Every single one. "Where was this? How long ago? Who has her? Are you fucking sure?"
My blood stops moving.
Andreas turns back to me. His phone is still to his ear, but his eyes are on mine. I've known this man for fifteen years. I've seen him in firefights, interrogations, and standing over bodies, and his face has never looked like this.
"It's Summer," he says.
I'm on my feet before the second word leaves his mouth. "What about her?"
"One of our men is working the Castellano gala right now." Andreas puts the phone on speaker and sets it on the lounger between us. "Summer has turned up.”
“What? Why is she there? Fuck.” The Castellanos are one of our biggest rivals. Victor Castellano, the man I've been at war with for three years over territory on the eastern seaboard. The man who lost twenty million dollars when I undercut his supply chain last summer. The man who has been looking for leverage against me ever since.
“With her brother and father.”
I stare at Andreas.
Fuck.
“But …” the man hesitates. “She doesn’t look right.”
“What do you mean?” My voice doesn't sound like mine.
"Her eyes are glazed, like she's been drugged. The men have her by the arms. They’ve just taken her through a side entrance, and she hasn't come back out. Something's wrong, sir."
“Thanks, Joe, you did good,” Andreas says, hanging up.
Storm didn't come to the island to save his sister, he came to collect her. He took her from me and delivered her to the oneman in the world who would pay the most to hurt me. Her family sold her,again.
Andreas hangs up the phone.
The silence that follows is deafening. For a second, I just stand there, swaying on my feet, the whiskey still burning in my veins. Then the words hit me like a sledgehammer to the chest.
Summer.
At the Castellano gala.
Drugged.
My blood turns to ice, then immediately to fire.
“Fuck.” I run my hands through my hair. “I’m going to fucking kill them all if they touch her. I’ll burn their motherfucking empire to the ground. This is war.” I grab the nearest bottle and hurl it across the pool deck. It shatters against the stone, glass exploding everywhere.
I’m going to kill him.
I’m going to kill all of them.
I turn to Andreas, eyes wild, chest heaving. “Get the plane ready, now. I want every man we have. I want weapons. I want blood. I don’t care what it costs. I’m burning that fucking gala to the ground tonight.”
Andreas doesn’t argue, he just nods once, already pulling out his phone.
“Kairo …”
“Don’t,” I snarl, cutting him off. “Don’t you fucking say it.”
I look out over the dark ocean, the same ocean that took her from me just one week ago.
I was supposed to protect her.
