Chapter 23
Chapter
Twenty-Three
GIO
My phone vibrates in my pocket as Matteo and I walk to our cars.
“That went about as expected.”
“Were you expecting more?” I cast him a sideways glance as I pull my phone out. “I know you’re going to want to punch me for saying this, but you two are a lot alike in the sense of not asking permission to do things. You just steamroll your way in and do it.”
Matteo makes a noise in his throat. “I don’t steamroll. And I’m not the one who goes around cutting people’s dicks off and mailing them in a box.”
My lip tips up. “No, you just go around stabbing them in the hand.”
I smile to myself as I see I have a text from Bronwyn. I knew she would miss me. I abruptly stop walking, the smile wiped right off my face as I read her text.
“Everything okay?” I hear Matteo ask, but he sounds far away. I can’t focus on him. All I can focus on is her text.
Cara: dad’s at afk. shit is weird. help.
“Gio?”
I start running to my car, leaving Matteo behind. I beep the locks and throw up my door. Matteo’s hand catches it, stopping me from closing it.
“Let go,” I bite out. I’m seeing red.
“Tell me what’s going on,” Matteo demands.
“Bronwyn just texted and said her dad showed up at her job and is acting weird. She needs help.”
Matteo bites out a curse. “Let’s go. I’ll follow you.”
I don’t remember the drive to AFK. My mind switched to autopilot because I couldn’t stop wondering if Bronwyn is okay.
I knew her piece of shit dad was going to show up again sooner or later.
I just didn’t think he had the balls to do it at her place of work.
The more I think about it, the more this feels like Dimitri sent him thinking I wouldn’t kill her dad like I did Brian.
How wrong he is.
So very fucking wrong.
He better hope there isn’t a hair out of place on her head when I get to her. I’ll stop at nothing short of burning the world down for her.
I illegally park in front of the store, barely throwing it in park before I’m out and sprinting inside.
“Bronwyn?” I call out as I frantically look around an empty store.
Nothing.
The only sound that can be heard is music softly playing throughout the store.
Items on the counter near the register are thrown around. Video games lie scattered all over the floor in the back corner. The shelf they were on is barely hanging on for dear life.
My nails dig into my palm, causing pain that I’m numb to now as I clench my fist. She struggled.
She fucking struggled, and I wasn’t here to help her.
“You couldn’t have waited two fucking seconds for me? What if this whole thing was a set — oh shit.” Matteo comes to a stop behind me.
I walk around the store but there isn’t shit here.
No Bronwyn in sight.
I walk into the back, stepping over the games scattered across the floor as I enter the breakroom.
“I know you’re thinking the worst right now, but I need your head on straight so we can find her.”
“How can I when her purse is sitting right fucking there,” I point to her bag that looks untouched on the table. “And she isn’t here.”
Matteo already has his phone out. “We’re going to find her. She told you her dad was here?”
I nod. “Fuck!”
“Try calling her.”
I pull my phone out, find her contact, and hit call. I listen to it ring until it goes to voicemail. “Nothing.”
“Alessio is going to swing by her place and check it out. Has she said where her dad has been staying? When I looked into him, no known address was listed. I know he spends most of his time at the casino.”
Fuck, I can’t think. “Uh, no,” I say, shaking my head as I try to focus on everything that’s happening around me. “She told me he would always pop up wherever she moved to ask for money.”
“I wonder if that’s why he showed up here. He probably needed more.”
The piece of shit probably did.
“I’m calling in a favor with Wiz,” I say as I grab Bronwyn’s purse off the table. I don’t see anything else that’s hers. “And then I’m marching my ass back into that fucking casino and they’re going to give me answers.” If they don’t, I’m blowing the whole place up.
Matteo curses. “Gio, listen to me. I’ve been in your shoes before. Remember Wren’s shit? I was out of my fucking mind. You need to stop for a second and gather yourself so we can figure out our next move. She needs you right now.”
“I know you’ve been in my shoes. But you know what I did when you were? I had your fucking back when you lost your goddamn mind.” I storm out of the store as I find Wiz’s contact.
“Goddamnit,” Matteo says as he follows me out and heads to his car.
“You know I’ll always have your back. All I ask is that you don’t do anything crazy without someone at your back.
We haven’t had enough time to dig into this whole operation Dimitri has going on at the casino, and I don’t know who is or isn’t involved. ”
I open my car door and pin him with a hard look. “Then you better keep up.”
“You and Wren are going to be the reason I die early!” Matteo calls after me as I slam my door shut.
My tires screech as I peel out onto the street.
“Call Wiz,” I tell my car’s system.
“Calling Wiz,” the automated voice responds before ringing is heard throughout the car.
“I swear to god if you’re calling to make me listen to you fuck Bronwyn again, I’m going to come find you and punch you in the fucking dick,” Wiz’s voice sounds throughout the car.
“I’d like to see you fucking try. I’m calling in a favor.”
“Cyrus will do it for me, no questions asked. You seem to be calling in a lot of favors lately.”
Fucking Cyrus.
“Bronwyn’s gone.”
I’m greeted with silence on the other end of the line.
“What?” Wiz asks after a moment, his voice turning serious and concerned.
“She’s gone. I need you to track her phone.”
I hear Wiz’s fingers flying over his keyboard. “On it. Is she just ignoring your ass?”
I rub a hand down my face as my other hand clenches the wheel. My car still faintly smells like her. “I fucking wish. I would take that over this any day. I think her dad brought his shit to her.”
I’ve never felt like this before. Scared but being so helpless at the same time.
I’ve never been scared of anything in my entire life.
I’ve looked down the barrel of a gun as it was aimed right between my eyes and fucking laughed.
But this? This makes me want to murder every single fucking person who had a hand in this, whether they physically touched her or not.
They’re all going to die. And I’m going to make sure it’s in the slowest possible way so they feel exactly what she felt.
“That fucking piece of shit. I’ve been telling her for at least a year that she needs to stop answering her door when she knows it’s him. All he does is bring extra shit into her life that she doesn’t need. Phone is still on so at least that’s working for us.”
I grunt in agreement, too worked up to form a sentence. My eyes slide up to my rearview mirror and see Matteo hot on my ass.
“She’s going to be okay, right?” Wiz asks.
“She will be.” I refuse to accept any other answer.
Wiz makes a humming sound.
“You found her?” I ask, my question coming out harsh and rushed.
“I found her phone’s last pinged location,” Wiz corrects. “I can’t guarantee she’s with it. If the phone dies or gets shut off for any reason, I won’t get another location.”
“Where is it?”
“The Voron Casino.”
That fucking motherfucker.
He sat there in his office today and looked me square in the fucking eye while he knew what her piece of shit dad was doing.
“Thanks. I owe you,” I get out through clenched teeth.
“Consider it wiped. This is for Bronwyn,” Wiz says. “I hope you make him bleed.”
“Oh, he’s going to do more than bleed,” I say as I crack my neck.
He’s going to meet the monster I fight every single day to keep at bay.
“I’ll keep pinging her location to see if it moves, but so far it’s staying put.”
“Does it show you a general area in the casino?”
“Looks like it’s toward the back on the left side. Let me see if I can find plans for the layout.”
“Let me know what you find,” I tell him before hanging up.
My jaw is throbbing from how hard I’m clenching it, but I welcome the pain.
I throw my car into park as I hop out with Matteo right on my heels. His hand grabs my bicep, pulling me back.
I shrug him off. “Don’t try to fucking stop me.”
“I’m not, but I need you to fill me in on what you’ve found. Alessio got back to me.”
I stop and turn to face him, dread settling in the pit of my stomach. “What did he find?”
Matteo sighs. “Alessio said her door was kicked in and her place was ransacked. He said the place was a fucking mess.”
“It had to be her dad.”
Matteo nods. “I would agree with you on that. I bet he was looking to find some cash stashed somewhere, didn’t find it, so he went to find her instead. What did Wiz say?”
“He pinged her phone’s location. It’s inside the casino.”
“That motherfucker,” Matteo hisses. “I’m getting really sick and tired of people thinking they can do whatever the fuck they want like we don’t have rules in place.”
My phone vibrates with a text from Wiz. It’s a picture of the building’s layout.
Wiz: I highlighted the area her phone was pinged. Looks like it’s in the area of storage closets or their hotel rooms above. Not sure about a basement.
I show Matteo and wait impatiently as he studies it.
“She could be in a room, but I doubt it. There would be a higher chance of someone hearing her. I can’t see them taking that kind of risk. Hotel walls are thin.”
“There has to be a basement of some sort,” I add.
“We’re about to find out.”
Matteo and I prowl in like we own the place, not giving one single fuck if Dimitri’s men spot us and let him know we’re here.
I keep my hard gaze on finding the target as we weave through the rows of people. If anyone tries to fucking stop me, they’re dead.
“We’ve been spotted. Guy on the left,” Matteo says, his voice low enough for only me to hear.