Mikhail and I both looked at Damien.
I shook my head, but Damien spoke up before I could say anything.
“Fine, Luca. I’ll play your little game. But hurt her again, and I’ll make sure the torture I gave you feel like a slap to the wrist.”
Luca was silent for a moment. “Fine. Your precious darling has fainted. I’ll send you the trade-off location later.”
The phone went dead.
“How long until we get home?” I asked Kirill.
“Five minutes.”
I shook my head. We were too late. How the hell did he get into the penthouse? That place was a fortress. No one should have been able to get in, not unless …
Not unless we had a traitor among us.
“What are we going to do?” I asked.
“We can arrange men around the premises when we make the trade-off,” Mikhail said. “A man like Luca has no connections to any gang. I doubt he has any real manpower—”
Damien shook his head. “No. We’re not putting Catalina at risk.”
“So what do you suggest? That we go through with the trade-off?”
“Put a tracking device on me,” Damien said.
I shook my head. “What if he figures it out and disables it somehow?”
“Do you think he would?”
I shrugged. I didn’t fucking know. Luca was a little weasel, but there was no denying he was a smart weasel.
Another thought occurred to me then. “You remember what he used to do to gain favors with the Solntsevskaya Bratva?”
Damien nodded, telling me he had already thought of that.
“He used to build them bombs.” I swallowed. “Do you think he’ll do it with her?”
“To keep us from going after him once he finally gets Damien? Absolutely,” Mikhail answered.
“Then we’ll just have to stoop to his level, won’t we?” Damien said calmly. My jaw clenched. I fucking hated how unemotional he was about this whole thing. As if he had already prepared for his eventual death.
We pulled up to the building, and I opened the door and ran out, Mikhail and Damien right behind me.
I watched the elevator numbers impatiently as it climbed to the top.
I knew she wasn’t there. I knew we were too late.
It didn’t stop me from hoping.
I shot out of the elevator as soon as the door opened and walked to my room.
Fuck.
I was going to be sick.
“What the fuck?” Mikhail said, sounding tortured as he took in the scene. There was just so much blood on the sheets.