“Bullshit,” Connor said, shaking his head.
“It’s not. I know that they are taking women to sell to the highest bidder. I can’t let that happen.”
“It sounds like a trap,” Connor said, addressing Owen, who was still frowning, looking thoughtful.
A fire lit up in her veins. This asshole had no idea how difficult it was for her to come here. She was betraying her family and putting herself at risk. She wouldn’t have done that without a damn good reason.
“Are you really that stupid?” she snapped. “You think my father would just send me here to be killed by his enemies?”
The words spilled out of her without a second thought, and she wanted to bite her tongue when she was finished speaking. Hopefully, she didn’t just ruin her chances of getting help from these men.
4
CONNOR
This woman was full of surprises. Connor didn’t think he could be more shocked than he was when Mancini’s daughter walked into the office, but the way she stood up to him wasn’t at all what he expected.
The information they had about the Mancini family suggested that Alessia Mancini was weak and harmless. She wasn’t a part of the mafia.
But the way she was staring daggers at him suggested that she had surprising strength.
“We don’t kill people without a damn good reason,” he said in response to her comment about being killed by her father’s enemies.
“Sure,” she replied, not sounding convinced in the least. Her attention returned to Owen. She understood who was in charge here. “Listen, it makes no sense for me to lie. It wouldn’t benefit me, and it certainly wouldn’t benefit my father. I’m here because I need someone to put a stop to this. These women will be raped.”
Connor’s stomach twisted. “Maybe you’re wrong about this,” he said, hoping that he was right about her trying to set a trap. They could handle that, but the idea of innocent women being treated like objects that existed for men’s satisfaction was appalling.
“I hoped that at first too. I heard it from my brother, and it wouldn’t be the first time he lied to me. But I started listening, trying to pick up more information. Yesterday, I finally overheard one of my father’s men talking.” She paused, shuddering at the memory. “He was saying that they should get a chance to ‘break the girls in’ after they abducted them. Then, he mentioned that they were eventually going to be sold off to the highest bidder.”
A moment of silence followed that statement, and Connor knew that Owen and Declan were probably just as disgusted as he was. At that moment, the vibe in the room shifted. Connor still didn’t trust this woman one bit, but he knew that they needed to find out if what she said was true.
“Okay, we’ll help,” Owen said as if he read Connor’s mind. “Butyou’ll have to try to find out more information. We need to know who your father is working with and where the women are being held.”
That sounded risky, and for a second, Connor felt a twinge of worry. What if she got caught? Mancini was a heartless bastard.
But then, he reminded himself that this was Alessia Mancini. She was the enemy.
Well, her father was. And that was enough of a problem to make her suspicious. He shouldn’t have been worried about her at all.
Alessia bit her bottom lip, her first sign of being nervous since she walked into this office, but she nodded.
“I’ll see what I can find out.”
She and Owen worked out an agreement on when to meet up for a progress report, but Connor was barely listening. His mind was reeling over all of this. He was torn between worrying about the women that could so easily become victims to trafficking and his wariness of Alessia.
He kept his mouth shut until she left the office. Owen walked her out, probably making sure that she didn’t get anywhere near Ruby, and Connor couldn’t blame him for that. It was her dad that abducted Ruby a few short weeks ago, after all.
“What are you thinking?” Declan asked as they were left alone in the office.
“She’s a Mancini,” he replied. It wasn’t really necessary to say anything else. That family was trouble.
“True. But she seemed sincere. What if Mancini is actually doing this? What if he’s stealing and selling women?”
“That’s why we’re going to look into it,” Owen said as he walked back into the office. “But I’m not going to just blindly trust her. It doesn’t make sense for her to walk in here the way she did unless she’s telling the truth, but I can’t take that risk.”
“Someone needs to keep an eye on her,” Connor said.
“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing,” Owen replied with a pointed look in his direction.
