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I let myself in my apartment, prepared to meet my father again or maybe a long-lost cousin or two who’d come to greet me with a shiv. But the place was as silent as a tomb.
My bed felt like another kind of cage. Sprawled on my back, my body aching, I stared up at the skylight and recalled how Carly’s face had looked reflected in the glass as she came. The beauty there as she’d squeezed me so fucking tight.
The prickle at the back of my neck kept me from sleeping for hours. I didn’t know what it meant. She was okay. Luke had told me right to my face they had her, and she was fine. If he’d been lying, I would’ve known. We’d grown up together, for fuck’s sake.
The prickle remained.
Eventually, exhaustion won out, until my ringing phone dragged me out from under. I pulled it to my ear without looking at the readout and waited.
“Carly didn’t come home last night.” Fox sounded out of breath, as if he’d been running. “She never texted, and she’s not answering her phone.”
I rolled over and punched my pillow. Did Dante have his head up his ass or what? Why wouldn’t they let her call home so her family wouldn’t worry? And how the hell was I supposed to clean up this mess?
“Goddammit, you better start talking to me.” I heard a door slam in the background, and he lowered his voice. “I wasn’t going to pressure you about this, because I figured it was her call—and yours—how you handled it. But that was before she fucking disappeared, Costas.”
The worry in his voice made me grit my teeth as I sat up and shoved a hand through my hair. I’d dropped into bed without a shower last night, and I couldn’t even imagine what all was caked on my skin. Not important.
I nearly deflected his comment, then decided to meet it head-on. If there had ever been a time to stand up and be a damn man, it was now. “She’s okay. I promise you. I’m sorry she didn’t get to notify you, but—”
“Is she with you? Put her on the phone. Now.”
“She’s not here, but I know where she is. She’s fine. I swear that I wouldn’t allow anything to happen to her.”
“Oh, really? I find that a little suspect, considering the circumstances. Seems to me like someone wasn’t thinking with their big head.”
I rubbed my tender jaw. Miracle he hadn’t broken it. “I understand you’re angry.”
“Understand this. I want her home by noon. If she doesn’t walk in this door under her own steam by then, you’ll be answering to me. And last night will be a preview to your funeral.” He clicked off.
So much for coming up with a plan to ensure she wouldn’t be in harm’s way for as long as possible.
Thanks, brother.
Sighing, I got out of bed and headed into the bathroom. I was on my way to the closet to grab some clothes when my phone went off again.
It wasn’t noon yet, for fuck’s sake.
One-handed, I pulled on a shirt, wincing all the while. With the other, I answered the call. Dante. Must’ve read my mind.
“Need you down here,” he said without preamble. “We have a situation.”
Immediately, I stopped moving and my skin iced over. “What kind of situation?”
“Just get down here.” He recited an address and hung up.
It took me almost half an hour to find the apparently abandoned bui
lding in the same district where a lot of the underground MMA fights were held. I parked in back near Dante’s oh-so-inconspicuous cream-colored Mercedes and jogged inside the building.
I just needed to see her.
“Back here.” Dante stood in the doorway of a small office. Judging from the vast space, what looked like oil spills on the floor, and vintage automotive signs on the wall, the place had clearly once been an autobody shop.
I crossed the floor to my brother. “Interesting location.”
“I do what I can. You look…not good,” he said, obviously inspecting my injuries. They didn’t look any better in the light of day.
Ignoring him, I followed him into the dimly lit office, frowning as I saw the knots around a pair of pale wrists at the back of a chair. A long trailing cloth was tied behind her head.
