Page 146 of The Viper's Wife

The elevator doors close behind us, and we slowly descend.

“I don’t know. She is missing,” he says, over-enunciating each word like he’s explaining this to a child. His gun digsinto my stomach as I crush him against the wall. “You can let go, and I will check for an update.”

I hold him there for a moment, heaving like I’ve already been shot, my eyes flicking between his.

It hadn’t occurred to me that this could be a trap.

“Why are you helping me?” I ask.

A few strands of hair hang loose over his face. He’s remarkably calm while my world is falling apart. “There are few things I hold sacred. A man’s wife is one of those things.”

I exhale slowly.

I have never heard him speak ill of his wife.

I step away from him.

Salvatore pushes the hair back from his face and checks his phone. “Her cell phone was left in the hotel room, so we are unable to track her. My cyber team has checked the security footage, and an hour ago, one of the employees entered her room with a large push cart.”

The elevator doors open. Salvatore holds a finger to his lips and strides into the lobby.

The faces of my father’s soldiers and capos look out at me from the hotel armchairs and couches. A few men I recognize as Salvatore’s, but they’re outnumbered.

A man calls for Salvatore, and is ignored. A few of the more cunning capos watch us pass with subtle interest.

I suppress the blind, animalistic urge to fight them. To fight anyone who might be my enemy.

Whoever took her is a dead man.

We rush down the front steps to the black SUV waiting up front. Salvatore lets himself into the passenger seat, and I fly into the back row.

Dom the Butcher nods at me from the driver’s seat. As long as I’ve known the man, no matter what Salvatoreorders him to do, no matter how violent or back-breaking, he’s got a wild grin on his face.

Today, he’s not smiling.

My gut churns.

“We tracked the employee to the parking lot,” Salvatore says as Dom steers onto the street, “where he still had the push cart. He was in a blind spot, but we are tracing his license plate now. It’s our only lead. We are driving toward his last-seen location now.”

“How did he get to her fucking room?” I ask, my mind already feeding me the answer. How many of my father’s soldiers did I pass to sneak into her room last night?

“Father’s men were guarding the hallway.”

I scramble for my phone. My fingers smash into the contact number.

Two rings.

“Nico,” Father answers.

“You fucking bastard,” I hiss into the receiver. Salvatore turns to watch me with gleaming eyes. “If there’s a single misplaced hair on her head, I’m going to bring both you and Giovanni to Salvatore’s basement and torture you until you goinsane. I told you?—”

“What’s going on?” Father asks in a relaxed tone.

“You took her,” I spit out. “Tell me where she is. Now.”

“I haven’t the slightest?—”

I crush the phone against my mouth so he can hear every goddamn word. “If you thought I was destructive before, you haven’t seen the ruin I am capable of. Everything you love—everything you’ve worked so hard to build—I will tear it all down.”