I’ve been here before during meetings with my father and the Bratva.
Katerina is family, so she could be put in a room, but I suspect they see her as a prisoner, so I head to the basement.
"Where is she?" I growl, pressing my gun against a guard's temple.
“You’re a dead man, Dante.”
“So are you. Where is she?”
“Fuck you.”
I have no choice. I use my knife to slit his throat.
The basement reeks of mold and old blood.
Another Bratva man guards a heavy metal door.
He doesn’t see me coming until it's too late.
I grab him by the head, cranking it until his neck cracks and he drops.
The hallway beyond holds a row of locked rooms.
My heart pounds as I move past the first, then the second.
And there she is.
Katerina sits huddled in the corner, her face bruised. But her fierce blue eyes flash with defiance when I enter.
For a moment, they morph to relief, but then panic. "Luca. It’s a trap. You shouldn’t have come."
“What else could I do?” I pull her into my arms, and for one brief moment, I allow myself to hold her, to breathe her in. She’s alive. So far. “How did you get here?”
“I came to offer myself?—"
"You what?"
"After the cottage attack, I couldn't bear it anymore. Enzo was almost killed, and I could negotiate with Maksim. Convince him to take me instead."
"Jesus Christ, Katerina." My chest constricts at the thought of her walking into this hellhole by choice. For me.
"I should have known better." She touches her bruised cheek. "The moment I proposed the trade, he laughed. He said he’d use me to draw you out instead." Tears fall down her cheeks. "I'm so sorry, Luca. I've gotten us both killed."
"We're not dead yet." I check the ammunition in my guns.
"Please." She grabs my arm. "Just go. Leave me.”
I cup her face in my free hand, careful to avoid her injuries. "That’s not happening."
Her eyes search mine, desperate and pleading. "Enzo needs you alive."
"Enzo needs both his parents." I press a quick kiss to her forehead. "And I need you. So we're getting out of here together, or not at all."
Gunfire erupts somewhere above us. I pull her closer, sheltering her with my body.
"Can you walk?" I ask, scanning for injuries.
She nods, wiping blood from her split lip. "They wanted me alive to watch you die."
