the drugs work and the next thing he knew they were being instructed to fasten their seat belts for landing.
He, Oscar, and Selene didn’t speak as they waited in the conference room. In fact, they hadn’t said more than fifty words since takeoff, the weight of what the next few hours would bring crushing them into silence.
“Whatever happens,” Oscar started, speaking quietly, as if he suspected the walls had ears. “I don’t regret a second of it. I never will.”
Luca reached over and grasped Oscar’s hand. “Neither will I.”
Selene tipped her chin up. “I swear to God, if you two make me cry…”
Luca clasped hands with her as well, sharing a sad grin with Oscar when she refused to look at either of them. He understood Selene well enough to know she prided herself on her strength, her confidence, her steadiness in stressful situations. The idea that she could walk into a room and face down half a dozen men with guns pointing in her direction and never once lose her composure, but she couldn’t look at them right now without falling apart completely, moved him deeply. He’d never felt such powerful, abiding love.
They fell silent once more, and Luca stared at the bare stone wall across the room from where they were sitting, his mind whirling a million miles a minute.
What was he supposed to do now? He was homeless, jobless, and…family-less. He jerked in his seat as his brain engaged.
“Joli. I need to know what you know about my sister, Selene,” Luca started. He’d let them reassure him on the plane. If it had only been Owen’s word, he would have fought harder to remain in Rome, but Selene had promised she was okay too.
“She’s fine,” Selene said, but before she could say more, the door opened. The Grand Master, her face hidden once more by the hood on her large shawl, entered first, followed by Sebastian, Devon, and Franco. Owen was the last to walk in and he shut the door behind him.
“Joli,” Luca said before the others had properly settled in their seats. “I need to go back to Rome. My sister is still—”
Owen held up his hand. “Your sister is not in any immediate danger.”
“So you keep saying, but how do you know that?” Luca asked.
Owen sighed. “She contacted us. It was your sister who told us how to find you.”
“She did?” Luca asked, though his lack of surprise was obviously noticed by Owen.
Owen narrowed his eyes. “She contacted us at the hotel…through the printer.”
Devon’s eyebrows rose. “Perhaps we should start at the beginning, unpack what happened in Rome for us. What you found at the compound.”
Luca described the way the Bellator Dei had booby-trapped the compound and what he and Langston had to do to defuse the different bombs set there. Owen went into detail about what they’d found—precious little—and then Oscar explained how they’d found Joli’s old school laptop and used it to contact her.
“Where are those laptops now?” Sebastian asked.
Oscar and Luca looked at each other and shrugged. “They weren’t still in the room we were using?”
Owen shook his head. “No. I think we can assume the men who captured you took everything with them. The room was cleaned out by the time we discovered you missing.”
“Apart from the ability to contact Joli, I’m not sure we would have found anything on the machines. The Bellator Dei wouldn’t have left anything behind that might lead to them,” Luca said.
Selene explained how she’d become concerned when Luca and Oscar didn’t return to their hotel suite.
“How did the Serbians find Luca?” the Grand Master asked.
“Informant in the hotel. She had a set of photos, including Luca’s, and had instructions to call it in if anyone on the list showed up,” Owen replied. “We believe they—Serbian Action—have people in every hotel within a wide radius of the Bellator Dei compound.”
“They’ve been watching the Bellator Dei for a while.” Devon tapped his fingers together. “Did we get a copy of that list?”
“Yes,” Owen replied.
“The informant was a Serbian National?” Sebastian asked.
“She was. There’s at least one Serbian or Ukrainian employee at every hotel we checked with.” Owen shook his head. “That’s hardly unusual. Interpol is looking into it. It’s possible Serbian Action is blackmailing or threatening people into working for them.”
“No hotels in Europe, for any of our members,” the Grand Master declared.
“Yes, Grand Master,” Owen replied.
Luca cleared his throat. “When you discovered we were missing…Joli contacted you?”
Owen nodded, opening a file folder and pulling out