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A minute of Tate trying to convince Drake to honor their deal ensued before our captors went back to torturing him.
“I promise,” Drake whispered.
“I love you, brother.” Tate’s eyes were so swollen he looked unrecognizable. “Tell Liv the same. Take care of her for me.”
And when they knocked him out cold, I wasn’t sure if Tate was still breathing or if he would ever wake up.
ChapterTwelve
LUCA
For most of our childhood, I hated Marcello. He was so much like our mother. Even-tempered, passionate, not a fucking psychopath like me. Our differences separated us for a long time. But over the past few years, the things that once kept us apart now brought us together.
This family didn’t work without him. The three of us owed our relationship with Alex to Marcello. I was the leader of our family, but he was the glue that held us together.
I sat in my office with Bastian and Damian, drinking in silence. None of us could say the words aloud.
What if we lose Marcello?
It was close to three o’clock in the morning when my cell phone rang with a call from Cole Marshall.
I slid my thumb across the screen to answer the call. “Tell me Marcello is with you.”
“No,” Cole muttered, out of breath. “The cave collapsed. Marcello, Hauer, and a few others are trapped.”
I rose from the chair, my eyes wide as I stared at my brothers. “Then send an extraction team. Do whatever you need to get them out.”
“We’re working on it,” Cole said. “But we’re running into complications.”
“Such as?”
“The Lucaya Group sent men here to ensure we fail.” He sighed. “This was a trap.”
We knew that.
So did Marcello.
From a distance, I heard gunfire. I grilled Cole for more information, and he explained that the engineers were working on finding Marcello but not without men shooting at them.
“Even if we weren’t under fire,” Cole said, breathless, his voice wavering, “that’s not the worst part. Bullets hit the rock in various places, weakening the cave’s structure. If the engineers are off by a millimeter, the cave could collapse on their heads. And even if that doesn’t happen, they have a limited air supply. We need time,” Cole shouted over the gunfire. “I’ll call you back when I can.”
The call ended.
I stood there, too stunned to speak. Bastian and Damian rose from their chairs and moved beside me.
Bastian placed his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “What did he say?”
“Marcello might die in that cave.” I stuffed the phone into my pocket and looked at them. “And there’s not a damn thing we can do.”
It fucking killed me knowing he was trapped in a cave, fighting for his life.
I called my father to tell him the news.
A few minutes later, he entered my office dressed in a black robe and slippers. A plume of smoke gathered around his head as he puffed on a cigar.
“Get Cole on the phone,” Dad ordered.
I called Cole from the Spiderphone on the conference table with my dad and brothers surrounding me. The call went to voicemail several times before he finally called me back.
