Page 225 of Kissing the Villain

“Check again,” Marcello said.

Bastian and Damian strolled across the blacktop toward us. Damian raked a hand through his hair and yawned.

“Go do a line if you’re that fucking tired,” I told him.

He waved me off. “I’m good. Just haven’t been sleeping.”

“Kali keeps us busy,” Bastian finished for him.

I didn’t care enough to ask what was happening with Kali Marx. Since our senior year of high school, the two assholes had been sharing the senator’s daughter like a toy. Alex was my obsession, and they had theirs.

“I hope you told Kali to stay home,” Marcello told Bastian.

“Yeah. Kali won’t get in the way. She knows better.”

Like Alex, Kali was good at running away. Whenever shit got tough, she bailed on my brothers. No matter how much she fought them, they wanted her more.

I understood that shit on a whole other level because of Alex. She could do the worst thing imaginable—like run away andalmost get herself killed by international criminals—and I would still want her.

I had every plan to spank her ass for putting herself in danger. She would feel my wrath for defying me. But first, I had to find her.

“We’re chasing the wrong lead,” I said to Drake. “Pull up the feeds again.”

Drake gripped the iPad and paged through the screens of security footage. I shifted my weight to calm my nerves, doing my best not to let anyone see how much Alex’s kidnapping affected me.

I considered myself a patient man. I’d waited years for Alex and had to exercise the same patience. One wrong move and I would never see her again.

“Cello,” Sonny yelled from the lawn.

Sonny had a thing with nicknames. He knew better than to give me one.

Marcello turned his head. “Got anything new?”

“I almost missed it.” Sonny groaned as he approached us. “I was looking for unusual travel patterns. They planned this. I double-checked with the harbormaster in Beacon Bay. He said a small vessel left the port at its regularly scheduled time. We were looking for irregularities, not already scheduled trips.”

Sonny’s family owned the largest shipping company in the world. No one knew more about traveling by water than Sonny.

“Spit it out,” I growled.

He narrowed his eyes at me, looking as tired as the rest of us. His short blond hair was messy and falling into his eyes. “They’re traveling by sea.”

“Not possible,” Drake spat back. “I followed the Mercedes van to the Lincoln Tunnel.”

“Do the math, Drake.” Sonny shook his head. “There’s no way they could have gotten from Devil’s Creek to the LincolnTunnel that quickly. The van must have been a decoy to throw us off. Somehow, they moved Alex by boat and without raising suspicions.”

I tipped my head. “Do you have a lead?”

Sonny nodded. “They stopped at Mystic Harbor.”

“Drake, find them,” I ordered.

His fingers glided across the iPad. “I’m on it.”

A few seconds later, Drake shoved the screen in my face. Two men wearing dark shirts and pants carried a drugged Alex off a boat. Another two men followed. They dumped her on the dock, bound and gagged. She looked conscious, her eyes slightly open as she struggled against her restraints.

One man answered a phone call. The group exchanged words, then a tall man with black hair dumped Alex into the trunk of a black sedan.

I pointed at a dark-haired man on the screen. He dressed in a black suit and had a tattoo on his neck. “I know him. He’s Cal Kurti’s bodyguard.”

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