“She’s gone,” the man gasped. Enzo’s body stilled suddenly, his face turning white while his eyes narrowed with rage.
“What the fuck do you mean she’s gone? You were supposed to be watching her!” he yelled, getting in the other man’s face. The man wisely swallowed nervously, and I wondered just how far Enzo’s anger would take him in retaliation for whoever he’d lost.
“I swear, I must have looked away for a few seconds. I’ve looked everywhere, Enzo. She’s not here.”
“Is Rebel here?” Enzo asked, looking around the man in the doorway frantically. When he stared back at him blankly, Enzo barked, “The dog!”
“No. The dog is gone too,” he admitted, backing away slowly.
“Who is missing?” I asked, glancing back and forth between the men. My fingers twitched at my sides, eager to taste the violence that vibrated through the air. Monsters sensed blood on the horizon, and I was one of the worst nightmares I knew.
“My woman,” Enzo answered. “Murphy targeted her, so she’s been under Bellandi protection. It would be safe to say she’s not happy about it.” He shoved the man out of the way, making for the stairs. “I’ll deal with you later,” he warned as he shouldered past. “Call Matteo!” he yelled as Calix and I followed him out of the office.
“Call Matteo and tell him I’ve gone with Enzo,” I ordered, leaving Calix at the club and striding after Enzo as he made his way for the front doors. The cold air assaulted my face as we barreled through them and into the freezing wind, heading for an SUV parked at the front of the lot. He didn’t bat an eye when I climbed into the passenger seat alongside him, too focused on finding his woman before someone else did.
Santiago hurtled himself into the backseat just before Enzo hit the gas and pulled out of the lot.
Judging by the fury on his face, his woman would be lucky if he didn’t tan her ass for what she’d done.
Enzo pulled into the parking lot at a boxing gym, shoving his door open and racing inside without care for what I might do in the meantime. I watched him fling open the front doors in his desperation to find her as I slowly climbed out of the SUV to look around.
My gaze came to a halt across the road, my entire world narrowing down to the sight of the woman who walked down the sidewalk with her friend on the other side.
As pretty as she was, there was nothing about her that should have demanded my attention. Nothing that should have captivated me so much that I froze solidly in place and studied her, but something did all the same. She couldn’t have been over eighteen, fresh faced and smiling up at her much taller friend with the innocent smile of a child who’d lived a guarded and safe life. My eyes never left her, even as I sensed Enzo approaching; only his firm touch on my shoulder drawing me out of my stunned stare for just a moment before she captivated me once more when she turned toward us.
Her deep chocolate hair shone with notes of cherry undertones in the faint sunlight that emerged from behind the clouds, seeming to settle on her alone. Her skin was a bronzed olive, contrasting her sage eyes so vividly as she stared at me from across the street.
The coloring of the bottom corner of her left eye was different somehow, darker than the rest, though it was impossible to get a good look from so far away. I held her gaze without shame as she studied me, squinting to see me past the sun glare that must have interfered with her vision. It didn’t seem to stop her from sensing the predator lurking across the road, from wondering what kind of monster lurked in the shadows and watched a young girl he couldn’t touch.
I’d never touch a child.
It wasn’t desire that settled over me so much as an instinctive knowledge that one day, when she was older, she’d be a force to be reckoned with.
One day, when she was older, she’d be mine.