Archer Petrov’s voice came across the line, and never before had I been more than relieved to hear the hacker and mercenary’s tone. Though not quite what I would consider a friend, Archer was a damn good contact to have and if he couldn’t help me find my bride, he’d know someone who could. “I’ve got a bead on your girl,” he said. “Caught her face on CCTVs a little over an hour ago in Danover.”
Danover. The small city popped into my head. It was only a few hours from the Price Mansion. How fast she moved. A small part of me was proud. Another much larger part was enraged that she managed to get so far so quickly.
“Belmonte.” I lifted my head as Raff called my name. The older man met my gaze with a stern look of his own. “You got something?”
I nodded. “I do,” I said.
His face hardened and he looked away towards the men in the room with a sneer of disgust. A moment passed and then he returned his attention to me. “You have twenty-four hours,” he finally said. “I won’t ask any fucking questions. All I ask is that you bring her back within that time frame. As she’s to be your wife, I understand a man such as yourself needs time to … clear the air with her. No more than that, though. I want my daughter home.”
I understood what he didn’t say. He knew what kind of man I was. Hell, he was the same. Men like us craved control in every aspect of our lives. He knew what kind of leeway he was givingme. He was old school and that meant that his ideals were old school. Raff might have given his daughters the liberty to learn of modern customs, but at his core, he was still the same man who had said fuck it to the Prezzo ancestors and married an American woman. It hadn’t just been because of her beauty, but because of her submission.
Angel would learn, too, that submitting to me would make her happy. Everything I did would, inevitably, lead her to happiness. At my side. At my feet. Taking my cock in her tight little throat.
“Yes, sir.” I gritted the words out and then swung away as I put the phone back to my ear. “I want fucking details, Petrov,” I growled into the receiver. “I want to know the time and exactly where she is.”
“According to the CCTV footage,” the man replied, “Evangeline Price is still in Danover. She wasn’t as easy to find as I anticipated. She was clever. After the withdrawal a few miles outside of the Price Mansion, she’s been using cash.”
“Do you have eyes on her right now?” I demanded.
Silence met my question, and that itself was an answer. “Shit.” I hissed the curse as I took the stairs two at a time until I reached the foyer. I bypassed Jackie whose gaze was locked on me. Whether she wanted her sister gone or not would have to be a problem to solve later.
I snatched the keys out of the hand of the man coming in the door, ignoring his call of surprise. I hit the button on the fob and followed the sound to the row of black sedans along the side of the entryway.
“There’s another guy I can call,” Archer said. “Goes by Hadrian—he’s a better hacker than me. He could probably?—”
“I know the man,” I cut him off. “I’ll call him. Send the coordinates you have to my personal cell.” With that, I hung up and popped the respective sedan’s driver’s side door open.
Shoving the key into the ignition, I twisted and reversed out of the spot, sending a spray of gravel flying behind the wheels. A moment later, my phone beeped, and when I bluetoothed it into the sedan’s system, a GPS screen appeared. Three hours to Danover. I’d make it there in half the time, I knew. My foot pressed down harder on the gas as I dialed a new number—one that I knew wouldn’t exactly be receptive to my attention.
Unlike Archer, Hadrian answered much later. “What the hell do you want, Belmonte?”
I wanted a pretty little brat over my fucking knee as I pounded her ass red with the flat of my palm. I wanted her on her knees between my legs; her lips stretched tight around the base of my cock as she showed me just how remorseful she was for disobeying me. I wanted a fuck of a lot of things, but from him, Ineededmore.
“I have a missing woman,” I stated. “Evangeline Price. Last known location was Danover, New York.”
A beat of silence passed, and then, “Evangeline Price? As in of the Price Empire?” Hadrian’s curiosity was clear in his tone and likely the only reason he’d picked up my call. God knew that he and his partner and their shared wife wanted very little to do with me. They weren’t enemies, but they certainly hadn’t appreciated my own part in bringing the three of them together. It didn’t matter that I’d been acting as a proxy. I’d been the face of the man who had threatened the three of them. To them, I was a liability.
I didn’t care about any of that. I’d owe them a favor if he managed to help me, and I’d repay that favor in blood if they so requested. “Yes,” I cut the word out. “The very same. I need you to find her. I need you to hack more than the CCTVs. Private computers, cars, anything you can to get a bead on her.”
“Hmmm.” Hadrian hummed in the back of his throat as I sped out of the Price Mansion’s gates and down the long windingroad toward Danover. “Let me get this straight,” he said. “You want me to help you? Hack into the privacy of an untold number of American citizens all for … a mafia princess?”
Biting down on my tongue, tasting blood in my mouth, I spoke the truth. It was a rare occurrence but lies wouldn’t help me here. “She’s my fiancée,” I said.
A bark of laughter met that comment. “No shit!” Hadrian chuckled. “You? Married? Never thought I’d see it happen.”
I repressed the urge to crush the steering wheel beneath my grip. “Can you do it?” I demanded.
“Oh, I can do it,” Hadrian replied. “You do understand, though, that this means you’ll owe me, right?”
“I’ll be at your disposal,” I reply. “Ifyou can find her and bring me to her location, I’ll kill whoever you ask.”
Hadrian continued to chuckle as the sound of movement echoed from the other side. Fingers clicked across a keyboard. “I assume you’re on the way to Danover now?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “How far out are you?”
“Less than two hours,” I replied.
“I’ll call you back in an hour,” he said. “I’ll have more information then.”
With that, he hung up and I was left with my thoughts. As I drove, I found myself refocusing on Angel and what her punishment would be.
