Corrupted Chaos (Tarnished Empire)(82)

My girl? When had she become that?

“That’s my sister-in-law,” he bellowed into the phone. “Wet your dick somewhere else.”

“Watch your mouth. It’s not just that with her.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Dante swore while Bastian mumbled in Italian.

“I don’t have time for either of your shit. I just told you we have an election on the line and Albanians going against our alliance. She’s not safe until we set it straight. Especially because they think she’s the only one who knows.”

“I’ll need the records,” Bastian sighed. “They aren’t going to admit it right away. We’ll need a few days and—”

“If they have her, Bastian, they aren’t getting shit. Fuck.” I smacked the seat of the car as my Tesla drove me to Liberty Greene Apartments. “Give me a second. I’m here. I’ll call you back.”

I took the stairs two at a time and cursed the cameras as I ran down her hall.

Her door was wide open.

Her phone had been smashed and left on the floor.

No Izzy.

No sign of her anywhere.

The place wasn’t trashed, but the knocked-over table and crushed phone on the ground told me everything I needed to know. I heard a meow and looked down to see her black cat in the corner of the room. “Fuck me,” I grumbled before I swooped up the cat and stormed out.

I got back into my car, set the cat over on the seat in hopes it wouldn’t freak out. Instead, it just stared at me like I was a piece of shit. “I know I fucked up, okay? I’m going to get your mom back.”

I sighed and hacked the data from her phone. I was able to pull up the last moments on there before it had been destroyed, and thank God she’d had training.

It was her begging. And every second I listened, I lost a little more of my control.

“Please. Please. I’ll come willingly.” I heard the whimper and closed my eyes as I felt the true pain in her voice. “I’ve been sober nine years. I don’t need you to drug me.”

Izzy was strong. She went toe-to-toe with me and spat fire when she needed to. Here, she was broken. And when they laughed at her and spoke in Albanian, I saw red.

Black.

Fury I’d never felt.

One man shushed her and said, “It’ll be easier this way.”

And then I heard her crying, screaming, fighting. Then silence and rustling.

Silence.

It was probably a sound that would never comfort me again.

I remember how I let it seep in. I remember how I knew it changed me right there, right then.

That girl had been a nuisance and an enemy of mine. I’d embarrassed her and probably tortured her a little.

But no one made her beg or tortured her except me.

The bellow that ripped through me was loud and feral and her cat’s ears went back like the thing hated me. I hated myself too but couldn’t dwell on that now. I dialed my brother’s number back.

“Got an update on—”

I blurted it out. “The Albanians have her.”

“What?” he whispered. “That’s not possible. They’ve got to know she’s with us—”

“They don’t know she’s really with me, Bastian.”

“Is she?”

“Don’t fuck with me right now.”

“I’m not, brother. I’m not.” He sighed.

“They drugged her. She’s a recovered addict, Bastian.” I couldn’t hold back the shake of emotion in my voice.

My brother tried to calm me down. “Okay, look, we’ll handle—”

“I will handle it,” I corrected. “They’re mine now.”

“Cade, we agreed to be allies—”

“I didn’t agree to anything. You did. I never agree,” I reminded him. “And in my world, details matter. They didn’t want to figure out the details before they drugged the girl I love—”

“You’re in love with her now?” Bastian’s tone changed.

“Figure out how you want to cover up the chaos, brother. Because I’m about to unleash it.”

“Jesus Christ, Cade. I can’t cover up your shit. Can’t we wait a second and—”

“I’m not waiting. And get ahold of Dante and Lilah. They need to swing by my place and pick up Izzy’s cat.”

“I’m not dealing with a cat when you’re about to fuck up everything, Cade. You need to chill.”

“I am. And you better deal with it.”

I didn’t wait for him to respond as I hung up and pet the cat’s head. “You’ll see your mom soon. I promise you that.”

No one had authority over the world like I did.

And I intended to exercise that authority to the fullest in the next few days.





26





Izzy





I fought when the needle hit my arm. I’d survived opiate addiction, and I was sure whatever they had in that syringe, my body was going to suck it up and feel a high I never wanted to feel again.

So I fought. I fought hard.

It wasn’t the fear of experiencing a drug. I’d done that already. It was the fear of losing my sobriety, of losing to the addiction I’d fought so hard to overcome.