Page 70 of His Stolen Bride

I lift a hand, and the room goes quiet. “She proposed it, and she was right on the structure. He wants her choosing. We give him that, and we choose the room, we choose the exits, we choose the cameras, and we choose the timing.”

Enzo’s mouth tightens. “And if he tries to grab her?”

“He won’t,” I say. “Not in the first meeting.”

Luca leans forward. “And the boy?”

I look at Luca until he stops moving. “No one gets near him. That’s not negotiable.”

Alexei nods once, then points at his screen. “There’s more. Two men tied to Vladimir’s financing just bought property outside the city. One is a warehouse lease. One is a residential block with underground parking. It’s fast.”

I don’t like that. “Where?”

He slides it across. “North ring, near the river exit.”

Luca mutters, “Transfer point.”

Yuri returns before I can answer, and he’s not alone. He walks Lidia in, her hands free, her face pale, her eyes wide like she already knows what kind of room this is.

I don’t shout. I don’t rise. I don’t perform.

“Lidia,” I say calmly. “How long have you worked in my house?”

She swallows. “Eight years, sir. I left once. I came back.”

“Who asked you to come back?” I ask.

She shakes her head fast. “No one. I needed work.”

Yuri stands behind her, not touching, letting my voice do the pressure.

“Two phones went missing from staff lockers,” I say. “One was found. One wasn’t. Do you know anything?”

She looks down, then up, then down again. “No.”

I keep my voice even. “You have access logs on my system under your credentials.”

Her lips part. “I don’t have a computer.”

“Correct,” I say. “So someone used your credentials.”

She starts shaking. “I don’t know how.”

Yuri speaks for the first time, voice quiet. “Who asked you for your badge?”

Lidia’s eyes dart to Yuri, then to me. “No one.”

Enzo steps forward and sets a small plastic bag on the desk, and inside is the missing phone, cracked, powered off.

“I found it,” Enzo says. “In your cleaning cart.”

Lidia makes a small sound like she can’t help it.

I watch her face closely. “Talk,” I say.

She squeezes her eyes shut. “A man approached me at the market. He said he knew my brother. He said my brother owed money, and he said he could fix it.”

Luca’s hands curl into fists.