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Nico
“Did you find anything?” I bark at Tony, an FBI agent on my payroll. I am paying him a shit ton of money to find Ocean or Emilee or whatever the fuck name she goes by now. So far, he has come up empty. My jaw clenches, impatience surging through me, because I know he isn’t here to give me the answers I want.
Confirming what I already know, he shakes his head. “Not yet. The bus she boarded out of the city took her to Washington and after that… nothing. She is a ghost. She is used to running Nico, knows how to hide. I am doing all that I can, and have several men working on it, but it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. Don’t be surprised if you never find her,” he says nonchalantly, as if he is talking about some random girl. She isn’t. Not even close. And it’s about time he realizes it.
My eye twitches, fists flex. Without even thinking about what I am doing, I am up, out of my chair, my hand wrapping around his neck before I can stop myself. I lean in, so close my nose almost touches his. His face turns red, and I watch as beads of sweat form on his forehead. “I don’t care if it takes youyearsor if you have to search every inch of this god damn country. The fucking planet. You will find her. I want her back, so you better fucking find her Tony. You won’t like the consequences if you let me down.” I growl in his face.
His eyes bulge in shock and I let him go, pushing him away. He sucks in a breath when his hands come up to his neck, rubbing the area I just held. His gaze comes to mine. Though he tries to hide it, I see the fear staring back at me. He knows I’m not playing. “Is that a threat, Nico?” he splutters out.
I drop back down in my chair. “No. It’s a fucking promise. Now get your ass out of my office and stay out of my club until you find my girl.” I expect him to do just that, but the fucker must have a death wish because he doesn’t let it go.
“You can’t threaten me, Nico. You may have power in this city, but I am an FBI agent. One that knows about many of the skeletons in your closet. One word from me and I can have you locked up within the hour,” he shouts, slamming his meaty fist down on my desk.
My eyes narrow in on the brave – or stupid – asshole. A smirk curves my lips, my brow cocking arrogantly. “And I doubt your bosses would be happy to know that you are taking huge sums of money from a Marchetti, Tony. Or the othermanytransgressions you have against you. I may have skeletons in my closest, but I don’t hide who I am. I don’t pretend to be a good man. You, though? You play both sides of the coin, pretending to be an upstanding man, who abides by the law, when you are anything but.” His face pales and I know I have him. I grin triumphantly. “Now go and do the job I am paying you for. You have had nearly a year to get me something, to find her, and have so far come up with nothing. I am giving you a week to get me the information I want. If you fail, you better pray that I never see your face again.”
His mouth drops open, and he stares at me like I’ve lost my mind. Maybe I have. Ever since Papà’s funeral over a year ago, it’s been nothing but shit after shit. If it’s not the war with the Bratva, it’s the Romanos and the pressure they are trying to put on me regarding the arrangement with my sister. Papà went ahead and signed the contract without me knowing. Though he is dead, the Romanos insist that the agreement remain. I have been working around the clock, trying to find a way out of it for Allegra, but keep coming up empty. The Romanos want their wedding, and so far all I have managed to do is convince them to push it back until she is twenty. I will find a way out for her. Of course, I will. I just need more time.
“I can’t promise anything, Nico.” He stands, his voice solemn as he buttons up his suit jacket.
“You can and you will. Somebody, somewhere, knows something. You are not looking hard enough. Have a man in every state, every town for all I care, with their eyes fucking open. I want the girl back.” My tone is threatening, leaving no room for argument.
He huffs out a laugh, shaking his head. He is trying to act brave again. Act being the operative word. “What is it about this one? Surely, you can have any woman you want in this city. Pick one of them. Hell, what about your ex-fiancée. She is fucking hot.” He whistles low, making my blood boil. Not because I’m jealous, but because the mention of Gianna makes me see red. She is the reason for Ocean running – well her and my papà.
I was informed about exactly what Papà told Ocean that day and how he had great pleasure in telling her all about my little fiancée. Truth is, I would have gone through with the wedding had Papà still been here. I had a duty to thefamiglia,one I would have upheld. I also had no plans of letting Ocean go and would have kept her forever. Oblivious and in the dark about everything. It was a shitty thing of me to do, but I never pretended to be a saint. The moment I got in her virgin cunt, she was mine. And she will be mine forever. This little disappearing act of hers will come to an end, I can promise that. If I have to search every corner and burn the world down in the process, I will, but she will be mine again.
The fact that she has managed to elude me this long is a miracle, but it also tells me that she is smart. Knows exactly what she is doing when it comes to shit like this. I don’t need Tony to tell me this. It plays in my mind on a fucking loop every day she is missing. I snort. She probably thinks that she is safe, that I have given up by now. But I will never ever stop in my pursuit of her. Will never stop searching. Never. It’s only a matter of time before she is in my arms again, begging for mercy from a man that gives none. I smirk, only for it to drop.
What if she has allowed another man to be inside of her? My jaw clenches, pure anger rippling through my body at just the thought of another man touching her. She better fucking not have. And if she is stupid enough to have let some other asshole intomycunt, I will kill him, then fuck her over his corpse, in his blood, just to show her who she belongs to. Who she will always belong to.
“I’m going to go. I will contact you if I find anything,” Tony says, dragging me from my thoughts.
“You have a week.” I glower my warning at him, hoping it conveys just how serious I am.
He sighs, his lips forming a tight line before he turns and leaves my office.
“Well, that went as well as expected.” My head snaps to Dante, who is lounging on the couch against the wall. The grimace on his face tells me he isn’t impressed with how I handled the meeting with Tony, but fuck my best friend. I’m sure he would be acting the same if it were Allegra missing.
“Fuck off.”
He chuckles, leaning forward and dropping his elbows to his knees as he sighs. “Nic, I’m worried about you. This obsession is getting out of hand. Have you ever thought that maybe she doesn’t want to be found? Ever thought that she has moved on with her life and maybe you should do the same?”
My jaw tics, as I glower at him. Best friend or not, I will fucking kill him for suggesting such a thing. I will not move on. Neither will Ocean. There is only her and me and no one else.
A sardonic smirk tips my lips as a thought comes to me. Leaning back in my chair, I speak, with a smug tone. “Is that what you would do if the marriage contract with Allegra and the Romanos goes ahead?”
His whole body stiffens as he pins me with a look so deadly, it would make any other man cower. Not me. “Fuck you, Nico. It’s different and you know it. You don’t want that wedding to happen just as much as I don’t. You’ve heard the rumors surrounding Riccardo when it comes to women. The man is a sick bastard and would break her within a couple weeks if you forced her to marry him.”
Exhaling a breath, I run a hand down my face, thinking about the stories I have heard about Riccardo and how my papà could have agreed to such a match. He would have heard the same things, so why did he agree to it? I’m missing something when it comes to this whole thing. “See how passionate you got then? How angry?” I ask, but it’s rhetorical. “That’s how I feel about Ocean. She is mine. When it comes to what is mine, don’t get involved,” I warn.
Dante stares at me for a long beat, no doubt debating whether he should respond. He shouldn’t, but he will. He shakes his head. “She lied to you, Nic. Ocean is not even her real name. Her family…” he trails off, blowing out a breath before he continues. “They are prominent and still looking for her. Like you, she was meant to marry a man oftheirchoosing. She was promised to Xavier Anderson. Was to marry him when she turned eighteen. It’s why she ran in the first place.”
Possession heats my blood at the reminder of all we have found out since we started looking intoEmilee Ocean Caldwell. From Seattle, her family are affluent and revered. Residing in one of the richest parts of the city, Broadmoor. Her father is a very wealthy businessman, her mother a former Miss USA, and she has one brother. From the outside they are the picture-perfect blonde haired, blue-eyed, all-American family. But like anything that looks perfect and unflawed, you just know there are going to be skeletons lurking somewhere in their closets. And I was going to find every single one.
I had Tony look into the family, and he found out some very interesting information. Like Dante just said, Tony confirmed that Samuel Caldwell, Ocean’s father, had sold his only daughter off to the highest bidder. In this case, it was the mayor’s son, Xavier Anderson. Ocean was to marry him when she turned eighteen, uniting their families and giving both the Caldwells and Andersons even more money and power than they already hold. My jaw twitches as I’m reminded that she was barely legal when I fucked her. In fact, she had only just turned eighteen two weeks before I stuck my cock into her. So not only did she lie about her name, but she also lied about her age, and was underage while working in my club. Had the Feds caught wind of that, the whole place could have been shut down. That or it would have cost me a hefty bribe. Christ. All the shit she has caused and yet I still want the lying littleTesoro.
Eyeing him, determination laces my voice when I speak. “I won’t stop, Dante. Ocean is mine, whether she likes it or not.”
Chapter3
