“Simon forwarded news,” Luka said.
I frowned, glancing down at my phone. Sure enough, notification showed that Simon had reached out to me in the last hour. I’d been too busy discussing Kalina waking up to pay attention.
“What is it?” I asked. Luka would know it all in the end, anyway. He supervised all that happened in his family.
“It appears that she was expected to be sold to the Riveras.” His face turned stony. “As a bride.”
“Those fucking Italians,” Emil said, shaking his head. “We kill them off and they keep popping back up.”
“The Riveras?” I asked, needing to know what we were dealing with. I thought I’d be retrieving Kalina because Raisa wanted her found and Luka wished her to have her connection with her family. But I didn’t want to embark on more trouble with the Italian outfit who had been our enemies for so long.
“He’s looking into it,” Luka replied.
Emil nodded. “Give him an hour or two. He’ll have all the information there is to find.”
“It could be just a rumor,” Ivan said. “Which is why it’d be nice to ask her about what her brother had planned.”
Raisa shook her head, seated next to him. “No, Ivan. She was…” She glanced at me as if needing my help to describe it.
“Mute,” I said. “Locked in her mind. Scared and unable to even speak.”
“Yeah. That,” Raisa said. “She’s not in any state to be questioned.”
“Give it time,” Luka advised, standing. “Give it time. Maybe if she isn’t forthcoming with intel about what Marco Rivera’s son is plotting, we could use her as bait to see what their reaction is and?—”
“No.” Ivan scowled. “No. Raisa wanted her to be found to make sure she was safe and well. Not to use her.”
Luka held his hand up in a truce-like yet dismissive manner. “It was just a thought. Nothing can be done now but to give her a chance to recover. Maybe with more rest, she will be willing to talk.” He sighed and gave Raisa a sympathetic frown. “Maybe then, she’ll be more willing to reconnect—so long as she proves she’s not a threat to any of us while she’s here.”
She nodded.
I did too.
It was a risk to bring an unknown like Kalina here. If she would induce more violence, then she should be moved to another location.
Deep down, I knew that she couldn’t be a spy, not a tool or asset who’d harmus.
No one was that good of an actor. The fear that shone from her light-blue eyes was real. Stark. And serious.
Once the others all left the lounge, though, I used my phone to get onto the security app that would enable me to view the footage in her room. I didn’t need to rehash the scene of her waking up and lashing out. Nor of my sedating her to calm her down for our safety and her own.
I was among the few who had unfettered access to the footage like this, in charge of security at large.
As I sat there for a while longer, I watched her sleep. Not for the sake of checking on the security of her room, but to know she was peaceful. At least I hoped she was.
Whatever nightmares plague you, trust us—trust me—to help.
She was but a slim figure on the bed, asleep and unmoving.
Yet, as I peered at her and familiarized myself with the features of her face, I saw past the bruises.
I tried hard to consider her not as a wounded, feral animal who had been unable to snap out of the horrors in her mind when she woke, but as a woman who needed help. Who was desperate for it.
Iwillprotect you, Kalina.
Luka had given his approval to rescue and retrieve her.
His standing orders were to give her time so she could rest, and then we would reassess how to approach her.
