Unspoken Obsession (Casino King #4)

26. Dante

DANTE

H olding Frankie in my arms while she cries her heart out is more painful than I could have imagined. Her father treats her like she is nothing. He speaks to her like she is worthless and the fact that he is happy to threaten to take a child from his mother is so cold, calculated, and cruel.

Damion tugs at my pants and I look down at him. His gorgeous bright blue eyes fill me with fear and anger.

Fear of the threats against him from a powerful man. And anger that I don't know yet how to save them both from this horrible situation.

"Mommy?" Damion says, looking as though he might also cry.

Frankie leans back and I bend down to pick up my son, still holding Frankie in my arms as well.

They both belong to me.

Frankie has my heart. I can't deny it anymore. I am in love with her.

I will do anything to keep her and my son safe. I will do anything to keep that man away from them both.

"Mommy, are you sad?" Damion asks, lifting his head off my shoulder and brushing his hand over his mother's cheek.

"Mommy is ok. She just had a fight with someone. But it's all ok now."

"He is gone. We're not allowed to fight - it's no nice."

"He's gone, baby. He won't come back." She replies, but then she looks at me as though she is wishing it were true and wishing that she wasn't lying to our son.

"No, we don't fight. It's ugly and we want to be nice."

"It's going to be ok, Frankie," I whisper against her hair. "I'll do whatever it takes to make it ok," I promise.

I am a father. I have a son. And I have a woman that I have fallen in love with twice. Because I know I fell in love with her the first night we met at the gala. It was something I had to put aside, thinking I would never see her again - but now she is here.

I know I love her.

I cannot lose her.

When Frankie is calmer, I take her hand and lead her to the kitchen. "Let's make breakfast for Damion and I'll make some coffee for us."

She nods, grateful to have something to do - to distract her thoughts from the way her father bombarded his way into her safe little haven.

It makes me realize how much access that man has to her. There is really nothing stopping him -- knowing he can get to her, and she can't stop him.

She had a reason to be so fearful all this time.

"Frankie - I want you and Damion to come and stay with me at the penthouse."

She shakes her head. "I would love that, Dante, but imagine how my father would react if he found out. It would be like throwing nitroglycerine on the fire and hoping it doesn't go bang. He would become savage with rage."

"But staying here is a risk. He just walks into your apartment without even blinking an eye. It's too easy for him."

"I'll find somewhere else to stay. It doesn't have to be here. I can go to a hotel or something where they at least have some kind of security. But I can't risk staying with you. It would put you in danger too."

I sigh. Doesn't she understand? I don't care about the danger for myself. I only want to keep them safe.

"I am going to book you in at the Madison Grande. I have people there and I can have guards discreetly set up around the hotel -- just to keep an eye out if anything happens."

She nods. "Ok. That will work. As long as my father doesn't think you are the one arranging the room or that you have people there."

"I'll make sure it is booked under another name. It's not my casino, a close associate owns it."

After breakfast, I am reluctant to leave. I want to take them with me. I don't want them out of my sight. But I need to go because Arman is waiting. He has news and I am hoping like all hell that he has something solid to show me.

Kissing Frankie goodbye breaks me after what happened this morning, but she smiles and puts on a brave face, so I have to do the same.

At the Russo River Casino Lorenzo is waiting for me in the foyer. He walks fast to fall into step with me as we hurry to my office.

"Did anyone follow him here?" I ask, remembering my promise to keep Arman safe.

"No, my men escorted him from just outside the territory line. He is alone. He has concrete evidence."

"Fuck, you do not know how happy I am to hear that," I say with a massive sigh of relief.

Lorenzo and I walk into my office and Arman stands up, looking pale, but standing tall.

"Sir, Mr. Russo - I got what we needed."

He steps forward, handing me a brown envelope that is scrunched as though he has been gripping it, holding onto it as though his life depended on it.

I sit down at the desk opposite Arman and open the envelope, pulling out the sheets of paper inside it.

Lists and lists of names.

There is a manifest of every shipment of girls that has gone out in the last five years, including the person they were sent to. I want to puke. There are hundreds of names on here -- hundreds of people who were taken from their families.

"Is that enough, sir?" Arman asks when I say nothing. My throat is tight with horror. I want to flick through the pages to the day my sister went missing. But I can't bring myself to do it.

I stare at Arman. "This is exactly what we needed."

"I took photos as well. They are all on this phone -- of the office, where I took the papers from, and of the inside of his house and two of his warehouses. I got a very blurry photo of some girls, but I don't know if they were being taken or not."

I take the phone from him.

"You've done an incredible job, Arman."

He shifts from foot to foot. "I can't go back there. Will you keep your promise, Mr. Russo?"

"I will. In fact, Lorenzo is going to drive you straight to the airport right now. My private jet is waiting to take you home to Peru -- if that is where you want to go. Because you have been here and working under a fake identity, Antonio Musetti will never know who you are if you switch back to your own name."

"You will take me home?" His voice breaks and he looks as though he wants to cry. "I would love nothing more than to go home and be with my family."

I nod towards Lorenzo. "Take the briefcase. It is for Arman and his family. Get this man home. He deserves it."

Lorenzo picks up the briefcase of cash I had prepared for Arman. His family will not have to worry about money again.

They have lost their daughter and their son gave up years of his life to find the truth - now they deserve a little peace.

Lorenzo leaves with Arman and I stare at the list in my hands.

I am alone now. Yet I still find it so hard to just turn the pages towards the date Dani went missing.

I shut my eyes and cuss under my breath.

Then I flip. Page by page, searching for the right month.

Starting the day she was taken I ran my finger down the list of names. I get more nauseous with each passing moment until I stop - my finger frozen in place. My heart is dead in my chest.

Daniela Russo. Bernard Lux.

My sister was sold to a man named Bernard Lux, in New York.

She was shipped out only three days after she was taken.

I can't stop staring at her name or his.

An intense hatred is building towards this man I don't even know.

It is blinding me with rage. Anger so deep it is threatening to tear me apart from the inside.

I slide the papers back into the envelope, fearing I might tear them to pieces. I can't destroy the only evidence I have against Antonio Musetti.

This and the photos.

It is enough to take him down.

This will stir a great amount of shit in his life; there will be eyes all over him.

I put the envelope into my safe and slammed it shut, double-checking it's locked and resetting the code.

I can't stop myself. Even though I need to be focused on the problem right in front of me, I can't stop myself. I pull open my laptop and type in that man's name.

Bernard Lux.

The search reveals several things about him. He lives in New York. That much I was aware of. He runs oil businesses across the globe, owning several ships that drill in the ocean. He has money - old money - and a lot of it. Political connections, and high-society friends. There are pictures of him with someone who looks like his twin, only younger than him. Nathan Lux. It doesn't state their relationship, maybe his son.

I research his companies, and the very praise filled media articles about him - no doubt fluffed by an expensive PR team. Hatred builds.

"I am coming for you, Bernard Lux. I am coming to tear your life apart." I want my sister back.

Lorenzo walks into my office and I jump, only now realizing how long I have been researching this man.

"Can we use what he found? Is it what we need?" He asks.

"It's more than we hoped for," I say, finding it too difficult to talk about the fact that my sister's name was on that list. At least now I know - I know more about where she was sent - that Antonio took her. I have the evidence I have been searching for.

"What do you want to do with it? How do you want to handle this?"

"Is Frankie safe at the new hotel? Did you set up the guards around her room and in the lobby?" I need to be sure he can't get to them.

"Yes, and the two rooms adjacent to hers are reserved as well and we have security guys 'on vacation' there."

"Then I think we need to move fast -- the sooner the better. I want to confront Antonio Musetti tomorrow." What I really want to do is kill him. "Tonight, I will decide the best way to handle this -- our way, or if I should unleash the law on him just for fun, but we are going ahead."

"I agree. The sooner the better."

Even though it is late I don't go home. I don't want to be alone tonight. I need to be with Frankie, to feel her touch. I need a distraction and to be close to her.

When I get to her hotel, I recognize my men in the foyer. They do not let on that they work for me; there is no acknowledgment, but I know they are there.

I take the elevator to the top floor that was booked out for Frankie and Damion.

She jumps when I open the door with the spare keycard I arranged.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I wanted to have a key just in case you needed me."

She wraps her arms around my waist.

"Is everything ok?" I ask, stroking my hand down her back.

"My father has been messaging me non-stop. He knows we are not at the apartment, and he is furious, demanding to know where we are - and that we are to come home." She has poked the bear, but she's not going home — not to his home. When she goes home, it will be with me.

I pull her away from me so that I can look into her eyes. "Frankie, we have the evidence we need to take him down. The guy I told you about - he got what we needed then I got him out; he's somewhere safe."

"Have you done anything to my father yet? What are you going to do? Does he know?" She asks.

"Not yet, but I plan to handle it tomorrow. I just needed a little time to process the information he gave me - and decide the best way to use it."