Page 39 of King of the Cage

It didn’t work. She folded her arms across her chest and scowled at him. “I’m not the cops. I’ll burn this whole place down if you don’t let me see your footage, Raffaele.”

I fought a grin and went closer.

Rafe laughed and tutted. “Giada, darling, you know I respect you, and Renato, of course.”

Giada turned away, dismissing Rafe with a contemptuous look. She reached for the fire extinguisher on the wall.

Rafe was still talking, his eyes lifting to me, underestimating the pint-sized threat at his side.

“O’Connor? Don’t tell me you want to break my balls, too?” Rafe didn’t get any further.

Giada lifted the fire extinguisher and smacked him hard on the jaw. The poor sucker never even saw it coming. He dropped like a bag of rocks.

Giada put down her makeshift weapon and grabbed Rafe’s thumb, pressing it to the scanner on his door.

“Jesus, remind me not to get on your bad side,” I remarked, enjoying the sight of Giada handling business completely, and utterly effortlessly.

“Too late.” She opened the door, pushed Rafe back from the doorway with her boot, and went to shut the door.

I shot out a hand and grabbed it before it shut. “Come on, Santori. Share with the class. Show me how Renato’s hotshot hacker operates.”

She considered me for a while and then shrugged, tossing her head like the queen she was. “Just don’t get in my way,” she warned.

I stepped into Rafe’s inner sanctum and dragged his body in with me. No use in having security discovering him in the hall and making a fuss. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Giada’s fingers were already dancing over the keyboard of the desktop computer. It stirred to life.

“Madonna, this is old,” she muttered critically.

I’d hate for her to see the decrepit old laptop I used to type out one-fingered emails.

“You think you can find your friend on the CCTV? What if they left the building?”

“Not a problem. I just need the internet and a keyboard that fucking works.” She cursed in Italian and banged her hand against the desk.

I sat back and watched her, utterly transfixed, and turned on again. I’d only come in this firecracker’s mouth a little while ago, and yet, I was hard again, watching her. She was so vividly alive. Unapologetically and confidently herself.

“Where was your friend last seen?” I asked.

She sighed. “Near the bathrooms. That fucker gave her something to drink, and she got sick. No, actually, she finishedmydrink… and got sick.”

I sat forward, bracing my elbows on my knees.

Giada’s smooth forehead creased in a frown.

“Don’t worry, selkie, we’ll find him, and her, and teach him a lesson that sticks.” My voice was as dark as my thoughts. That motherfucker had really tried to even the score with Giada tonight, no doubt because she’d embarrassed him last night. It pissed me off to think of her drinking a spiked drink. The stuff with Quinn was too fresh. Tar-black fury sped through me.

“Talk me through what you’re doing,” I urged Giada.

She looked worried, nibbling on her lip, her mouth tight and shoulders hunched up around her ears.

“Fine, maybe you can learn something, though I doubt it.” Her tone was so dubious, it pulled a reluctant chuckle from me.

“Come on now, I can see that you reckon I can’t keep up… and you’d be right, but still, humor the dunce in the corner, won’t you?”

She sighed and told me how she searched the club CCTV.

“If I can’t find them there, I’ll switch to street sources.”

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