A single tear slides down my cheek before I can stop it.
Suddenly, my phone rings from the office, and hope seeps into my heart. With quick steps, I rush down the hallway and step into the room that still smells of sex and regret and hurt.
But when I pick up the phone and see the name on the screen, anger starts to drum in my chest, and I almost throw the phone against the window where Bella’s handprint still remains.
Nico D'Ambrosio.
I answer with violence in my voice, embracing the rage squeezing around my throat because anything is better than thinking about what I’ve lost.
"If you're calling to gloat—" I snarl.
"For once in your fucking life, Romanov,listen."
That stops me.
Nico's voice is wrong. It’s not the arrogant smooth tone that I’m so used to hearing from him. No, there’s a rushed edge to it. Ragged and urgent, like he’s scared and panicking.
"My father has Bella," he says without waiting for me to answer. "And her nephew Anthony too. He'll kill them both if we don't?—"
"You really think I’m going to believe this obvious trap?”
"It's not atrap, you stubborn bastard, it's the truth!” Nico snaps. “He took them from her apartment maybe twenty minutes ago. I've been following his car, but I can't move on him alone, and if you don't get your ass out here?—"
"Proof." My voice is colder than I feel. "Give me proof or stop wasting my time."
A sound of pure frustration, a muffled curse, and then the phone shifts as he passes it to someone else.
"Slava?" A woman’s voice asks.
"Who is this?"
"Lydia. I'm Bella’s friend, and I was there." She takes a sharp breath. "When Don Leo took her. Nico’s telling the truth. Don Leo…”
Her voice quivers, breaking.
“Don Leo said that he’s going to rape her before he kills her.”
My blood freezes into ice, and that word ricochets through my skull.
The phone shifts again, and Nico’s voice returns, steadier than before.
"I know you hate me, Romanov. I know you hate all D'Ambrosios except my sister." There’s a bitter and raw note to his voice now. "But I swore a vow to Bella and told her I would save both our nephews—hers and mine. She did her part to save Alessandro. Now help me hold up my end of the bargain to save Anthony."
The floor spins beneath my feet. "What do you mean she did her part to save Alessandro?"
Nico laughs. "Did you seriously not think about why my father's men attacked that chateauafteryou brought my nephew back from France?"
What?
The record of the call Bella made through the satellite connection on the plane after we were safely in the air. The urgency with which sheinsistedthat we take Alessandro with us. The timing of the attack happening only after we were both back in New York, and the sheer size of the attack itself.
Bella didn’t betray you, you fucking fool! She’d been trying to make up for accidentally revealing Alessandro’s name to the D’Ambrosios this whole fucking time.
If she told them the chateau location because Alessandrowasn't there anymore?—
“I…” I start.
"Figured it out now, have you?" Nico's voice is quiet now. "She knew what my father was planning, and she made sure your son wasn't there when the hit came."
