Page 5 of Pretty Lies

I shake him off, dislodging my shirt from his fist before dropping my gun on the couch. I bite back the words my anger wants me to say and remind myself that this guy is not only my boss or a mafia man, but also my closest friend outside of Luce.

“Perdonami.”

I drop back down onto the sofa and turn my laptop toward him. He nods to his guys before they clear out of my apartment, then sits beside me.

“I was looking through Maxine’s credit card transactions to see if maybe she did a withdrawal somewhere around a security camera; a convenience store, ATM, bank teller, anywhere that has cameras I can access. Then this came up.”

He scrolls to the beginning of the month, noticing Maxine’s normal pattern of purchases and direct deposits from her job, until it goes completely quiet, bar the hotel booking.

“You think Alan used her card to book a room?” Drake asks quietly.

“That’s what I thought too, or still do…fuck I don’t even know.” I reply completely exasperated before standing and pacing, “It makes no sense, Drake. It’s as though I have all the pieces of the puzzle scattered in front of me, but none of the sides fit.”

Drake stands and steps in front of me, stopping me from my manic pacing.

“You’re not making any sense, Gio. Calm down and start at the beginning.”

“I called the hotel, acting like my father, and found out that the room isn’t under his, Lexi, or Maxine’s name. It’s under my mother’s name.”

His brows raise, “Your biological mother? I thought you said she left when you were a kid because Alan is a tiny dick man with all the charm of a rabid dog.”

Normally I’d laugh, but I’m too fucked right now to even conjure a scoff. “She did leave. She never reached out either, so why the fuck is her name on the booking? What am I missing?”

Drake sighs before sitting once more and sending out a text on his phone.

“What you’re missing is sleep, fratello. If you don’t get some soon, you’ll be no good to Lexi. Now tell me your mother’s name so we can get that room number and pay them both a little visit.”

“Elena Vaccari, but her maiden name is Donatello. The last my father ever spoke of her was to tell me she moved to Sicily to be with her family. I don’t know anything about her after that.”

Drake types out his message—most likely to his brother, Nico—before looking up at me with his brows furrowed.

“Next to Nico, you’re the best hacker I know. How is it that you never looked into her, tried to find her, and bug out like she did?”

I drop back down onto the couch and continue scrolling through everything I have on the screen as I answer.

“I did basic searches before I learned how to do what I do, but I never found anything. By the time I had the knowledge and resources to really find her, I gave up on my mother and put all my effort into getting Lexi out. Elena left me a long time ago, and the boy who loved his mother died. All I give a fuck about now is Lexi, and if my mother is involved in her kidnapping…”

I trail off, not wanting to voice the venomous words on my tongue, the sting of my mother leaving me, and possibly betraying me even now is more than I can handle.

“We’ll cross that shit bridge when we get to it. Alan will die, that’s without question, but you know women are off-limits.”

I open my mouth, unsure if I intend to agree or not, but Drake shakes his head, “There are worse things than death, G. Killing a woman is off-fucking-limits unless there’s no other choice.”

Drake gets a call, his dialect changing as he speaks Italian, but I tune him out and concentrate on hacking the security feeds from the Marionette hotel. They’re an upscale hotel and cater to the rich and famous, they’re the kind of hotel that will use the internet for security and that’s exactly what I need.

I locate the hotel’s IP address and run a program that will attack the router like a virus while simultaneously trying different passwords until it finds the correct one. The virus attack will open up to the entire security system, giving me access to every CCTV camera connected to it.

Once I have everything running, I stand and jog to the bedroom, ripping off my shirt and jeans before changing into fresh clothes. I spot one of Lexi’s sleeping shirts draped over the foot of the bed, beckoning me to it. I lift it to my nose, my eyes closing as I take in her floral scent; all the flowers I couldn’t even begin to name invade my senses, but the one that stands out is Lexi’s favorite, Lilium.

“I’ll find you, Lexi,” I whisper before stuffing her shirt into my pillowcase, silently begging that the scent doesn’t fade before pulling on my leather jacket, lacing up my boots, and going back out into the living room where Drake ends his call.

“That was the nurse down at Saint Luke’s.” he tells me seriously, making my stomach sink. “We need to get down there before Luce kills someone.”

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