Fearless: Mob Boss Book Two (Volume 2) by Michelle St. James Page A

moment, she had the desire to join him, to coast above the water until the wave deposited her into its depths. Maybe she would learn to surf when this was all over. Maybe David would learn with her. Why not?
    After a while she walked down to the water, careful to stay out of Locke’s way. She dove under a big wave and emerged on the other side of it invigorated and refreshed. She’d forgotten how much she enjoyed the ocean, how freeing it was to swim and float, letting it carry her like a leaf drifting down a mountain stream. She stayed out for a long time, riding over some of the waves, feeling her stomach lift as they carried her over the sandy ocean bottom, and diving under others, the muffled crash of them breaking overhead.
    Locke was already back on the beach when she finally came in.
    “Not a sun worshipper, I take it?” he asked as she dried off.
    She shook her head. “Not really. It’s kind of boring.”
    He laughed appreciatively. “I couldn’t agree more.”
    They made their way up the path, and Angel headed to her room to take a shower. She was drying off when her cell phone rang from the bathroom counter. Luca’s name was displayed on the screen. She picked it up.
    “Luca?”
    “Angel,” he said. “How’s it going?”
    “You tell me.” She didn’t want to waste words on small talk.
    “Sara ran some searches on “Strand” and “South Bay”.”
    “And?” she said, walking naked into the bedroom. “Did she find anything?”
    “Yes and no.”
    Angel sighed. “Can you be more specific?”
    “They’re common words,” Luca said. “Between searches run separately and together, she came up with school, neighborhoods, even retirement homes, from Southern California to Florida to Portugal.”
    “Southern California?”
    “Don’t get your hopes up, Angel,” Luca warned.
    “But if the call came from LA and the piece of paper from my father’s office had words leading to LA—”
    “Leading to lots of places,” Luca reminded her.
    Angel slipped a bra on around the phone. “Seems like quite a coincidence.”
    “I agree, and you can feel free to start with the hits there. I just don’t want you to miss something else that might be important because you’ve already convinced yourself the words are connected to LA.”
    “What exactly am I looking for?” she asked, pulling on a skirt.
    “I’m going to send you a list of all the hits Sara got. We need you to go through it and tell us if anything jumps out at you; a name, a location, anything that could be connected to you or David.”
    “The words might not be connected to us at all,” Angel said. “And I have no way to know if they’re connected to Dante, to where he’s holding David.”
    Luca sighed. “I’m not going to lie; it’s a long shot. But it’s all we’ve got right now. And Sara’s going to go over the search results with a fine-tooth comb, cross-referencing them with everything we know about Dante, his history, his family.”
    “Okay, she said. “I’ll do my best.”
    “Good. I’m sending them to Locke’s computer now. His servers are encrypted. Just ask him to sign you in.”
    “Thanks, Luca.”
    “You’re welcome.” He hesitated. “How are you holding up?”
    “I don’t know,” she said. “It seems a little surreal, which is probably the only reason I’m not losing it right now.”
    “Shock is a survival mechanism. Use the distance it gives you to work on finding something that leads to David.”
    “I will.”
    “Talk soon.”
    The line went dead, and Angel dropped onto the bed in her skirt and bra. Her reliable numbness faded into the background long enough to allow for panic. Luca was trying to stay positive, trying to keep her positive. But they all knew the truth, even if it was unspoken; if finding David was dependent on connecting three commonly used words to a man she didn’t know, they were screwed.

19
    Nico sat in the lobby of Lando Productions for a full twenty minutes before the