Page 287 of Untamed

“Depends on what?” I ask. “She has nothing to do with this. She’s innocent. Let her go.”

He sighs, almost bored now, as he turns from me and walks toward the tall, shuttered window. His hands clasp behind his back.

“Innocence has nothing to do with it,” he murmurs. “If I let her go now, she’ll go squealing to Ares about where you are and we can’t have that...not yet anyway.” Oh God, I really hope he’s not planning to kill her. “Though I am thankful to her. If it wasn’t for her helping you run, you wouldn’t be standing here right now.”

I move to follow, stopping just short of his back. “If you hurt her?—”

He turns sharply, his gaze cutting through me like a blade.

“I didn’t bring you here to negotiate,” he says, all softness gone. “Bianca’s fate rests entirely in your hands now. Comply, and she lives in comfort. I might even consider letting her go. Resist… and I’ll make sure her screams echo through these halls every night.”

I freeze.

“You’re evil. A goddamn parasite in a suit.” I utter in disdain.

“I’m a man in love,” he replies with a smile that sends a cascade of needles down my spine. “And I’m willing to do anything to keep what I love.”

He’s talking about love like he knows a damn thing about me. This isn’t love. It’s a sick obsession.

I can feel you, Ares, like a storm building on the edge of the world. This place, this prison… it won’t hold. Not when you’re coming for me.

The night reeks of blood.

Not mine.Not yet.

But it will be. Before this is over, I’ll drown this fucking world in it if that’s what it takes to get her back.

My knuckles are split. Again. I don’t remember the punch that did it. Don’t care. The pain helps me focus, keeps the red from blinding me.

“Dante, talk to me.”

Dante’s voice cuts through the silence like a blade. “Still nothing from the mole. But we’re close with the surveillance.”

Close isn’t good enough.

She’s out there, pregnant and scared. Abducted by a man who doesn’t deserve to breathe.

And I can feel her. Somewhere out there in the dark, she’s waiting. Her heart calling out for me to find her.

And I swear to God, if Nicolai lays a hand on her, I’ll tear him apart with my bare hands, piece by piece.

The man whimpers at my feet, blood dripping from his mouth, his breathing sharp and wet. I crouch beside him, not gently. My tone is a whisper dragged through gravel.

“Dove cazzo la sta tenendo?”Where the fuck is he keeping her?

His head lolls. His left eye is already swollen shut. The other flicks to Dante behind me, silent, watching, fingers dancing across the tablet in his hands as surveillance footage flickers across the screen.

“I-io non lo so...” the bastard stammers.

I grab his face, thumb pressing into the mess of his cheekbone until he screams. “Try again.”

A new feed loads with a soft chime behind me. Dante doesn’t look up. “I’ve got something. Cameras caught the SUV heading south out of Messina. But I don’t think that’s where they are. It’s too clean. Too obvious and Nicolai is smarter than that.”

“A burner dump?”

He nods. “Most likely. My guess is they planted it there to throw us off. Made it look like they were headed for Syracuse or the southeastern coast. But I dug deeper.”

He swipes, revealing a different route. “The real movement? It’s inland. I think they took them west, through the interior, through Enna or somewhere even more remote. Somewhere with no traffic, no eyes.”

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