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Alex’s lips parted to speak, but before she could get out another word, she lost her balance. Her mother’s arm shot out to catch her. She passed her to the men beside her. “Get her in the car.”
One man lifted Alex and left the library through the secret passage. The other followed him with his gun in hand. How could they have known how long we would be in the vault? She’d only brought three men with her. Had I not stopped to get the crown, the five of us would have been together. There was no way they would have subdued all of us.
“Fuck,” I groaned. “This is my fault. I shouldn’t have deviated from our plan.”
Savanna flicked her hair over her shoulder and leaned into a man in his late forties that wasn’t her husband. He had dark hair, dressed in a tailored black suit. She kissed his lips and then dragged him by the hand to the exit door. The bookcase closed over the passage, and they were gone.
Marcello scanned the cameras in the catacombs. Without looking, I knew how they got in and out of our estate. As the only daughter of a Founder, Savanna was privy to the secret passages, which connected all the estates on Founders Way.
They were supposed to be used in emergencies to help each other. The Wellingtons had taken a lot from my family.
Savanna most of all.
My blood boiled as I watched Marcello check each of the security feeds. They ran down the beach behind the man who carried a passed out Alex. Then they got into a boat at the far end of the beach, on the other side of the bay.
I gritted my teeth, fists clenched at my sides. “She’s fucking dead when I find her.”
Marcello grunted in agreement. “Savanna thinks she outsmarted us.” He shoved the phone into his pocket. “She doesn’t know Alex is wearing the Salvatore diamond.”
“We can track her.” I tapped him on the back. “Wake up Damian and Bash.” With my back to him, I moved toward the exit doors. “Tell Drake to track Alex’s location while I prepare the Knights for deployment.”
Pacing back and forth across the helipad, I gritted my teeth. How could I let them take her? It was my job as the head of security to see the flaws in every plan, to assess every situation. So far, our enemies had outmaneuvered us at every turn.
We couldn’t plan anymore, not with most of the men from the criminal underworld vying for the bounty. Those who knew about the Wellington dowry also wanted Alex to claim the prize. The thought of Alex marrying another man, even if it wasn’t a real wedding, made my stomach turn.
Alex was gone.
Her mother had conspired with our enemies to steal her from us. I hadn’t seen this coming. Not even Luca had anticipated Savanna Wellington coming out of left field and throwing us a curveball.
I was losing my mind.
For the first time in my life, I felt completely out of control. I was always the calm brother, even when tested to the limits. Like a diamond, I would never crack under the pressure. Years of training with Alpha Command had prepared me for anything. But I’d never considered the possibility of losing Alex.
I failed her.
Failed my family.
Knowing I had put Alex in this situation made every sensible part of my brain shut down. Without Alex here to level me out, I was ready to explode from all the rage bubbling inside me.
Luca cupped my shoulder, snapping my attention back to reality. “We’ll find her. Give it time.”
“They will sell her to the highest bidder.”
“Savanna wants the bounty,” Luca said with certainty. “She’ll hand Alex off and go on her way.”
“I know what Savanna wants.” I shoved his hand off my shoulder, not wanting to be touched. “It’s the people she’s working with that are a wild card.”
“If they want the bounty, they have to keep her alive until the auction.”
“We don’t know the motivations of the people she’s working with,” I said with a hint of anger in my tone, not meant for my brother. “What if this is about revenge? What if the person who bought her only wanted to torture and kill her to hurt us?”
The sickos in our world never kept women alive for long. They either hurt them so badly they died from their injuries or put them out of their misery. The organizers of the private auctions didn’t reveal the identities of the buyers. So we had one option—find Alex before they moved her to theIl Circolocation.
My fingers itched as I waited for a text message with the details. They didn’t hold auctions in the same place more than once, making it harder for us to anticipate their next move. All the Knights had placed bids that would give us the location of the auction.
“Don’t blame yourself for this, Marcello. None of us saw Savanna coming.” Luca leaned into my arm, throwing some of his weight into me. “I spoke with Carl. He forced Savanna to hand over her key when he disowned her thirty years ago.” He rolled his shoulders, a perplexed expression on his face. “I don’t know how she did it, but I guess she made a copy of the key.”
You couldn’t walk into a hardware store and have the skeleton key reproduced. She must have found someone who specialized in the art of key making. Someone who could create a mold and melt down the brass to form the correct shape.
