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“What?”
“I know where Brandon is. It’s not what you think.” He handed me his phone, allowing me to see what he’d found for myself.
After reading it twice, I felt the heavy weight of guilt, anger, and sadness on my shoulders. “You’re certain?”
“Yeah, I’m certain. It doesn’t look good.”
I closed my eyes, trying to collect myself. In the span of a few days, I’d lost my house, had placed the woman I cared about deeply in jeopardy. And now I realized the lengths my brother would go to and the ramifications of doing so. Now I was goingto lose my best friend. Fuck, no. None of this was going to happen. I’d bring the wrath of God down on Alturo.
I heard a ping of a text and hissed. When I pulled it into my hand, that was the moment all time stopped, the single sentence sending ice into my veins.
Now I have what’s most important to you in my collection…
Vicious intentions.
There were countless reasons the phrase had entered my mind so many times. I remained bloodthirsty and had for the two hours since arriving back at my empty condo, finding Sadie limping with her leash still attached. I’d found an emergency vet who for a horrific sum of money had come and checked to see what the bastards had done to her.
Thank God, my furry baby would be fine, only internal bruising. The same couldn’t be said for the love of my life, the woman who’d turned my world upside down. She was missing. I stood staring at the wall where the red wine remained in dried strings like blood. I’d swept up the broken pieces but had yet to be able to come to terms with the fact she’d been taken from under my nose.
While Sante had plans on finding out if the local police were involved in any way, my thoughts were far more… vicious. I would hunt down the person responsible and they would die. Not only would they be killed, I’d enjoy ripping off one finger after another, moving to their arms and legs until I finally guttedthem. I was enraged and nothing and no one could stop me, including my fucking brother.
“Drink this,” Arman said as he handed me a glass of amber liquid.
“Why? Do you really think it’s going to calm my nerves or help me find the woman I abandoned, the one who was betrayed by my. Entire. Family?” I’d raised my voice, the tone and volume just enough everyone in the room stopped talking, waiting to see what I’d do. I had vile, evil thoughts running through my mind. I wanted to take out my anger on my brother, even if Rocco had helped try to allow me to understand the reasoning behind what Arman had done.
I still couldn’t fathom why I hadn’t been told about the connection or why he’d refused to allow me to handle the situation.
“Look,” he said then moved ahead of me, turning around so I’d be forced to look into his eyes. “I know you’re pissed but you’re a smart man, sometimes I think far more intelligent than your big brother here. Even if I’d told you about learning who Margaret’s family was, do you honestly think you could have taken her life yourself?”
“Does that really matter any longer?” I lifted my head, glaring him in the eyes. He wasn’t to blame. Somewhere inside I knew that, but the moment the Alturo name was mentioned, he should have come clean. The fucking moment. That’s what I was angry about.
“Yeah, it should. You’ve never hurt a woman in your life.”
“And you haven’t either, brother. You sent Maddox and his merry men to annihilate her. Right?”
His jaw clenched before he threw back whatever drink he’d made for himself. “Fine. You’re right, but the order made was necessary and you know it. It was all about business, which she’d attempted to destroy.”
“Business. That’s all you ever think about.”
“Bullshit and you know it. Raven means everything to me and if the situation were reversed, I’d have been angry as well. You love Delaney. I know it. Hell, I doubt there’s anyone in Key West who hasn’t figured that out, including the fucking reporters.”
I’d caught a portion of the eleven o’clock news. I’d seen the feeding frenzy as I’d anticipated. I also noted how a couple of the stations had paid more attention to the woman I’d been with during the arrest, tracking down her entire life and placing it front and center. There wasn’t a person in the goddamn country who hadn’t figured out we were involved. That now included her father. My gut told me that.
“What happened at the race?” I asked, trying to avoid the subject. Rocco was still hounding informants, trying to get a lead on the original assassin who’d ended the roommate’s life. I had a feeling he was in town. If what Delaney had seen inside my burned-out house was correct, he’d been given the task of tracking and capturing her, which was the reason she hadn’t been killed in the first place. Arturo wasn’t allowing a single angle to go by without using it against my family.
Arman included.
Game. Set. Match.
But I was going to be the one who ended it.
“A distant fifth, but the stands were full.”
I almost laughed. The fact he actually knew the answer meant he did give a damn about our corporate expansion. “Well, maybe we can improve. If that Italian driver is worth his weight.”
“Maybe. We’ll find her, bro. Somehow, we’ll find her.”
Sadie limped toward me and I crouched down, wrapping my arms around her. The pup smelled like her, the sweet yet exotic fragrance one of my favorites. As Sadie whimpered, pulling back to lick my face, I could sense she knew exactly what was going on. “We’ll find her, baby girl. I promise you.”
