot of digging to discover that. I think it’s too big of a coincidence to ignore.”
Connor agreed. “Those names are probably potential buyers for the women.”
“Then, we have a time frame,” Owen said grimly. “One week to find the missing women. If we don’t and they are auctioned off, they’ll be gone for good.”
The weight of his words settled over the three of them, and Connor thought about what Alessia shared with him last night about her past. If they didn’t find these women, he suspected that she’d never forgive herself.
He couldn’t let that happen.
“So, what do we do?” he asked.
“I know a hacker that might be able to help us,” Owen said. “At least, he should be able to dig up more information.”
