Page 39 of Toxic

Every emotion I have lodges in my throat. I kick him, but it doesn't seem to matter. It's not until I'm tossed into an SUV that I know who has taken me.

The car starts moving as soon as the door slams. I turn, shuddering, as Dante's dark, cold eyes sear into mine.

8

Dante

An Hour Earlier

"Maybe I should suckyour cock right now," Shilo, a woman I guess you can say I've been dating for the last few months, suggests in my ear. Her nails drag up my erection.

"You know better than to be a tease," I warn.

She giggles, but truth be told, I'm bored. She's way too young for me, barely out of college, but she hasn't asked to get married or said she loves me yet. In my book, that makes her a keeper—for now.

She slurs, "What are you going to—"

My phone vibrates, and I don't hear the rest. I glance at the message. My gut rolls like it's on a never-ending hill.

Rubio:Bridget O'Connor is in my suite, drunk, with some Italian guy who roams between ours and the Abruzzo suites.

The hairs on my arms rise.What the hell is Bridget doing in this club?

I shove Shilo off my lap, rise, and zip my pants.

"What are you doing?" she cries out.

"We're through. Find someone else." I turn to my brother. "Gianni."

Shilo grabs my arm, her eyes widening. "Dante! What are you talking about?"

I shrug out of her grasp. "You heard me." I bark again, "Gianni!"

He isn't any more of a saint than I am in this place. He tears his lips off a woman he selected when he walked through the club doors. He already has her dress bunched to her waist, and she's grinding on him.

"Now," I bellow.

"Fuck, Dante. Stay here," he orders the woman and then grumbles as we make our way down the hall.

"Bridget's in Rubio's suite with some thug," I inform him.

He pushes me against the wall. "Not our business. Notyourbusiness."

I refrain from telling him anything to do with Bridget is my business. Instead, I go for the only fact that will get him to stop arguing with me. "He's got Abruzzo ties."

Gianni's face darkens. "Shit."

"Yeah." We continue down the hall, weaving our way through drunk women, ignoring the other crime families.

The club is the one place in the city that all the crime families agreed was a safe-zone location. There's an understanding that no business or violence takes place in the club.

Besides the need to have debauchery in our lives, that's where commonalities end. Families stay in their suites or ignore the others in hallways. And business happens. Plus, all of us are hoping to find some piece of information on the others to use in the future.

When we step into Rubio's room, my heart stammers. My blood pounds like a sledgehammer against my skull.

For the last five years, Bridget's ignored all my attempts to see her, along with my text messages and phone calls. It was like going back twenty years all over again, except this time, it was worse. I wasn't the asshole who created her pain trying to make up for it. Sean was dead, and there was nothing I could do. And every time I saw the kids or Tully, I looked for her, hoping she'd show up, but she never did.

This time, I wasn't messaging her to get in her pants or beg her to be mine. I was worried about her. I wanted to help her, but no matter what I did or how much time passed, I couldn't figure out how to reach her.

---