My angel ran away from me.
My Kitten. My toy. My most precious prize.
I stand on the steps of the church from where she ran. Without proper shoes and my body aching for a bit of rest, I’ll never catch up.
“Go ahead and run, Kitten,” I say bitterly into the night. “You won’t last long without me.”
Let her taste freedom just so she can see how vicious the real world will treat her.
I will find her, and when I do, I will drag her back to where she belongs—with me.
In the meantime, I have other matters to deal with.
Opening my cell phone, I dial a number. Claudio answers on the first ring.
“Yes?” He sounds busy.
Suddenly, it occurs to me that I put Claudio on the task of cleaning up the bodies for disposal.
“Why’d you call, sir?” he still asks.
“Did you secure my mother and her medical supplies?”
“Yes, sir. She’s safe in the hideout.”
“Good.”
“What happened with Frank and Harper?” he asks.
“Frank tried to escape and take Harper with him, but she crashed the car. It was…”
I rub the bridge of my nose and look down the alley I’m walking past. That is where Harper ran. She looked so tiny amongst the shadows before they swallowed her whole.
When I glance down at the ground, something catches my eye. Something shiny in the middle of all that darkness.
“Marcello?” Claudio asks. “Are you still there? What happened to Harper?”
But his voice is distant because I’ve let the hand holding the phone swing down by my side.
I approach the glistening object. Kneeling in a filthy puddle, I reach forward and pick it up.
It’s a key. I recognize it—the key to the safe house.
The one that Harper used to flee from me.
My fist tightens around it so harshly that it cracks my skin.
Grinding my teeth, I reply, “We got to the hideout but then … she ran.”
“Ran? To where?” he asks.
Anger rises in my chest again, hot and molten.
“That’s what you’re going to find out,” I growl into the phone. “I followed her to the church downtown. She ran from here. Put a crew together and find her.”
“Yes, Marcello. I’ll assemble a team.”
“Not just us. I want everyone in on this,” I bark into my phone.
“You’re not saying…?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying, mi consigliere. Call every single family in the city. Whatever it takes to get her back. I’ll put half a million up for whoever brings her to me.”
“Do you understand, Claudio?” I ask.
“Yes, Marcello.”
“Good. Now come pick me up.”
I have a mission now—find Harper. It’s simple and clear and right.
And once I have her, I’ll mark her as mine in every way I know how.
I don’t have to wait long. Merely fifteen minutes later, a dark-tinted sedan pulls up in front of me.
Claudio’s expression is carefully neutral as he emerges from the car.
“It’s good to see that you made it out okay, sir,” he says. “And in your finest attire, too.”
I look down at my pajama pants and bruised torso. I can’t help but chuckle.
“Only the best for the Don,” I tell him. “And drop the sir. You only use that when you’re trying to flatter me.”
He grins. “Is that not in my job description?”
“You have one job now. Find the girl.”
We get inside, and I close the door behind me. Claudio is behind the wheel.
He sighs. “Marcello… On the road, I got a call from the team that went after Frank’s wreckage.”
I frown, my heart doing palpitations from the thought of getting Frank and strangling him with my own bare hands. “And? Do you have him?”
With his lips parted, he searches for words even though he normally always knows exactly what to say. Eventually, he drags his gaze up to look me in the eye.
“His body wasn’t there, Marcello,” he says softly. “Frank is gone.”
