Chapter 199
Dominc’s POV
I stared at the photograph in my hands, my blood turning to ice. The image showed Aria bound to a chair, but it wasn’t the ropes or the bruises on her face that made my heart stop.
It was the wallpaper behind her, a pattern I recognized from years of studying my enemies‘ properties.
The Romano family’s old warehouse on the east side had been abandoned for months, but apparently Victoria had found a use for it.
“Boss, you need to see this.” Luca burst into my
Given the last few days, I was betting on bad.
office without knocking, which meant whatever he’d found was either very good news or very bad news.
He dropped a tablet on my desk, and I recognized the interface immediately. It was from one of our surveillance programs.
“What am I looking at?”
“Underground auction. Tonight. High–end merchandise, very exclusive guest list.” Luca pointed to a line of text that made my stomach clench. “Look at
lot number seven.”
I read the description twice before it fully sank in. “Dancer, 24, untrained but spirited. Previous owner: D. De Luca.”
“It’s her, boss. Victoria’s selling Aria to the highest bidder.”
I set the tablet down carefully, fighting the urge to throw it against the wall. Victoria wasn’t just trying to hurt me anymore. She was trying to erase Aria completely, sell her to someone who would make her disappear forever.
“Where’s the auction?”
“The old Meridian Hotel. They’re using the ballroom, invitation only. Security will be tight.”
I studied the guest list, recognizing several names that made my jaw tighten. Petrov’s lieutenant was there, along with representatives from the Torrino family and at least three other organizations that wanted me dead. Victoria had assembled a perfect storm of my enemies, all gathered in one place to bid on the woman I loved.
“Can you get me in?”
Luca was already shaking his head. “Not as yourself. But we might be able to create a false identity, someone from out of town with enough money to be
credible.”
“Do it. And get me everything you can on the hotel layout. Service entrances, fire exits, security cameras. I want to know every way in and out of that building.”
“Boss, this feels like a trap.”
“Of course it’s a trap. Victoria’s not trying to make money off this auction. She’s trying to draw me out, get me somewhere she can control the situation.” I stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the city that had been my kingdom for so long. “But I don’t have a choice. I can’t let her sell Aria to
those animals.”
“What if we wait? Hit Victoria’s operation somewhere else, when she’s not expecting it?”
“There won’t be a somewhere else. If Aria disappears into the slave trade tonight, I’ll never find her again. This is our only shot.”
Two hours later, I was dressed in an expensive suit that cost more than most people made in a year, carrying identification that marked me as Vincent Castellano, a real estate mogul from Chicago with rumored ties to organized crime.
Luca had done excellent work on short notice. The documents would pass casual inspection, and the bank account we’d set up had enough money to
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Chapter 199
make me a serious bidder.
The Meridian Hotel had seen better days, but it still retained enough of its former grandeur to host events like this. I walked through the lobby like belonged there, nodding to the doorman and making small talk with other guests. Everyone was dressed to impress, but I could see the weapons concealed under expensive jackets and evening gowns.
The ballroom had been transformed into an auction house, with rows of chairs facing a raised platform where the merchandise would be displayed. I took a seat in the back, close enough to see everything but far enough away to have escape routes if things went wrong.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to tonight’s exclusive auction.” The auctioneer was a thin man with nervous energy, the kind of person who made a living facilitating things that happened in shadows. “We have some exceptional items tonight, but I think you’ll all agree that our final lot is truly special
I sat through the first six items, watching as weapons, information, and territory were sold to the highest bidders. The crowd was getting restless, eager for the main event. When they finally brought Aria out, the room went completely silent.
She was wearing a simple white dress that made her look younger than her twenty–four years, but there was nothing innocent about the way she carried herself. Even with her hands bound behind her back and two guards flanking her, Aria held her head high, scanning the crowd with defiant eyes.
Our gazes met across the room, and I saw her stiffen slightly. She was smart enough not to react visibly, but I caught the smallest nod. She knew I was
there.
“Lot number seven,” the auctioneer continued. “As you can see, she’s in excellent condition despite recent events. Bidding starts at fifty thousand.”
The numbers climbed quickly. Petrov’s man raised his paddle, followed by someone I didn’t recognize. The bidding passed one hundred thousand, then two hundred. I waited, letting the price climb, knowing that jumping in too early would draw attention.
At four hundred thousand, most of the casual bidders dropped out. Now it was just the serious players, the ones who had come here specifically for Aria. I raised my paddle for the first time.
“Four fifty from the gentleman in the back.”
Petrov’s lieutenant glared at me but raised his own paddle. “Five hundred.”
“Five fifty.”
“Six hundred.”
We went back and forth like that for several minutes, the price climbing steadily. I could afford to outbid him, but I was running out of time to make my move. The auction would end soon, and then Aria would disappear into whatever hell awaited her.
That’s when I heard the slow clapping from the back of the room.
Victoria Romano walked down the center aisle like she was making a grand entrance at the opera. She was dressed in black, elegant and deadly, and she was smiling that cold smile I remembered so well.
“I was hoping you’d come,” she said, loud enough for the entire room to hear.
The auctioneer stopped mid–sentence, clearly confused by the interruption. Several of the guards moved closer to Victoria, but she waved them off with
a casual gesture.
“Vincent Castellano from Chicago.” Victoria stopped a few feet away from my chair and tilted her head. “Funny thing about that name. It
man who died in a car accident six months ago.”
is to a
The temperature in the room dropped ten degrees. Every eye was on me now, and I could see hands moving toward concealed weapons. I was blown, but I wasn’t going down without a fight.
“You always were thorough, Victoria.”
“And you always were predictable, Dominic.” She gestured to the guards, who started moving toward me from multiple directions. “Did you really think
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you could just walk in here and buy her back? That I wouldn’t recognize you even with that ridiculous disguise?”
I stood up slowly, keeping my hands visible “The thought crossed my mind.”
“Well, now that you’re here, why don’t we make things more interesting?” Victoria walked back toward the stage where Aria was still standing between two guards. “The bidding is over. Mr. De Luca wants his property back, and he’s willing to pay any price.”
“Name it.”
Victoria’s smile grew wider. “Your life. Right here right now, in front of all these lovely people. You die, she goes free.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Then she goes to the highest bidder, and you get to live with the knowledge that you could have saved her but chose yourself instead.”
I looked at Aria, who was shaking her head almost imperceptibly. She knew what Victoria was doing, trying to manipulate me into a position where I had
no good options. But she was wrong about one thing. I’d already made my choice the moment I walked into this room.
“I’m not leaving without her.”
That’s when all hell broke loose.
The guards rushed me from three different directions, but I was ready for them. The first one went down with a knife to the throat, the second caught my elbow in his temple. The third managed to get his gun out, but Julian appeared from somewhere and put two bullets in his chest.
“Took you long enough,” I shouted over the gunfire that had erupted throughout the ballroom.
“Traffic was murder,” Julian replied, reloading his weapon. “Where’s your girl?”
I looked toward the stage, but Aria and Victoria were gone. In the chaos of the firefight, they’d disappeared through a service door behind the platform.
“Luca, cover the exits,” I yelled into my radio. “Don’t let anyone leave this building.”
But even as I said it, I knew we were too late. Victoria had planned this perfectly, using the auction as a distraction while she moved Aria to a new location. By the time we fought our way through her guards and secured the building, they would be gone.
The fight lasted maybe ten minutes, but it felt like hours. When the smoke cleared, half the auction guests were dead or wounded, and the other half had fled into the night. Victoria’s guards had fought hard, but they were/outnumbered and outgunned.
I found the service door behind the stage and kicked it open, but the hallway beyond was empty. At the far end, an emergency exit stood open, leading to an alley where tire tracks in the gravel showed where a vehicle had peeled out in a hurry.
My phone buzzed with an incoming message. A video file from an unknown number.
The footage showed Aria tied to a chair in what looked like the back of a moving truck. Her lip was split, and there was a fresh bruise on her cheek, but her eyes were still defiant.
Victoria’s voice came from behind the camera. “Hello, Dominic. Sorry we had to leave so quickly, but you know how these things go. Don’t worry about your little dancer. She’ll be well taken care of in her new home.”
The camera panned to show Victoria’s face, and her smile was pure poison.
“Oh, and Dominic? You’ll never find her this time. I’ve learned from my mistakes.”
The video ended, leaving me staring at a black screen in an empty hallway. Around me, my men were securing the building and tending to the wounded, but all I could think about was Aria’s face in that video.
I pulled back my fist and drove it into the concrete wall with everything I had. The pain that shot through my knuckles was nothing compared to the rage burning in my chest,
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Chapter 199
“You’re dead, Victoria,” I said to the empty hallway. “You’re fucking dead.”
