Page 5 of Hunter

“Handling some business. I’ll be home soon.”

“You promised you’d be home an hour ago, Luca.” There’s a palpable irritation in her voice. Luca shoots me a look, one that says, Women, right?

“Cecilia, it’s not the time for this,” Luca says, his tone sharper. “You’re on speakerphone. I need a favor.”

“I don’t care who’s listening,” she snaps. “When you make a promise, you keep it. I’m here alone with this poor girl, and I don’t know what to do. So say goodbye to whoever you’re with and get your ass home. Now.”

I snatch the phone from Andrei, my heart hammering in my chest. “What does the girl look like?” I demand my voice tight with anxiety. My world teeters, waiting for the answer.

“First of all, you’re fucking rude. Second, I don’t know who the hell you are,” Cecilia snaps, “and if my husband hasn’t told you, I’m not about to do so.” A twisted smile pulls at my lips. As much as I hate to admit it, Luca and I have something in common—we both love them feisty.

“It’s okay, Cecilia,” Luca says softly. “Tell him.”

She lets out a heavy sigh, her irritation evident. “She has red hair. That’s all I can tell you,” she says sharply. “She was too bruised and covered in blood for me to notice anything else. I was more concerned about making sure everything was running smoothly than focusing on her features.”

My chest tightens, the world closing in. Red hair. Blood. My hands tremble as I look at Luca, silently urging him to explain. He doesn’t—he just stares back at me, a flicker of something almost like sympathy in his eyes.

“Explain,” I beg.

Luca takes a deep breath, as if steeling himself. “You should know, Maxim, I let you do this to me. You needed to get the edge off, and I took it. Better me than one of my men, right?”

I grit my teeth fitting back an eye roll. He let me beat him up? He is so full of shit. “Get on with it,” I snap.

Luca shifts, drawing a dramatic breath. “I didn’t kidnap her, Maxim. I helped her escape.” I feel a jolt in my chest—escape? How did he find her when I didn’t? “You don’t have to believe me now, but you will.”

I want to fight it. I want to deny it. But the doubt gnaws at me. Could it be true? If it is…who the hell did kidnap her? I breathe, trying to center myself. “If you didn’t kidnap her, then who did?”

“That, I don’t know yet. But I’ll help you find out.” Luca’s sincerity is thick, almost suffocating.

“I don’t need your help,” I growl. “I’ll figure this out myself.”

Luca scoffs, a bitter laugh escaping him. “Right. Just like you figured out where to find her?” My heart stutters. He’s right. No matter who I asked, what I did, I couldn’t find her. If she wouldn’t have called me, I’m afraid I would have never found her.

“How did you find her?” I demand, trying to sound detached, though I can’t ignore my racing pulse. I don’t want to feel this—this weakness—especially in front of him.

“It was a coincidence. I overheard one of my men saying someone was paying a lot of money to kidnap the girlfriend of a Russian boss. I didn’t think anything of it, went about my life, until I got the news it was Sophia who was kidnapped two days later.” His lip curls in disgust as his eyes narrow on me. “At first, I wasn’t going to do shit. I was going to let you get the karma you deserved. But I couldn’t let her suffer through what I knew those pieces of shit would do to her. She has had enough suffering in her life; she didn’t need more. I did a deep dive and found the men who took her from your home. It wasn’t hard getting them to speak.” He winks at me, and I have to fight an eye roll. “I had fun getting the information out of them?—”

I swallow hard, the weight of his words hitting me harder than I expected. His phone dings, and he looks at the screen,his eyes lighting up with something I can’t quite place. “I need to hurry. Cecilia is telling me if I don’t get home soon, she has a knife with my name on it.” I can’t help but notice the change in him—Luca has never been this…alive. Under the worry and the stress in his eyes, there’s a hint of happiness. He looks back at me. “They gave me the location of where she was being held. It took me a bit to find her because they moved her to different locations three times. They didn’t know who was behind it.”

I nod, trying to process. “Why did you rescue her?” My tone is sharp, laced with suspicion. “You’re a lot of things, Luca, but a fucking knight in shining armor isn’t one of them.”

He meets my gaze. “I’m far from a knight, Maxim. I rescued her because she doesn’t deserve to be caught in the middle of your mess. This is your fault. All I did was save her from what you put her through.”

He points his index finger at me, and I take a step back as if I’ve been shot. His words cut so deep, it feels like my heart is breaking. As much as I fucking hate to admit it, he’s right. She didn’t deserve to be caught in the crossfire of this shitstorm. She was kidnapped because of me. I should cut all ties with her—let her go, let her live an everyday life, marry someone who doesn’t have blood on his hands. That’s what a selfless person would do. That’s what a hero would do.

I laugh bitterly at myself. Who the hell am I fooling? Let her go? Let her marry someone else? I’m no hero. I’m a fucking villain. I am the kind of man who’d rather burn the world than let her slip through my fingers.

She’s mine.

Andrei clears his throat, drawing my attention. “You didn’t really answer Maxim’s question.” He’s glaring at Luca, his arms crossed and eyebrows raised. “Why did you rescue her? Why not call my brother and tell him where she is? How the hell do you know she’s been through so much?”

Luca exhales sharply. “It’s personal.”

Andrei steps closer, looking pissed. “What kind of bullshit answer is that?”

Luca speaks again, his voice cracking, his gaze distant, as if replaying something painful. “I ruined her life years ago. This…this was my way of trying to make things right.”

Andrei’s mouth opens and closes as he processes Luca’s words. Finally, he mutters, “You and Sophia know each other?”

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