And there was nothing scarier than a man who had been through hell and thought the only way to get some sort of justice was to use you.
He wanted to use me to get to my men.
They were probably responsible for him looking like this.
I could see it in his eyes.
The hatred.
And Leo was in on it.
I looked at Leo. Mikhail, Nikolay, and Damien trusted him to protect me. Instead, he betrayed them.
Why?
Leo shook his head and looked away from me. I flinched when the other man spoke.
“Do you know who I am?”
I frowned.
He grinned, looking every bit like a nightmare come to life, and it had nothing to do with his disfigurement.
“Of course not. They all think I’m a ghost. And that was what I had become until the time was right.”
He fixed his tie. “Let me introduce myself. My name is Luca Monroe. And I’m here to take you for an exchange.”
Luca …
My eyes widened. He was the man who’d held Nikolay and made him participate in the cage fights.
I narrowed my gaze at him.
Somehow, I had expected more. I had a feeling he was a shadow of his former self. Yet he’d gotten Leo to help him.
“Ah,” he said. “So they told you about me. Did they also tell you that I’m dead?” He laughed. “Stupid, arrogant bastards. Did they think I’m that easy to kill?”
I tried to get away from him when he moved closer to me, but he grabbed my hair and pulled until I was looking him directly in the eyes. They were barely open from all the scars that surrounded the tissue of his eyes. It was by some miracle that he wasn’t blind.
“Do I look scary, Catalina?”
I took in a deep breath, trying to remain calm.
“You can thank Damien for this. The bastard really had a fondness for knives. And fire. He said it was more personal that way.”
I closed my eyes. He shook me. “No. Look at me. Look at what the man you love has done to me. Look at what he’s capable of. I’m doing you a favor. I am showing you the real face under the mask. I am showing you the monster.”
I shook my head.
“No?” he asked, pulling on my hair.
I let out a small cry.
“Luca. You said you weren’t going to hurt her. You just need Damien,” Leo said. I opened my eyes and took him in, glaring at him. He shouldn’t pretend to care.
He’d betrayed them.
He’d betrayed me.