“Lucien,” another voice suddenly says, breaking me out of my thoughts.
I whirl in my chair and look to the doorway, where I see another of my men.He’s been up all night, the shadows under his eyes dark bruises and the stubble on his chin unruly.He was there last night during the rescue, I realize, but I haven’t seen him since, and I wonder suddenly where he’s been.Why he hasn’t gone to bed yet.
For a moment, I don’t want to hear what he has to say.
“Speak,” I say, knowing I don’t have a choice.Because when you’re the head of a crew of men, you don’t get to take a day off.
Particularly when you’re about to go to war.
“I know you’re trying to get Brooks out, but we’ve had another development,” Pierre says, coming in quickly.
Right.Of course we have.
“And?”I snap.
He swallows, then takes a deep breath and carries on.“It’s your sister.She’s missing.I just got word.Myself and some of the team have been going through the footage from the house cameras, and she hasn’t been home in several days.”
My heart drops from my chest and to the floor in front of me, where it flops around like a fish for several seconds while my brain tries to catch up.Corinne?What the fuck does she have to do with anything?She’s missing?Where the fuck would she have gone, and when?Does my father know?Could she just be–
Then my worlds come crashing together and it all starts to make a horrible sort of sense.
Brooks is here because of a trafficking ring, and we’ve been racking that ring’s movement through the city for the last week.Earlier than that, actually, though that was before we had many details.Girls have gone missing from every section of the city–top-tier girls, from some of the highest echelons of society.Mafia daughters and sisters.The girls attached to crime syndicates.Politicians’ daughter and society girls.
Girls who should have security to watch over them.
We know where those girls are ending up.
Hell, we’re missing Boudreaux cousins and sisters already.I have a whole file of them.
And now Corinne is missing.Three days.She’s been gone for three days.
Oh my God.
I whirl back to the desk and hit the buttons to bring up security cameras across the city, then get to my feet and start pacing.“Daniel,” I say quietly.“Find her.Retrace the patterns we’ve seen.Look for the vans that have been taking girls.Go back three days and figure out where she was the last time anyone saw her.And look for that van following her when she left.”
Devil’s balls, I don’t want to even consider it, but I don’t know that I have much choice.Corinne fits the profile.She’s the daughter of the richest family in the city.
And Dom Landry hates my father.Probably hates me even more.
He has Brooks back, and now he might have taken Corinne.
And the anger rushing through my veins is so complete that I nearly can’t breathe with how it’s scorching my lungs.
“Lucien,” Daniel says, his voice cutting through the red haze over my eyes.
I look at him, knowing that I must look like a madman rather than a human, but he doesn’t back down.Instead, he cocks his head toward one of the laptops on the table and meets my eyes.
“They’re moving Brooks.”
I don’t hesitate.I grab my coat, my cane, and the Glock I left on the table the last time I was in here, and head for the door.
“Then we’re moving, too,” I say.
Because if they’re taking Brooks out of the mansion, it means we might have a chance to grab her.
And I need her back by my side.
We have work to do, and I’m already tired of this separation.I want her brain helping me figure things out and her smart mouth in a place where I can control it.I want her heat pressed against me and her eyes in front of me, telling me how much she wants me.
