Sacrifice

Chapter Nineteen

S itting here with Hypnos as he works is making me fucking nervous. I need to be out there looking for mi reina . Back and forth, I pace along the length of the room as the keyboard clacks along. It’s too damn quiet.

“Anything?”

Hypnos just grunts and continues to do what he does. My nerves are shot to hell and this deep breathing isn’t doing shit for me. Hell, nothing will help me calm down until I have Mossimo at my side and Aribella back in my arms.

“Mother fucker.” Hypnos bangs his hand on the table and I turn back toward him. What I see on the screen has me blurry eyed and raging with anger.

“What the fuck is this?” I demand.

Hypnos clicks on Aribella’s picture with a clock attached. “Live auction,” he murmurs and I grip the back of his chair until I hear it crack.

“Get me into that auction. Until we know exactly where she is, bidding on her is my best shot of getting her back alive.” I sound unhinged as my body shakes.

As Hypnos laughs, I know I’m about to lose my shit. “Already done, and now I have every last one of those fuckers’ names who is bidding.”

I watch the screen and hate myself for this plan. My entire body is taut with need. My sweet reina, is tied up and I can see the tears in her eyes. Her fear makes my cock pulse with need. I imagine finally taking her to my red room and having some real fun with her. I’m a fucking bastard for thinking about it while mi reina is clearly in desperate need of rescuing. I should be shot for my deranged imaginings.

My phone goes off and I see Miguel has sent me a message. Alejandro’s and Bianchi’s compounds have been seized. They aren’t leaving any stone unturned. I shoot him a quick message back reminding him to be careful.

Careful of who and what, though? Why would Alejandro do this? And Bianchi? He’s a damn small ass fish that doesn’t compare to any of our wealth or power. Something isn’t adding up, and the whole situation feels more than a little off to me.

“Vincent, you may not want to continue watching.” Hypnos brings me back to the present and I look at the screen. A man that I’ve had in my inner circle, closer than even my brothers, comes out, undressed, and stroking his cock.

“If he touches her…” I trail off as I see the cane in his other hand. I don’t use canes in my red room. They are for the most severe punishments.

“The slave has not been cooperating, so she will receive a caning. Enjoy.”

The audio stays on as the bastard hits Aribella on her back. The whacking sound makes me and Hypnos wince. Although Aribella is gagged and we can’t hear her pain, we can see it. My gut sinks as I look at her thoroughly. She’s bleeding and bruised all over.

“Find her.” I grit out. I want to scream at him to hurry the fuck up, but I know he’s trying. Although he’s got one screen up on the auction, three other screens have some kind of code on them that I’m sure Hypnos can decode.

Bidding goes nuts as the clock ticks down. Ten. Nine. Eight. Each number brings a new emotion to my frazzled psyche.

“Got it. Gladview . Fuck, that’s twelve hours away.” Hypnos groans, and I look at the screen. Highest bidder won with ten point two million dollars.

“Did we win, Hypnos?” The screen goes black and my heart beats double time.

“Yes.” He takes hold of my arm, forcing me to look at him. “Ayres has Mossimo. He’s been beaten within an inch of his life.”

Looking at the phone in Hypnos’s hand, I take it from him and read the rest of the message. Mossimo was left to die right outside of Diego’s territory.

“Someone is fucking playing with you.”

Why is he telling me this? I have to get to Aribella. When I turn to leave, Hypnos stands up and grabs both my shoulders.

“Vincent,” he pauses until we are eye to eye with each other. “I’m going to pick up Aribella with a few of my men. You cannot come.”

His words hit me and I become completely feral. Gripping him by the neck, I squeeze. “Fuck you. I’m not letting you go without me.” When I try to move, his grip gets harder on my shoulders and we are locked in a staring match.

“Vincent. I need you to listen to me very carefully.” He isn’t even phased by my hand around his neck. “Stop and think. If you show up, they will kill you and Aribella on the spot.”

Is he right? Yes, my brain grits out at me. Don’t be fucking stupid. Letting him go, I step back out of his space.

“Fine. Straight there and back. Take the helicopter.” I feel like I’m betraying mi reina by not going. But I have a feeling Hypnos is right. Showing up would mean certain death. “I will need updates.”

Hypnos straightens his tie that I’ve messed up and laughs. “You might want to work on your grip there.” He winks at me and I swear to God if I wasn’t so distraught, I’d beat him to a pulp right here and now.

“And just so you know, Vincent, you are a lot like Kronos.” My mouth pops open and he continues. “That’s why I left him with Charlotte. He would have driven us nuts if he was out in the field.”

“At least you didn’t say I was like Ayres.” That causes Hypnos to laugh harder.

“Oh, we are all nuts about Charlotte and hate leaving her, but Ayres and I can both breathe a little easier when Kronos is with her. She likes to run.” He wiggles his eyebrows at me and I realize they all may be a little crazy. No, crazy is too mild of a word for them. Psychotic. That’s the word.

When Hypnos shuts the computer down, he hands me a thumb drive. “This contains every man and woman associated with Alejandro, Bianchi, and the auction that just went down. Do with it what you want. I’ll get your girl.”

Holding the drive, I already know I won’t like what I find on it. “Let Aribella know I’ll be waiting for her.” I swallow down my emotions as Hypnos agrees to do what I’ve asked. Fuck me, I never thought I’d be this way, but I’m damn near crying as I leave the dock house to get Mossimo.

Miguel and Diego stand outside of the hospital waiting on me. When I get to them, they barrage me with questions.

“Not now. After we see Mossimo.”

They don’t push me and I’m grateful. Hell, I’m not even sure I’d be able to talk about what I just witnessed Aribella go through. I can still see the tears and the agony she was in. Fuck, my cock hardens again and I berate myself mentally. The need to kiss each and every inch of her body is driving me nuts.

Diego interrupts my thoughts as we stop in front of an ICU door. “You should be prepared, brother. Mossimo is in bad shape.”

Miguel opens the door and looks at me. “Just remember, he’s alive.”

Fuck. Is it that bad? Is it worse than Aribella? “I’m sure he will be happy to know she is alive as well,” I growl and walk past them.

There’s a nurse putting blankets on Mossimo. I take in the scene laid out before me. There’s an IV pole with all four hooks filled. Three monitors sit to the back of the bed and there’re vitals on each one of the screens. Mossimo is looking at the woman, ready to rip into her.

“Mr. Domingo,” she nervously stutters. “Mr. Mossimo…” Her words stop as Mossimo tries to rip out the IV.

“Please don’t do that. You need these to recover, sir,” she says softly.

“Mossimo,” I say in a harsh tone and he stops moving immediately. “Leave us,” I tell the nurse and she runs from the room.

When the door shuts and my brothers have sat down, I move to the side of the bed with the chair. Sitting down, I look at Mossimo and he looks at me.

“I’m sorry, Vincent.” Once he opens up, he spits out words so fast, I can’t keep up.

“Slow down, Mossimo. Everything will be alright. Just slow down.” I watch him shudder and I finally look over his body.

He’s missing his left hand. Those mother fuckers really did cut it off. There are bloody, white bandages wrapped around his right eye and the covers hinder me from seeing any more. I can only imagine that the rest of his body is as bad as his face.

“It was a set up,” he says. “Leo.”

“Yes. We know he was caught in the crossfire.”

Mossimo laughs bitterly. “No. It was him. He was going to cross you and Diego to take over your territories with Alejandro.”

“That’s fucking bullshit!” Diego bellows and abruptly stands, sending his chair scraping back across the hospital floor..

“Sit down, brother,” Miguel says in forced calmness, pulling him back to his seat. “Let him finish.”

Looking over Mossimo, I know what his tells are when he’s lying. He isn’t giving any of them right now.

“Leo and Alejandro set up the call about the Casino to get you to go there, Vincent. They were going to set you up with the police, but when I showed up with Leo, they realized they’d have to make a new plan.”

He trails off and looks at me. “I overheard them, Vincent. But Leo seemed to have second thoughts when Alejandro decided to just shoot everyone in the casino. Including innocents.”

“Is that when you started text messaging me?” Guilt runs through me. I was balls deep in Aribella when the first message was sent. Then I fell asleep. Fuck me.

There’s blood trickling down Mossimo’s lip and I take a cloth, wiping it away. “We need to get a doctor in here.” I turn to Miguel and he nods.

“Don’t try to keep talking, Mossimo. It’s alright. This can be picked up later.”

“No. I have to finish,” he whispers weakly. “Leo did try to tell him there would be a better way. That they needed to bide their time. Alejandro lost his shit and opened fire, anyway.”

Mossimo goes into a coughing fit and more blood sprays out. Miguel comes back with two nurses and a doctor hot on his tail. “I tried to help Leo,” Mossimo says before the doctor and nurses usher us out of the room.

Diego looks at me and Miguel. “There’s no fucking way our little brother would have done this.”

Miguel looks away, and my anger finally boils over. “What the fuck do you know, Miguel!?”

Diego stops pacing and stands next to me as we look at our oldest brother. “It’s on the video of the shooting. I’m not sure you saw it, but Alejandro’s daughter was there. She was with Leo and they’ve been secretly trying to overtake him. But she’s a slave to her brothers. You know this.”

I shake my head. “We know this.” Diego looks at his cellphone and then puts it away. His demeanor has changed. He’s colder now. “We need to find them all, and burn them to the ground,” he grits out.

“We can’t. First, we have to get a plan together and fix this shit show,” Miguel says, and for once, I agree with him.

“Alejandro has Aribella, and he put her up for auction. Hypnos is going to get her. While we wait, we come up with a plan to take every last one of them down.”

The door opens and the nurses leave us with the doctor. He is looking at the tablet in his hand. “He’s sleeping and can have one visitor for now. As soon as an operating room comes up, we will be going into surgery to fix his broken legs.”

He doesn’t look at us as he walks quickly away. Hell, he probably thinks we will beat the shit out of him. Diego looks at me and Miguel and sighs. “Bianchi isn’t behind this. He wants my territory because I run the riverfront area. He’s only interested in running smuggled products from Italy to here.”

“Diego,” I say, and he looks at me. Without a word, I wrap him in a hug. It’s awkward, but I’m so damn glad he’s here with me and Miguel. “I know it’s not Bianchi. As soon as you can, you’ll take him down. If you need us, let us know. You don’t have to go it alone.”

When he wraps his arms around me, I realize how much we need each other. Miguel clears his throat and we laugh. Diego pulls him into the hug and then he speaks.

“We are going to catch every one of these motherfuckers and slaughter them. No one will ever mess with us again by the time we are done.”

Miguel chuckles and my phone goes off.

Unknown: She’s been sold. Enjoy the show.

I sway and both Miguel and Diego grab me to help me remain standing. A video begins to play. The instant I see Aribella hooked up to a sex machine, I drop my phone. It falls to the floor in slow motion and bounces, smashing to the ground.

“Breathe, Vincent,” Diego sounds far away as I look down at the shattered screen. It doesn’t matter though. All I can see is Aribella crying and fighting against her restraints.