Page 136 of Ivory Oath

Which means there’s no sign of Dante.

“Christos isn’t here,” Raoul confirms, furiously tapping out a mess on his phone. “I’m following other leads, but Christos hasn’t been seen anywhere tonight. Are you sure it was?—”

“It was him,” I snap. “Christos was caught on the school’s security cameras an hour before Dante went missing. He paid off one of the guards at the front gate.”

The school called to tell me that no one on Dante’s floor could find him, but “you shouldn’t panic. We are doing everything we can to locate him. I’m sure he just wandered to another building.”

But I knew. An hour before the school was willing to admit that Dante was gone, I’d already put my entire Bratva on the scent. I’ve reached out to every ally and called in every long-forgotten favor. In a matter of hours, I’ve turned this city upside down.

Still, no one has seen my son.

Raoul pockets his phone and paces. “We can put a man at every known Greek hangout. We can watch and see if Christos makes any moves, but that could take days.”

“Too long,” I snarl. “We don’t have time. That’s my son, Raoul.”

An old ache rises in my chest. One I know all too fucking well. I know what it’s like to lose a child. I can’t do it again. I won’t.

Viviana is safe at the mansion with Anatoly, but if anything happens to Dante, she’ll be gone, too. She blames me for this, and I agree with her. I’m the one who sent him away. I’m the one who separated them.

If I can’t bring him home, I’ll lose them both.

“We don’t have time to waste.”

I push past Raoul and through the blacked-out double doors of Christos’s club. It’s a weeknight, so the dance floor is sparse. But multi-colored lights strobe around the room and music thumps through the speakers.

A waitress in a mini skirt and fishnet top peels away from the bar and makes her way over to us with a smile. “Would you two gentlemen like a table or booth?”

“Take me to the office,” I order.

“I can get you a private room.” Her eyebrow arches. “I’m available for dances. I’d be happy to take care of you.”

Usually, I’d let the woman down easy, but my patience ran out hours ago. “If you want to take care of me, then take me to your boss,” I say. “I only came to kill one person tonight, but I’d be happy to add you to the list if you push me.”

Her eyes go wide. She looks from me to Raoul and I watch as recognition flickers across her face. She knows us. I’m sure our faces are on a “kill on sight” sign somewhere in one of the back rooms. Christos doesn’t like anyone toeing into his territory.

She swallows and nods. “Okay. Follow me.”

Her hips don’t sway nearly as much as they first did as she leads us across the dance floor to a door in the back right corner of the club. We step into a dim hallway that still feels painfully bright after the strobe lights from the main room.

I think about Dante being held in a place like this, scared and alone while music thumps through the walls. I focus on all the arts and crafts I can make with Christos’ intestines to keep myself from tearing the building apart brick by fucking brick.

The waitress takes us to the middle of the hallway and then points to a door straight ahead. “He’s in there—and, if anyone asks, I didn’t bring you back here.”

“Won’t they already know?” Raoul asks, his eyes flicking to the two obvious cameras affixed to the ceiling.

“The system doesn’t work,” she replies. “The cameras haven’t recorded anything for a couple weeks now. Not at any of Christos’s clubs. The dancers think he’s planning something.”

“Like what?” I ask.

She holds up her hands in innocence. Her long, silver nails reflect the dim fluorescent lights. “I don’t mess with that side of things. I’m here to make money and feed my kids.”

“Keep everyone out of this hallway for the next half-hour and I’ll forget we ever met,” I tell her.

She nods and hurries back into the club like her life depends on it.

As soon as the door closes behind her, I kick open the door at the end of the hall.

“What the hell?” The square-shaped man behind the desk starts to stand up, his face twisted in a scowl. Then he sees me.

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