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True, we are, but none of this makes sense. Why is Mario coming to me?
“Why haven’t you had Scarlett hunt her down?”
Mario scowls, eyes flashing. “I want this girl brought back alive, not dead,” he snaps.
Fair point. I hold my hand out to Edo, and he wordlessly hands me the stack of photographs. “What’s in it for me?” I ask casually as I start to flip through the photos. “This will be a lot of manpower, Mario. It’s costly.”
“If you find this girl and bring her back alive, you’ll get a ten percent cut of her sale.”
“Thirty,” I shoot back.
“Twenty,” Mario retorts.
“Twenty-five.”
“Deal.” We shake hands, preferring to handle situations like these with a gentleman’s agreement.
“This girl must be important if you’re coming to me,” I say idly, looking at a picture of a shitty house and a bakery.
Mario shifts in his seat. “Very important. She will be our highest priced artifact.”
I raise a brow as I flip to another photo. A girl stands in profile, unaware that she’s being photographed. Her long, curly brown hair is clipped back, showcasing a slender neck.
She looks familiar.
“Any reason?” I ask.
Uncle Vinny cuts in. “Unimportant. She just needs to be found as soon as possible.”
“Should be easy. The girl’s running scared. She’ll make mistakes. Tell me—what is her name?” I flip to another photo. This time, the girl is looking straight ahead. Her hair cascades down her back, and her hazel eyes are wide as she stares at something in the distance.
My heart drops to my feet. I now know why this girl looks so familiar.
It’s because she’s currently locked up at my house.
“Her name is Alexis,” Mario says. “Alexis Hartley.”
6
ALEXIS
Ido my best to prevent this woman—Nat, I think—from dragging me to another room, but she’s much stronger than me and basically carries me to my new prison like I’m a sack of flour.
She dumps me unceremoniously on the carpet and stalks toward the door.
“Please don’t lock me in here,” I beg. “Please let me go. I won’t tell anyone. I swear.”
Nat pauses at the doorway and turns her head slightly. “You don’t get to leave until the Don says you can. I’ll be back later with some food.”
With that, she shuts the door. I can hear a click as the lock turns into place, and then Nat’s footsteps fade away.
Rushing to the door, I pound on it, my knuckles becoming raw and red. “Somebody help me!” I scream. “Please! Let me out!”
Only silence answers my pleas.
I curl up into a little ball, fighting back the terror that’s threatening to claw its way out of me. I had managed to escape one captor, only to fall into the arms of another.
But I had gotten out of the Carter home. Which means I can get out of here, too.
