Page 46 of Vicious Little Princess

“It’s hard to see. The footage isn’t exactly high-res.”

“I can try to scan the barcodes, but it will take time,” Caterina offered. “Especially if I just get pieces of them from the grainy footage.”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s got to be for Julian. He would’ve been hurt coming off his bike like that,” I said.

“If Angelo’s risking sending his guy into a fucking hospital, it must be really fucking bad. He must be getting worse,” Milo choked.

“And Angelo cares about that?” Caterina questioned, and rightly so.

“It’s Julian. Charismatic and majorly popular. Angelo must have taken a real liking to him,” Milo said.

Caterina and I exchanged a look. That wasn’t actually a good thing. Not where Angelo Simone was concerned.

“He’ll want to keep him, won’t he?” Milo asked, unfortunately realizing what we were. “He could be planning to move him out of the city. This guy he’s got doing his bidding works for that sex slave buyer, a son of a bitch who knows how to hide and how to make others disappear into the ozone. Fuck, if we don’t get him now, it’s gonna be too late. We’ll never get Julian back.”

Caterina brought up the Victoria-related data again, frantically working to determine the location we needed.

After a few moments, she was cursing. “I’ve got two properties. Bought at the same time. Both hers. Both are outside the city at either end. We need to cover both. We don’t know how much time we have. Interrogating Victoria might be fruitless. She won’t be easy to breakandshe might not even know which one Angelo is at currently, anyway. It could just waste away time that we don’t have.”

“Simple. We tail the guy back to Angelo,” Milo said.

“What if they aren’t slated to meet at the location where Angelo is holding Julian?” I pointed out.

“Torturing the true location out of Angelo will be impossible, believe me,” Caterina informed us.

“Goddammit!” Milo roared, slamming his fist into the counter and making one hell of a dent in the process.

“What about using your father here?” Caterina asked me.

“I can’t trust his intentions.”

“Agreed,” Milo grunted. “We can’t trust anyone with this but the three of us. Everyone else has their own agendas.” He eyed me. “Yes, including Carlo.”

“Carlo? What does he have to do with it?” Caterina asked.

I glared at Milo. But I left it at that, knowing what a state he was in and that it couldn’t be helped currently. “Once we bring Julian back, I’ll explain it,” I told Caterina.

Fortunately, she accepted that, recognized that we needed to prioritize.Fuck,she was amazing. Truly fucking amazing. I knew how much she hated being kept in the dark, but here she was willing to suck that up so we could focus on this.

It was why, as much as it was against my protective instincts when it came to her, I asked her, “How are you feeling? Are you combat-ready now you’ve had some much-needed rest?”

“Yes.”

“Swear it to me.”

“I swear it,” she said, slapping her hand to her heart. “I feel wide awake and much better. There’s no nausea or even dizziness.” She looked out at both of us. “I wouldn’t risk Julian by going into this situation if I didn’t feel up to it.”

“Fine,” I said. I pushed back from the laptop. “Milo, you tail Angelo’s guy. Caterina and I will split between the two locations. We’ll go in with COMMs under continuous contact.Noone break from that, am I clear?”

“Rules of engagement?” Milo asked.

I stared out at them both.

I was done with this.

I was fucking done playing the game, toeing the line.

Hiding what we were truly capable of.

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