Page 51 of The Sicilian Bastard
"Who rented the vehicle?" My men would've told me the information as soon as they had it all. Nicolo's men were sorely lacking.
"A Reuben Castillo," the soldier told me as soon as he found the information, which only took him an additional five minutes. Five minutes that my Araceli was getting pulled farther and farther from me.
I let off a slew of curse words at the news. I should've known this was going to happen. Araceli didn't have anyone. She thought I abandoned her. Of course, she would go back to the cartel. With no home, no job, no family, she had nothing to live for. I sent her away. I fucking did this. I stormed back into the compound, ready to go to war. Agosto tried to flag me down, but one dark look and he was speed dialing Vito. This was it. I was done. They took my woman away from me. It didn't matter to me that I threw her their way. It didn't matter that she thought I hated her. It didn't matter the lies I slung at her. Araceli Castillo was my woman. She was fierce and loving. She was beautiful and sweet. She was mine. Mine to throw away. Mine to pick back up. Mine to fuck. Mine to keep. Mine. She loved me and I loved her. She was my queen and I was going to get her back. I would never let the Castillo cartel keep her. They didn't deserve her. I may have said nasty words to her, but I never tried to kill her. Maybe a little dark play, but I always treasured her. I saw exactly what she needed someone to see. She had loyalty. She was in this life. She wasn't my enemy. I think those words broke her.
If I hadn't had her investigated, I never would've found out she tried to turn on her crew. If I didn't know about the FBI, I wouldn't have been able to hurt her with those words. The problem was I couldn't figure out why she had gone to them when she did. At that point, she had been used and abused for years. Something wasn't adding up. Once I got her back, I could ask. She probably remembered, but even if she didn't, we would be fine. She didn't need to remember who Araceli Castillo was. I could fix what I broke, though. I had to. I just needed to find her.
Luckily, I was paranoid as fuck. I had tracking on her phone, in case. Since she went to the cartel willingly, I was hoping they wouldn't take it from her. Even if they did, I would hire a hacker. I would hack surveillance in the city until we found her. I would track her around the world. There was nowhere she could hide from me. Her phone was already moving across the country. They had her on a plane. Fuck. She had been with them a while then. I had a horrible premonition that my girl wasn't safe. They had her and they were probably using her. They were alone with her, knowing there was a death sentence hanging over her head. The only reason she wasn't dead was because of us. El jefe would probably want a report on us, as much intel as he could get his hands on. He would torture her for it. I'd seen some of his victims. He enjoyed torturing and killing women. I didn't. I would kill a woman, but there wouldn't be that much enjoyment out of it. Especially now. Now that I had met my woman. She changed my way of thinking. She changed my outlook. I was still a sadistic bastard, but I could be gentle for her. I wanted to be gentle with her. She was in the wrong hands. They could be doing anything to her. They could be using my precious girl's body. My thoughts were relentless. I envisioned my angel strung in the streets with blood dripping from everywhere. I could see them laying her in a coffin and letting the rats eat at her body. They would probably pull off all her fingernails and use different objects inside her body. I shuddered just thinking of the multitude of violations she would suffer if I wasn't in time. Every horrible act the mafia was involved in ran through my head. I could get her back more broken than when she left. At least I'd get her back, though.
My phone pinged, updating every few minutes on her location.
"Vito is on his way," Agosto called from the doorway.
"I'm coming, baby. I'm coming to get you," I vowed to the dot on my phone. Once I had her, I would never letmia fiorego ever again. That was a vow I'd keep even from the grave.
