My cell was at my ear before I’d even gotten out of the house. I kept my voice low. ‘Jade, it’s Enzo. I need you to tell me where Sera is, and I need you to do it right fucking now.’
She wouldn’t tell me shit. Not even when I promised her a very large cash gift for handing over the information. I was told if Sera wanted to see me again, she would let me know herself. I had to admire her loyalty, and I would hope that she would show the same to me if the occasion ever arose. But that didn’t help me right now.
A tingling ribbon of fear snaked its way through me, and I didn’t understand why. It made no sense. I barely knew the girl. Running on autopilot, I climbed into the SUV and took off toward the strip club Luca owned to collect the cash and order more security for the bullshit reason I gave him. He didn’t make it a habit to check the security videos. I was the one who did that, so I should be safe there. I ignored the twinge of guilt I felt for lying to my friend and picked up my cell to call my tracker.
After making it clear that he would be the next one to disappear if he breathed a word of this to anyone, anyone at all, I gave him Sera’s first and last name, appearance, age, and last known location.
Fifteen minutes later, my phone rang. There was no record of a Serafina Cordaro anywhere in the area. No apartment rental records or credit card charges. That made sense. Working as an escort, she most likely got paid in cash, so there’d be no bank or credit accounts in her name. Not if she was smart.
I smiled to myself, thanked him for his time, and ended the call. The escort business. That was it. There was an upscale club where Jade and other high-end escorts brought their dates. Kind of a if you know, you know, kind of place. Nothing official. But it was in Luca’s territory. As a matter of fact, Jade had me meet her there the first time I’d hired her. She’d told me she and the other girls, or guys, often met new clients there as it was a public place and very discreet. If Sera was getting into the business, chances were, I would find her there.
Eventually.
Red hot rage flared inside of me, heating my blood until my hands gripped the wheel and my knuckles turned white. The same rage I’d been fighting since the night she ran off. It made no sense. I’d only known the girl a total of a few hours. I’d hardly spoken to her and hadn’t so much as kissed her. And yet, in that time, she’d managed to crawl under my skin and nest within the empty cavity of my chest like she fucking belonged there.
Or maybe I was just bored with Jade and all of the other women I met who were either as cold and polished as marble or who thought being the wife of a mafia man would be easy. Nothing but days of shopping and gossiping with the other wives while being draped in furs and jewels. Women who only cared about the money. And Sera was something different. Something fresh and new that hadn’t been hardened by the business yet. And this urgency I felt to get to her was because I didn’t want her to disappear before I’d had a taste.
It took me over two hours to finish my business with Luca’s strip club because of an issue with the liquor shipment. By the time I got out of there, a strange sense of dread was making my skin itch. I’d wanted to arrive early to catch Sera before she went into work. If, in fact, that was where she would be. If not, then my plan was to ask everyone at the club about her until I found someone who wasn’t as loyal as Jade. I just needed an address, a phone number, anything. Just some way of getting in contact with her. I needed to know if she was, in fact, the missing mafia princess. Although I didn’t see how she couldn’t be. And if she was, then what the fuck was she doing whoring herself out to clients like myself who were members of the organization and knew her father. Or at least knew of him. Was this shit she was doing some kind of vendetta against the business that created her father? Or a way to choose a husband for herself? Because if he found out any one of us dared to lay a finger on her, he would demand retribution.
When I arrived, the place was in full swing, despite the fact it was still early in the evening. Done in black and silver with soft lighting and live musicians playing soothing tones on the piano or acoustic guitar, the place was sleek and rich looking without being gaudy, and allowed for both dancing and conversation. Tonight there was a girl on the piano singing a passable version of Uninvited by Alanis Morissette.
Gorgeous women in glittering dresses who didn’t already have dates sat at the bar or wandered the room until they caught the eye of one of the gentlemen in tailored suits who had come there to have a few drinks and conversation, and possibly a date for the night. A pretty thing to have on his arm and show off to his friends. Or if he wished, to sink his dick into without worrying if she was going to tell his wife. The girls who worked here were professionals, and normally, I appreciated that.
But not tonight.
After speaking to half of the ladies in the room and getting nowhere, I went to the bar and ordered a double shot of their best whiskey. ‘I’ll be over there,’ I told the bartender, pointing at a small table in the corner. I was getting frustrated. A few of them were willing enough to talk for a fee, but swore they knew nothing of another girl who worked with them that fit Sera’s description.
How a girl with pink hair and that face could go without being noticed was beyond me.
Pulling out my phone, I checked in with Luca and Tristan while I waited for my drink, until the sound of shattering glass to my right made me lift my head with a scowl. The first thing I saw was my whiskey smashed all over the fucking floor, and I cursed under my breath. My eyes met those of the server who couldn’t hang onto her tray.
Her blue-gray eyes were wide with shock—and perhaps a hint of fear—as she stared at me, the empty tray in her hands and the floor near her feet covered in shards of glass. Her pink hair was up in pigtails tied with silver and black ribbons, her eyes were lined to look wide and innocent, and there was a lollipop in her mouth. I allowed my eyes to rove over her hungrily, taking in the silver baby doll dress she wore that barely contained her tits or covered her ass. It had a deep neckline and little cap sleeves that fell off her bare shoulders and black ruffles under the skirt that made it poof out. Her legs were covered in black tights that came just over her knees and left her smooth thighs bare, and she had black stilettos on her feet.
She blinked a few times, then crouched down and started picking up the broken glass, turning her side to me so I could see the black ruffled panties she wore underneath the dress.
I jumped up from my table, sending my chair crashing back into the wall, and grabbed her wrist before she could cut herself on the glass. ‘Stop,’ I ordered. ‘Someone else can clean that up.’
‘I am that someone,’ she gritted out. Sera looked up at me with tears in her eyes. ‘I’m going to be fired,’ she said around the ball of candy stuck in her cheek. It pushed her cheek out like the swollen head of my cock would, which I’m sure was the idea.
I tried, and failed, to push the image out of my mind. ‘No, you’re not.’
She yanked her arm from my grasp and went back to picking up glass. ‘I am! This is the second time I’ve dropped my drinks since I started here. And Tom told me the first time it happened that if it happened again, I would be fired. It wasn’t even my fault that first time. Some guy grabbed my ass, and I totally wasn’t expecting it. He took me by surprise is all, and my tray went flying…’
She was babbling and swatting my hands away as I tried to stop her from cutting herself, until finally I stood and caught the attention of the bartender so he could send someone over with a broom. Reaching down, I hauled her to her feet beside me. ‘Drop the fucking glass, Sera. Someone is coming to clean it up.’ She was making more of a scene by fighting with me. ‘LEAVE IT,’ I ordered when she tried to pull away from me to keep cleaning.
Finally, she stopped trying to get me off her and allowed me to pull her over to my table. ‘Have a seat,’ I told her.
She pulled the sucker from her mouth. ‘I can’t,’ she said without looking at me. ‘I have other tables, and I need those tips before he fires me.’
‘They can wait. And you won’t lose your job. I’ll talk to your boss. Everything will be fine.’
She glanced up at me, then at the custodian who’d appeared to clean up the mess. ‘Don’t you want another drink?’
Catching the eye of the bartender, I gestured for him to send two more drinks over to the table, then took my seat again, waiting for her to do the same. Sera glanced back and forth between me and the other tables, then finally heaved a resigned sigh and sank down across from me, setting her tray on the table.
‘Who do I speak with to have your company for the evening?’
Her head shot up. ‘I’m sorry?’
‘Your company,’ I repeated. ‘I’d like to purchase your company for the evening.’
She stared at me with wide eyes, her lips parted in surprise. ‘Oh. Uh…’
‘Are you already booked?’
She didn’t respond, just continued to stare at me like she couldn’t comprehend what I was asking her.
‘Let me speak to your manager. I’ll pay twice your normal fee. I’m sure he or she won’t have an issue with you canceling on your original date if you have one.’ This wasn’t the reason I’d come here. I’d only planned to find her and get some answers. It shouldn’t have taken me more than thirty minutes.
However, as soon as I saw her standing there in that outfit—the wet dream of every fucking pedophile within a hundred-mile radius—my plans abruptly changed. There was no way in fucking hell I was going to let her prance around looking like that.
Sera stuck the lollipop back into her mouth and stared at me.
I frowned. ‘What the fuck is wrong with you? I know you can speak intelligently.’ Was she fucking drugged? Did she self-medicate so she could do this kind of work? I knew some people felt the need to numb themselves that way, but were desperate enough for money they did whatever they had to do to get through it. I’d never hired those people. I preferred my partners to enjoy spending time with me. ‘Who is your manager?’ I asked again.
Finally, she seemed to snap out of it. Pulling the candy out of her mouth, she laid it on the tray as a waiter set our drinks on the table and disappeared again. ‘I think you have the wrong idea, Enzo.’ She glanced down at her outfit and back at me. ‘I don’t have a manager.’
‘That makes things easy, then. My offer stands. Go get your things.’
‘Enzo, I’m not for hire. I’m just a waitress.’
I leaned forward and put my elbows on the table. ‘Then why did you come to my hotel room last weekend in that tacky fuck-me dress?’
‘I told you, I was only filling in for Jade. It was just that one night,’ she emphasized. ‘I’m not an escort. Not yet, anyway.’
I narrowed my eyes at that last part, and my voice was little more than a growl when I asked, ‘What do you mean ‘not yet?”
