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He didn’t even know me, never even had me.
After five minutes, Dante climbed the few stairs to the right of the stage and strolled toward me with a crooked grin on his stupid face. He enjoyed every bit of my embarrassment, loved it when I squirmed. I was almost happy to leave him behind, but I was terrified of the monster who might replace him.
Dante stuck the cigar in his mouth and bit down on it. He touched my cheek with his free hand and caressed my skin. “Raven,” he said under his breath. “If you weren’t such a pain in my ass, I would’ve kept you. Such a beauty. The men in this room will pay a lot of money for you. So will the men watching on the other end of that camera.” He pointed to the cameraman and pulled the cigar from his mouth, blowing smoke in my face.
I hated the smell of cigars almost as much as I hated the sight of Dante.
“You will always be my Raven. M
aybe one day you will come back to me.”
“Not a chance. And we both know my name is not Raven so we can quit with the charade.” My anger shook through me, making it obvious I was trembling. Of course, my kidnapper noticed. His eyes roamed over my entire body, taking in every last bit of me in a skimpy white dress made from lace and silk.
My nipples were exposed through the lace top, leaving zero to the imagination. At least the hem almost covered my ass. Still, I was beyond humiliated.
My body was meant for Angelo and him alone. Not a group of nasty old men with too much money and time on their hands.
“I like games,” he growled next to my ear. “You’re fun to play with, but if what you told me is true, I have no use for you.”
“Don’t you think the men who are about to bid on me would like to know I’m going to be popping out a kid in nine months?”
He tilted my chin up with his hand until our eyes met. Smoke blew in my eyes, causing them to burn. “They don’t need to know that. I have a no return policy. Whoever buys you can deal with it however they see fit.”
I gasped at his comment. “No one is going near my child. You better kill me right now and get it over with. When it comes to protecting my family, I can be just as ruthless as you.”
He laughed, releasing his hold on my chin, his deep voice a loud rumble. “It’s a shame we couldn’t work something out. Lucky was sad to see you go. She liked you. Me… I couldn’t have cared less.”
“You planned to sell me from the start, didn’t you?”
He nodded. “You’re beautiful but not worth the hassle. Too many people are looking for you. I don’t have the time or the patience to deal with that shit.”
Our conversation ended with Dante walking away from me and toward the man with the camera. On a small table next to him, the man clicked the keyboard of a MacBook Air as he spoke to Dante. He was planning to stream the auction over the Internet. I’d heard of secret online auctions on the dark web, but I wasn’t sure if they were real until that night. And I was about to be the star in one of them.
I sucked in a deep breath and let it out, preparing myself for what was about to come next.
Chapter Eighteen
Angelo
Tony and Chase were ready and waiting for us at the entrance to Morelli Motors. They pulled back the high metal gate to the lot, allowing us enough room to enter before they secured the gate back in place. Like Sonny and me, my cousin Tony and his best friend were inseparable.
By the time Sonny parked, and we got out of the car, Tony and Chase were at our sides, escorting us into the garage. My uncle, Big Tony, owned the place before he went upstate to prison with Sonny’s dad. It was only a matter of time before Tony, and his crew found the same fate. I wasn’t far behind them. With all the shit I’d done to save Gia, it was only a matter of time before my past caught up with me.
Tony led us through the garage. The bays were occupied with cars on the lifts, the smell of grease and motor oil burning my nostrils. We cut through the small office Tony used in the daytime when he wanted to pretend he had a real job.
For the most part, Morelli Motors was a front to launder money, sell drugs, and move stolen cars. They did the occasional oil change or tune-up. Since most of the business was cash, it was easy for Tony to forge the receipts. Money came into Morelli Motors almost as fast as it went out.
The back door to the office emptied out into a large, open room. The space had couches arranged in a semicircle. A variety of tables, ranging from different shapes and sizes, were spread around the room. A pool table was on one side of the room, a foosball table in the other. Between the couches was an eighty-inch flat screen television hung on the wall.
The Broad Street Burnouts was one of the fastest racing crews on the East Coast of the United States. Tony and his guys could drive anything with wheels and steal anything with them for that matter. When it came to boosting cars, no crew was better. They helped my family move a lot of drugs and guns over state lines, and were smart enough to pull off the jobs.
A large part of why they were so good at their jobs was because of Maverick, shortened to Rick. He was the man we’d come to see. His real name was Teddy Bradshaw, but everyone knew him by his screen name, Maverick6996. Rick was a brilliant coder, genius hacker, and the smartest person I’d ever met. If anyone could find Gia, I had faith in Rick.
I sat on the couch next to Rick and handed over my cell phone. “Can you trace the IP address?”
He took the phone from my hand and nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
I cringed when Rick clicked on the link and saw Gia in a white dress that could easily pass as lingerie. Her nipples were a perfect shade of pink and poking through the thin lace top. She looked gorgeous, flawless as always. But she had lost some weight. Her cheeks were sunken, her skin was without its usual glow. The spark, which was once in her grayish-blue eyes, was gone.
