“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 of Legare to 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 bit out. “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, then 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 next Il Circo auction.”
“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 track Il Circo's owners, 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 at Il 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 same 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 have to 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 they were children. 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 from another lens and find 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 under their scope out looking for the Albanians. It’s only a matter of time before they resurface.”
“What about The Serpents?” Drake asked. “Have they made any progress?”
I nodded. “They found someone connected to Cal Kurti and are working their angle.”
“Such as?” Drake inquired.
“A close American friend of Cal Kurti has a taste for young girls,” I said as I blew out a puff of cigar smoke. “He also has a raging drug addiction. The Serpents are working with our Sicilian friends to exploit that weakness. So far, it seems promising. They got a lead on a safe house the Kurtis use in Brooklyn. We’ll see how that pans out.”
“What are we going to do?” Finn Cormac asked. “I’m not sitting on my ass, twiddling my thumbs until they bring the fight to us again.”
“I have notifications set up,” Drake said in an authoritative tone. “If anyone lists Alex on the Dark Web, I will know immediately.”