Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Marco was exhausted when he walked into work the next morning. He'd spent the entire night pacing his apartment, trying to figure out what the fuck to do. One thing was for sure—he'd find Roselia and rescue her if it was the last thing he did on earth.

He'd already failed one woman in his life, and she was dead. After nearly two decades of guilt, misery, and loneliness, he'd finally opened his heart to another woman. He would not fail her.

Calling the cops had seemed like the wrong thing to do. There was no way he could have gone to them in person, and what the fuck would the cops do? Take a report, file it away with all the other possible runaways, and forget it.

Nope. Marco was going to have to find Roselia on his own, and he damn well intended to.

The first question he had was why the fuck would Santo have Roselia kidnapped? Marco had no doubt his boss was behind Roselia's disappearance. Santo had miscalculated, though. He hadn't paid attention. Or maybe that just meant Marco had hidden his interest better than he'd thought. Santo had no clue Marco'd had his eye on her.

Marco knew Santo better than anyone. He'd worked next to the man for fifteen years. He'd been singularly focused, though. He should have paid closer attention to Santo's extracurricular activities. Was the man trafficking women on the side?

There was no other logical explanation. Marco had taken all night to reach this conclusion. After all, Roselia was young, gorgeous, and had no connections. She was an easy target, especially since her mother's death.

Today, his life was taking a right turn. He wouldn't rest until he found his girl. It didn't even matter if she wasn't interested in him. He could live with that. She was too sweet, pure, and innocent to let her soul be destroyed.

The question was, could he find her before she was so badly damaged that nothing was left of her mind? Had that possibly happened already? She'd been gone three days. Was she even in Denver? Had she already been sold and resold and perhaps taken out of the country?

Marco wanted to scream at the injustice. He wanted to grab his boss by the neck and strangle him, demand he tell Marco where she was, and then let his life force run out of him anyway.

He wouldn't do that, though. He needed to play his hand carefully or risk losing her forever.

So many questions. Why the fuck would Santo get involved in selling someone to traffickers? He had more money than God. Why would he need to pick up a few thousand selling a woman?

In all likelihood, Santo hadn't actually done anything himself. He rarely left the estate, and he wouldn't have risked being seen in Roselia's neighborhood, let alone her apartment building—which meant he'd told someone where she'd lived and sent them to abduct her.

Marco had asked himself over and over if there was any chance Santo was innocent, and the answer always came back no . The fucking piece of shit had done this. If he hadn't, he would have told Marco she simply hadn't shown up for work. He wouldn't have lied and said she'd quit. That was his biggest mistake. How many other mistakes had the man made?

Marco sincerely hoped he'd made plenty because Marco intended to dig into every fucking aspect of his boss's life until he turned every stone. The man hadn't sold just one girl to traffickers for a few bucks. Not a chance.

Reminding himself to play it cool, Marco arrived at his office at the same time he did every day of the week. Eight sharp. He worked ten hours a day most days, and he hadn't given a fuck until now. He'd had no life outside of work.

After fifteen years of working as Santo's right-hand man, managing everything from finances to security, Marco was kicking himself for not paying closer attention to Santo's side interests. Marco had been singularly focused, and he was paying the price.

To most people, Marco knew he looked like a glorified assistant, someone who kissed the boss's ass regularly, came early, stayed late, gave up weekends and holidays, and devoted his world to his boss like a dog.

They'd be right. That's exactly what Marco had intentionally projected, and he needed to continue to excel at doing so until he could find Roselia. Failure was not an option.

It was time to start digging into his boss's other ventures. Lord knew Marco had the skills to do so. He would find his girl if it was the last thing he did.