Page 24 of Grimm
“Alonzo Bianchi,” I whispered, my heart breaking in the process. “God damn it.”
Although I knew all the things David might be experiencing, none of them being good, Alonzo Bianchi hadn’t even crossed my mind.
Tavish remained silent, leaning against the doorframe of his home office, unsurprised of my knowledge of the gangster. He knew what this meant for my brother, and so did I. However, I refused to let my mind stray there. Not yet, anyway.
Of course, I recognized the heir to the Bianchi Syndicate. One of the most ruthless mafia families in the country. Sin City MC wasn’t the only criminal organization on our radar in Las Vegas.
Alonzo didn’t have as much self-control as his father, who was still stuck doing things the old Sicilian way, like most of the old Dons. Alonzo Bianchi was a new breed of Mafiosos who did things differently from their predecessors, which made him much more dangerous than his father could ever be. And, by the looks of it, my brother was somehow entangled with the worse of them all.
“He’s alive,” I said. I stared at the screen on Tavish’s laptop with as much conviction as I could muster for such a dire situation. My brother was in deep shit, but I had to maintain my optimism. Negativity bred negativity, and the only thing my brother needed right now was me to fight for his survival. “My brother is still alive.”
“Gina.”
Doubt laced Tavish’s voice, but I ignored it. Believing he was still alive and that we would find him was the only way I’d make it through, no matter where the road led. Having faith he still lived was the only way I’d made it this far, and I needed to keep going until we found him. Dead or alive.
“Please don’t say it, Tavish.”
I closed my eyes, gathering what little resolve lingered. I knew what Tavish wanted to say.
“Don’t get your hopes up, Gina. Don’t be stupid, Gina. It’s been too long.”
And he’d be right if he said all those things. It would be foolish of me to have such hopes. I knew what happened to trafficking victims. Rarely were they ever found, dead or alive. Six-month-old footage was just that—six-month-old footage. Anything could have happened in that amount of time.
But how can I not keep my hopes up? He deserves to have my faith that he will make it through this.
We both knew what the Bianchis were involved in. It wasn’t a secret. Everyone in Las Vegas knew, even law enforcement. Sex and drug trafficking, sex trafficking being one of their more lucrative criminal enterprises. David was the right age, handsome, and naïve. In other words, the perfect victim for traffickers. He could be long gone from Vegas, trafficked to the highest bidder, or dead in the desert somewhere, but Bianchi did not consider that David might have someone looking for him. He had a family. He wasn’t like most people trafficked in this godforsaken city, nameless and faceless. David had me, and I would find him. If it was the last thing I did, I would find my brother.
He can’t be dead.
“I know you don’t know him, Tavish, but he’s a smart kid.” I faced him and gazed into his eyes, his chiseled features unreadable. “If anyone can survive it, David can.”
I told myself he could survive even if I didn’t believe it. David was a smart kid in school, but on the streets, book smarts wasn’t what mattered, what helped you survive. Street smarts did, and he didn’t have any.
“I believe you,” Tavish replied with so much conviction I thought he actually believed I was telling the truth.
Most likely, what he said was for my benefit and not what he believed. Either way, I took the optimism.
“Now we have to find him,” he said.
I faced the screen again, looking at the last footage of my brother, hope finally settling in my chest for the first time since he went missing.
“Thank you, Tavish.”
“For?”
“For helping me, even when you have no reason to.”
“I have my reasons, Gina.”
My spine stiffened.
“I’m not doing this for you. I did this for Angus, for my family.”
Of course. How stupid of me to forget he wasn’t doing this out of the kindness of his heart. Men like him did things that helped them. I hated to say it, but his reminder of our deal stung. I’d told him I wanted him, even if it changed everything between us or changed nothing. Our deal stayed the same. His words were all the reminder I needed.
I closed the laptop, stood, and focused on the man who I wanted to despise because of how he made me feel but couldn’t. After only knowing him for a short time, I wanted to have more with him.
Tavish was the opposite of me, from how we lived our lives to the people we surrounded ourselves with. However crazy it sounded, I was drawn to the man like a damn moth looking to catch fire from a burning flame, even if it meant death.
