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My jaw flexed in irritation. “Are you trying to work me up, Cormac?”
“I’m sick of you treating Alex like shit,” Sonny growled. “I’m not alone on this. She’s our queen, not some whore you picked up from a street corner.”
“Please, like I’d let a five-dollar whore suck my cock.”
“Not the point,” Sonny yelled with his hand balled into a fist on his lap. “You’re out of control. We need a leader who can do his job without his feelings getting involved.”
I snickered. “You’re fucking high if you think I even have feelings.”
Sonny’s nostrils flared as he glared at me. “Despite what you want everyone to believe, we know you have a heart. Even if it’s as black as fucking tar.”
He would defend Marcello to the death. They were best friends since they were old enough to walk, the two of them inseparable for most of their lives. Golden Boy was there for Marcello when I couldn’t physically stand to be in the same room as him. He was the one who helped Marcello deal with our mother’s death, which hit him even harder than it did me.
I couldn’t connect with either of them until after our Initiation into The Devil’s Knights. But I’d always protected Marcello from our father. I honored my mother’s dying wish.
“Alex is in danger,” Drake interjected. “We don’t have time to argue. If we’re not united, we’ll lose Alex the next time. Our enemies will sniff out our weaknesses and pick us off individually.” His gaze drifted to me. “Set aside your differences with Marcello, and let’s focus on the task—keeping Alex alive.”
“Which is why we’re here today,” I reminded them. “The point of this meeting is to discuss Alex, not me.”
“I don’t know why you’re so pissed about Marcello and Alex,” Sonny said to me. “You didn’t have a problem with the Knights touching her in the temple last year. It was your idea to have a mock version ofLegareto see if Alex could handle the real ceremony. So what’s changed?”
Back then, there weren’t feelings between Alex and Marcello, but I wouldn’t admit that aloud. There was always an instant connection between Alex and the other Knights. They just clicked. While with me, it was a constant struggle.
“Because she’s going to be my wife,” I said. “Mine. Not Marcello’s. Not any of you assholes. Alex is mine.”
Drake leaned forward on his elbows, his big ass body taking up too much space. “Alex doesn’t belong to you. She’s ours.The Knights. Stop pushing her away because you’re jealous of Marcello.”
“I’m not fucking jealous,” I fired back.
Sonny snorted with laughter. “The fuck you’re not.”
“We’re not here to talk about Alex and me. So shut your fucking mouths and listen.” I sipped from my glass, set it on the table, and grabbed a cigar from the box. “Drake got a hit on the Albanians using his AI software. But they disappeared off the map before he could chase down the lead. I expect them to list Alex for sale at the nextIl Circoauction.”
“Not gonna happen,” Drake said with an intense expression on his face. He scratched the dark stubble along the corner of his jaw. “I’m working around the clock to find them.”
It was nearly impossible to trackIl Circo'sowners, a private club for the world’s deviants. In Italian, it meant The Circus, and it sure as fuck lived up to its name. It was like a traveling circus where you could bid on anyone and anything. Like cage fights to the death? How about underage girls who wanted to sell their virginity? Anything went atIl Circo. But they had one rule you couldn’t break. If you listed someone for auction, you had to produce them. Men would come looking for Alex, and not just the Albanians.
Whatever their customers requested, they gave them. The auctions weren’t held in the exact location and were a mystery until that day. You had to place a bid to get an invitation to the main event. Sometimes, it was on a private island in the middle of the ocean. Other times, they held the events in the mansions of willing hosts who paid for the honor.
I nodded at Drake. “Shut down the website when it pops up. We can’t afford to have Alex listed.”
“I’ll do my best,” he grunted.
“Your best isn’t good enough when it concerns our queen.”
“Whoever runs their site is untraceable,” Drake shot back. “A fucking ghost. I can’t trace their IP address. Not even the FBI and CIA have had luck tracking them down. Every time I get close, they crash my fucking servers.”
“You’re the tech genius, Battle. Find a way. I don’t care who we must bribe or kill to make it happen. We’re not letting predators bid on her on the Dark Web.”
“I can help with tactical planning,” Cole Marshall offered.
Cole was our newest and youngest Knight. He was only twenty-one and in his final year at York Military Academy. His family owned the school that Cole and his younger brothers had attended since childhood. Like Marcello, he had a mind for war. He could see different angles and assess the threat.
“I want you to coordinate with Marcello,” I told Cole. “He may have other ideas about how to approach this situation.”
My brother was the muscle, and I was the brains. I relied on him to view my plans through a different lens and spot any flaws.
“The Founders Society Elders issued a kill order for every member of the Kurti crime family,” I informed the group. “They have everyone looking for the Albanians. It’s only a matter of time before they resurface.”