Page 22 of Diary from an Inked Throne

But it was just one more reason to find my motherfucking uncle and set every wrong right. Including him killing my father.

The old man should have died at my hands for all the shit he’d put me and Isabella through. But killing his brother would have to do.

Viktor jogged alongside me as I strode toward the nearest car. “We’ve got everyone out there, boss. Except the staff on the gates here, and those who will accompany you—”

“I don’t need a fucking bodyguard. Everyone goes out. Everyone!” I glanced at Lynx. “Can you get the Slayers over here to make sure Dax and Nyah are safe? I don’t want my father’s men anywhere near her. She needs to be around people she trusts.”

He nodded. “If someone gives me a phone.”

Bruno handed him one and then passed me another, along with a set of keys and a thick roll of cash. “Money, transport, and phones. They’re burners from your father’s stash.”

“See Nyah and Dax get one too. I need to be able to talk to them. But as soon as the Slayers get here, you’re all out. Nobody comes back until Enzo is found. Capiche?”

Bruno and Viktor both nodded obediently. “Yes, boss.”

Lynx raised his eyebrows at me as if to say, See? You’re Mafia Luca now.

I hadn’t been Mafia Luca in years and I sure as shit didn’t want to go back to being him. All I could think about was the expression on Kara’s face when I’d walked into her cabin in the Slayers’ compound.

I never wanted another woman to look at me like that. Her hate for me hadn’t been unwarranted. The fact she and my sister were even still speaking to me said more about their personalities than it did about me. I knew I didn’t deserve their forgiveness, but I’d try to earn it every day anyway.

Shit. I needed to call them both. But I knew in my gut, Kara and her men would have kept Isabella safe in my absence, and that right now, all my efforts needed to go into finding her new nephew.

I didn’t even know what he looked like.

I hadn’t even asked Nyah his name.

I ignored Lynx and hit the unlock button on the keys Bruno had tossed me. The black SUV in front of us lit up, and I was behind the wheel a second later.

Lynx slid into the passenger seat, phone pressed to his ear, one of the Slayers on the other end, presumably. “I’m fine. Yeah, Luca is still here and kicking, he’s sitting right next to me. But Nyah and Dax need round-the-clock guards until they’re back on their feet. Neither of them is in good shape.”

He listened for a second, then nodded. “Thanks, War. I know you need me back before the inter-club meetup next month. We’ll be back before then. As soon as we’ve found Enzo and the baby we’re coming home.”

Even though Lynx seemed to be making longer-term plans, if I had anything to say about it, we’d be home before the sun rose.

Children shouldn’t be separated from their mothers. My mother had been taken from me much too young, and it had fucked me up in more ways than one.

I didn’t want that same fate for Nyah’s son.

Lynx ended the call. “So what’s our plan here?”

“You heard what I promised Nyah. We turn over every inch of the city until we find him.”

“So, we’re searching for a needle in a haystack?”

I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. “Enzo has a brand-new baby with him. He’s not going to get far without supplies. We’ll start there.”

And so began one of the longest nights of my life. Driving. Striding into every late-night convenience store and questioning the staff on whether they’d seen Enzo. My phone rang incessantly, with updates from other crews, all assigned to different areas, different places Enzo might have gone, each one more and more frustrating as they all turned out to be empty leads.

The sun rose, and exhaustion set in hard.

“We need to stop,” Lynx said quietly after yet another failed convenience store questioning. “I can barely see straight.”

“Then take a fucking nap,” I snapped at him.

He stared at me. “So you can fall asleep at the wheel, making your scowl right now the last thing I see before I’m dead? No thanks.”

I knew he was right. Despite all the rage and adrenaline and the promises I’d made to both Nyah and myself that I would bring the baby home in no time, my eyelids were so heavy they felt like lead. I’d already steered us into the gutter once when I’d fallen asleep for half a second and Lynx had jerked the wheel to straighten us and wake me up.