Page 130 of Assassin's Obsession

Salvatore shoved everything off the desk and laid his wife on top in the few seconds it took me to check the bathroom.

His fingers are on her pulse at her wrist. "It's sluggish."

Fuck. What the hell is going on?

He lifts her eyelids.

"What's wrong with Mrs. De Luca?" Derian asks.

Salvatore lifts Bianca's eyelids and curses. "She's been drugged."

"I called medical." Pietro steps into the room. "ETA seven minutes."

Salvatore doesn't answer. He's trying to get his wife to respond, but she's out for the count. Not dead though.

And not fucking missing.

The same cook who made our meal made the one now strewn all over the floor around the desk. "The food wasn't drugged."

What chills me is how much of the food there is. Whatever happened occurred soon after the ladies sat down to eat lunch.

"What about the bottle of wine?" Derian points to a bottle of Candi's favorite Moscato.

It hits a discordant note in the already cacophonous absence ofmia amate. Candi doesn't drink when she and Bianca get together because she has to be ready to dance. Not tonight though.

Maybe they ordered a bottle of wine to celebrate.

"Who served it to them?" I demand at the same time as Salvatore asks that question.

"Nina brought it in," Derian answers grimly. "She said the capo called and ordered it for Mrs. De Luca."

Spiders crawl up my spine like they used to when I knew the enemy had a bead on me. "Send someone to pick her up."

Salvatore makes the same order of Pietro simultaneously. Again.

I look at him.

He stares right back. "You find your woman. I'll take care of Nina."

I jerk my head in acknowledgment and grab my phone, going immediately to the app for Candi's tracker.

As soon as Bianca made sure all the dancers got medical and dental insurance through the club, Candi scheduled herself a cleaning appointment with the dentist she'd gone to while on the state's insurance as a foster child.

When I found that out, I bribed her dentist to tell her she had the beginning of a cavity, and that if she got it fixed then to prevent further tooth decay, it would cost less. Instead of fixing a cavity the dentist implanted a tracking device in her tooth.

Until I installed the cameras in her apartment, I spent a lot of time watching the little dot that showed her location.

It gave me peace. Now it keeps me sane.

I will not lose my soul.

She's northeast of New York, in Massachusetts, but nowhere near Boston. The good news is that the dot indicating her location is stationary. Her kidnappers had to have used a helicopter to be there this quickly.

"Assemble a team and have them meet us on the roof of the Oscuro building in fifteen minutes," I order Derian.

I text Mario a Code Red alert for Mira and Cookie's protection. He'll make sure they get to one of the house's saferooms and stay there until I bring Candi home.

Then I call Severu.

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