Page 35 of Dublin Charmer

Finn

I lie in bed, staring at the ceiling and fighting the urge to check the security feed again. Three stories separate me from her cell, but I swear I can still feel Nyx’s presence—like electricity crackling under my skin.

The memory of her writhing on that mattress, moaning, my name falling from her lips... Christ. I grab a pillow and press it over my face, groaning into the fabric. My cock is as hard as a steel rod, but I refuse to stroke off to the images in my head.

First, because they weren’t meant for me to see.

Second, because what kind of man would that make me to rub one off, thinking about the woman I just kidnapped and locked in a cell? I’m not a fucking hoodlum with no restraint.

Tag’s earlier warning echoes in my head.“And Finny? Maybe lay off kissing the prisoner.”

Easy for him to say. He hadn’t watched her come undone, hadn’t danced with her at that party, hadn’t felt how perfectly she fit against him.

“Fuck this.” I kick off the covers and pad barefoot across to my desk. The monitors hum to life when I wake the mouse, their glow painting the room in a dim, tech-blue haze. It takes me no time to sign onto the dark web chat room and check the messages from my darknet friends.

DarkMatrix: From what I’ve found on your girl, Nyx’s real name’s Emilia Farina. Her father was Antonio-The Specter-Farina.

Why do I know that name?

I start digging in, and then it comes back to me. The Specter was a major tech player in the Milan scene a couple of decades ago. I think he worked for the Rossi family.

Flipping to another screen, I access the files Da kept on all the other crime families he knew of. This database of relationships, personalities, and territories has been kept up todate by Tag and me, and has been an essential tool when he’s needed to figure out who to leverage and how.

I find the Rossi family of Milan and start scrolling. They were in power for decades but were wiped out back in 2017. I search through the names of those who were taken out, and those who were unaccounted for or believed to have survived.

Antonio Farina was listed in a police report and a news article as one of the casualties of war.

Shit.Nyx’s father was killed in a takeover.

I lean back, processing. The Rossi family was old-school Italian mafia, wiped out in a bloody takeover. Antonio Farina went down with them, leaving behind his daughter and...

I click to go back to the chat room and type,

Wraith:Any other family?

DarkMatrix:Looks like a younger brother, Giovanni.

I leave the database and dive into newspaper archives to scan through obituaries and crime reports. The story emerges in fragments: Antonio Farina, found in a Milan alley. No mention of his children. Then I check hospitals and social services. Still nothing.

No matter where I look, there’s no mention of them, other family, or what happened after Antonio was killed with the family he worked for.

Emilia and Giovanni simply vanished.

“Where’s your brother now, Emilia?” I mutter, opening another search window. “And how did you get caught up with a piece of shit like Billy Gravely?”

Money? Desperation? Some kind of tit for tat favor?

Whatever it is, by the way she responded and is now pacing the cell, she seems desperate to get back to it. Not that it matters. Because whether she’s Emilia Farina or Nyx, daughter of the Specter, she’s not going anywhere.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Nyx

The sound of movement in the hall has me standing at the ready, my fingers curled around the shaft of the syringe, my heart hammering against my ribs. What does it say that Finn didn’t search me last night when I was unconscious? Either he’s more of a gentleman than the men I’m used to dealing with, or he’s not very good at what he does.

My instincts tell me it’s more the gentlemanly thing.

Still, that’s his mistake because I’m getting out of here.