Indebted to the Mafia King
Missing

Dante

Tony and I drive back from the city in silence. No sign of Seb yet. We crossed paths with a couple Coppola soldiers, so Thano seems to have finally decided to get his shit together, but that hasn't changed Tony's mood. He sits in the passenger seat next to me, seething. I let him. Now that we're through yelling, he'll start breaking things when it's time to talk again. Right now, all I'll get is sarcasm.

We pull into the driveway, and Tony slams out of the car, but his seatbelt catches in the latch. He rips the door back open, snaps out a knife, and slices the belt to throw it back inside.

"That's going to cost me," I say mildly.

"Seb's funeral is going to fucking cost you." He slams the door again.

I climb out. Tony kicks my garbage can, spilling rotting food onto the lawn I pay handsomely to keep maintained within HOA parameters. An energy drink, one of those stupid fruity things Seb picked up during his brief stint in college, rolls out. He stares at it for a long moment, then sits down on the side of the driveway with a groan. I circle around to sit next to him.

"I called Nonna the other day," he says. "I know we didn't actually have a dinner, but I realized it had been a while. She was furious."

"Nipote idiota," I say in my best impression of his nonna. "You think I'm dead already? Ha! Saint Peter himself will have to take me."

He only shakes his head. "She said she hadn't seen Seb in even longer. He forgot to get lunch with her a couple weeks in a row." Tony sucks in a breath. "She asked if he had a new girl, if she should be finally looking forward to a wedding. I didn't have the heart to tell her he was just a little shit."

I stare out at the cul-de-sac I've built my life on. All these days, these years, in this big empty house. Just me, my staff, and my guys coming in and out. It never felt empty until Eleni arrived.

"But he's my little shit," Tony says.

"And we're gonna get him back," I reply. "If he was dead, Luca would be rubbing our faces in it already. He's valuable."

Tony snorts. "Don't underestimate his ability to talk his way into being too much trouble."

"And out of it again." I stand and hold a hand out to Tony. "We've got teams everywhere, and we run this show. Let's go get drunk and tell Seb stories."

"No." Tony takes my hand. "Let's get drunk. But I'm not eulogizing that little shit 'til I see his body."

I laugh as I pull him up, and we head inside. My chief of staff, Andrea, meets us at the door with a frown.

"Is there a problem?" I pull off my shoes. "If not, we're going to be in my office."

"I'm sorry to give you the news, sir," she says. "But Ms. Calimeris and Ms. Cattaneo are gone. I don't know where."

My stomach drops to my toes. Rage boils in my veins. I can't imagine what would make Eleni do something so goddamn stupid.

"Taken or left?" I hiss.

Andrea doesn't wince. That's why I keep her on. "Left, I believe. Ms. Cattaneo's room shows evidence of a getting-ready process, and the guards report no breach in security."

Luca doesn't have her. Or at least, didn't have her. God only fucking knows what happened when she left here.

"Tell the guards to report to me at shift change. I want to hear this from their own fucking mouths," I say. "And have them start calling around. I want any news."

Andrea nods and leaves. I turn to Tony. My oldest friend, my right hand, stares at me. His brother is missing. Taken because I had him protecting this fucking woman. And now, as soon as I turn my back, she's gone again. The knowledge pulses between us with the silent accusation that I wasted Seb's life.

"What is it about her?" Tony asks quietly.

"I...I don't know," I say honestly.

He grits his teeth and looks away. We have too much history for me to think he'll actually leave me over this, but he's pissed.

"Tell me it's not Christos," he says after a long moment. "Tell me it's her, that there's something I'm not seeing, and I'll fucking figure out how to get right with this. Just as long as it's not you tying yourself in fucking knots."

I'm tired of people asking me about Christos. I'm tired of dreaming about him, as I have since things ignited between El and I upstate.

"It's not about him." I cross my arms. "I swear it on my mother's grave."

He sighs. "Fine. But stop trying to have it both ways, Dante."

"What the fuck do you mean by that?" My heart pounds in my ears, begging me to track down El. I can't leave Tony like this.

"She's your girl, or she isn't." He starts walking away toward my office. "Stop jerking her the fuck around and tell her she is. Maybe then she'll fucking behave. I'll be drunk when you get back."

I blink. I've been holding off on anything official because she doesn't belong in this life. But she keeps choosing it.

Choosing me?

My phone rings, and I snatch it up. "What?"

"Dante, it's Teo."

I exhale sharply. "Tell me you know something about Eleni."

"Thano's got me running ops in the city, so I hear everything."

The pride in his voice makes me see red. I don't crush my phone. Barely.

"So, yes," he says. "One of our best soldiers saw her leaving a club in Manhattan about twenty minutes ago."

"Name of the club," I bark.

"Plush," he says. "But you should know she didn't leave alone. She was with a few Lombardi guys, including one we suspect to be a capo for Luca."

I suck in a breath through my teeth. Rage and panic war. They have her. What the fuck was she doing at a club in the city? If Gianna wanted to go out, she'd go to Piacere.

My skin turns to ice. The two of them would only go to a club in the city if they knew Lombardi men would be there. They don't just have her. They didn't take her. This was premeditated. This was Eleni's plan. "Just Eleni?" I ask.

"The guy didn't recognize anyone else, if that's what you're asking. Just Eleni and the Lombardi guys, all getting into a car."

So Gianna might not even know. She left El to fend for her-fucking-self, after taking her to that fucking club in the first place. There's no way El knew where to go on her own.

A voice in the back of my brain suggests Gianna might be dead. I shove it away. She has to be alive so I can kill her for this.

I hang up on Teo without another word and shove my shoes back on. I have to get to that fucking club. Everything I need is there. Gianna, or the guys Luca left behind, or whatever breadcrumb trail Eleni tried to leave. I storm out to the car, texting and calling capos as I move. I text Tony last, and he doesn't respond.

As I climb into the car, my phone rings again. The screen in my car flashes the caller ID. An unknown number. I grit my teeth and accept the call as I back out of the driveway.

"Long time, no talk," says a familiar voice.