Page 19 of Bound to the Mafia Guard

I took a deep breath. Trev rubbed my back. Both of them remained still while I tried to gather my words. I started slowly,telling them about how I was taken from campus. I was walking from Bestley Hall to the library when two men grabbed me. It had happened so fast, clearly not their first kidnapping. I hadn’t even had a chance to shout.

Since my father hadn’t been expecting me home until late that day, no one had noticed my absence.

“The house I was at was big. Several floors. At least three, since I know I was taken up stairs to the room they put me in, and I could hear people walking on the floor above me. The window was boarded up, so I couldn’t see outside or escape. I was mostly left alone. It felt like…months. I know it was only a few weeks, but time just crawled. I couldn’t count the days because there was no sun.”

Trev tensed as I spoke, though I could tell he was trying to remain calm. I leaned into him to remind him that I was there. I was whole. I had survived.

“You don’t remember much about your guards? Or anyone else?”

“Not really. I gave the descriptions I could to Andro. He even had one of those sketch artists come in, but I couldn’t remember much.”

“Were you able to count the days by how often you were fed? Did they have the same people give you your meals?”

“I’m not sure. They had one of those drawer slots built into the wall where they could open it and slide a tray in and close it. I couldn’t open it from my side.”

Cord’s brow shot up. “So they had a house designed around holding captives?”

“Essentially. There was an attached bathroom I was allowed to use. I didn’t see hardly anyone. Didn’t hear any voices at all. Just the shuffle step of the person above me.”

“Shuffle step?”

I shrugged one shoulder “Yeah. He paced a lot, but it was like he dragged one foot, so it was a shuffle.”

“Totally dragged the foot?” Cord was leaning forward now, his eyes narrowed.

“Yeah. One step was normal, the other was like his foot was dragged, and there was a click of a cane or something.”

“Did he walk real slow?”

I stilled. “Yeah. How did you know?”

Cord grimaced. “Brutal Brutus.”

Trev clenched his fist and stopped rubbing my back. “You think so? Isn’t he in Europe or Brazil? I haven’t heard of him being around here.”

“Who is Brutal Brutus?” I asked.

“He comes from a family based out of Germany. At least they were. Rumor has it the police finally had a strong enough case against them, and they went underground or they were thrown in jail. Vince tried to partner with them, but they were up to their eyeballs in legal trouble. We had one call with them,” Cord said.

“You think he could be here, either hiding or trying to establish himself in the States?” Trev asked. “How do we know he wasn’t just a captive like Rowan?”

“He could leave his room.” My gaze bounced between them. It felt like we were on to something. It wasn’t a lost cause. “He would pace a lot, but sometimes he would shuffle across the room and then I’d hear a door creak. Then he wouldn’t be back for a while. He could definitely leave.”

“It's a long shot,” Cord said.

“It’s a lead. That’s more than we had when we arrived.” I needed this to mean something. I couldn’t keep living like this, always looking over my shoulder. That must have been written on my face, because Cord nodded.

“All right. I can make some inquiries. Quietly. If he’s in the States and he’s stayed hidden this long, then he probably wants to stay that way.”

“Thank you,” Trev said. “If you need anything, just let us know.”

I held his hand. Finally, we might be on our way to finding peace.

11

TREV

I found Rowan in the library, which seemed to be his place of choice for doing his homework or whatever reading he wanted to get done. I doubted many of the books in Andro’s library actually piqued his interest, since my omega seemed to like the more dark, smutty romance if his e-reader was anything to go on.

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