Page 13 of Angelo's Vengeance

I reached for the phone, swiping it off the nightstand and putting it on speaker as I rolled onto my back. My ribs protested the movement. “What’s up?” My voice was thick with exhaustion, my brain still sluggish from too little sleep and too much scotch.

“Theo’s been snatched.”

That did it.

I bolted upright, the words hitting me like a freight train. My breath rushed out of my lungs, and my fingers tightened around the phone. My mind raced, shaking off the last remnants of sleep.

“I thought you had eyes? You said you had people there?” I shoved the sheets aside and swung my legs over the edge of the bed, pressing the heel of my hand to my temple to force myself fully awake. I hit the speaker button and tossed the phone onto the dresser as I yanked open a drawer, searching for clean clothes.

“We did,” Ilias snapped, frustration evident in his voice. “It hasn’t been close protection. They’ve always watched from a distance.” I yanked on a pair of black slacks, my mind racing a thousand miles an hour. I wanted to interject and complain about hissecurity, but I kept my mouth shut. “She was supposed to be meeting a designer. The place was poorly lit, with no cameras.”

“What do we know?Anything?” I pulled a black shirt over my head, not bothering to check for wrinkles.

“They had transpo outside. They knew what they were doing, in and out, in under two minutes. My guy outside barely caught a glimpse before they vanished.”

“Who the fuck is responsible? What about the designer she was meeting?” My voice rising.

Silence. A beat too long.

“Kostas is on it, but he’s already contacted Theo’s assistant to find out what she knows.” A feeling rose up in me that I didn’t like — unfamiliar and conflicted. “Bassimo something or other, but he’s been in the States working in California on some movie. It was a set-up. I don’t know,” Ilias admitted, and the fury in his voice mirrored my own. “She met a woman, but the servers didn’t get a good look. I’ll find out more.”

“No,” I snapped, shoving my feet into my shoes. “I’ll find out.”

Theo was mine to deal with. Mine to bringback. My stomach twisted at the thought of her in some bastard’s hands, scared, alone, or worse—no, I wouldn’t go there.

“I’m getting on a plane,” I said, grabbing my keys and sliding my gun into its holster. “I’ll call you when I land.”

Ilias exhaled sharply but didn’t argue. “I’m coming with you.”

I was already on the move, firing off texts to my men, Maxim, and Conall. “Meet me at the airstrip then.”

CHAPTER 10

ANGELO

Angelo

The private jet hummed with restrained tension as I stepped inside, my jaw clenched so tightly it ached. The bruises along my ribs protested every movement, but I ignored the discomfort. Ilias was already there, sitting at the round table in the main cabin, a whiskey glass untouched before him. His dark eyes flicked up when I entered, filled with an emotion I recognized all too well—rage restrained by necessity.

Theodosia’s brothers, Kostas and Vaso, were already seated, both statues of barely contained aggression. Their presence alone made it clear just how serious this was. The plane was already stacked with men—soldiersfrom each of our respective organizations, who sat in stony silence, waiting for the actual discussion to begin.

My brother Remo and my consigliere, Bacco, climbed the stairs behind me. We’d driven straight here, quickly gathering what we thought we’d need, although I was certain Ilias was setting us up on the ground once we arrived.

“The captain said we’ll be airborne in five minutes, sir,” a flight attendant remarked as she secured the door. Ilias nodded in response.

Slumping in the chair, I exhaled, “What do we have?”

Ilias leaned forward, his hands clasped together. “Not enough. Kostas has been working leads, but whoever took Theo was precise. There were no unnecessary moves and no witnesses who saw anything useful. The people at the restaurant who saw Theo seemed more focused on her than on who she was meeting. This wasn’t some random grab—it was calculated.”

That wasn’t surprising to me. Theo was someone who grabbed your attention. A hurricane wrapped in silk, spinning through life without a care for the wreckage she leftbehind. Not only did she tend to dress herself like she either farted a rainbow or was colorblind, but she radiated joy. It made it so you couldn’t look away. Still, she was an Anthakos. Theo had connections that were undeniable. There was no way this was random, and we all knew it.

Bacco scoffed as he crossed his arms. “There has to be something. There is always something. I can’t believe your men on the ground let her get kidnapped.”

Bacco was old-school. He hadn’t thought much about my decision not to marry right away, but he was wise enough to keep his mouth shut, or I would have shut it for him. Bacco had been my consigliere/enforcer long enough to understand my views on specific hot topics. We had talked about it until I told him to shut his trap. He had also advised me against letting Theo wander off to Europe without protection. Technically, she was to be my wife — the wife of the Santelli Don — and she shouldn’t go anywhere without a ring on her finger or a detail. Bacco mentioned during the ride over that it would never have happened if we’d been on top of this. Hewasn’t wrong, and that pissed me off. I didn’t like being told that I fucked up.

Guilt didn’t feel good. Theo might be a hurricane, but she wasmydamn hurricane, and she was my responsibility — something I had obviously forgotten. My feelings about the blood oath might be conflicted, but that didn’t mean I was a monster. Theo was Ilias’s sister and Frankie’s friend. I didn’t want anything to happen to her.

“She’s been there a year and has been protected. They’ve been doing their jobs,” Vaso ground out, his face reddening in anger at Bacco’s implication that they hadn’t protected her. “Like you did anything to help,” he sneered.

---