Angelo

Tony and Chase were ready and waiting for us at the entrance to Morelli Motors. They pulled back the high metal gate to the lot, allowing us enough room to enter before they secured the gate back in place. Like Sonny and me, my cousin Tony and his best friend were inseparable.

By the time Sonny parked, and we got out of the car, Tony and Chase were at our sides, escorting us into the garage. My uncle, Big Tony, owned the place before he went upstate to prison with Sonny’s dad. It was only a matter of time before Tony, and his crew found the same fate. I wasn’t far behind them. With all the shit I’d done to save Gia, it was only a matter of time before my past caught up with me.

Tony led us through the garage. The bays were occupied with cars on the lifts, the smell of grease and motor oil burning my nostrils. We cut through the small office Tony used in the daytime when he wanted to pretend he had a real job.

For the most part, Morelli Motors was a front to launder money, sell drugs, and move stolen cars. They did the occasional oil change or tune-up. Since most of the business was cash, it was easy for Tony to forge the receipts. Money came into Morelli Motors almost as fast as it went out.

The back door to the office emptied out into a large, open room. The space had couches arranged in a semicircle. A variety of tables, ranging from different shapes and sizes, were spread around the room. A pool table was on one side of the room, a foosball table in the other. Between the couches was an eighty-inch flat screen television hung on the wall.

The Broad Street Burnouts was one of the fastest racing crews on the East Coast of the United States. Tony and his guys could drive anything with wheels and steal anything with them for that matter. When it came to boosting cars, no crew was better. They helped my family move a lot of drugs and guns over state lines, and were smart enough to pull off the jobs.

A large part of why they were so good at their jobs was because of Maverick, shortened to Rick. He was the man we’d come to see. His real name was Teddy Bradshaw, but everyone knew him by his screen name, Maverick6996. Rick was a brilliant coder, genius hacker, and the smartest person I’d ever met. If anyone could find Gia, I had faith in Rick.

I sat on the couch next to Rick and handed over my cell phone. “Can you trace the IP address?”

He took the phone from my hand and nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

I cringed when Rick clicked on the link and saw Gia in a white dress that could easily pass as lingerie. Her nipples were a perfect shade of pink and poking through the thin lace top. She looked gorgeous, flawless as always. But she had lost some weight. Her cheeks were sunken, her skin was without its usual glow. The spark, which was once in her grayish-blue eyes, was gone.

Gia seemed lost, even though I knew my girl was still inside. Her hips were narrower than usual, but she looked fed. At least the DiSalvos hadn’t starved her. I hoped for her sake Dante didn’t touch her. He was known for violence. Dante was also known for the harem of women he kept inside his oceanfront house as if he were running his own fucked-up version of the Playboy Mansion.

Rick moved his computer from the couch to his lap and typed the URL from my phone into his web browser. He didn’t use the standard search engines like Google or Yahoo. Nope, he was on the dark web, typing at a feverish pace. His fingers moved so fast I had trouble keeping up with him. Not that I could understand a single thing he was doing.

“Whoever set up this feed knows what they’re doing,” he said to me, his eyes fixed on the screen.

Sonny sat on the couch across from us with his elbows digging into his thighs. “Can you find her?”

Rick typed faster, entering more information onto a black and white screen that looked like gibberish to me. “It’s not going to be easy. Give me some time. Their IP address keeps re-routing. One second they’re in Florida, and the next it’s showing Russia.”

I leaned forward and cupped my face in my hands. My lack of sleeping was wearing thin on my patience. I was beyond tired and needed a nap and a hot shower. But I had to keep going. Gia needed me. Her conditions were most likely unbearable, and if I didn’t get to her in time, who knew what would happen to her. I’d never been more terrified in my life. Someone could buy my girl if I didn’t get to her in time.

“I narrowed it down to the East Coast,” Rick said, his voice hopeful. “Give me a few more minutes, and I should have a better indication of where they’re holding the auction.” He shoved my phone across the couch to me. “You might not have long to get to her. Someone just bid five million dollars.”

My heart sank into my stomach. Gia was mine. She was always mine. From the day I’d met Gia, she belonged to me. No one had the right to stake their claim over her but me. I tugged at the ends of my hair, trying to keep my shit together. It was hard considering the circumstances. My blood ran cold, sending chills down my arms, which made me shiver.

“Looks like they’re on the East Coast of New Jersey along the Atlantic Ocean.”

“Atlantic City,” I muttered.

“I can’t pinpoint their location. It keeps hitting different towers and re-routing before I can get a solid signal. By the looks of it, the feed won’t be up much longer.”

Rick turned the computer so I could see the screen. Gia was squirming on the stage, shuffling her weight from one foot to the other, with her arms folded across her chest. She put on a front for the men in the crowd. But I knew her well enough to know she was barely keeping herself together. I had to find her in time.

I pushed myself up from the couch and looked down at Rick. “Can you track them while we drive?”

“It will be harder without a strong Wi-Fi signal but not impossible. If I can triangulate the location before we leave, it might help the closer we get, but like I said, I don’t think the auction’s going to last much longer.”

“We don’t know that,” I shot back with venom behind my words.

Not meaning to do it, I kept taking my anger out on the wrong people. They were trying to help me. Everyone in my life was doing their best to help me find Gia, and I couldn’t control my rage long enough to have a civilized conversation with anyone.

“Put in a bid,” Tony said to me. “See if you can outbid them.”

I turned to face Rick. “Is it still open?”

He nodded. “For now. How much do you want me to offer?”

“Five point one million.”

“You don’t have that much money,” Tony said.

“They don’t know that.”

“The funds have to be verified with online auctions,” Rick said, stating what he thought was obvious.

I had zero experience with auctions on the dark web. Tony and his crew scouted most of their cars and talked to buyers over the shady part of the Internet only real tech savvy people understood how to access. Rick was their way into the inner workings of the online abyss. It was like a black hole for degenerates and people with too much power and knowledge.

“Place the bid. I’ll find a way to pay the money.”

Rick did as I’d asked and grunted in frustration. “We were outbid. Someone countered with five point two million.”

I pushed my hand out in front of me. “Keep going. I have to get Gia back. I don’t care how much money she costs. We have to win, or I might lose her forever. She’ll fall off the radar.”

The computer dinged with another bid, followed by several others. As fast as we could hit the submit button another person would come along and beat us out.

“Fuck,” Rick yelled. He couldn’t even look me in the eye when he showed me the computer screen.

The auction has ended, flashed in front of me, reminding me of how much I had failed Gia.

We should have won.

I should have been there for her.

She was gone.

For the first time since she was taken, a tear fell from my eye. I’d lost her for good.