“What’s going on?” I asked Luca.
He stroked my cheek with his fingers. “Nothing you need to worry about, pretty girl. Go upstairs and paint.”
“Are you in trouble?”
A sexy smirk lifted from the corner of his top lip. “Are you worried about me, baby girl?”
Was I?Maybe. For as much as I hated his ass, I cared about him in my own way.
“Where are you going?”
Turning on the charm, he gave me a dreamy look and swiped my hair behind my ear. “Paint something for me.”
“Stop manipulating me, Luca.”
He grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to look at him. “Just do this for me. Stop asking questions.”
Marcello’s cell phone beeped. “Luca, we have to go. Now!”
“Fuck,” he growled.
Before I could get in another word, Marcello tugged on Luca’s shoulder. They walked down the hallway with Damian and Bastian in tow.
“Miss Wellington,” the guard said. “Can you follow me?”
I ignored him, unable to take my eyes off my captors. They stopped at a locked room near the front door. Marcello passed guns to his brothers, as if they didn’t carry enough weapons.
What the fuck?
My blood boiled as I slid into the passenger seat of Marcello’s Maserati. Rage was an emotion I felt often. It both comforted and consumed me.
Throughout dinner, Alex glared at me each time my cell phone dinged with another message. Someone had hacked into our private servers. Even with the best 256 bits of encryption, the Volkov Bratva had stolen some of our personal data.
The Devil’s Knights were already under attack because of our access to the Battle Industries artificial intelligence software. Everyone in the world wanted to get their hands on the software.
Shit was going downhill fast.
We’d lost members of The Devil’s Knights last month. War was coming to Devil’s Creek. It was only a matter of time.
The Knights were the bankers of the criminal underworld. We did business with shady people all over the world, which left a constant target on our backs.
“What’s the plan?” Marcello asked as he drove off our property with Bastian and Damian following in the Porsche.
“I don’t know yet.” I stared out the window, my jaw clenched. “One thing at a time. Just head toward the marina. We have to offload this shipment before we can worry about the Russians.”
I scrolled through the message boards on the Dark Web. Below Alex’s picture was a short headline that read:Virgin Queen of the Knights. We still hadn’t told Alex about her role. Why she was so important to the survival of our family and the future of The Devil’s Knights.
In the comments, men from the depths of hell were demanding they add Alex to the nextIl Circoauction. Once a month, The Lucaya Group hosted a traveling auction. They were an international criminal organization, and the same people who killed Damian and Bastian’s parents.
The Lucaya Group was unknown, untouchable. Even the FBI and CIA didn’t have enough intel on them. We only suspected who ran the group.
To get to the main event, you had to place a preliminary bid to receive an invitation. They usually held auctions on a private island or at an old mansion, some place off the grid.
Marcello blew past the guard at the gate, now entering a subdivision of Devil’s Creek called The Hills. “I think we’re walking into a trap.”
“This isn’t our first shipment delay.”
Gripping the wheel, he took a hard turn around the bend. “The timing is convenient. We’ve been fielding threats for the past month. Then the cartel changes their plans, throwing off our deals with the Sicilians. If we don’t find Volkov’s men soon…”