We had the devil after us.My father.
And I’ve never forgotten it.It’s why I got here and changed my life.I worked hard to make the right friends and find us the security we needed.These days, I know how to take care of myself and get shit done without anyone else’s help.Lucien’s asking me to change that.
And I don’t know if I can.
Even if seeing him again makes me feel as though my heart’s breaking into a million pieces and he’s the only one who can put it back together.
“Something wrong?”Duca asks, starting at me with suspicion all over his face.
“No,” I snap too quickly.“What else do you have?”
He presses his lips together like he doesn’t believe me–fair–but I stare at him until he keeps talking, unwilling to give up my secrets.What would I say?My father promised me to a boy I already loved, and when I figured out it was all a scam, I ran for New York and never looked back?And that boy is in town now trying to make me move home, and my heart is half on his side?
I don’t think so.
“We’re wondering,” he finally continued, “if the Poffo and Massimo clans are running a new racket.”
I pause for a beat.“But we killed them all.”
He gives me a long look that says more than his words.“Did we?”
Shit.
“A kidnapping racket,” I say.It’s not a question.It’s a statement.
Because I already know what those look like.I’ve been in the middle of one.And I was beaten nearly to death for discovering it.
“A kidnapping racket,” he agrees quickly.“And not only here.My contacts tell me girls are disappearing in other cities as well.Las Vegas.Atlanta.Boston.New Orleans.Aislyn, if she’s a victim, isn’t the first.They’re pulling from some of the biggest families.Even the Landry and Boudreaux clans down in New Orleans, and we all know how crazy you’d have to be to mess with them.But this time, they’ve pulled someone from one of the biggest families in New York.No one wants to let it stand.But no one knows where to start.”
I’m up and moving before he finishes speaking, because my nerves won’t let me sit there any longer.I toss a thanks over my shoulder to a confused Duca and then wind my way quickly through the crowded bar.Girls see me coming and get out of the way, their high heels slipping on the deep black floor.Men in suits take one look at me and scowl like they want to say something, but then decide it’s not worth it.
Smart, I think.
Because the Glock in my shoulder holster and the blade in my pocket are the only answers they’d get.
I was hoping Duca had the information I need, but I hadn’t realized how much he was going to give me.It’s not just New York.It’s every city where the mafia has a foothold.
Including New Orleans.
And they’re taking girls who should be safe, from families who should be able to protect them.
Including my family.
I almost laugh at how Duca said it.The Landry and Boudreaux clans, like they’re people I’ve never heard of.Names I might not even know.He doesn’t realize who I am.No one here knows that I’m the Landry heiress, hiding in plain sight on the streets of New York and masquerading as nothing more than Brooks Peterson.
We hid up here so my father couldn’t find us, and changed our name so no one would turn us in.
But now that I know pieces of what’s going on–now that I know Aislyn isn’t the only girl who disappeared–I feel my Landry blood rising to the surface once again.That deep, dark rebel who never really died down.The girl who, at thirteen, tried to save a group of victims before she knew what she was doing.
I couldn’t save them then.But if that shit is still going on, I’m not going to stay in New York and hide from it.
This time, I’m going to stop it.
I just need to see proof that it is what I think it is.
I storm into the elevator and shoot a venomous look at the other inhabitants.They scatter through the doors like I’ve just held a gun to their head, and I grin to myself.Then I get to thinking about my next step.I told Sloane I’d find her cousin, and if Aislyn has fallen into the hands of traffickers, I’m pretty sure I know exactly where to start.
New Orleans has been a port rife with human trafficking since before the Civil War.If I was going to start smuggling people, that’s the first place I’d go.
