The Devil I Love (Devil's Knights 3)

He blinked a few times, then rubbed his eyes. “Mercedes.”

I straightened my tie, attempting to still my nerves. “Did you see the men?”

“Dark hair, olive skin. The driver had a beard. I couldn’t see the men in the back. There were at least two of them. I only saw their arms. One had a tattoo.”

“What did it look like?”

“Black.” He sunk his teeth into his lip as he thought it over. “I don’t know. It was dark. Everything happened so fast.”

“Was it a sleeve of skulls?”

He rolled his shoulders. “I don’t know, maybe.”

Cal Kurti was the oldest son of an Albanian crime boss and had a full sleeve tattoo of a boneyard on his right forearm. It was the last thing I saw before I woke up in my hotel room in Berat.

I turned to Damian. “Pull up the security feeds at Aiden’s house. And check every camera in this house for the last three hours. I want to know how she got out.” Then I looked at Bastian. “Get Drake Battle on the phone. Tell him to hack into CCTV and find this fucking van.”

I spun on my heels, headed toward the back stairwell.

“Where are you going?” Bastian asked.

“To wake Marcello,” I yelled. “He failed to do his only job.”

The blood rushed to my head so fast I had to stop and regain my balance when my feet hit the second-floor landing. How did this happen? I had done everything to keep her safe. I hired more men and added more security around Devil’s Creek. Even had a guard on her twenty-four hours a day.

As I walked into Alex’s room, I shook my head at the sight of my younger brother sleeping by the window. I lifted Marcello’s lifeless body from the armchair, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

Wrapping my fingers around his throat, I slapped him across the face with my other hand. His head turned to the side, but he was dead to the world. It was as if he were on drugs. My brother never fucked with that shit, which made no sense.

“Is he dead?” Bastian said from behind me.

“No. I can feel a slow pulse.” I glanced at my brothers. “Hold him for me.”

Bastian and Damian hooked their arms around Marcello, so I could slap him harder.

“Wake the fuck up!”

“Drake is on it,” Bastian confirmed. “He said to give him a minute to locate the van.”

I nodded, then turned to Damian.

“Alex was on the third floor. She snuck into the library,” Damian told me.

“Fuck,” I groaned. “This is my fault. I showed her the secret passage in the library.”

I shook Marcello, and after a few more unsuccessful attempts, I headed into the bathroom and filled the small trashcan with cold water from the bathtub. I threw it in Marcello’s face, and he groaned. Bastian wiped the water from his forehead as Damian stood there soaking wet, unaffected.

Marcello stirred, looking at me with one eye open. “What the fuck?”

Anger surged through my veins, pumping so hard and fast my body trembled from the rush. “You had one fucking job, Marcello.”

It took everything in my power not to wring his neck. I wanted to choke the fucking life from him for failing to protect Alex.

“Why the fuck were you sleeping?”

He blinked a few times, still groggy, and shook our brothers off him. Marcello sat up and rested his elbow on the arm of the chair. “I think Alex drugged me.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony. Marcello had drugged her for running away from Wellington Manor. My clever girl. Maybe I hadn’t given her enough credit. She was just as ruthless as me when she set her sights on a goal.

“That bitch,” Marcello grunted with his hand pressed to his head. “What the fuck did she give me?”

“The Albanians got her,” I said in a harsh tone. “You never should have let her out of your sight.”

“What?” Marcello rubbed his eyes, now more awake. “No, that’s not possible. We doubled our guards. She must be somewhere in the house.”

I blew out a deep breath and pinched the bridge of my nose between my fingers. “I showed Alex the secret passage in the library in case of an emergency.”

“Fuck,” he whispered. “I’m sorry, Luca.” My brother lifted his head until our eyes met. “Alex asked me to get her some tea. She must have slipped something into my scotch when I was out of the room. I didn’t think she would run away.”

“How was she acting before you left the room to fix her tea?”

“Fine.” He shrugged. “Happy, I guess. She was working on a new sketch.”

“She snuck out of the house to find Aiden. He saw them take her.”

Marcello grabbed the arm of the chair and pushed himself up on shaky legs. “How did she know where to find him?”