Chapter 34

Dante

“What the hell do you mean she disappeared?”

Giovanni’s voice came through the speaker of my phone as Aléjandro and I raced from Emerald Club. “Sir, the women were eating lunch, and she went to the bathroom.”

“By herself?”

“We could see the door. She said she was fine. Other people went in and came out, but Mrs. Luciano didn’t come out.”

My hands shook. “Her phone. Track her phone.”

“We went in. We found her phone. It was in her purse under the sinks.”

My brother-in-law stood in my way as I was about to get into the driver’s seat. “Give me the keys. You’re in no condition to drive.”

My heart was racing at over two hundred beats per minute. My hands were shaking, and I was seeing red, but I could fucking drive. “No. You don’t know where the fuck you’re going.”

His nostrils flared. “Dante, get the fuck in the side seat. I can follow directions.”

“We’re headed to the museum.”

Giovanni spoke, “I’ve called in backups. We have men canvassing the museum and the parking lot.”

“She didn’t just leave.” My stomach twisted. “There’s no way she would leave.”

I took the passenger seat in my own fucking car.

“Tell me where to go.”

“I’ll program the GPS.” I spoke to Giovanni. “We’re on our way. Make sure the other women are safe and find my wife.” I disconnected the call.

Immediately, my phone rang.

“Where the fuck are you?” Dario’s voice roared through the car speakers.

“On my way to the museum.”

“You shouldn’t be driving.”

“I’m here,” Aléjandro said. “We were leaving Emerald Club when we got the call.”

“Fuck. Good. I’m glad you’re with him. Don’t let my brother do anything stupid.”

Aléjandro looked in my direction and grinned. “I stopped him from driving, but if we catch the motherfucker, I’ll help him murder whoever dared to touch Camila.”

“Don’t jump to conclusions. We don’t know she was taken.”

My volume was too high. “You think my wife of a week left me?”

“That’s not what I said,” Dario tried to pacify. “Try to do it without drawing attention to yourselves. I’ll meet you there.”

We disconnected the call.

Later that day, I couldn’t have told anyone if the radio was on or what was said as my brother-in-law followed the GPS. The entire drive to the museum was hell. Multiple times, I contemplated getting out and running. I tapped my fingers on the window, needing to move, wanting to hit something.

His voice cut through the mayhem in my thoughts. “They’ll find her.”

“She didn’t leave of her own free will. Why the fuck wasn’t she being better watched?” I ran my hand through my hair. “Who did this? Who would be ballsy enough to take my wife?”

“Brazen,” Aléjandro and I said together.

“I’ll call Rei,” he said, reaching for his phone in his pocket.

“His number is in my phone,” I volunteered. Aléjandro hit the talk button on the steering wheel. “Call Reinaldo Roríguez.”

“Calling Reinaldo Roríguez.”

“Luciano,” he said, answering on the first ring.

Aléjandro spoke. “Rei, I’m here with Dante. Camila has gone missing.”

“What the fuck? She leave him already?”

I pounded my fist against the door handle. In another second I’d explode.

“Not good timing,” Aléjandro said. “We just got some information on Herrera. Can you get us a location? Is he in the States or in México?”

“I don’t know. He stays under the radar, like Padre.”

“Like Padre,” Aléjandro said slower. “Does Herrera have a boat?”

“If he does, it’s buried under multiple corporations. If he’s been in the US, he’s supposed to report to CBP, but we know Padre avoids that. I’d assume Herrera would too. Let me ask around. If anyone’s heard rumors, I’ll let you know.”

We disconnected the call.

“The museum is right up there,” I said, pointing through the windshield.

My phone rang through the speakers. “I’m ready to throw this out the fucking window.” Dario’s name appeared on the screen. I hit answer. “What?”

“We’re all in the parking lot around back. Come to us.”

I looked to Aléjandro, who nodded.

“We’re almost there.”

My heart seized at the sight of Catalina, Mia, and Valentina. Their hair blowing in the wind. Catalina was talking with Dario while Armando, Giovanni, and other soldiers stood by. Valentina appeared to be crying. Aléjandro pulled my car up to their grouping.

I opened my door before he even cut the engine. “Why are you back here?”

Armando stepped forward. “Lorenzo is tapping into the museum’s surveillance. They have an extensive system with all the priceless artwork in there.”

“I don’t give a fuck about the art.”

As Aléjandro went to Mia, Dario came closer, dressed in his designer suit. His diamond cuff links glistened in the sunlight. “Camila didn’t come out of the bathroom or wasn’t seen coming out. That could mean she was disguised or carried out.”

“How the fuck wouldn’t you have seen her?”

“I read an article,” Mia said, walking with her husband, the two joining our group. “It was about people stealing children.”

Camila wasn’t a child.

After covering her midsection, she went on, “I want to know the possible dangers before our baby is born. Anyway, the article said many children are abducted in plain sight. They use wigs, hats, change their clothes…and sometimes, they drug the child, so it looks like it’s sleeping. They can walk right by a parent who won’t even recognize their own child. They say to look at shoes. Usually, they don’t have shoes with the disguise.”

Shaking my head, I ran my hand through my hair. “Camila isn’t a child. No one carried her out of the bathroom.”

“She’s petite,” Armando said. “The only thing that Lorenzo has seen outside the bathroom was a cleaning cart, one of those big ones with supplies and trash containers.”

Dario pointed to the loading dock. “If someone took her, drugged her, put her in a trash container, it would make sense that they would use the loading dock to take her away.”

I was fucking ready to vomit.

“I will kill the motherfucker…”

Dario laid his hand on my shoulder. “That goes without saying. Lorenzo is checking the cameras by the loading dock. If they haven’t moved her yet, she could still be there, somewhere in the museum. We have six men searching.”

“And if she’s gone?” I asked through clenched teeth. “Then we’re fucking wasting precious time.”

“If she’s gone, we will get a license plate.”

“This all goes back to Herrera,” I said. “I know it in my gut. The attacks in California. Kozlov was behind the sharpshooter that’s MIA. The bratva doesn’t do brazen, but Herrera would. The bigger and showier, the better. He wants to make a statement to Jorge and to you.” I went on to tell Dario about the informant, the person who reported Emerald Club.

“Your KSPD informant isn’t very bright if he thinks we’re working with the Herrera cartel.”

“We don’t exactly advertise,” Aléjandro said. “And to your cracker cop, we all look the same.”

Mia held tight to her husband’s arm. “Camila can’t be too far away.”

But they’d want to get her away.

I had an idea. “We need to send soldiers to all the private airports,” I said to Armando. “Get a call out. I don’t want one plane leaving Kansas City or surrounding areas without an inspection. Make it work.”

Catalina came from the SUV. “Here’s her purse and phone.”

Lifting the small purse to my nose, I closed my eyes and inhaled her cinnamon scent. Swallowing back the bile rising in my throat, I opened her purse and pulled out her phone. “I don’t even know her passcode.”

“Let me see it,” Catalina said, reaching out her hand.

I handed her the phone.

Catalina entered four numbers, bringing the phone to life. She handed it back to me with a grin. “When Camila was young, she found a cat and named her Bell. Papá wouldn’t allow us to have pets, so she kept Bell in the pool house for over a month before the cat was discovered.”

“Bell?”

“2-3-5-5, on the keypad.”

“What happened to Bell?” I asked.

“Papá had his men take her away. We told Camila she ran away.”

“Was she ever told the truth?”

Catalina shrugged. “I haven’t thought about that story in years. I just know it’s Camila’s go-to passcode.”

“I’m going to tell her the fucking truth and take her to the pound. She can have fifty cats if she wants. I don’t give a damn. Our father wasn’t fond of animals either. You all can start with kids. We’ll start with cats.”

Tears came to Catalina’s eyes. “You’ll find my sister.”

“I will.” I opened her text messages. My nose scrunched and I passed the phone back to Catalina. “What does this say?”

She read aloud, translating the Spanish to English.