Page 221 of Kissing the Villain

Alex was one floor below me with Marcello. I never had a reason to doubt my brother. He’d always been trustworthy, but I had to see for myself.

I stood in front of the screens and found Alex’s bedroom. A dim light cast a shadow across the room. Marcello slept in the armchair by the window, slumping his head to the side. Alex should have been in bed, working on a new Devil sketch. But her bed was empty, the sketchpad on the comforter, the sheets untouched.

I hit the button on the wall. “Let him in,” I told the guards.

The men stepped to the side, opening the front door for Aiden, who gave them a nasty scowl. I flew past Damian and Bastian, down two flights of stairs to pry the story out of Aiden. My heart raced so fast I could hardly catch my breath. She had to be somewhere in this fucking house.

I stopped in front of the ballroom doors.

Out of breath, Aiden slumped against the wall, his blond curls all over the place. Sweat slid down his forehead and cheeks. He looked as if he’d run to my house.

“Where the fuck is she?”

“My sister,” Aiden choked out, shoving a hand through his sweaty hair. “She came to see me. I tried to explain. She ran into town and… A black van. Someone took her.”

A cold shiver crept down my back, burrowing deep in my bones. I grabbed Aiden by the collar of his shirt, his face inches from mine, my body trembling with fear. For the first time in years, I was afraid of something. If we couldn’t find the Albanians, how would we locate Alex?

“Tell me everything. Don’t leave out a single fucking detail.”

I released Aiden and shoved him into the wall, where he crumbled like a laundry sack on the floor.

“Alex knocked on the door. We got into a fight. She said she never wanted to see any of us again. Then she took off down the street. I was so close…” He blew out a deep breath, holding his hand over his heart. “I almost had her. But they were faster.”

I moved my hands to my hips, glaring at him. “A black van? What kind?”

He blinked a few times, then rubbed his eyes. “Mercedes.”

I straightened my tie, attempting to still my nerves. “Did you see the men?”

“Dark hair, olive skin. The driver had a beard. I couldn’t see the men in the back. There were at least two of them. I only saw their arms. One had a tattoo.”

“What did it look like?”

“Black.” He sank his teeth into his lip as he thought it over. “I don’t know. It was dark. Everything happened so fast.”

“Was it a sleeve of skulls?”

He rolled his shoulders. “I don’t know, maybe.”

Cal Kurti was the oldest son of an Albanian crime boss. On his right forearm, he had a full-sleeve tattoo of a boneyard. It was the last thing I saw before waking up in my hotel room in Berat.

I turned to Damian. “Pull up the security feeds at Aiden’s house. And check every camera in this house for the last three hours. I want to know how she got out.” Then I looked at Bastian. “Get Drake Battle on the phone. Tell him to hack into CCTV and find this fucking van.”

I spun on my heels and headed toward the back stairwell.

“Where are you going?” Bastian asked.

“To wake Marcello,” I yelled. “He failed to do his only job.”

The blood rushed to my head so fast I had to stop and regain my balance when my feet hit the second-floor landing. How did this happen? I had done everything to keep her safe. I hired more men and added more security around Devil’s Creek to guard her twenty-four hours a day.

As I walked into Alex’s room, I shook my head at the sight of my younger brother sleeping by the window. I lifted Marcello’s lifeless body from the armchair, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

Wrapping my fingers around his throat, I slapped him across the face with my other hand. His head turned to the side, but he was dead to the world. It was as if he were on drugs. My brother never fucked with that shit, which made no sense.

“Is he dead?” Bastian said from behind me.

“No. I can feel a slow pulse.” I glanced at my brothers. “Hold him for me.”

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