Because even if Dario and his group had been sincere about returning me home, once he knew who my father was, he might very well kidnap me himself and hold me for ransom. For power or influence, or whatever the hell else the Toscano Mafia might want from him.
And I amnevergoing home again.
Dario…
“You’re telling me that two of the best trackers I have couldn’t find this girl?”
Davide and Cassio stand in front of me, heads bowed. “We know that she bought a ticket to Frankfurt at the bus station, we intercepted the bus and she wasn’t on it, obviously,” Cassio said. “We patched into the security camera feed there and there’s no sign of her leaving. However…” he leans over and pushes a button on the laptop in front of me. “She did pull a bag out of one of the lockers. So, it’s likely she had clothes, maybe some kind of disguise. We went through the feed from the three exits, and there were one or two women approximately her size that left the bus terminal around that time.”
I stand, pacing around the narrow confines of the jet. We’d left the safe house immediately after Schmidt was killed and flew out as soon as the men returned, empty-handed. “And there was no ticket bought under her name at the train station, so it’s possible she was stashing a fake id in that bag as well. Check the next couple of stops she could have bought tickets for and have someone at the gates to look for her, just in case. What’s certain is that we’re not dealing with some random, innocent victim.”
“It’s hard to believe she’s a plant from another organization,” Edoardo says. “She was in terrible shape. I don’t even know how she had the strength to knock out Carlo, wield a gun with impressive accuracy, and take off before we caught her.” He shakes his head, “Though you’re clearly correct, she’s not just some innocent girl Schmidt managed to steal.”
I sigh, putting my hands on my hips. “We’re dealing with a woman who has enough skill and experience to shoot a man and escape without a trace, even as weak and starved as she was. That points to her being from another organization like ours.”
It also makes her sexy as fuck, but this isn’t the time to bring that up.
“Or possibly with a military background?” Carlo offers.
“Possibly,” I allow. “The real question is if she presents a danger to thefamiglia.Who she chooses to tell about our involvement could present a serious problem.”
“What’s next?” Carlo asks.
Rubbing the back of my neck, I groan. “I call Giovanni.”
“You’re joking.”
“No, brother, I’m not,” I retorted, “A half-starved captive triple-tapped that sick son of a bitch and ran off with Carlo’s gun and his wallet.”
There’s silence on my older brother’s side of the line. Giovanni’s the kind of man that affects people - from level one, which is “uncomfortable” to level ten, which is more like “oh fuck me I’m about to die” - just by looking at them. His silence is giving me a level two kind of feel. So, I’m shocked when he bursts into laughter.
“Carlo was disarmed and robbed by the fragile little flower you thought you were rescuing?” Giovanni’s still laughing.“Buon Dio, good god, who’s going to save you fromher?”
I pull my phone away from my ear and give it the middle finger. “I’m glad the situation amuses you, brother.”
“No good deed goes unpunished,” he says, his laughter slowing down into the occasional chuckle. My older brother is far more likely to laugh and smile these days, thanks to his new wife Ekaterina. I’ll have to send her some flowers to thank her for making him less of an uptight asshole. “What’s your main concern here?” he asked, suddenly all business again.
“Davide and Casey are running her image through some facial identification software right now,” I said. “When we find her identity, we can decide if she’s a threat, based on everything she knows.”
“There are very few scenarios in which killing a trafficker and rescuing the witness from certain death would result in criminal charges,” he said sardonically. “Though I agree that she does need to be found so we can assess the risk. Is this going to impact your ability to take over the new operations?”
“Not in the slightest,” I said coldly. I am days away from moving to Boston to oversee thefamiglia’snew line of nightclubs and real estate development. However, most of the properties are being used to launder our dirty money into nice, tidy revenue. This is the first arm of the family business I’ve overseen solely. This is mine.
“Very well,” he said, “I’ll have my recommendations for your new underboss and capos sent to you. Let me know what you think. Keep me up to date on your mysterious Cora.”
“She’s notmyCora,” I snarl, “she’s an ungrateful little bitch who killed Schmidt before we got everything we could out of him. I have my own plans for addressing this with her.”
“Whenyou finally catch her,” Giovanni says, laughing again as he hangs up.
“Laugh it up, asshole,” I grumble. I feel… off. Twitchy, my adrenaline is flowing and I’m turned on. So fucking turned on. Thinking of sweet little Cora taking out Schmidt and getting the hell out of town like one of our legendary Toscano assassins makes me hard. Whatever tender feelings I might have had for her have been smothered by an all-consuming need to fuck the hell out of her.
Picturing her gorgeous green eyes tear-filled again, but this time from choking on my cock makes me groan, moving into the bedroom at the back of the jet to feverishly unzip my pants and pull it out. Squeezing and stroking my shaft, I come in an embarrassingly short amount of time, the vision of Cora on her knees, hands pressed against my thighs as she swallows my come.
Resting my head against the door, I groan softly, grabbing a tissue. My bad girl likes to run? She has no idea how much I love the chase. No matter how clever and experienced Cora may be with disappearing, Iwillfind her. After a long discussion about killing people without permission, she’s going to get one hell of a spanking. The image of her round ass bright red with my handprint is already making my unreasonable cock rise again.
“Goddamnit,” I groan, “I’m not getting a moment of sleep tonight.”
Chapter Six
