Stefano

“Any sign of her?” I bark in my phone to Leo. I have him sitting in front of Corey’s apartment, in hopes she’ll show up. It’s been twenty hours since I threw her out and I’m going out of my fucking mind.

It took me the first six hours to pull my head out of my ass and realize Corey might not have been playing me. In retrospect, it seems obvious. Would she have just let Leo scan her purse without batting an eyelash if she’d been hiding something? If she knew she was carrying a bug? I’ve been looking for her ever since.

“No, none. No sign of life here at all.”

Fanculo.

The fact that her car’s still sitting in the Bellissimo lot and she’s not at her apartment absolutely guts me.

It means she’s hiding. She’s afraid.

Of me.

Because I’m the stronzo who tossed her out and told her to never show her face again like a fucking idiot. So much for I will always defend you. I let my fear of not being good enough, of a fed’s daughter never being able to be with a guy like me create some monstrous betrayal in my head instead of just taking the time to listen to her. She doesn’t even have a phone, or her wallet.

If it’s true she gave the money from Memphis to her father, she has nothing.

Maybe she went to him.

It’s an uneasy thought. Would he take care of her? The man who put a bug in his own daughter’s purse, putting her life in jeopardy?

I need answers. I need fucking information. I head up to Sondra’s office and barge in. Nico’s in with her, sitting on her desk.

“Where’s your cousin?” I demand.

She stands up, her blue eyes round. “What do you mean?”

I stalk around toward her, but Nico blocks my way. “Take a fucking step back,” he warns. “What’s going on?”

“Corey. Have you heard from her? At all?”

Sondra’s brows pinch. “No. What happened? Did you have a fight?”

I stab my fingers through my hair. “You could say that.” I turn and look out the floor to ceiling windows. “Tell me about her dad.”

Sondra draws in a sharp breath. “He’s an asshole,” she says without hesitation. “I can’t tell you how many nights she spent as a kid at my house because she didn’t want to go home.”

My chest tightens.

“Corey hasn’t talked to him in years.”

“You sure about that? He was or is here, in Vegas.” I watch her closely.

Her expression sours like something smells bad in the room. “He was?”

“And in Chicago.”

Fear flickers over Sondra’s face and Nico curses. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“He dropped a bug in Corey’s purse. She says she paid him off to drop his investigation of me.”

Sondra covers her mouth with her hand. “Oh no. So where is she? What happened?”

I pace around the room. “I fucked up.” I jab an angry hand into the air. “I threw her out. I didn’t know what to believe.”

“Oh no,” Sondra says again.

“Now she’s missing. I have her purse and keys. She’s not at her place. Her car’s still in the lot. I don’t know where the fuck she went or how to get ahold of her.”

“How long has she been gone?”

“Since yesterday. Any ideas of where she would go? What she would do?”

Sondra’s eyes well with tears. “No. She should’ve called me.”

My phone rings and I pull it out. It’s a Michigan number. I answer. “Tacone speaking.”

“Special Agent Simonson, FBI.”

I tense up, motion my brother over.

“I believe you’re aware I’m investigating you.”

I grunt an affirmative. My hand tightens so hard on the phone I fear it will crack.

“I’m willing to discuss dropping the investigation.”

I am going to kill this man.

No wait, I can’t. He’s still Corey’s fucking father.

“What are your terms?” I don’t bother arguing that he already took money from Corey to drop it if her story is true, which I’m coming to believe it is.

“Five hundred grand in cash and I destroy the evidence. Deliver it at 8:00 p.m. tonight in the parking garage of the Hard Rock Cafe.”

He ends the call without waiting for my answer.

“What evidence?” Nico snaps.

I shake my head. “It’s a bluff. Unless Corey’s working with him.”

“Corey’s not working with him,” Sondra cries, fingers balled into fists. “How could you even think that?”

I drop my chin to my chest in defeat. “I don’t. I really don’t. Would she go to him for help?” I ask Sondra. “Do you think she’s with him?”

“No way—never. I’m telling you, she’s not even on speaking terms with him.”

“So what’s the play?” Nico asks.

“I meet him. Find out if he knows where Corey is.”

“Then what?” Nico wants to know.

I shrug. No fucking clue. “I’ll figure it the fuck out.”

“Take Leo and Eddie. Are you bringing the cash?”

“No.” My voice is harder than stone. No fucking way I’m giving that man more money. He already robbed Corey of hers and he still thinks he can blackmail me? Fuck him. Dirty feds stink worse than the lowest of the underground.

“Good.”

Yeah good. But I’m still no closer to finding Corey. “Sondra, if Corey calls you…” I break off and rub my sternum because I don’t know what the fuck to say. Even if I tell Corey I believe her, is she really going to come back here with me?

After the way I treated her? Threatened her life?

She’s a smart, self-respecting woman. If she’s not in trouble right now, then she’s already as far from here as she can get.

The thing that kills me is that she might be in trouble. I left her with very few options.

And I know hundreds of unspeakable things that happen to women who run out of options in Vegas.

“If I hear from her, I’ll tell her you fucked up and you really want to apologize,” Sondra fills in.

I throw her a grateful look.

“Yeah, exactly. Thanks.”

Sondra’s eyes look haunted, though, and she can’t even be half as worried about Corey as I am.

Madonna help me.

Corey

It’s four in the afternoon and I’m still in the nasty motel bed. It’s not like I’ve slept. Well, maybe I drowsed a little, but every time I do, I dream of Stefano getting shot. Or shooting me.

I wake up with a pain in my chest like it really happened.

How did things get so messed up? How can I make it right?

I simply can’t allow Stefano to believe I used him. Why did I never tell him how much he meant to me? That he’s the only guy I’ve ever fallen for? How much I appreciate—no, appreciate isn’t deep enough—how he devastated me with his thoughtfulness. His love. I know he never said it, but only love would make a man work so hard to lift his woman’s belief in herself. If only I’d done something to show him my love, too. Then he wouldn’t have doubted me. Wouldn’t have believed I could betray him.

I stumble out of bed and take a shower in the dingy bathroom.

What’s my plan?

I need a plan. Finding out where I really stand with the Tacones would be a start. I need to call Sondra. And maybe she can help me figure out a way to prove to Stefano I wasn’t a part of my father’s plan.

I put on my dirty clothes and walk to a Walgreens on the corner where I buy a pair of flip flops, leggings and a t-shirt so I at least have something to change into. I also get a burner phone to make calls.

I hardly have anyone’s number memorized anymore, but Sondra and I have been close since before the dawn of cell phones. I still know her number by heart. I dial it, my nerves jangling as I wait for her to pick up.

“Hello?”

“Hey, it’s me.”

“Corey, thank God! Where are you? Where have you been? Stefano is looking for you.”

“I was afraid of that. My dad—”

“Stefano told me about the bug and that you tried to pay your dad off. He’s already called Stefano to blackmail him for more.”

“What?”

Of all the possible scenarios, that one hadn’t crossed my mind.

“Yeah, Stefano’s meeting him tonight in the Hard Rock parking garage.”

My heart thuds painfully against my chest. This is exactly what I need—my dad and Stefano in the same room—or garage, as the case may be. A chance to prove to Stefano I’m not a part of my dad’s nasty schemes.

“Thanks, that’s what I need to know,” I say.

“Wait, Corey!” Sondra yelps into the phone to stop me from hanging up. “Where are you? What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to prove to Stefano I wasn’t a part of this shitstorm. Or at least make him believe I didn’t know I was bugged. I should’ve told him about my dad investigating him—that’s on me. But I had no idea my dad planted a bug.”

“Stefano’s worried about you.”

My chest constricts painfully.

He still cares.

I can fix this.

I can’t speak because my throat clogs with tears. “Thanks, Sondra. I’ll be in touch.”