Page 21 of Vicious Little Princess

“One you killed?”

“No. This one is still alive. I’m working on tracking him.” She pulled up another tab, showing me a photo she’d captured of a guy wearing a balaclava, his eyes highlighted by the facial recognition software.

“And Angelo’s phone? Can’t you ping it to a cell tower near him? At least we’d have something to go on then to mobilize and search out an area.”

“His phone is completely offline.”

I cursed under my breath.

“We’ll find him. There’s just a lot of ground to cover, so it’ll take some time.”

“Too much time,” I muttered.

“This isn’t all that I’m doing, Milo.”

I cocked an eyebrow.

She moved down to her next laptop and pulled up a map of the city, turquoise dots marking several locations. “As you know, I was watching Angelo for several days when I was trying to locate the house where the Leones were holding those human trafficking hostages. During that time, I identified these areas as those that he frequented when off-duty. I’ve managed to rule a bunch of these out from tapping into the surveillance at bars, strip clubs, even his home surveillance. Now Nico has basically activated the Leones, they’ll check the rest for us.” She moved to the third laptop, and I took in everything on there too, as she told me, “Meanwhile, I’m also following the money. I’ve accessed all of Angelo’s accounts—yes, again. It’s just a matter of untangling things.”

“A whole lot of money laundering going on?”

“Pretty much. As much as it pains me to say it, he’s smart. Where this is concerned, anyway.”

“Coming after you and Julian definitely is the exception. Then again, when he sets his sights on someone in a twisted affectionate way, all bets are off.”

She grimaced. “They are, yes.”

I tugged at my hair, trying not to go down a dark path with my thoughts again of what that could mean for Julian. “We know he wouldn’t take him to any venue connected with the Leone Family. Nor would he risk taking him to anywhere belonging to their allies or places under their protection. So, it’s gotta be somewhereheowns.”

“Hence me looking into his accounts, trying to determine any purchases he’s made over the last few years with siphoned Leone funds that he’s taken as his own.”

“All right,” I murmured, taking it all in. “You’ve got a whole lot covered here, but I need to do something as well. I can’t just sit here and—”

“Milo, I know, and I can’t cover everything. I’m aware of your skills, so I need you to use those and access both Leone and Marchetti mansion security so we can keep an eye on how they’re handling this situation, exactly where they’re sending their soldiers at any given time, so we can check those off as they go. I’m also going to get you into Santino’s phone, so we can monitor him directly. He can’t be trusted with this. He may just do the minimal to appease Nico.”

I rose to my feet. “My laptop’s in Nico’s office. I’ll be right back. Then we can do this and coordinate together.”

“Milo,” she called out to me as I reached the door.

“Yeah?”

“We’ll bring him back to us.”

“I know we will.”

We had to, because the truth was, I couldn’t live with it any other way.

The problem wasn’tifwe’d bring him back; it waswhen.

And what fucking damage he would have sustained in that time from that demented psychopath.

Please hold on, Sunshine.

7

~Julian~

Five Years Ago

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