Page 118 of Wicked Rivals

I squeezed my heavy eyelids shut and groaned while pushing at his hand to make him stop.

A sudden surge of adrenaline rushed through me. I’d heard that great pain and agony could do that. It was enough to wake me. Enough, at the very least, to allow me to think again.

“If you behave, I might even fuck you. Just so he never wants you again. If he ever did,” Luka said.

Then the sick motherfucker yanked me out of the trunk.

When my feet hit the ground, I forced myself to stumble and drop on one knee like my legs were giving out. I fell sideways against the rear of Luka’s car, bracing myself against the license plate and rear bumper.

By the time he hauled me upright again, I’d gotten a good glimpse of my blood smeared on the license plate.

Several drops hit the crumbling pavement.

As far as leaving a trail of clues went, a smear and drops of blood had to be better than nothing.

The asshole’s grip on my arm got tighter as he dragged me to the front of an old single-family home with buckled wooden stairs and chipping paint.

He hesitated at the door, jerking my face close to his mouth.

“I can’t wait to see if Vignali finds you in time,” he said.

CHAPTER 25

STEFANO

I kneeled in front of Enzo and gripped his shoulders, turning him to face me directly. I needed to see his eyes as he told me what he knew.

Not that I thought he would lie about something so important, but he’d given me hope, and I needed to know it was real.

“What do you mean, you know where this is?” I asked.

His expression shifted, becoming more serious, the deep line creasing the space between his eyebrows.

“I mean, I know where this picture was taken.”

“How, Enzo? How do you know this location?” I demanded.

I didn’t want to scare him, but damn it, we had nothing else and no other leads.

He handed me the photo and pointed at the floor.

“Those tiles there on the floor. I walk on them every day. This is at my school. She’s at Saint Christopher.”

Fuck. Of course. How else could the son of a bitch have taken photos of him in a classroom with other children? The man I’d been trying to find had access to the school after hours and direct access to my son and his mother.

Val lived close enough to the school, and it wouldn’t have been unusual to see Enzo’s teachers or other school staff walking around the same neighborhood as they went to and from work or grocery shopping. Some probably frequented Con Amore.

How the hell had I not put all that together?

Schools didn't let just anyone come and go whenever they pleased. Not private academies like the one Enzo attended.

“Who do you think could do this? Think very hard, Enzo. Are there any men at your school who you might suspect?”

Enzo pressed his lips together for a second.

“Mr. Luka, my social studies teacher.”

“What makes you think so?”

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