Chapter 11 #2
I’m fooling myself. I set it down and force my eyes back to the textbook. Efficient supply chain management requires careful attention to inventory levels and—
I check my phone again.
Nothing.
The afternoon light shifts across my desk. I haven’t moved, and I haven’t eaten all day. My stomach is churning, and I have no appetite for even coffee. Maybe he’ll never call back. Maybe this is it, and he’s decided I’m not worth the trouble after all.
Maybe deep down he never actually forgave me for the part I played in his family’s massacre, and me throwing his sweet confession in his face has made that crystal clear to him. Maybe he’s decided he can’t love someone like me after all.
The devastating thought makes my throat tight.
I’m in the bathroom splashing cold water on my face when my phone rings.
I run back to my desk and lunge for it so fast I knock my textbook onto the floor. My heart is pounding so hard I can feel it thumping against my chest, and I answer the call without even looking at the screen.
“Vincenzo?”
“Adora?” Not Vincenzo’s voice. Matteo’s. “Have you seen Vincenzo?”
My stomach drops. “What? No, not since last night. Why?”
“He’s not answering his phone. He didn’t come home last night. I thought maybe…” Matteo pauses, and I can hear the worry in his voice. “When did you last see him?”
“He dropped me off around ten.” My mouth is dry. “What do you mean he didn’t come home?”
“I mean he’s gone. We found his car at a bar three blocks from the house, but he’s not there. He’s not answering calls. Vincenzo doesn’t just disappear, Adora. Not without telling someone.”
The world tilts. He went to a bar after dropping me off. I hurt him when I pulled away, and he needed a drink to deal with it.
And then something happened to him.
“Adora, are you there?”
“I’m coming over,” I say, already pushing my feet into shoes. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
“Adora—”
“Twenty minutes.”
I hang up and grab my keys, my mind racing. He’s not ignoring me, and I wasted an entire day thinking he was angry when he might be hurt or in danger.
The drive to the Vici house passes in a blur. I barely remember getting in my car, navigating the streets, parking outside the iron gates. My hands are shaking as I press the intercom.
“It’s Adora.”
The gates swing open immediately.
Inside, the house feels different than it did yesterday. Sofia and Matteo are in the kitchen, both on their feet when I walk in. Sofia’s face is drawn, her hands twisted together. Matteo looks tired, frustrated, like he’s been pacing for hours.
“Adora.” Sofia crosses to me immediately and takes my hands. “Tell us what happened last night. Please.”
I swallow hard. “We went to the fight. Vincenzo went into the ring and challenged this massive man, and he won, but his raven tattoo was exposed. We made up a story about him being a Vici defector, and we were invited into the VIP section with Aleksander and Dashamir. We stole phones from the Dervishi underbosses and…” I stumble over the next part.
“And then he drove me home. He didn’t say where he was going after that. ”
Sofia’s eyes search my face, and I have the distinct feeling she knows there’s more to my story.
“The bartender at O’Malley’s said Vincenzo was there from ten-thirty until about one in the morning,” Matteo says. He’s leaning against the counter, arms crossed. “Then he left. His car was still in the lot this morning, but no sign of him. The security camera in the parking lot was busted.”
“What was he doing at a bar when he risked his life and Adora’s to get those phones?” Sofia asks the room in general.
I can’t meet her eyes. “That’s my fault. I, um… Vincenzo and I… We talked about us, and I upset him. I didn’t mean to, but I panicked.”
That’s as much as I want to say before I talk to Vincenzo. If Sofia and Matteo knew about the poison, and that I intended to use it on Vincenzo, they’d both be horrified. They’d throw me out of this house and never speak to me again.
“All right,” Matteo says finally. “What matters is he’s disappeared, somewhere between leaving the bar and getting to his car. And I’ve got nothing. No leads, no witnesses, no idea where to even start looking.”
“Could he have collapsed from his injuries and been taken to a hospital? He seemed steady after I left him, but perhaps after a few drinks…”
Sofia shakes her head. “I already called all the hospitals, but no one of Vincenzo’s description was admitted last night. I called the police stations as well in case he was arrested.”
“You said you got information from the phones,” I say. “Did you find anything about the guns?”
“Yeah.” Matteo straightens, walks to the laptop sitting on the kitchen table.
“I know where they are. A warehouse in the industrial district. But I’m not going after them without Vincenzo.
” Matteo looks at me for a long moment, then adds, “There was something else on those phones. Something that I wanted to ask you about.”
“Me?” I say in surprise.
He turns the laptop toward me. Messages fill the screen, texts between what looks like the owner of the phone and Dashamir Dervishi. A woman’s name appears several times.
“Who’s Lira?” I ask, scanning the messages.
“Dashamir’s cousin,” Matteo says. “She died about a year ago. Found strangled in her apartment. Dashamir thinks your father killed her, but he has no proof.”
My stomach clenches. “Dad? Why?”
“Apparently he was courting her and trying to arrange a marriage. Her father could see the advantages of an alliance with the Montonis, but at the same time, he wasn’t convinced it was the best thing for his daughter, or the Dervishis.
In the end, she turned Agnello down.” Matteo’s jaw tightens. “A few weeks later, she was dead.”
I read through the messages. Speculation. Suspicion. Anger. They’re certain Dad did it, but they don’t have proof.
A particular message from Dashamir catches my eye.
She had her whole life ahead of her. Now she’s gone because she dared say no to a monster. I should have protected her. This is on me.
I try to reconcile this heartbroken sentiment with the cold man I met last night. He loved his cousin, and now he’s filled with bitterness that she’s dead.
“My father tried to arrange a marriage with a Dervishi woman?”
“Looks like it.”
The pieces click together with sickening clarity. “He was setting a trap like he later did with your family. The engagement party that turned into a massacre. Lure them in with the promise of an alliance, and then slaughter them.”
Sofia makes a small sound of horror.
“But Lira refused him, and that made him angry. He doesn’t like being told no.”
I feel sick as I imagine the terror that Lira Dervishi must have felt at the end.
Dad’s hands around her throat, squeezing the life out of her.
I hate that I can picture it so clearly.
Believe it so easily. He loves to use his hands to be violent with women, like he did with my mother, and like he’s done with me.
“Shit,” Matteo mutters.
“I’m sorry about Lira,” I say, closing the laptop. “But right now, we need to focus on Vincenzo. Do you think the Dervishis have him?”
“Unfortunately, I do,” Matteo says flatly.
“How long has he been gone?” Sofia asks, her voice tight.
“Since one this morning. So…” Matteo checks his watch. “Almost eighteen hours.”
We all stare at each other in trepidation, and I know we’re all fearing the same thing. Eighteen hours in the hands of one of the most dangerous families in Malus. Eighteen hours of punishment for stealing the phones, or torture and interrogation to find out what the Vicis are up to.
The horrible thought crashes over me. What if Vincenzo is already dead?
“No.” The word comes out fierce, denying our unspoken fears. “No, he’s not dead. He can’t be.”
“Adora—” Sofia starts.
“He’s not.” I grip the edge of the table. “Dashamir was suspicious of us, and I’m willing to bet that it’s Dashamir who abducted Vincenzo. He wouldn’t kill him. Not yet.”
“How do you know?” Matteo asks.
“Because of what I saw last night at the fight.” I close my eyes, remembering those pale, perceptive eyes. The way he watched everything with such cold calculation. “Dashamir is smart, and he’d want to get information out of Vincenzo first. But we’re running out of time to get him back.”
Matteo pushes off the counter. “I’ll go. I’ll find out where they’re keeping him and—”
“No.” I straighten. “I have an idea. A better idea.”
They both stare at me.
“Will you take me to Dashamir Dervishi?”
“What?” Matteo looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Adora, that’s insane. You can’t put yourself in danger like that. If Vincenzo is still alive, he’ll kill me.”
Walking into the scorpions’ den is the last thing I want to do, but Vincenzo would do it for me. Though that doesn’t mean my heart isn’t racing with fear.
I take a deep breath, and say with more bravado than I feel, “It has to be me. I’m the only one who can do this, and I’ll tell you why.”
The Grind is exactly what it sounds like. A low concrete building squatting at the edge of the industrial district, neon sign flickering red against the dusk sky. The bass thumping from inside is so heavy I can feel it before we even get out of the car.
“I’m sorry about this,” Matteo mutters under his breath as we cross the parking lot. It’s packed with motorcycles and battered pickup trucks. “It’s the only place I knew to find Dervishi soldiers.”
I don’t answer. I’m too busy trying to keep my legs moving forward.
Inside, the air is thick with cigarette smoke and the sour smell of spilled beer. Red and blue neon lights cast everything with a lurid glow. A stage dominates the far wall where a woman in almost nothing winds herself around a pole, but most of the men aren’t watching her. They’re watching me.