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He nodded grimly, his nostrils flaring as he sipped the whiskey and set the glass down sharply. His suit was crinkled, disheveled, as if he hadn’t been able to keep still on his journey to Chicago. I wouldn't have understood only a few days ago, but now I understood very well. The thought of Sadie engaged to another man, even an arranged marriage to a man she neither wanted nor loved, well, I'd be ready to tear him limb from limb.
Even if he hadn't seen her since she'd been a child.
Rafe nodded, glancing at the man who he'd trained and harbored in his territory while he waited out his time. Made alliances. Built up his own ranks. "We have less time than we anticipated."
"Your father will still lend his support for both of our wars? What does he expect in return?" I asked Rafe as I sat. His olive skin gleamed as his lips split into a blinding grin, and he and Calix exchanged a knowing glance.
"Matteo did not tell you? My father passed years ago. I am the Ibarra legacy now." Rafael's unusual stare dared me to ask the question. The last I'd known, Miguel Ibarra had been alive and well. Healthy.
"Was he sick?" I asked, my throat working to swallow around the bile that crept up at the dark look in his bright eyes as he studied me in amusement.
"Did Matteo ever tell you the story of how my mother died?" Rafe asked, instead of answering. Unlike Calix's suit, his was perfectly pressed and fitted to him like a second skin. He strolled around the office and eyed the names on the wall. "My father belonged in the Spanish Inquisition. He was, for lack of a better word, insane with his beliefs. His marriage to my mother was arranged, but he hated her because he thought her light eyes a trait of her witchcraft," Rafe scoffed. "So naturally, he had her burned at the stake once she stopped being useful, and he determined her to be barren after she never gave him another child after me."
"Christ," I muttered, scrubbing a palm over my face. That was a whole new level of fucked up and considering the shit I'd seen, well... fuck.
"I was seven at the time. I never forgot the sounds of her screams. I sleep much better now that my dreams are filled with his instead." Calix chuckled at Rafe’s words, tipping his lips up comically in a move so unlike the usual somber man that I studied him intently.
He was drunk off his ass. He gave me jazz fingers, his mouth making a whooshing sound to indicate Miguel had been burned alive. I couldn't say that I blamed Rafe for that crime, given I would probably do the same to avenge my mother.
"How many men have you brought?" I asked, changing the conversation and moving around the desk to study the names alongside him. Spinning suddenly to stare at the door as Dom appeared, his breath wheezing in and out of his chest, I gripped the cabinet that held my liquor.
"She's gone," he gasped. Ice filled my veins as my body froze solid. Black threatened to overtake my vision, the monster lurking beneath the surface threatening to destroy everything in its path until I had her in my arms again.
"What the fuck do you mean she's gone? You were supposed to be watching her!" I roared, getting into his face. With only inches separating us, he swallowed nervously. Seeming to realize just how monumentally he'd fucked up.
"I swear, I must have looked away for a few seconds. I've looked everywhere, Enzo. She's not here."
“Is Rebel here?” I asked, looking for the dog I felt certain Sadie wouldn’t leave behind. His confused stare brought a growl from my chest. “The dog!”
“No. The dog is gone too,” Dom admitted, backing away slowly.
"Who is missing?" Rafe asked, glancing back and forth between us. His fingers twitched at his sides, itching for the violence he could smell. Monsters smelled blood on the horizons, and even with only rumors and phone calls between us, I knew Rafe was one of the worst monsters there was.
Violence clung to him like his suit, the need to kill and maim as much a part of him as his creepy ass eyes.
"My woman," I answered. "Murphy targeted her, so she's been under Bellandi protection. It would be safe to say she's not happy about it." I shoved Dom out of my way, making for the stairs and my car. “I’ll deal with you later,” I warned him as I shouldered past.
"Call Matteo!" I called out to Dom, watching as Rafe and Calix followed me out of my office. Rafe barked orders at Calix, striding after me. Out the front doors, I made a beeline for my SUV. I didn't even blink as Rafe climbed in the passenger seat. My entire world narrowed down on finding Sadie before someone else did.
Another man I had to assume was his personal protection got in the backseat just before I hit the gas and pulled out of the parking spot.
She'd be lucky if I didn't strangle her myself when I got my hands on her.
Pulling up into the gym parking lot, I shoved my door open and raced inside without a care for what Rafe might do. The front doors flung open in my desperation to find her, but one look at Beth's shocked face and I knew without a doubt that Sadie hadn't come here. She was too smart for that, knew damn well it would be the first place I looked for her.
Spinning, I watched through the front windows as Rafe climbed from the SUV slowly, his eyes on something across the road. I hurried out the doors towards him. It had to be Sadie. Maybe he'd done more surveillance on us than I realized. And he recognized her but wouldn't make a move for fear of frightening her.
But it wasn't Sadie who commanded his attention.
The girl across the street couldn't have been over eighteen, fresh faced and smiling up at her much taller friend with the innocent smile of a child who'd had a safe life. Rafe's eyes never left her as I approached, setting a firm hand on his shoulder to draw him out of his stunned stare. Even from across the way, her deep chocolate hair shone with notes of cherry undertones in the sunlight. Her skin was a bronzed olive, contrasting her sage eyes so vividly as she turned her face to stare at us across the street.
Something was wrong with her left eye, the coloring off like she'd burst blood vessels or something, but that didn't stop Rafe from holding her eyes without shame as she studied him. Her chest rose and fell, assessing the predator lurking across the road. I wondered if she realized what kind of monster watched her.
If she knew how much danger she was in.
Her friend nudged her, hissing something to her, and the girls turned and made their way into the restaurant behind them. "Come on. She isn't here." I said, making my way to the SUV as my frustration built. I’d leave him standing on the side of the road if I had to. "Rafe!"
He turned to his man, nodding to him. "Follow her. I want her name," he growled. His security looked like he might argue, but one stern glare from Rafe was all it took to send the man scurrying across the street.
