20. Damian

20

The night's stillness is shattered by a frantic pounding on my door. I startle awake, my heart pounding as I glance at the clock—six a.m.

"What the fuck?" I growl, throwing off the covers, snatching the gun that always sits on my nightstand and stumbling to my door, my eyelids still heavy. There had better be a goddamn good reason I'm being woken up so goddamn early. I had barely gotten to sleep before this.

The door bursts open before I even have a chance to open it and Edo rushes in, white as a sheet, his whole body trembling with shock.

My mouth suddenly dries. The last time I saw Edo this rattled, it was when my parents and sister were murdered. "What the fuck is going on, Edo?" I demand, my heart racing.

"It's Alexis," he gasps, his eyes wide. "She's gone."

Those words snap me fully awake. "What do you mean, she's gone, Edoardo?" I ask, my voice rising in pitch.

Before Edo has a chance to respond, I'm pushing past him and racing down the hallway. I slam against the door, growling as I remember she locked it. Fuck this shit. I should have done this last night when she refused to talk to me.

I kick down the door, and it breaks, falling down with an almighty crash. Stepping into the cold room, my worst fears are confirmed. The window is open, a rope ladder swaying in the cool morning breeze. On the dresser sits a folded note, a pen acting as a paperweight.

With trembling hands, I snatch up the note and unfold it, my eyes rapidly scanning the words.

A torrent of emotions surges through me—devastation, fury, and fear for her safety. I crumple the note in my fist, my jaw clenched.

"Edo, get everyone up!" I bark. "I want a full manhunt for Alexis. She's to be brought back immediately, no questions asked."

Edo roars out orders and the house springs into action. Nat storms into the room, her eyes blazing.

"This is your fucking fault," she spits, getting in my face. "If you had been fucking honest with her from the beginning and hadn't allowed that fucking bitch to nearly kill her, she wouldn't have felt the need to escape!"

The crumpled note falls from my trembling fist as the full weight of Alexis's disappearance crashes over me. My chest heaves with ragged breaths, a vein pulsing at my temple as white-hot fury courses through my veins.

I don't fucking need a lecture from my sister.

"Shut the fuck up, Nat!" I roar, whirling on her. My hands clench into white-knuckled fists, aching to lash out and destroy something. "You think I wanted this? You think I didn't do everything to keep her safe?"

Nat stands her ground, eyes blazing with righteous anger. "Safe?" she spits. "You call taking her out—when Edo TOLD YOU NOT TO—and running into Scarlett, who fucking tries to attack her, and then you do nothing to protect her, safe? No wonder she ran!"

"I was protecting her!" My voice cracks with raw emotion. I rake my hands through my disheveled hair, my heart pounding a frantic staccato in my chest. Images of Alexis alone, cold, frightened, assail my mind, each one more terrifying than the last. My breath catches as another image of Alexis being captured by The Brotherhood and sold to an unnamed pervert runs through my mind.

I want to vomit.

Nat's derisive snort snaps my focus back. "From what? Your obsessive need to control her? You're so fucking selfish, thinking only about yourself and not what's best for the woman who is being fucking hunted down by The Brotherhood to be sold. You're no better than her fucking foster parents."

I lunge forward, hands outstretched as if to wrap around her throat. But Edo quickly steps between us, his bulky arms straining to hold me back.

"Damian, this isn't fucking helping! We need to focus on finding Alexis. Stop fucking fighting with Nat!"

The ringing of my phone cuts through the tension like a knife. I wrench free of Edo's grasp, breathing heavily while glaring at my sister, and snatch it up, my uncle's name flashing on the screen.

What the fuck does Uncle Vinny want so early in the goddamn morning?

"What?" I snarl, clenching the phone so tightly my knuckles turn white.

"Is that how you talk to your uncle?" Uncle Vinny's gruff voice filters through the phone. "Mario's getting antsy. Wants to know how the search for Alexis Hartley is going."

A muscle ticks in my jaw as I fight to keep my tone even. This is what he goddamn called for? A fucking text would have sufficed.

"I've got more important things to deal with right now than trying to find a fucking ghost."

There's a pause on the other end before Uncle Vinny speaks again. "That's interesting because Scarlett said she had dinner with you and your cousin, Maria, last night."

My heart plummets into my stomach. Oh, God. I never should have taken Alexis out. I swallow hard. "Maria's a cousin."

"Is that so?" Uncle Vinny's tone makes it clear he doesn't believe a word I'm saying. "Funny, I don't recall any Marias in the Iacopelli family fitting that description. Scarlett said she has short black hair, a real ugly thing."

Irritation courses through me at Scarlett's description of Alexis. Of course the vain bitch would play down Alexis's looks just to make herself look better.

"She's a cousin on my mother's side," I remark coolly, ignoring Nat and Edo's wide-eyed stares.

The line crackles with irritation as Uncle Vinny's voice takes on a sharper edge. "You listen to me, Damian. I don't give a shit about your wop cousin, Maria, or whatever game you're running here."

I bristle at my uncle's dismissive tone, anger flaring hot in my chest. I open my mouth to protest, but Vinny bulldozes on, his words laced with venom.

"Mario's been riding my ass about this Alexis Hartley situation for weeks now. He wants updates, he wants results, and frankly, I'm running outta excuses to give him." My uncle's gravelly timbre descends into a threatening growl. "You get your head out of your ass and find that girl before this whole clusterfuck blows up in our faces. Capisce?"

The line goes dead, leaving me staring at my phone in bewildered fury. I look up at Nat and Edo's questioning stares, my brow furrowed in consternation.

"Seriously, what is his fucking deal with Alexis?" I mutter, mostly to myself. "Since when does Vinny take orders from Mario Rafa? And how the hell does he know so much about what's going on here?"

Running a frustrated hand through my hair, I pace the room in agitation. "I don't give a flying fuck what Mario wants right now. Alexis is my priority." I wheel on Nat and Edo, eyes blazing with renewed determination. "We find her and bring her back. Then we deal with Uncle Vinny and Mario."

An uneasy silence falls over the room as we try to process the situation and figure out Alexis's potential whereabouts. I rake my hands through my hair again, frustrated.

"She couldn't have gone far," I mutter, mostly to myself. "Not on foot, at least. Edo, do you know what time she left?"

"Cameras show four thirty a.m.," Edo responds.

Anger courses through me. Where the fuck were the guards who were supposed to be patrolling that area?

"So she has a one and a half hour head start," I say.

Edo nods slowly. "You think she'd risk going back to the Carters' place, though? After everything?"

Nat fixes Edo with a withering glare as she opens up drawers. "Of course she would. Where else would she go?" She throws up her hands in exasperation. "You two are so dense sometimes. Look around—everything is exactly as she left it. She didn't pack a goddamn thing."

Realization dawns on me and I curse under my breath. Nat's right—Alexis's room shows no signs of a planned escape. Just a spur of the moment decision to flee.

With that goddamn rope ladder again. When I get her back, she's not going to be allowed any bed sheets or towels. She can freeze for all I care.

"She's still in Chicago, then," Edo says thoughtfully. "Probably trying to get her bearings before making a move."

"No thanks to this asshole," Nat sneers, rounding on Damian. "You've been so awful, so monstrous to her. Can you really blame her for wanting to get away? To go back to the fucking Carters instead of enduring one more day with you?"

The accusation pierces my heart like a white-hot blade. I recoil as if struck, Nat's words rendering me speechless. A part of me wishes she had simply punched me instead. Physical pain I can endure, but this?

This cuts deeper than any fist ever could.

"You have no idea what you've done to her," Nat continues, her eyes full of disgust. "You weren't there to see her crying over you, wondering why you didn't get rid of Scarlett. You fucking asshole. If The Brotherhood gets her, I'm personally coming after you."

I already loathe myself for this nightmare. I don't need Nat driving the knife deeper into my gut. Swallowing hard, I give a sharp nod.

"Let's go. We hit the Carters' place first. If she's not there, we widen the search."

We scramble into action, a towering sense of dreading hanging over me. Please let her be okay, I pray silently. I'll never forgive myself if anything happens to her.

The car eats up the miles as we race across Chicago, Edo quickly confirming the Carter residence address. An uneasy silence hangs in the air, tensions high. We're encroaching on Invicta territory now. Everyone knows the risks of having a soldier lurking around every corner.

Especially since an Invicta soldier tried to kidnap Alexis the first time.

As we turn down the rundown street, Nat scoffs under her breath. "This is where she lived?"

The neighborhood looks distinctly depressed, the houses weathered and dilapidated. My jaw clenches as my knuckles turn white on the steering wheel. How could anyone let Alexis suffer in conditions like these? How could her social worker allow her to stay here for all these years? This isn't any place for a child to grow up.

The street seems deserted as we pull up in front of the Carter house, the only movement a few stray pieces of litter skittering across the cracked pavement. I kill the engine and we quickly pile out, eyes roving the area for any signs of trouble as the sun struggles to come up over the horizon.

"Stick close and keep your eyes peeled," I mutter, checking the Beretta tucked into my waistband. "You know the drill if any Invicta guys show up."

We approach the sagging porch cautiously. My mind is already racing ahead. I'd make a beeline for the basement first. If Alexis is here, that's likely where she'll be after her initial escape from that hellhole.

My hand settles on the door handle when a piercing scream splits the air, coming from inside the house.

"NO!"

That scream is achingly familiar. My blood turns to ice in my veins.

Alexis.

The unmistakable sound of gunshots immediately follows, echoing like thunderclaps down the empty street.