Keeping his bride

Nicholas

Present Day

T WO HORRIBLE THINGS happened when I was fourteen years old. The first thing was losing Selina. We were

never able to find her after that day. She just up and vanished without a trace. And despite our best efforts, we could never locate her or her mother.

The second thing that happened was when Constantine Carbone was released from jail on a technicality. Carbone was the man who was arrested for human trafficking charges years ago when I was just a toddler. My mother and father had been the ones to bring him down, supplying the feds with all the information they needed to arrest him.

Carbone made appeal after appeal after appeal until something finally fucking stuck. He had more money than God and used it wisely, effectively buying his way out of jail.

Prison did nothing to reform the horrible bastard. Just months after his release, word on the street was that he was right back into the flesh trade once again. He was more careful this time around, however, moving people in shipment containers and keeping them out on the ocean instead of on the land. Out in the vast water, the laws don’t really apply there and it’s harder to get caught. The son of a bitch was smart; I’ll give him that.

My father kept tabs on him, however, and still gave information to the feds as often as he could. But Constantine evaded the police and the law at every turn.

Justice needs to be served on that bastard.

And maybe I need to be the justice.

I remember the horror stories Selina told me about being taken from her mother and locked in a warehouse for days and weeks on end. She was rescued by my family before she was sold, but that didn’t mean that bad things didn’t happen to her. She was emotionally, physically and mentally scarred.

After she was ripped from my arms by her awful mother, who chose to take her daughter and the money my parents gave her and run, I vowed to always help people like Selina. One way to help would be to take down Constantine Carbone once and for all. And I’m beginning to think the only way to stop him is a bullet between his eyes.

“Champagne, sir?” a waiter asks me, offering up a tray filled with several crystal flutes of bubbly liquid.Content held by NôvelDrama.Org.

“Thank you,” I mutter before grabbing a flute by the stem. I take a sip of the expensive champagne and watch him walk away. I’m not even supposed to be at this party, but Aldo, my father’s best IT guy, was able to secure me an invitation under a false name.

“If your father finds out about this…” I hear Aldo’s voice murmuring in my ear thanks to a micro-Bluetooth earpiece that’s undetectable to the naked eye.

“He won’t,” I breathe out quickly right before I finish off my glass and set it down on a nearby table.

Aldo is stationed about five blocks away in a nondescript black van. He agreed, reluctantly, to this little reconnaissance mission.

Carbone has been flying under the radar ever since his prison release, but we know he’s still dealing in the flesh trade. It’s just harder to pinpoint his whereabouts. And when I get close to him tonight, I’m going to plant a tracker on him. Aldo will take it from there, securing his coordinates and, thus, gathering the information we’ve been desiring for years.

If we can just get a tail on Carbone, we can figure out where he’s hiding his warehouses, ships, everything; ultimately saving hundreds, if not thousands of young lives. And even though it’s dangerous getting close to the bastard, I’m willing to do the dirty work if that means bringing Carbone’s empire to its knees.

Laughter breaks out to the right of me, catching my attention. I look around the crowd of people, dressed to the nines with elaborate, colorful masks complete with jewels and feathers. It’s a Mardi Gras themed party, and that is exactly why I chose this one in particular to make an appearance. The simple, gold mask I’m wearing will help conceal my identity from the cameras around the property. It will be easier to move around, looking for my target all while staying hidden within the throng of people.

Alberto Berlusconi throws the most extravagant parties for New York’s most elite, including the largest crime bosses. Alberto enjoys drugs more than girls, however, which is the only reason he’s still breathing. But if Carbone was going to show up at any parties this year, it would be this one. Alberto and Constantine are great friends with mutual tastes and connections in the seedy underbelly of New York City.

Berlusconi’s mansion is situated in the upper east side of Manhattan. I’ve seen him making his rounds at the party, throwing around his extra weight, boasting about his

twenty-seven bedrooms and how many maids he’s had to fire because he fucks so many of them and they get too attached. He’s a real piece of work, but he’s not my target.

My gut is telling me that Carbone will show tonight. He never misses an opportunity to attend lavish events and show off his money and power while meeting potential clients. The wealthiest people are sometimes the most perverse, buying young women and children and not even batting an eye. When you are rich and powerful, you can have anything you want, and no one in their inner circles even questions it, no matter how taboo or out of the ordinary their wants actually are.

Constantine has been out to sea for far too long. If anything was going to draw him inland, it would be this. All of the big hitters are here tonight. The only person missing is him. I check the Rolex on my wrist, watching the seconds tick by. I’m a patient man, but my patience is growing thin. I risked a lot to be here tonight, so he better show.

A tall blonde passes by me just then, and my breathing stops. But when she gets closer and her dark brown eyes meet mine under her green and yellow mask, I quickly look away. Closing my eyes, I shake my head subtly.

There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think about Selina McCall at least once. The image of the sad look in her unique blue and green eyes as she glanced back at me one last time as her mother led her away will be forever ingrained in my memories.

It’s been ten years since I last saw her, but I still remember every detail about her. My fascination with her is borderline obsession, and over the years I haven’t stopped looking for her. We have tried everything to find her and get her back to no avail. She vanished out of thin air like some kind of cruel magician’s trick.

The world doesn’t really seem that big until you’re trying to find one p rson in a vast sea of billions. And my fixation with her disappearance haunts me to this very day.

A waiter passes by me, and I grab another flute of champagne. I’d drink something stronger, but I want to keep myself level-headed and alert. I don’t need expensive whiskey tripping me up even though that’s my preferred drink.

I decide to leave the corner of the room and walk around, my eyes scanning every single face I pass. The masks make it a little harder to tell who is who, but I’m glad mine is hiding my true identity. I can’t risk my face being seen. I look so much like my father that I have no doubt Constantine would be spooked. My family has been coming after him for years and will continue to do so until he’s rightfully behind bars for good…or dead. Preferably the latter, but I’d be content with him spending the last years of his life rotting away in a maximum-security prison.

“Any sign of him yet?” Aldo’s voice comes through the earpiece secured in my right ear.

I give a subtle shake of my head. Aldo has eyes everywhere in the room, having hacked the security cameras, and I know he can see my response.

“Ten more minutes, and then I want you to get the hell out of there.”

I can’t help but smile. Aldo Allaband is head of my father’s IT team. When I proposed the idea of somehow implanting a tiny tracker on Carbone, Aldo was all for it. But now that I’m here and the danger is real, he suddenly wants me to leave.

Not a fucking chance.

I’m not leaving until I do what I came here to do.

If I can get close enough to Carbone to place the tracker on his suit, Aldo can then trace wherever he goes after this party. Hopefully it’s to his home base, which we haven’t figured out the whereabouts of yet. This will be a huge win for our team. We’v been trying for years to figure out where Carbone stays when he visits the city. His driver is very good at eluding our men, taking way too many turns and running too many lights for us to be able to follow.

I continue to walk around the room, searching for him. If my mother and father knew I was here, they would have my fucking head. But they’re in Colorado on their wedding anniversary trip and none the wiser. In fact, this is the perfect time to get this done.

Finishing off the champagne, I set the glass down on an empty tray and walk towards the doorway leading out of the ballroom.

“You’re leaving?” Aldo asks, and I can hear the relief in his voice.

“Gotta piss,” I inform him in a whisper as I make my way towards the restrooms.

As soon as I round the corner, I barely have time to catch myself before I nearly crash into a woman. She bumps into my chest, her fingers grasping the lapels of my suit jacket in a white-knuckle grip. “S-s-sorry,” she mutters, her speech slurred. She stumbles backwards in her heels, head down as her mask flutters to the floor.

“No. My apologies,” I tell her, quickly reaching down to scoop up the purple and gold feathered mask that she dropped. My eyes drift to her feet, locking on to the gold sky-high stilettos that she’s currently teetering on. Then, they slowly venture up her long, lean legs to a sparkling gold dress, if you can even call it a dress, that’s so short and low cut it should be illegal.

When I finally stand at my full height, I hold the mask out to her, watching her delicate hand grasp it tightly as if it’s some sort of lifeline. “Thank you,” she says softly, and there’s just something about her voice that makes me think that I have met her before. Her fingers lightly brush against mine, the brief contact causing my heart to skip a beat inside of my ch st. My feet suddenly become rooted to

the floor. It’s as if my body doesn’t want to leave this spot until I see her face.

She’s about to walk away, her head still down, denying me what I want to see – no, what I need to see – but I reach out to stop her. Ever so gently, I put my hand under her chin and force her gaze to mine. And suddenly, all the air in my lungs escapes in a rush.

I blink a few times to clear my vision, thinking I’m imagining her, dreaming all of this up. But when she’s still there, still looking longingly up at me, I know she’s real. Long, blonde hair cascades over her bare shoulders, and she’s so damn beautiful that it almost hurts to look at her. But her beauty is not what has my hand clenching into a fist at my side. No, it’s her eyes.

One blue.

One green.

They’re both bloodshot, and her pupils are nearly blown like she’s riding high on whatever poison is in her system, but I can clearly tell they’re different colors.

Our connection only lasts for a few seconds, even though it feels like minutes, before she mutters another apology and stumbles past me, securing the mask back onto her face. I listen as the sound of her high heels echoing on the hardwood floor fades into the distance.

Sucking in a deep, unsteady breath, I hurry to the restroom. I take care of business and then wash my hands. Staring at my reflection, I watch my chest rise and fall rapidly. I’m barely holding it together. I’m wound up like a rubber band, ready to snap at any given moment. “Holy fuck,” I mutter.

“What? What happened?” Aldo asks in my earpiece.

“I think I just saw her.”

“Her? Her who?”

“Lina,” I hiss in a whisper.

“Holy fuck,” Aldo says, repeating my exact sentiments. Aldo knows the entire story. Hell, he was there when Selina was living at the compound. He probably loved her as much as the rest of us did. She was so damn easy to love. So full of light and life even though she had been through a horrible ordeal.

And now she’s here. But why? Who is she here with? I have to know.

“There are a lot of people with complete heterochromia,” Aldo reminds me.

Yes, and I found that out the hard way. I’ve scoured the world looking for the girl with one blue eye and one green eye. It’s rare, but definitely not improbable.

“There’s one more thing I can check,” I tell him. Selina had a heart-shaped birthmark on her neck. She always hated it, but I loved it. “I just need to get close to her again.”

“I don’t like this, Nico. What if you run into Carbone while your guard is down?”

“I’ll be careful,” I say, but even I can hear the lie in my voice. My previous mission is completely forgotten. I just want to find the woman and see if she bears the birthmark. I need to know if Selina is still alive. After all these years, all the searching and longing, I need to know for sure.