Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 95906 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 480(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95906 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 480(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
“We tried to keep things aboveboard as much as we could, but in that world—”
“I understand,” I said simply. You couldn’t play by the rules in a world that didn’t have any.
“Over the years, I made a lot of contacts with various resources who were able to help me get the kids home while keeping the cops off our backs. It wasn’t like I could explain to the police how I’d found a kid that had been missing for months or even years. It didn’t help that I’d started to become a public figure by then. So it was a matter of building up a network of people I could trust. They wanted the same things we did, so we were able to stay under the cops’ radar for the most part. Luca hired doctors, nurses, and a slew of trauma counselors to help the children and their families deal with what had happened.”
“That’s how you knew so much about the legal problems I’d have when it came to getting custody of Rory and Christopher.”
Con nodded. “I couldn’t tell you back then, but I’m actually a certified foster parent. That’s how I was able to keep Rory and Christopher with us and not risk the law coming down on us if Clara or Ricky went to the cops. I couldn’t risk the authorities sniffing around what my brothers and I have built.”
“Did you ever find Gio?” I managed to ask.
“We did, though it wasn’t actually us who found him. Gio’s alive and back with Luca.”
I sighed in relief. I didn’t even know the boy and yet I was emotionally invested in his life merely because I knew how much Con loved him.
“When Vaughn was on the inside, he met a young man named Aleks. He fell in love with Aleks and managed to get him out and back home to his brother before he moved on to his next assignment. The threat to Aleks wasn’t over, though, and earlier this year, Vaughn had to step in to protect him. We suspected that the man who wanted Aleks back knew who had Gio, so we asked Aleks to help us by going back into that world with Vaughn and Luca to get the information. Aleks agreed but his family wasn’t too happy about it,” Con explained. There was a hint of amusement in his voice.
“Turns out that Aleks had become very important to a group of men and women who were in the same line of work as us,” Con continued.
My mind felt like it was on overdrive. “The surgeon,” I murmured as I remembered all the men who’d been at the warehouse with Con.
“Ronan,” Con said with a nod. “He runs the group. They’re basically us on steroids. We’re good, they’re better. They came for Aleks but that’s not all. They found Gio and freed him from the man who’d had him for years. Gio’s sixteen now. He’s doing well but he has been and will be in therapy for a long time. He’s here with Luca and Remy, Luca’s fiancé. He and Christopher seem to be hitting it off.”
“So all those men, the guys who work for Ronan, they helped you because—”
“They were there for you, sweetheart, just as much as they were for me. When I realized you’d been taken, I called my brothers. King was able to hack the security cameras from the building next to the alley where you were taken. We managed to get the plates off the van that took you, but they were fakes. With time, we probably could have gotten the information we needed, but we needed help and we needed it fast. Vaughn made a call and within hours, Ronan and his guys were here. The woman who does their tech stuff was able to run facial recognition on the guy who grabbed you. From there, it was easy to determine who’d ordered your abduction. Richard Willis, aka Mr. Black, is a low-level thug who likes to play the role of gangster badass. He’s known for buying fights. The second I knew it was him, I knew why he’d taken you. But I couldn’t risk walking in blind. Luckily, Ronan’s tech expert was able to find out that Marty was the one who sold me out to pay off his gambling debts. She gave me the ammunition I needed to throw Willis off his game.”
I nodded in understanding. “You taunted him.”
Con nodded as well. “I had to buy time and then I needed to get him to lose his cool so his guys would be too distracted to notice the noose tightening around them. I learned how to spot a bully from a real threat a mile away when I was a kid. I had to. I knew if I stood my ground with Willis, if I humiliated him, he’d fuck up.”