One hour.
They think money is control. They think they found the one battlefield where we can’t win by force. Maybe they’re right. For the auction. Not for what comes after.
My mind shifts. Not just to saving her. Not only that.Enter the system. Find the buyer route. Find transfer. Find handlers. Destroy the structure from inside the one door they opened. They sent us a link because they wanted us powerless. They gave us access.
Stupid.
Carter steps forward from near the back of the room. He’s been quiet, arms crossed, face hard in that way he gets when something from his past crawls too close to the present. “I might know someone who has that kind of access,” he says.
Logan turns. “Who?”
Carter hesitates. That tells me enough before he says the name. “Matteo Vittorio.”
The room changes.
Immediate. Recognition. Weight.
Carter worked with Matteo to take down his father after he bought and kept Brooke prisoner for years before Carter stole her from him. In the end Matteo turned on Carter and was going to kill him but Twisted was there and everyone walked away breathing. He is now the head of the most powerful mafia family.
Blaze swears softly. “Fuck me.”
Joker’s brows lift. “That’s an interesting door to knock on.”
Cain looks at Carter. “You sure?”
“No,” Carter says. “But he has the kind of money we need, and he’d have access to this kind of world.”
Logan’s eyes narrow. “Because of his father.”
“Yeah,” Carter says. “His father was deep in trafficking. Matteo hated that part of the empire, or claimed he did, but he knows the players. Knows the channels. If anyone can step into that auction with liquid capital and not look out of place, it’s him.”
Landon looks grim. “He’ll want something.”
Carter nods. “We’d owe him.”
No one speaks. A favor to a man like Matteo Vittorio isn’t a favor. It’s a loaded gun handed over grip-first and trusted not to be pointed back at you until later. Dangerous ally. Mob-level money. Old blood in dirty systems.
I don’t care.
Logan looks at me. Maybe he expects objection. Maybe he expects me to say I won’t let some mob prince buy what’s mine, even temporarily. I don’t. Because pride doesn’t get Olivia back. Strategy does. Blood does. Whatever opens the next door does.
“She comes home,” I say.
Carter nods once. “That’s the idea.”
“No,” I reply. “That’s the outcome.”
His gaze holds mine. Then he nods again. “Yeah.”
Logan processes fast. Too fast for anyone to accuse him of hesitation. He looks at Carter. “Make the call.”
I watch the auction clock.
Fifty-nine minutes.
Then fifty-eight.
They think this is business. A listing. A bid. A transfer. They think I’m watching helpless. They think putting a price on her changes what she is. It doesn’t.
