“Rocco Bellucci,” I mumble, immediately digging into his background. “Got a few charges for public intoxication, domestic violence, and battery.”
Daire shrugs. “Pretty standard charges for ninety percent of the male population.”
Next, I check to see who owns the house, Rocco’s name appearing once more. I rap my fingers on the laptop, anxiousness buzzing through my nerve endings. This house is suspicious, but nothing about it indicates this is a grooming house.
It’s not registered under a name I recognize, and there isn’t any physical evidence that girls are being held here.
Digging my phone out of my pocket, I pull up Jillian’s number. After promising she’d help any way she could if I had more questions about Addie, I had Ruby get her a burner phone.
It rings for several long seconds before her bored, accented voice comes through, “Yeah?”
What a fluffy, warm person she is.
“You mentioned before that Francesca had a brother,” I state.
“Yeah, he’s one of the people I’d love for you to murder,” she answers.
“Well, what’s his fucking name?”
“Rocco. Don’t know his last name.”
My world tilts on its axis. The possibility that we just found Addie is almost too much.
“Helloooo?” her voice rings out.
“Were you kept in a three-story colonial home?” I name off a few more attributes of the property that might be recognizable, and when she doesn’t answer right away, I almost crack the phone in half.
“That’s it,” she says finally.
Fuck.
“Jillia
n?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m going to murder so many fucking people for you.”
The last thing I hear is her snorting before I hang up the phone, and I look up to meet Daire’s rounded eyes.
“We found her?”
“We fucking found her,” I confirm, immediately pulling up directions to the house.
It’ll take about four hours to get to Merlin from Portland, but I’ll need to prepare first. I won’t know how many people will be occupying the house beforehand, so it’ll be necessary to have Jay in my ear and Michael and Ruby with me in case there are more girls being held there. I’ll have several more mercenaries following close behind if I need backup.
“Z?” I look up. “What if she isn’t there anymore?”
My eye twitches from the mere thought. The possibility is high, but at least I’ll have the people in my hands that can lead me straight to her.
I meet his stare, and for just a moment, I unleash the darkness.
“Then a lot of people are going to die.”
“I have news,” Jay says through the car speaker. It’s six o’clock in the morning and still pitch-black, the sun not even broaching the horizon yet. Dense fog is shrouding the roads, making it hard to see.
I’m five minutes away from Francesca and Rocco Belluccis’ house, Daya in the passenger seat next to me, while Michael and Ruby are driving behind me. It’s only about ten minutes from the Rogue River, so acres and acres of National Forest surround the property.