“It was more that we realized she wasn’t in Boston. All trace of her was gone. No cell phone use. No debit or credit cardtransactions. Rina wasn’t showing up in classes, or on campus, or at her apartment. Her name wasn’t on any plane manifests. She hadn’t booked tickets on any trains or buses out of the city. I have more than enough hackers on my payroll to get through every frame of security footage a city like Boston has, and Rina wasn’t on any of it. So, she was either dead or had been taken. Two horrible options, but I was praying like hell for the second one because then at least she might still be alive. After months of picking my way through the rank-and-file scum of New England, I finally found the lead that brought me to Chicago.”
“And to my uncle.” If one of us is going to say it, it’s going to be me.
Alik pauses. The desk is between us again. Over it, he locks eyes with me and for a heartbeat it feels like we’re back in Rocco’s basement, where everything is dank and dark and cruel.
“He locked her in one of his cells, didn’t he?”
“For several months.Da.”
I start to stand, propelled to touch him, to help him in some way, but Alik turns, blocking me from the turmoil tearing up his face. “Oh, Alik. I’m so sorry.”
“No, don’t.” A tremor tugs the muscles in his back. “Don’t apologize for anything that monster did. You’re not to blame.”
“I’m not trying to take any of Rocco’s blame, trust me. He deserves every bad thing that’s coming to him for what he’s done to Rina, to me, to all the women before us. I’m just…” I move to him slowly but not silently. He’s hunched, curled around his pain, an apex predator even more dangerous when wounded. When I lay a hand on his back, the muscles beneath his sweater feel like newly forged iron, hard and scalding. “I’m sorry for what she went through. For what you and your family went through. For the pain you’re still feeling. I’m just sorry.”
Alik doesn’t move, doesn’t say a word. I hold my breath, waiting for him to push me away. I give a startled squeak when,instead, he whips around and pulls me into a crushing hug. Alik tucks his face against my neck, and I wrap my arms around his waist. We hang on to each other, keeping the other upright as we grapple with all the damage my family has caused.
When Alik lifts his head, his eyes are more focused, clearer. There’s a dangerous glint to the blue as he starts to unwind my hair from the top of my head. “From the time she vanished, it took me almost a year to tie my sister’s disappearance to Rocco Pagano. Several more months to figure out how to infiltrate his organization. The entire time, I was hunting for evidence that Rina might still be alive. But the more time that passed, the more honest I needed to be with myself, with my family. We have too many contacts, too many ways of finding people for me to avoid the truth. Rina is dead. I know it in my head and in my heart. Rocco Pagano trafficked her, sold her, and the person who bought her killed her once they were done with her.”
A deadly calm has fallen over him, his attention fixed on the rope of hair he’s uncoiling. It hits my waist when it finishes unraveling. It’s still damp from the shower and Alik becomes transfixed with running his fingers through the thick strands. “You confirmed all that after you started working for Rocco?”
“Da.”He nods. “I would’ve killed him as soon as I learned he was tied to my sister’s disappearance.Should’vekilled him. But Rina’s life didn’t end by Rocco’s hands. I needed to find out from Rocco who bought her, who held her, who killed her. And I needed to get the information in a way that wouldn’t send the fucker deep into hiding. Joining the ranks of Rocco’s thugs and working my way into his inner circle was the best chance I had for getting the information I needed. For making sure I could make them pay for what they did to my sister.”
“But—” I grip one of Alik’s hands where it’s hovering by my side, twisted deep into my hair. “Did you have all the intel you needed when you took me from my uncle?”
Alik doesn’t flinch when he says, “No.”
“What you said that day when I woke up in your apartment, about having to deal with the consequences of taking me from Rocco’s—did you save me at the expense of the information you needed?”
“Yes.”
Cazzo. I want to squirm out of his grip, but Alik has me good and captured. “But Rocco didn’t die that night. You’ve been interrogating him. Have you gotten the answers you were looking for?”
He’s watching me, eyes electric as he twirls my hair and nods. “With some persuasion, Rocco was kind enough to tip me off about the club and the men I might find there.”
The uneasy feeling that’s been swimming through my stomach does a few somersaults, churning up a fresh wave of dread. “And tonight—did you find what you were looking for before, um…”
“Before I had to shoot our way out and reveal that I wasn’t there to buy a virgin plaything like rest of those fuckers?”
“Oh, no.” I bury my face in my hands, overcome with guilt. “I fucked it up, didn’t I? Tell me—how much did I fuck it up?”
“On a scale of one to ten? I’d say a solid fifty.”
25
SERA
Irisk a glance at Alik. He’s too close to avoid, a few inches of air all that separate us. His expression is open, honest, but definitely not happy. “I’m sorry.”
“I know you didn’t do it on purpose.”
“How bad is it? Tell me.”
He settles his free hand on my hip and gently guides me backward until my ass hits his desk. He’s still wrapping the lengths of my hair around his other fist, winding and unwinding, over and over again, like it’s become some sort of meditation. “During my last few chats with your uncle, he gave me the name of the man who bought my sister at auction. An Albanian called Burim Shkodra. And, as it happens, Shkodra is back in town to attend another auction that your uncle was organizing in partnership with a second man, one of the assholes you saw standing on the stairs tonight. The one you already know?—”
“Renzo di Salvo.”
“Exactly.” Alik coasts his free hand up and over my chest until he finds the zipper on my hoodie. He thumbs the metal tab, brushing the underside of my chin in the process, makingmy nerve endings misfire. “Tonight was my chance to get to Shkodra and di Salvo before the auction, on their own turf, where they feel safe and where I could isolate them from their security, where I had a better chance of bleeding the information I needed from them and then killing them before they could destroy anyone else’s lives and families.”