We walked through a large dressing room full of vanities and racks of clothes and then headed down the hallway. Angelo peeled back a curtain and took a few steps back, his gun drawn and ready to fire.
A few seconds later, Stefan ran through the curtain past us. “Let’s go!”
We took off down the hall with two men trailing behind us. They fired several shots, which barely missed my ear. Angelo and Stefan ran out the door. They waited off to the side of a dumpster at the edge of the parking lot while I ducked beside a sports car for cover. The two men followed me, continuing to shoot.
I made it back to my car as another shot hit the fender. The three of us got into the car, and Stefan peeled out of the lot.
I gripped the back of his seat and realized he was bleeding. “You need a doctor.”
“I’m fine,” Stefan assured me. “Nothing a bottle of whiskey and a blow job can’t fix.”
I shook my head. “Suit yourself.”
Angelo glanced out the window. “They filmed the video at the club but weren’t holding the auction there.”
“We didn’t get a good enough look to know for sure,” I pointed out.
Stefan rolled down the window and hung his arm out the side. “Angelo is right. They lured us here to finish the job. Ava wasn’t at the club for long. I poked my head onto the stage before they caught me. They had four bachelor parties and a bunch of college kids. Not the kind of clientele who bid of women.”
“We have to find her,” I said with anger in my tone, not meant for my brothers.
“I’ll search every club he owns, break down every fucking door in this city,” Stefan bit out. “We’ll find our girl. And then we’ll kill that slimy piece of shit and everyone who helped him.”
ChapterNine
AVA
Iwoke up with a migraine from the drugs Johnny’s men put in my water. One minute, I was on stage and stripping for a bunch of degenerates. The next, they brought me into the back room at the club and drugged me.
They said the auction would end tomorrow. That gave the Luciano brothers less than twenty hours to find me. Although, I was losing track of time, unsure of where Johnny was keeping me.
I scanned the unfamiliar room.
White walls.
Bars on the windows.
Only a bed.
I pushed myself up from the mattress and let my legs dangle off the edge. A sliver of natural light filtered in through the white curtains. But you couldn’t miss the cage-like effect the bars on the windows provided.
This was worse than hell.
A literal prison.
I once thought my men caged me like a bird. Now, I could see how much freedom they allowed me, even when I was their captive.
Their pawn.
I wanted to kill Johnny Zabatino. Rip his eyeballs from his skull and shove them down his throat. That asshole humiliated me.
But I had no choice.
Strip or die.
At least now, I was wearing a T-shirt. A white V-neck with no bra and a pair of lace panties. A vast improvement from the last time I was conscious.
I shot up from the bed, ready to fight, and raised my fists when the door creaked open. It was a woman with long reddish brown hair and big blue eyes. She was pretty, her skin free of makeup.
