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“Mom?” I pressed the phone to my ear. “Are you alright?”
“No, we were taken. I don’t know what’s going—” Ice flooded my veins.
“Sienna!” Gemma’s cry drowned out my mother. “It’s the Snake. He—” My palms was slick with sweat, knuckles turning white as I gripped the phone.
Both of their voices cut off, a new one replacing them. This one was deeper, clearly using a voice changer. My eyes closed, my heart hammering in my chest. I already knew who it was before they spoke.
“Call off your guard dog, Sienna. And your family might just live.” And then the line went dead.
I froze, unable to breathe. I shouldn’t have been surprised that the Snake had found out where my mother and best friend had gone—they’d figured out everything else so far—but it did. Panic built in my chest, choking me. I didn’t doubt the Snake’s threat. I knew he would kill them just as they had my father, as they had Dante’s parents. My family’s life meant nothing to them. I should have done more to protect them. I should have sent them overseas to some backwater village where no one would find them.
And now, their lives were at stake because of me.
Frantic, I touched the earpiece again. “Dante? Answer. You need to come back. Now.”
Nothing. I hear absolutely nothing. Unable to wait for him to reply and terrified that something had already happened to him, I left the room. The security guards were back at their stations, looking bored.
“Killian?”
“Right here.”
“I need you to get these guards away from the door. Dante’s in trouble.”
“He told you to stay out of it.”
“What’s going on?” David’s voice trickled over the comms.
“Now is not the time,” I snapped. “Just fucking trust me.”
I could hear him sigh before the line went dead. Moments later, he appeared. I watched him talk to the guards out of the corner of my eye. It took a few seconds, but soon all three were rushing down the hall back to the worker’s corridors. I wasted no time in getting to the door. Slipping inside, I set out to find Dante, hoping he was still alive. Hoping they were all still alive.
28
DANTE
The back door opened into a short hall with offices lining the walls. There were four rooms in all, and I had no idea what I was looking for exactly. Choosing the first office, I stepped through the open doorway, eyes scanning the room. There wasn’t much in the small space; a desk, chair, and one set of shelves overflowing with files, papers, and everything else an auction house would need. Stepping towards the desk, I hesitantly began my search. For what? I had no idea. A sign? An identification card that would point me to the Snake?
The first held nothing but records of past legal auctions held here. I skimmed those files, trying to find anything that hinted at darker intentions. There was nothing. Moving on to the second office, I checked the door, making sure those guards wouldn’t surprise me. The second office held more records as well as a few transaction notes. I tossed the receipts I’d found in the doors atop the desk. Those were useless unless we wanted to track down the buyers. The third office was the same. Frustrated, I slammed the desk drawers shut, trying to take calming breaths.
I tried to ignore the feeling that I was wasting my time. Now was not the time for doubt. The Snake clearly wasn’t in here. No one was but me. But I didn’t want to just walk out of there empty-handed. If the Snake was working out of this auction house like I was starting to suspect, then there had to be something. This didn’t seem like the first time the Snake had held an event like this here. And we’d never figured out where the Snake was working from.
This could be the place. Why place guards in front of an office if the Snake didn’t work from here? It would make no sense to put security outside these doors otherwise. My gut told me I was right—this was the place. That this was where the Snake had been working from for the past few months, if not for the past year or so.
I couldn’t lose focus right now. Not when I was so sure there could be something here that could help us. We’d been here for over an hour now, and there was still no sign of the Snake. We’d been used as the bait, and they weren’t biting. Even still, I couldn’t lose hope that this would all have been for nothing. There had to be a reason why we came.
I stopped just outside the fourth, praying there would be something here. Anything we could use, so all of this hadn’t been a waste. So we didn’t lose again. Right away, I noticed this office was different. For one, there was a vivarium with one of the largest ball pythons I’d ever seen. Its brown and tan body could have been longer than I was tall if it had been stretched out. It was curled among the sepia-colored leaves and sand. Black eyes watched me as I moved closer, its tongue flicking out to taste the air. I’d never been a sign of snakes, but right now, I could kiss it.
If this wasn’t a sign that I had found the right office, then I didn’t know what was. It was too much of a coincidence that the Snake had been rumored to be here and, sure enough, there was a snake in a glass enclosure in one of the offices. I refused to believe it was just by chance—that it meant nothing. This was the sign I’d been looking for.
I stared down at the snake, moving closer. It didn’t move, barely acknowledging my existence. Its beady black eyes continued to watch me silently, taunting me. I wanted to put a bullet through its tiny ass brain. I wanted to leave a message.
But I couldn’t. If there was evidence here, I couldn’t let the Snake know that I’d found it.
Turning my back on the snake, I headed straight for the filing cabinet beside the desk. Jiggling the handles, I wasn’t surprised to find it locked. But that wouldn’t stop me. Anyone in this type of business would be smart enough to learn how to get into most locked things; desks, cabinets, doors. It had been one of the first things I’d learned under my father’s critical eye. Searching the desk, I found some paper clips that could help. Using one as the pick tool and one as the tension wrench, I turned them until I heard the first drawer click open.
Rows of files opened up before me, and I dug in, taking the first few out before rifling through them. Right away, I could tell they weren’t transaction receipts or auction logs. When I finally processed what I was reading, I nearly dropped the files. My heart raced, thudding against my chest, my pulse pounding in my ears. Each file contained enough evidence of every single hit against my family, the Rosania’s, and more that I hadn’t even heard of. It was all there, carefully documented, almost as if they were meant to be found. I couldn’t believe it. Flipping through the next few pages, I scoured each line, each sentence, devouring it all until I realized there was too much information for me to memorize on my own.
Taking out my phone, I snapped photos of the more important pages, making sure the pictures were clear. I couldn’t fuck this up. There was nothing on who the Snake was, but with these papers, we’d have all the proof we needed to justify any actions we took. No one could protest the Snake’s death if we have the evidence to condemn them. We would have our true reason for revenge that no one could argue with.
