Eli is standing in the hall when I storm out of the bedroom.
“What’s going on? I heard yelling.”
“Madison is gone!”
“Gone?”
“Yes. She raided my safe, took all the cash and a gun, then snuck out the kitchen downstairs.”
“Are you sure she’s gone? It’s a big casino. Maybe she’s still nearby.”
“She’s running,” I tell him. “I’ll call Titus to get him to review security footage. You call the airlines, bus stations, rental cars, every fucking form of transportation that leaves this city and tell them if they see anyone matching her description to stop her.”
“Okay,” he agrees, phone already in his hand.
“Where the fuck would she go?” I ask aloud as I pull up Titus’s number. Eli doesn’t take a guess before Titus answers.
“Yeah, boss?”
“Madison left the casino tonight with cash and a gun. Get to the security room and find everything you can on the cameras.”
“On my way now,” he says before ending the call.
“You gonna have words with the guards?” Eli asks when he puts his phone to his ear.
“Yes, right after I grill my daughters.” I may have asked Vanessa to talk to them, but I don’t want her near either of them ever again.
Jogging up the stairs to the third floor, I bang my fist on Cass’s door then do the same to Sophie.
They both peek their heads out. “Get out here, now!” I yell at them. When they’re both standing in the hall in their pajamas, I ask, “Did Madison say anything to either of you about running away?”
“Running away?” Sophie repeats before slapping her palm over her gasping mouth.
“Madison’s gone?” Cass says. “She won’t get far.”
“Anything could happen to her out there, do you two understand that?” I stare them down and ask again, “Do either of you know where she’s going? Did she say anything?”
“The only thing I’ve said to her was at dinner,” Cass replies first.
“Same,” Sophie says.
“You better hope those weren’t the last words you spoke to your sister,” I tell them both before heading back downstairs. Maybe they don’t know anything. I can’t help but wonder if they would lie for Madison. Cass wouldn’t. Sophie might.
Back downstairs, I step into the hallway and find two guards plus the two responsible for this shit.
“I told you two to go find her!” I yell at them.
“Every available guard and employee are searching the casino, sir,” one of the door guards informs me. “Do you, ah, do you want us to notify the police?”
“I’ll handle it,” I tell him. “I’ll be in my office making calls. Find me if you hear anything, understood? I don’t care how late it is, find me.”
“Yes, sir,” they all agree.
I try reaching out to a friend who looks the other way at Las Vegas Metro. He tells me to send a photo of Madison and he’ll spread the word around to keep an eye out for her but keep her name off the record. Nothing official. Notifying the cops she’s missing would be like shining a spotlight on her for every enemy.
I tell myself that she’s probably wandering the streets of Vegas, dealing with catcalls but nothing more serious than that sort of treatment. One of my men will find her and bring her back. It’s just a matter of time.
But hours later, there’s not much new information.
The security cameras show she snuck a bag down in an empty covered dish that I’m guessing was full of cash and my gun. Then it looks like she may have grabbed a chef uniform from a closet before she distracted the guards with food to sneak out. The streets were so crowded with tourists that she disappeared into the fray, either getting into a car or going into another casino. I’ve got every hotel on the strip I can trust searching for her. The only ones I didn’t call were the Russian owned businesses. The last thing I need is for them to find her first.
I’m pacing the office floor, sipping whiskey from the bottle when Eli comes in.
“Anything?” I pause to ask him.
“Planes seem unlikely since she won’t have ID. Same for rental cars. Buses are being searched before they leave by our men, but no sign of her yet.”
“Fuck!” I exclaim, slinging the glass bottle across the room. It hits the wall, shattering into shards. It feels like the same thing is going to happen inside of me. I have to find her…and soon. “She could be in a car with someone, some handsy asshole going who the fuck knows where!”
“Madison wouldn’t do anything foolish like hop in a car with a stranger,” Eli says confidently. “She might have stolen a car.”
“Great. Then the police will find her first.”
“As long as someone finds her…”
“I can’t fucking believe Vanessa!” I yell. “Who does she think she is? She had no right to talk to Madison, much less fill her head with bullshit!”
“Vanessa?” Eli says in surprise. “You’re blaming her for Madison running off?”
“Hell, yes. It’s her fault. She gave her ideas; she took her downstairs.”
“The guards shouldn’t have taken their eyes off of her. If you want to take your anger out on someone, drag them to the basement and take it out on them,” Eli suggests.
“Do it. String them up until we find her.”
“Yes, sir. Gladly. Stupid sons of bitches,” he mutters as he wanders off to do what he does best.
I need to hurt someone. I want to punch the bastards in the face until they’re unrecognizable. But deep down, I know that punishing them won’t change anything. There are no answers to get out of the guards. They don’t have a fucking clue where Madison went, what she was planning.
Checking my phone every ten seconds makes the night go by so damn slowly. That’s how I know it’s five past three when Vanessa tiptoes quietly into my office in my T-shirt and her panties.
“Any updates?” she asks softly.
“No.”
She starts to come toward me but I hold up my palm to stop her. “Don’t. There’s broken glass.”
“Oh.” Her eyes search the room, finding the broken bottle. “What can I do?”
“Nothing. There’s nothing you or I or anyone else can do. She’s gone…”
Despite my warning, Vanessa pads barefoot across the room to me, wrapping her arms around my waist and resting her head against my chest. “I’m sorry. She will be okay. She will, Dante.”
“If anything happens to her…” I trail off, unable to even finish that thought. And despite how furious I still am at Vanessa, right now I need her. So, I shove my phone into my jogging pants pocket, then scoop her up in my arms, so her legs are around my waist, feet no longer touching the glass-filled floor.
Carrying her over to the leather sofa, I sit down with her straddling my lap, her head resting on my shoulder, clinging to me tightly.
While I spent the day with Vanessa’s mouth wrapped around my cock, I spent the rest of the night with her wrapped around me.
Vanessa
I fell asleep straddling Dante on the sofa in his office, but when I blink my eyes open, I’m lying on top of him like I’m a blanket, and we’re in his bed.
At least I’m not drooling this time when I lift my head from his chest to see his face. No surprise, his phone is raised in his hand as he scrolls or answers messages.
“Hey,” I say as I sit up, my legs still on either side of his hips.
“Hey,” he replies without a glance. At least he’s speaking to me. And he doesn’t sound like he wants to slit my throat.
“Any news on Madison?”
“No.”
I didn’t think there would be. She’s a smart girl. With the amount of money she took, she’ll be fine. Taking a gun for protection was wise too. I just hope she knows how to use it if she has to.
“Did you get any sleep?” I ask softly.
“Not much. I dozed a little. Now I need a shower.” Placing his phone back on the charging station, he lifts me up by my waist to sit me on the mattress next to him so he can get up.
“Do you want company?”
“No.”
Wow. That was a quick response.
“That’s not…I’m not in the mood. Later?” he says as he begins to undress at the foot of the bed.
Later, as in when Madison is back safe and sound. And if he doesn’t find her, he’ll keep blaming me.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him again, knowing the words are empty. He doesn’t want an apology; he wants to know his daughter is okay.
Once he’s naked, he takes a step toward the bathroom, then stops. “You…You have no idea how much I care for you. How much I trusted you! I trusted you with my daughters when I’m terrified to let anyone get near them! And you know why I’m so goddamn protective of them, the nightmares I have of what could happen to them.”
“I know,” I say, swallowing around the burning in my throat. “I’m sorry about their mothers.”
Turning around, he begins to pace across the bedroom floor with his fingers tugging his hair, not a shred of clothing on. “You have no idea what I’ve been through. How lost I felt when Maria, Madison’s mother, was killed by the Irish in a drive-by while I was locked up in prison on bullshit charges. Then, Cass’s mother, Charlotte, was Madison’s live-in nanny, the only mother she ever knew. I thought she disappeared without a trace when Cass was only two months old. Kidnapped I assumed, but never found out for sure. It’s stupid, but I still hope to this day, eighteen years later, that she’ll come back. Hope is better than the most likely scenario which is her bones are buried somewhere in the goddamn desert.” He pauses in his paces and revelation long enough to scrub his palms down his face. “And Sophie’s mom, Stephanie, we were actually going to get married. Yes, I knocked her up too, but I was finally ready to settle down, to spend my life with her and our three girls as a family. She never even got to hold Sophie because she…she died in her sleep that night. I couldn’t hold Sophie for weeks either because she was a preemie, fighting for her own life every second of the day, while I was left alone to raise three baby girls.”
“I’m so sorry, Dante. I hate that those horrible things happened to them, to you.”
“This fucked-up world took every woman I cared for from me and left me to raise three sweet, innocent, motherless girls on my own. I can’t lose them, Vanessa. I can’t let anything happen to Madison, because I’m not sure I could survive failing one of them again.”
It’s not just his enemies he worries about going after his girls to hurt him. After so much loss, no wonder Dante is overly protective of his daughters.
Climbing out of bed, I go to him like I did last night, doing the only thing I can. I wind my arms around his waist, holding him tight. “I’m sorry,” I say yet again. Even though he’s angry at me, blames me for his daughter running away, I need his forgiveness. I hate that he blames me, but he’s right.
After a moment, he lifts his arms to hold me to him, kissing the top of my head.
Still, I know it doesn’t mean that everything is back to how it was between us, and that it may never be right again.
