Page 134 of Matteo
“Snap pictures of the women’s faces.” When Cassio and Luciano shot me a curious look, I explained, “Their families should know what happened to their daughters.”
We owed them at least that much because these women paid the ultimate price for our sins.
“I’ll see you tomorrow—” Cassio glanced at his wristwatch before he corrected himself. “—today at the D’Arc celebration, right?” Cassio asked.
“Don’t refrain from going on my account,” Luciano deadpanned, but I chose to ignore him.
“Yes, I’ll be there.” I pinched the bridge of my nose as I exhaled a tired breath. “We should probably alert other families of the possibility of poaching and organ trafficking on their territories.”
Because it would seem our ancestors had come back to haunt us.
“Cara mia?”
Bianca didn’t hear me, her eyes glued to the remnants of the planetarium she’d built with so much love.
It’d been a week since Hannah had set the building on fire.Allegedly.I insisted on using that word in my statement. Even though I had footage that showed her pouring gasoline around the planetarium, I would ensure it never saw the light of day.
The part that worried me was that nobody had seen or heard from her since. Hannah had disappeared into thin air, everything pointing to her running.
And then there was my other daughter. Arianna was on the run too—whether going after her twin or running from that fucking boy, I didn’t know.
Arianna had stolen a few million from Luciano’s safe and then disappeared without a trace. I would have been fucking proud and impressed if not for the irony that I couldn’t locate either one of my daughters.
Yes, I’d taught my children a thing or two, but there was something unnerving about the fact that both their digital footprints kept getting erased. Neither of my daughters were tech-savvy enough to be able to pull that off.
I would have suspected the Vitales, but it seemed unlikely. If they were capable of making them vanish, they’d do a better job of hiding Matteo’s tracks. The boy was flying around the world looking for Arianna.
The fact that I couldn’t easily locate the kids and fix this mess terrified my wife and made me feel so fucking helpless.
“Bianca,” I called out again, and she finally slid her attention to me. Her face was pale and there were dark circles around her eyes that worried me.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” she murmured.
It was the tenth anniversary of St. Jean D’Arc and the celebration meant a lot to Gianna and the boys, but the absence of my other two daughters was weighing us all down.
“We’ll do it together,” I said calmly, despite the raging storm inside me.
I wanted to find that Vitale boy and murder him. But of course, he’d disappeared too. Motherfucking prick.
“Yes, the boys and Gianna need us too,” she murmured.
I exited the vehicle and came around, helping her out of it.
“I got you, cara mia,” I said as I wrapped my hand around her waist, and together we walked toward the gathering across the lawn where other families buzzed with excitement and gossip.
She released a long sigh. “I can already hear them talking about us.”
“Don’t concern yourself with them. They don’t matter—our girls are what matter. If they upset you, I’ll massacre them all.” She gasped, watching me wide-eyed, and I forced myself to smile, then added in a collected tone, “I’m joking of course. I’d massacre them metaphorically speaking.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think there is an ounce of metaphor in you, Nico.”
My wife knew me all too well.
“What if something terrible happened to them, Nico? The auctions…” She trailed off, her breathing escalating as sheer terror marred her face.
“We raised them well. They’re strong and smart… They’ll be just fine,” I assured her, although I had no business making that claim. Especially after learning that there were people—Marco King’s son among others—roaming this earth intent on destroying my family and many others by resurrecting those fucking belles auctions.
Our worst nightmare had come true. The auctions were back, but their sole purpose was to sell the victims’ organs, which meant thatallour children were in danger.
