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The second that little girl is under this roof, in a room Katerina can walk into any time she wants, I lose that.
Katerina doesn’t need me to tell her the truth anymore.
She can just go look at it.
I don’t know yet what I think about losing that, but this is the only plan that makes sense.
I pick up the phone and call Luca.
“Yeah?” he answers, sounding like he’s chewing on something. I roll my eyes at my brother.
“Bring her here. Tonight at the latest.”
There’s dead silence on the line for a second.
“Bring who—the Santoro girl? Here? To the estate?”
“Yes.”
Luca sounds like he’s choking on whatever food he was eating. “Nico, are you out of your mind?” he demands. “You’ve got Katerina Sokolov in this house and a Corsican situation that’s one bad afternoon from blowing up. Russo’s people are closing in on you, and you want to bring the actual kidnapped child—the one that Russo wants to kill, if I can remind you—into the middle of it? Under the same roof?” Luca sputters. “What the fuck?”
“Yes,” I say simply, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Yes, that’s exactly it.”
“Nico, seriously, what the fuck?”
“The original plan isn’t working anymore,” I shoot back to Luca, irritation climbing into my voice. “Russo is closing in and I can’t keep anyone safe if they’re not within my direct eyesight. I can protect Seraphina if she’s under my roof. I can’t protect her if she’s somewhere else. Dino has proved that.”
Luca doesn’t say anything for a second.
“And Dr. Sokolov?” he asks finally. “Have you thought about what this does to her? To the two of you?”
I grit my teeth. Sometimes I really hate that I told Luca all about this. “I’ve thought about it,” I say evasively.
Luca scoffs in disbelief. “You’ve been using Seraphina’s location as the one thing keeping her here. You know that. I know that. The second that kid’s down the hall, Katerina doesn’t need you for anything anymore. She can see for herself. What’s left holding this together after that?”
“I know all of this,” I snap, my patience finally wearing thin. “You think I haven’t thought about this already? But what else am I to do? I’m not leaving that little girl to be picked off by fucking Russo because I want to stick to a fucking plan that’s clearly not working anymore! Dino was killed and his baby is fucking fatherless. I’m not going to keep letting people get killed just so I can keep leverage over a woman I—” I stop myself and breathe deeply. “Move her,” I order. “Tonight. End of discussion.”
There’s another pause and it’s longer this time.
“Okay,” Luca says finally, even though he doesn’t sound happy. “Okay. I’ll set it up.”
“Smallest crew possible,” I continue, drumming my fingers against the window, feeling the cool glass beneath my fingertips as I stare out at the garden. “Nobody outside us knows the route or the timing.”
“Understood.”
I hang up and lean my head against the window, my heart hammering.
Fuck me. Because now I have another problem.
With Russo closing in, I’ll have to let Katerina know.
She knows that someone is after Seraphina, but she doesn’t know who he is.
She doesn’t know about Dino.
About where Seraphina is.
She doesn’t know how much danger we are all in.
