Mateo leaned back against the wall.“Your boss is making calls.Loud ones.”
Her stomach tightened.“To who?”
“Anyone who’ll listen,” Mateo said.“And a few who shouldn’t.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.“Which means we don’t have much time.”
Mara looked between them.Three men.No softness.No false comfort.
Just facts.
“What happens now?”she asked.
Luca met her gaze.“Now you heal.We debrief the rest of our team, and we figure out who else is involved.And then we decide what to do about it.”
“And if I don’t like your plan?”
Mateo smirked.“Then you can tell us to go fuck ourselves.”
Kol added, deadpan, “For full disclosure, we probably won’t.”
Against her better judgment, Mara laughed.
It hurt like hell.
But for the first time that night, it was real.
****
Luca didn’t like closeddoors.
He tolerated them.Used them when he had to.But he trusted rooms where he could see every exit far more than ones that shut the world out.
The conference room off the safehouse kitchen was one of the latter.No windows.Thick walls.A single door that locked from the inside.
Which meant it was used for one thing only.
Truth.
Luca took the seat closest to the door.Habit, not dominance.Mateo dropped into the chair opposite him, stretching his long legs out, boot hooking around the table leg like he was anchoring himself to the floor.Kol leaned against the wall instead of sitting, phone already dark in his hand, attention fixed on the room rather than the device.
The fourth chair remained empty.
That wasn’t unusual.
“You checked the perimeter?”Luca asked.
“Twice,” Mateo replied.“And again because you were going to ask.”
“Good.”
Kol’s mouth twitched faintly.“Doc cleared her for minimal movement, not travel.Ribs will scream if she sneezes.”
“She won’t,” Mateo said.“She’s too stubborn.”
Luca exhaled through his nose.“That stubbornness is the only reason she’s still breathing.”
That earned him a look from Kol.
