I look from him to Salvatore while Nick crouches down and stares on ahead to the road.

“There’s a truck coming,” Nick says, and we follow his gaze.

An industrial truck comes down the road with a fish logo on the side of it.

The truck stops right by them, and what I see next gives me everything. My answer to them and to Pa.

My fucking heart freezes in my chest when the back of the truck opens and young girls start pouring out of it, all naked and chained together on one long chain.

There’s at least a hundred of them. They have chains around their wrists and ankles, then a chain lining from one to the next.

Fucking hell… what am I actually seeing? They’re all young girls of no more than sixteen. In fact, some of them don’t even look as old as that.

Dmitri shows his true colors as he takes charge and orders them onto the boat.

My brothers and I watch them pile on.

I have no fucking words. None at all. The man who was talking to Dmitri hands him a briefcase, and the two shake hands. He’s the last to get on the boat.

Dmitri lights up again, and a wicked smile spreads across his face.

I see him.

I see who and what he is now.

What he’s up to—sex trafficking.

It seems like dirty was just the start of my suspicions.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Ava

“You… you, miss lady, are practically glowing. I don’t remember you looking so vibrant,” Holly says. She points at me and gives me an accusatory glare.

“It must be that new cream,” I lie and swallow hard. She’s been trying to ask me about Vincent every chance she gets.

I’ve been thinking of what to say to her. Somehow, I can’t find the words to tell her that he’s a mobster, and not just any old mobster. He’s a mob boss.

The mafia boss I …

I think I’m falling for.

Think…Do I just think it?The thought actually frightens me.

He went out last night and came back in the early hours of the morning. I didn’t see him though. He left before I got up. He did send me a message, though, about later. He was arranging for Pierbo to get me to the party for seven.

Holly snaps her fingers in front of my face and looks on at me with anticipation when I chuckle.

“I’m sorry.”

“That’s the umpteenth time you’ve zoned out. Ava, you’re seeing that guy, aren’t you?” she asks me pointedly with a deadpan expression. “I wasn’t born yesterday.”

I sigh. “Yes…. I’m seeing him.” I can’t lie. As to whether telling her that I’m seeing Vincent is the right term to coin it, I don’t know. Since it feels like I am and I don’t want to get on my best friend’s bad side, I’ll give her that to ease off the questions.

“And sleeping with him too… a lot.”

Yes… a lot.