Page 110 of The Beast Who Begged Me

He nods at once and reaches for his phone.

I open the trunk while he sends the message that gets the other groups moving. Gallo takes a weapon and checks it while Fontana collects his equipment. Benedetti stays beside me, watching.

“Right behind me,” I remind him. “You don’t go anywhere on your own.”

He nods. I check the receiver, then tuck it where I can reach it.

There’s no doubt the Bratva will have cameras in the alley, so we need to move fast before they can mobilize. But when we arrive at the door, I stop dead for a second.

From the car, it looked shut. Up close, there’s a narrow gap between it and the frame.

Fontana sees it too. His eyes meet mine.

The last time I came through this door, Caligula was with me, and we were running the other way. Now I’m heading straight into the belly of the beast to find him.

I press my knuckles to my chest. His ring is on a chain beneath my shirt; I put it there before I left the house. I push that ring of his hard into my flesh and bone until it hurts.

And then I give Fontana the nod.

He pushes the door farther open. There’s no resistance, no answering shout or gunfire. A strip of light falls across the wet pavement, and then we’re inside.

I lead, with Benedetti close behind and the others covering us. The corridor I remember is empty. King’s office door stands open, too. I check it anyway, looking for Caligula, Sammy, anything that tells me where the fuck they are.

Nothing.

The tracker is still going.

The place is a rabbit warren, but I manage to lead the team to the main area. We come out into the large, L-shaped room where I once sat to have a drink with Caligula kneeling by my feet.

The lights are low, intimate, but there’s no one here.

I hold up a hand to get the others to pause, and I listen. The place is dead. And it’s cooling in here, like the heating has been turned off.

“They’ve played us,” I say.

“We should get out,” Fontana says. “Carefully. Could be tripwires⁠—”

“Warn the others. Tell them to watch themselves and keep the exits covered.” I take out the receiver again, refusing to let him hurry me out of here. “I’m still getting a signal.”

“Doesn’t tell us he’s still alive,” Fontana says quietly.

“I fucking know that.” My voice comes out too loud in the empty room.

“What about Sammy?” Benedetti asks, and I hear the panic in his voice. “Where is he?”

“I got no idea, kid.” I wish I could sugarcoat it, but what’s the point? “There’s still the downstairs area.”

That was where our team was headed. I took a wrong turn one day in the Obelisk after a few too many drinks, and caught sight of an elevator coming up from the basement. The guards who came out of it were pretty insistent that I get the fuck back into the main area.

“I’m sticking with you, Orsini,” Gallo says. “I got something to prove, after all.” He gives a crooked grin.

“Then you can prove you know how to follow an order. You and Fontana stay up here. Hold this floor and keep our way out clear.”

Gallo’s grin fades, but he nods. Fontana is already relaying the warning to the other teams.

I lead the way back to another hallway that comes off the bar area. I only went this way once, but I remember the elevator doors, painted to blend in with the rest of the wall.

They’re standing open.