Shadow Storm (Shadow Riders 6)

“Emmanuelle’s strong, Val. Tough as nails.”

“Not when it comes to being a woman. She’s vulnerable.”

Dario was silent so long, Valentino pulled his gaze from the hot red sports car in the parking lot to look at his cousin. Dario was looking down at his phone, studying an image on the screen. He handed the phone to Val.

There was a photo of Marge with her blond hair falling around her face. Her features were beautiful at first glance, but when one really looked, they were hard. Her lips thin, her green eyes sharp and jaded. There was a multitude of lines around her mouth from smoking. The continual Botox injections had taken a toll by showing the sites, with tiny brown pinpricks looking like raised freckles above her upper lip and around her forehead. Her smile was fake, not lighting her eyes, but drawing back her lips to show her whitened teeth while her eyes stared straight ahead in a predatory way.

Beside Marge’s photo was one of Emmanuelle. Her hair was all over the place. Pulled back in a ponytail, so much had escaped the way it often did, showing his wildcat. The thick silk fell every which way around her small heart-shaped face. She was definitely Italian, with her skin and curves and that glossy hair. Her eyes laughed along with her generous mouth. She was so beautiful, she took Valentino’s breath away.

Dario took his phone back. “You can see.”

“I can see. You can see. God knows, any man can see, but I doubt that Emme can see. Her mother made certain of that, and I played right into Eloisa’s hands. I don’t understand why a mother would want to undermine her daughter’s self-confidence like that. It makes no sense.”

“Any more than a father forcing his son to fight for his life and the life of his mother just for the pleasure of other men like the ones in Miceli’s basement tonight?”

Valentino took a deep breath. Dario’s tone hadn’t changed in the least. They could have been discussing the weather. “Yeah. I don’t understand that shit, either.”

“Or forcing a son to witness him torturing a man for days, one who’d sat at his dinner table and who he’d known from his childhood. Forcing him to participate, including delivering the killing blows with a hammer?” Dario continued.

Val refused to turn his head. He couldn’t imagine telling Emmanuelle he was going to teach his son the way Giuseppi had taught him. The end of an empire. He pressed his fingers to his temples. What kind of legacy did he give his children? On the other hand, how did one stop the kinds of things that needed to be stopped?

The cops couldn’t stop human trafficking. The FBI couldn’t do it. The special task forces set up couldn’t stop them. They tried. It wasn’t that they didn’t. These rings had so much money. So much. They bought and sold human beings. The wealthiest in the world were above the law. They made their own laws. They were the law. The politicians. The religious leaders. The bankers. Valentino knew because he had the money and the ability to look into that world. He could supply whatever was wanted. He saw the depravity. Someone had to stop it all or at least slow it down. Save as many kids as possible. To do that, he had to be in the dirt with the filthiest. That meant he had to ask Emmanuelle to do so.

“Don’t think about it,” Dario said. “At least you’re a good man. You’ve got something to offer Emme. I can’t offer a woman anything but heartache and pain. I find the right one, I know I’ll take her, but it won’t be right. It won’t turn out like you and Emme. That fuckin’ shadow thing, it will be doing its job, working to keep us together.”

A chill crept down Valentino’s spine. “Don’t even kid about that, Dario. That creature is dangerous. Hell, if you get out of line, who do you think it’s going to come after? You have one family you care about. That would be me. Emme. Our children if we have them.”

“It won’t be me that steps out of line. I choose a woman, she’s mine for life. I don’t cheat. I keep her. She’s the one who will want to run from the monster.” Dario’s voice turned hard. “It will be the ones she loves in jeopardy, not my family.”

“Shit, Dario, give her a reason to stay if you find her. Bind her to you so she’s at least loyal.” Valentino glanced at his watch. Time seemed to be crawling by. What the hell was taking so long? The entire Ferraro family was searching the club, the dungeon beneath it and every passageway they could in order to find where the women, the teens and hopefully the children were being held. If they couldn’t find them, they would have to take Marge and break her. The thought made him sick to his stomach.