Logan’s hand curls against the edge of the desk. “Name your price.”
“Careful, president. Men say that when they’re desperate, then regret having given me room to be creative.”
“You already know what we need.”
“I do.”
“Then tell us your terms.”
Matteo pauses. Deliberately. He’s making us feel it. The clock. The lack of money. The fact that Olivia is on a site none of us can touch fast enough without him.Power.He knows he has it. And he’s enjoying just enough of it to make sure we know too. Finally, he says, “I’ll bid.”
The room doesn’t relax. It tightens. Because help from men like Matteo doesn’t come clean.
Carter asks, “Terms?”
“One favor.”
“No blank checks,” Logan says immediately.
Matteo laughs, low and sharp. “It’s adorable you think this is a negotiation.”
Logan’s eyes darken.
Matteo keeps going. “A woman is being auctioned in less than an hour. You cannot outbid the room. You cannot trace the room fast enough. You cannot intercept what you cannotaccess. I can enter without drawing suspicion, win without blinking, and receive the transfer location because they will believe I am exactly what I appear to be.”
A monster with money.
He doesn’t say that. Doesn’t need to. “Favor,” Matteo repeats. “Owed to me. Called on when I choose. No questions. Within reason, of course”
“Define reason,” Carter says.
“I won’t ask you to hand over women, children, or innocents,” Matteo says, voice colder now, the first real edge beneath the amusement. “I don’t deal in that.” The statement sits there. It carries weight because of what Carter said before. Matteo’s father had been deep in trafficking. Matteo knows this world. Maybe he hates it. Maybe he owns pieces of what was left after his father. Maybe both things are true.
Carter’s jaw works once. “And everything else?”
“Everything else depends on how badly you want her back.”
My hands flex once.
Logan looks at me.
I don’t speak. There’s nothing to say. There is no price that matters if Olivia doesn’t come home.
Logan turns back to the phone. “Done.”
Carter’s eyes cut to him.
Landon exhales slowly.
Dom resumes typing, harder now.
Matteo’s voice smooths again. “Good. Smart choice.”
Dom leans forward. “I can send you the—”
“I already have it,” Matteo says.Everyone stills. The amusement is back, but thinner now. “I told you,” he continues. “You’re late.”
Dom’s face goes flat. “Then you know the lot.”
