Page 3 of Mafia Darling

He didn’t respond.

I drummed my fingers on the desk and sipped my cocktail. When I drank, my thoughts frequently drifted back to her, even when I tried to prevent it.

She’d made a fool of me. I’d mooned over her like a lovesick teenager with his first taste of pussy. All the while she’d been keeping a secret from me, one that could destroy everything I’d built. I would never forgive her.

I narrowed my gaze on my cousin. “Why don’t you take the rest of the day off?”

“I’m fine where I am.”

He was babysitting me, like I was a toddler. I didn’t like it. “Marco—” My phone lit up and Giulio’s name appeared on the screen. I hadn’t seen him since our argument.

Swiping to answer, I held the phone up to my ear. “Pronto.”

“She’s not here.”

I heard the panic before I understood the words. Straightening in my chair, I immediately put it on the speaker so Marco could hear. “What do you mean? Where is she?”

“The house, it’s empty. No Frankie, no guards.”

Marco and I exchanged a look. What the fuck? Had she run?

Or had something terrible happened instead?

My chest seized, my heart suddenly forgetting how to function, and I got to my feet.Marco began dialing on his phone, probably trying to reach the men I had stationed at the beach house, but I remained focused on my son. “Show me,” I barked.

Giulio turned on the video and I saw he was in the kitchen, a gun in his other hand. “When I got here,” he explained, “the back door was open. I found Sal out cold in the pantry.”

He showed me Sal, pale and lifeless on the ground. “Is he dead?” I snapped.

“He’s alive,” my son said. “There’s a syringe next to him on the floor.”

“Where is she?” I shouted, yanking at the knot of my tie with one hand to loosen it. Had Francesca somehow drugged Sal and then escaped?

No matter what happens, I will leave here. Somehow, some way, I will get away from you.

“Search every inch of that house. I am on my way.” I hung up and started across the room.

Marco held up a hand, talking rapidly on his phone. He grabbed my arm to stop me as I passed. “She left for a walk on the beach. Nothing out of the ordinary. Sal stayed behind at first, then went after her. Vic is watching the camera footage now.”

I sprinted out the door and down the corridor. The security room was in the east section of the castello, and I ran there like a madman.

Vic was at the desk, a wall of screens in front of him. He was our best tech guy, a hacker, with skills that we put to use all over the globe. His gaze was locked on the screen with Sal in the chair at the beach house, his eyes tracking something on the beach. Francesca.

“She’s been gone for about ten minutes,” Vic said, moving the video forward. “Sal watches her and then gets up to follow.”

“Why weren’t you on the cameras today?” I snarled. “How the fuck did this happen?”

He swallowed but didn’t meet my eye, his attention still on the screen. “I’m sorry, Don Ravazzani. I was working on a security update. I wasn’t paying close attention to the cameras.” On the monitor a dark shape crept into the kitchen—a man carrying Sal over his shoulder.

“Who is that?” I leaned in and watched as a man in a black mask tossed Sal into the pantry. A few seconds later another camera caught him leaving. Was this someone she’d hired to help her? Or was it one of my enemies? “Is she still on the beach? Can we get the CCTV footage?”

Vic shifted to a laptop and began typing. “It might take some time.”

I pounded my fist on the desk. “There is no time. You’re supposed to be this tech genius. So find those fucking cameras. I need to know what happened to her—”

“Rav.” Marco held out his phone in front of my face. “You should take this.”

“Not now.”

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