Page 40 of The Beast of London & His Pet

Chapter 25

Alessio

As soon as I saw the open door my nightmare began. The paper bag slipped from my fingers, hitting the floor as my world fractured. The sight of blood—dark, pooling, and unmistakable. A cold jagged shard of dread pierced my chest. My usually steady heart hammered untamed like a trapped animal.

Francesca—I had to pull myself together. I stepped past the blood and moved into the utility room to open up the cupboard to retrieve my gun that I had strapped beneath the counter. I checked the safety and bullets before I walked into my home.

I moved like a predator, every sense heightened, and every shadow a potential threat. The house feels foreign, and wrong, knowing that a crime against my wife has been committed in our sanctuary. With my gun leading the way, I checked every room, my mind racing with images that I couldn't fathom in the moment. My Kitten hurt, or gone, and our unborn child—taken.

“Francesca!” I bellowed in a rage, but my voice echoed through the empty house. There was no sign of her, no answers to her disappearance. I forced myself to breathe.

Why did I leave her alone?

The house security footage. I race to my study and open up my laptop to watch the outside of my house, and I pause it when I see a black car. It looked too beat up to be in this neighbourhood.I slam my hand on my desk when a man gets out of the car, and he looks around before he runs towards my house.

I check the time stamp because it was only a few minutes after I left. He goes out of sight, but when he returns, he carries Francesca’s unconscious body. I flinched when he threw her in the boot and slammed it shut before he sped away.

My jaw tightened and I ground my teeth together, committing every detail to my memory. Whoever did this will pay. They will suffer in unimaginable ways. I pull out my phone, my hands trembling for the first time in my life and dial Armando’s number.

“Armando,” I growled, my voice low and dangerous. “Someone took her. I need every contact, and every resource on it. Now. There is a partial plate number. I am sending you the video footage. We have no more than two days if we want to find her—alive.” I paused to take a breath before I added quietly. “She might be pregnant.”

“I will organise everything. Send me the footage and for the last four weeks. I will find her,” he said with a deadly cold tone before he hung up.

Armando was family and I knew he would do whatever it took to find Francesca. After sending Armando all the footage, I return to inspect the blood pool, feeling sick knowing it was my Kitten’s blood. Beside the oval pool of blood, it was smeared on one side of the doorway.

I glanced at the scattered pregnancy tests, a cruel reminder of the hope we carried. Hope for a child, for a future, for something pure in a life stained by violence and power. But now all I saw was red.

I picked up one of the unopened boxes and for a moment I allowed myself to feel the weight of it all, the love, the fear and the helplessness.

“Hold on, Kitten,” I whispered, crushing the box in my fist. “Hold on for me. I’m coming.”

As I stood up, the Beast took over, the man and his humanity were gone. The need for vengeance surged through me. Whoever took her will learn what it meant to cross the Beast of London. He will realise why I am feared and will beg for mercy that he will not receive.

I am Alessio Caruso and no one fucks with my family.

???

We set up a base in my house and I cleared my calendar for the entire fortnight. It took some time to juggle everything around, but nothing mattered other than retrieving my wife. There were clouds of cigarette smoke and plenty of empty cups of coffee as we searched for the man who kidnapped Francesca.

“I found it,” Nero yelled. “We have got the car.”

We all jumped to where Nero sat, and after illegally obtaining access to nearby traffic cameras.

“Everyone work on tracing this number plate. I want an address, name and picture of him,” I said patting Nero’s back but my heart was speeding like a bullet train. First I needed to ensure Francesca was safe, only then would I take my retribution from her abductor. “Prepare the warehouse cell, I want him alive.”

When the trio arrived last night, their company bolstered my determination to find Francesca and remain positive. A fewothers joined the team and slowly we began to piece all the footage together chronologically.

The man had been following Francesca since the day we got back from our honeymoon. We didn't announce our wedding, but the paparazzi got a hold of a few pictures as we left the church.

I rechecked my phone but there was no call, message or email demanding a ransom from me. The consideration of finding Francesca badly hurt made my stomach lurch, but I walked out of the room to call the doctor and have him on standby.

Once the call ended I placed a hand on the wall and held onto it, trying to ground myself from spiralling out of control. I couldn't face her grandparents or my parents knowing that I had failed to keep my promise. That my violent world had swallowed Francesca up as its latest victim.

“Alessio,” Armando whispered before he placed his hand on my shoulder. “Fratello mio, la troveremo. Non ci fermeremo finché non lo faremo.”

My brother, we will find her. We won't stop until we do.

I couldn't speak and tell him what it felt like to have a piece of my heart ripped out of me. My wife, my child, my budding new family was all in the hands of some fucking cunt out there. I stood upright and nodded to him.

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