The Ultimate Sin (Sins of the Past Duet Book 2)

by Jillian Quinn

  We drove for about ten minutes before either of spoke again. I was sick with guilt, fear, and anger. None of those feelings were meant for anyone in my life. I was mad at myself. By killing Antonio Mancuso, I had set in motion a chain of events, which could lead to Gia’s death.

  “All of this is my fault,” I choked out, staring out the window. “I could have saved Gia from all of this. I should have gone against my father and run away with her.”

  “Your dad would have hunted the two of you down and dragged you back here. There’s no way in hell he was ever letting you off the hook. For the past hundred years, every man on your dad’s side of the family has been a Made man. You were born into this life. We both were. Neither of us ever had a choice.”

  “You had one,” I reminded Sonny.

  “Not really. I grew up with my dad in and out of jail. I had my mom and little sister to feed. I’m not book smart like you. I couldn’t go to college and make an honest living. I steal to survive. I kill to live. You do the same, but you have different motivations. You want to please your dad. I do it to take care of my family.”

  “What do you think I’m doing?” I balled my hand into a fist on my thigh, biting back the anger. “Gia is my family. Everything I do is to provide for her. To make sure she has what she needs and is taken care of.”

  “It’s not the same, and you know it. Gia has a rich dad. She doesn’t need money from you.”

  “Are you trying to piss me off? Because you are succeeding, Son. You don’t get it. My dad threatened to take her away from me. I had to play his game and follow his rules. He’s fucking sick and twisted. I believed him when he said he would find a way to end our relationship for good if I didn’t do as he asked.”

  Sonny turned onto the highway, glancing over at me with a confused look on his face. “When did your dad say that?”

  “After I got accepted into college, he sat me down and told me I could go with Gia as long as I didn’t try anything stupid.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like running off with her. For whatever reason, the old man always believed that because we share the same name, I was his heir apparent.”

  “He doesn’t treat you like it.”

  I shook my head. “Nope. Not anymore. Never really did. He’s disappointed in me. He was hoping I’d turn out more like Pete. Even Marco isn’t good enough for him. That’s why he put all of his trust in Pete. He was right to do so. Pete’s the obvious choice. He’s a dick, but he would make a good boss.”

  “He would,” Sonny agreed. “Pete’s level-headed and thinks shit through before he acts.”

  “Unlike me,” I finished for him.

  “You’re book smart, but not street smart like your brothers.”

  “I wish he would let me go. When I find Gia, I want to take her away from all this. She deserves a better life than what I’ve given her so far. A woman like Gia should have a normal life.”

  “If Gia wanted normal, she never would have hooked up with you.”

  I punched him in the arm, laughing. “You’re just jealous she saw me first.”

  Sonny smirked. “That’s where you’re wrong. Technically, Gia saw me first, but she didn’t talk to me. She was too shy. I stood there like an asshole and watched you steal the girl away. You went over and helped her off the swing. Remember how afraid she was to jump off it?”

  I smiled at the memory. “Yeah, I fucking miss her. So much. This is the longest we’ve ever been apart, and I have no idea if she’s okay. I hate feeling useless. She needs me, and I can’t get to her.”

  “At least we know she’s alive.”

  “But look what they have her doing,” I growled, not meaning to take out my frustration on Sonny. “She’s stripping for a bunch of perverts because of something I did. What if…” I bit my fist to keep myself from screaming. “What if one of them touches her? Fuck. I can’t handle the thought of someone hurting her. Forcing themselves on her.”

  “Gia’s tough. She’ll get through this. Don’t dwell on the negative. Focus on the positive. And that’s getting her back alive and breathing.”

  My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I fished it out. A text message popped up on the screen from a blocked number. It had to be Gia’s kidnappers. I slid my finger along the screen to open a message, which contained nothing more than a URL.

  “I think we got something,” I told Sonny.

  He drove over the Ben Franklin Bridge and into Philadelphia, glancing over at me. “What is it?”

  “A link.” I felt sick to my stomach, dreading what was on the website. Before I clicked it, I knew it would be Gia. Bile rose up from my stomach when I saw Gia on the screen. “Someone’s selling her at a private auction.”

  Sonny’s mouth went as wide as his eyes. “What the fuck? We have to buy her.”

  “I know.”

  Every emotion hit me at once. I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t form a single tear. Rage bubbled inside my chest, sending me over the edge. My entire body trembled, shaking the armrest that I shared with Sonny.

  “How much do they want?”

  I doubled checked the number on the screen, insane with fury when I saw the price tag they had placed on her head. “The starting bid is one million dollars.”

  “We don’t have that kind of money lying around.”

  I nodded. “We have to figure out where they’re keeping Gia, and get her out of there before someone can buy her. After we get over the bridge, go straight to Morelli Motors. Tony can help us.”

  “You got it, Boss.”

  I hated when he called me that, but I didn’t bother to argue. Gia was about to be sold to the highest bidder. I had to get to her first.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Gia

  Standing on a stage in a different club than before, I glanced out into the crowd. The bright lights overhead were in my eyes, forcing me to blink a few times before I could make out the faces in front of me. Not that I wanted to make eye contact with the men who were ogling me.

  Unlike last time, we were in a private club, maybe even a lounge. The stage was small and luckily didn’t have a pole attached to it. About five feet in front of me, a man stood behind a camera. He glanced up at me and then down at the lens as if he was trying to decide on the perfect angle to shoot me.

  I did my best to look away from the men sitting at small round tables, some smoking cigars and drinking beers from glass mugs. But I couldn’t help but wonder who was out there, watching my every move. I was curious if I knew some of the men. A few of them looked familiar, though I had trouble putting names to their faces. I was sure they were connected men. By the cut of their suits and the entitlement they wore with pride, they had to be Made men. At the very least they were insanely wealthy men who could afford to pay Dante’s ridiculous price for me.

  Dante walked around to each of the tables to greet his guests. He smoked a cigar with his right hand and drank from a glass of scotch with the other. I hated his beautiful but smug face.

  How could a man so handsome be so cruel and disgusting?

  How could he put a price on my life?

  He didn’t even know me, never even had me.

  After five minutes, Dante climbed the few stairs to the right of the stage and strolled toward me with a crooked grin on his stupid face. He enjoyed every bit of my embarrassment, loved it when I squirmed. I was almost happy to leave him behind, but I was terrified of the monster who might replace him.

  Dante stuck the cigar in his mouth and bit down on it. He touched my cheek with his free hand and caressed my skin. “Raven,” he said under his breath. “If you weren’t such a pain in my ass, I would’ve kept you. Such a beauty. The men in this room will pay a lot of money for you. So will the men watching on the other end of that camera.” He pointed to the cameraman and pulled the cigar from his mouth, blowing smoke in my face.

  I hated the smell of cigars almost as much as I hated the sight of Dante.

  “You will always be my Raven. M
aybe one day you will come back to me.”

  “Not a chance. And we both know my name is not Raven so we can quit with the charade.” My anger shook through me, making it obvious I was trembling. Of course, my kidnapper noticed. His eyes roamed over my entire body, taking in every last bit of me in a skimpy white dress made from lace and silk.

  My nipples were exposed through the lace top, leaving zero to the imagination. At least the hem almost covered my ass. Still, I was beyond humiliated.

  My body was meant for Angelo and him alone. Not a group of nasty old men with too much money and time on their hands.

  “I like games,” he growled next to my ear. “You’re fun to play with, but if what you told me is true, I have no use for you.”

  “Don’t you think the men who are about to bid on me would like to know I’m going to be popping out a kid in nine months?”

  He tilted my chin up with his hand until our eyes met. Smoke blew in my eyes, causing them to burn. “They don’t need to know that. I have a no return policy. Whoever buys you can deal with it however they see fit.”

  I gasped at his comment. “No one is going near my child. You better kill me right now and get it over with. When it comes to protecting my family, I can be just as ruthless as you.”

  He laughed, releasing his hold on my chin, his deep voice a loud rumble. “It’s a shame we couldn’t work something out. Lucky was sad to see you go. She liked you. Me… I couldn’t have cared less.”

  “You planned to sell me from the start, didn’t you?”

  He nodded. “You’re beautiful but not worth the hassle. Too many people are looking for you. I don’t have the time or the patience to deal with that shit.”

  Our conversation ended with Dante walking away from me and toward the man with the camera. On a small table next to him, the man clicked the keyboard of a MacBook Air as he spoke to Dante. He was planning to stream the auction over the Internet. I’d heard of secret online auctions on the dark web, but I wasn’t sure if they were real until that night. And I was about to be the star in one of them.

  I sucked in a deep breath and let it out, preparing myself for what was about to come next.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Angelo

  Tony and Chase were ready and waiting for us at the entrance to Morelli Motors. They pulled back the high metal gate to the lot, allowing us enough room to enter before they secured the gate back in place. Like Sonny and me, my cousin Tony and his best friend were inseparable.

  By the time Sonny parked, and we got out of the car, Tony and Chase were at our sides, escorting us into the garage. My uncle, Big Tony, owned the place before he went upstate to prison with Sonny’s dad. It was only a matter of time before Tony, and his crew found the same fate. I wasn’t far behind them. With all the shit I’d done to save Gia, it was only a matter of time before my past caught up with me.

  Tony led us through the garage. The bays were occupied with cars on the lifts, the smell of grease and motor oil burning my nostrils. We cut through the small office Tony used in the daytime when he wanted to pretend he had a real job.

  For the most part, Morelli Motors was a front to launder money, sell drugs, and move stolen cars. They did the occasional oil change or tune-up. Since most of the business was cash, it was easy for Tony to forge the receipts. Money came into Morelli Motors almost as fast as it went out.

  The back door to the office emptied out into a large, open room. The space had couches arranged in a semicircle. A variety of tables, ranging from different shapes and sizes, were spread around the room. A pool table was on one side of the room, a foosball table in the other. Between the couches was an eighty-inch flat screen television hung on the wall.

  The Broad Street Burnouts was one of the fastest racing crews on the East Coast of the United States. Tony and his guys could drive anything with wheels and steal anything with them for that matter. When it came to boosting cars, no crew was better. They helped my family move a lot of drugs and guns over state lines, and were smart enough to pull off the jobs.

  A large part of why they were so good at their jobs was because of Maverick, shortened to Rick. He was the man we’d come to see. His real name was Teddy Bradshaw, but everyone knew him by his screen name, Maverick6996. Rick was a brilliant coder, genius hacker, and the smartest person I’d ever met. If anyone could find Gia, I had faith in Rick.

  I sat on the couch next to Rick and handed over my cell phone. “Can you trace the IP address?”

  He took the phone from my hand and nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

  I cringed when Rick clicked on the link and saw Gia in a white dress that could easily pass as lingerie. Her nipples were a perfect shade of pink and poking through the thin lace top. She looked gorgeous, flawless as always. But she had lost some weight. Her cheeks were sunken, her skin was without its usual glow. The spark, which was once in her grayish-blue eyes, was gone.

  Gia seemed lost, even though I knew my girl was still inside. Her hips were narrower than usual, but she looked fed. At least the DiSalvos hadn’t starved her. I hoped for her sake Dante didn’t touch her. He was known for violence. Dante was also known for the harem of women he kept inside his oceanfront house as if he were running his own fucked-up version of the Playboy Mansion.

  Rick moved his computer from the couch to his lap and typed the URL from my phone into his web browser. He didn’t use the standard search engines like Google or Yahoo. Nope, he was on the dark web, typing at a feverish pace. His fingers moved so fast I had trouble keeping up with him. Not that I could understand a single thing he was doing.

  “Whoever set up this feed knows what they’re doing,” he said to me, his eyes fixed on the screen.

  Sonny sat on the couch across from us with his elbows digging into his thighs. “Can you find her?”

  Rick typed faster, entering more information onto a black and white screen that looked like gibberish to me. “It’s not going to be easy. Give me some time. Their IP address keeps re-routing. One second they’re in Florida, and the next it’s showing Russia.”

  I leaned forward and cupped my face in my hands. My lack of sleeping was wearing thin on my patience. I was beyond tired and needed a nap and a hot shower. But I had to keep going. Gia needed me. Her conditions were most likely unbearable, and if I didn’t get to her in time, who knew what would happen to her. I’d never been more terrified in my life. Someone could buy my girl if I didn’t get to her in time.

  “I narrowed it down to the East Coast,” Rick said, his voice hopeful. “Give me a few more minutes, and I should have a better indication of where they’re holding the auction.” He shoved my phone across the couch to me. “You might not have long to get to her. Someone just bid five million dollars.”

  My heart sank into my stomach. Gia was mine. She was always mine. From the day I’d met Gia, she belonged to me. No one had the right to stake their claim over her but me. I tugged at the ends of my hair, trying to keep my shit together. It was hard considering the circumstances. My blood ran cold, sending chills down my arms, which made me shiver.

  “Looks like they’re on the East Coast of New Jersey along the Atlantic Ocean.”

  “Atlantic City,” I muttered.

  “I can’t pinpoint their location. It keeps hitting different towers and re-routing before I can get a solid signal. By the looks of it, the feed won’t be up much longer.”

  Rick turned the computer so I could see the screen. Gia was squirming on the stage, shuffling her weight from one foot to the other, with her arms folded across her chest. She put on a front for the men in the crowd. But I knew her well enough to know she was barely keeping herself together. I had to find her in time.

  I pushed myself up from the couch and looked down at Rick. “Can you track them while we drive?”

  “It will be harder without a strong Wi-Fi signal but not impossible. If I can triangulate the location before we leave, it might help the closer we get, but like I said, I don’t think the auction’s
going to last much longer.”

  “We don’t know that,” I shot back with venom behind my words.

  Not meaning to do it, I kept taking my anger out on the wrong people. They were trying to help me. Everyone in my life was doing their best to help me find Gia, and I couldn’t control my rage long enough to have a civilized conversation with anyone.

  “Put in a bid,” Tony said to me. “See if you can outbid them.”

  I turned to face Rick. “Is it still open?”

  He nodded. “For now. How much do you want me to offer?”

  “Five point one million.”

  “You don’t have that much money,” Tony said.

  “They don’t know that.”

  “The funds have to be verified with online auctions,” Rick said, stating what he thought was obvious.

  I had zero experience with auctions on the dark web. Tony and his crew scouted most of their cars and talked to buyers over the shady part of the Internet only real tech savvy people understood how to access. Rick was their way into the inner workings of the online abyss. It was like a black hole for degenerates and people with too much power and knowledge.

  “Place the bid. I’ll find a way to pay the money.”

  Rick did as I’d asked and grunted in frustration. “We were outbid. Someone countered with five point two million.”

  I pushed my hand out in front of me. “Keep going. I have to get Gia back. I don’t care how much money she costs. We have to win, or I might lose her forever. She’ll fall off the radar.”

  The computer dinged with another bid, followed by several others. As fast as we could hit the submit button another person would come along and beat us out.

  “Fuck,” Rick yelled. He couldn’t even look me in the eye when he showed me the computer screen.

  The auction has ended, flashed in front of me, reminding me of how much I had failed Gia.

  We should have won.

  I should have been there for her.

  She was gone.

  For the first time since she was taken, a tear fell from my eye. I’d lost her for good.