Chapter 89

IVAN’S POV

I hadn’t slept.

Not even a wink.

My jaw ached from how hard I’d been clenching it, and my phone had been glued to my hand all night. Every hour, I called her number again, even though I knew I’d get nothing but her voicemail.

My men were scattered across the city, pulling every string we had—contacts, cameras, informants, even bribing airport personnel and gas station clerks.

Still nothing.

No one had seen her.

No one had heard a thing.

And that fact alone told me she didn’t do this alone. Nolan must have helped her.

I sat at the head of the long dining table that had been turned into a makeshift command center. Three laptops were open in front of me, each screen displaying different feeds—security cameras from local streets.

“She had help,” I muttered, my voice low, simmering. “She wouldn’t have pulled this off alone.”

“Obviously.” Klaus didn’t look up. “You maybe wanna grab her parents?”

I leaned back and let out a slow breath through my nose. “Nah, suggesting that alone is a suicide attempt. Her father isn’t to be played with.”

My phone buzzed on the table. Antonio.

I swiped to answer. “Yeah?”

“Got your message,” he said casually. “So… she really dipped?”

My jaw tightened. “Yes, she took Maya with her and cleared the whole house like she never existed.”

Antonio whistled. “Shit. That’s cold. So what’s your next move now?”

“We’re still looking.”

“Man, come on, Ivan. Leave the kid with her and move on. You weren’t trying to be a dad in the first place.”

I stood abruptly, my chair scraping against the tiled floor. “Maya is my fucking child,” I growled. The room went silent except for my voice. “I’m not going to let Nolan and Anna raise her like I don’t exist. Nolan has taken enough from me already.”

There was a pause on the other end, then Antonio sighed. “Alright. Alright. I get it. I was just saying…”

“Next time you say something that stupid, make sure you’re not within my reach.” I sneered as I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to ground the fury boiling beneath my skin. “You remember that time you did that shady-ass deal when Nolan was undercover a while back?”

Antonio scoffed. “You’re gonna have to be more specific, brother.”

“You mentioned he was working undercover with someone. Who was it?”

“Some guy named Luca. Why are you asking?”

“Do you know if any Camila works with Luca?”

Antonio made a noise like he was spitting. “That bitch? Yeah. She was after my life. Came storming in when we held Nolan down, damn near tried to kill me busting him out.”

“Perfect.”

“Perfect?” Antonio snapped. “Motherfucker, I nearly died.”

I sneered. “You should’ve. Would’ve saved me the headache.”

“You’re really cold these days, Ivan.”

“You’re just really soft.”

There was a pause. “You’re serious about this?”

“Send me Luca’s contact. Now.” I said and ended the call. A second later, my phone chimed with a new message containing Luca’s details. 

“Klaus,” I barked, holding up the message. “Get me a burner.”

One of the men at the far end of the table tossed a phone my way. I caught it mid-air and punched in the number.

It rang twice. Then clicked.

A smooth voice greeted me. “Who is this?”

“Ivan,” I said simply. “We need to talk.”

There was a beat of silence, then he scoffed, “Is this a prank call? Who the fuck is Ivan?”

“I don’t have the time for silly jokes, Luca.”

“Of course, why the hell wouldn’t I?”

“Okay, Ivan, what do you want?” He asked in a flat tone. 

“Camila.”

Luca let out a short laugh. “Yeah. Sure. And I want a yacht. Try again.”

I licked my teeth slowly. “I’m not asking for your cooperation. I’m giving you an opportunity to keep breathing.”

“Are you threatening me now?”

“No,” I said smoothly. “I’m threatening your mother, your sister, and your niece in Montoro. You know the one with the pink wheelchair?”

Luca laughed. “Yeah, nice prank. Get the fuck off my phone, I don’t have time for this.”

“Do I sound like I have the time for that either?” I asked in a stern tone.

“It fucking looks like it.”

“I see you have no value for your life,” I said with a chuckle. 

“What do you want with Camila?” he asked in a serious tone. 

“That is none of your business.”

“Then we’ve come to the end of this call,  Mr Ivan.”

“You really want to test me?” I interrupted, my voice deadly calm. “You think hiding her is worth your life? Or your family’s?”

“Who the hell are you?”

“You don’t need to know that for now, just give up Camila's location.”

Silence.

“I see you do know what a man looks like when he’s skinned alive, Luca?”

“What the hell—”

“You better start caring less about Camila and more about yourself,” I said. “Where is Camila?”

“I don’t fucking know.”

“Try harder.”

“Even if I wanted to tell you, I can't. I don’t know where the hell she is.”

I smiled coldly. “Wrong answer.”

“You think I won’t find you? I already have. It’ll take one call to make you disappear. One call and no one will even remember your name.”

There was a long silence, followed by a deep exhale.

“Trust me, it isn’t worth risking your family’s lives for.”

“Look, you want her location? Fine,” Luca said, voice tight. “But I really don’t know where she is. The best I can do is try to track her down for you.”

“Not good enough.”

“I can stay on the call,” he offered quickly. “I’ll patch in my tech guy, and we’ll work on it live. Hell, I’ll even video call you so you can see it happen. Just fucking leave my family out of it.”

“Good,” I said. “Do it.”

I muted the call and signaled for Klaus to come over. “Set up a video call, but make sure he doesn’t see my face.”

Klaus nodded, already switching feeds and pulling up encryption software. Less than two minutes later, the screen flickered and Luca’s face appeared, grainy from the burner cam. 

“You’re really serious about being anonymous, huh?” he muttered.

“I’m serious about a lot of things,” I replied coldly.

Luca turned to someone off-screen. “Trace her number. Now.”

The hacker began typing furiously in the background, and Luca turned back to his phone and dialed a number.

Camila picked up almost immediately. “Luca? What’s up?”

“Got something cooking,” he said smoothly. “Big job. Offshore. I need someone with your kind of flexibility and coverage.”

There was a pause. “Offshore? The pay had better be huge.”

“Yeah. It could be sweet money. I’ll send you the terms later.”

“Hmm.” She sounded interested. “When would I need to move?”

“Soon. Tonight, even. Might need you to fly down to my side.” he said as his hacker gave him a thumbs-up.

“Alright. Send me details.”

“Perfect. I’ll text you,” he said, then ended the call.

Within seconds, a message popped up on my own screen. A street address. Klaus scanned it and cross-checked the coordinates.

“It’s in the city,” Klaus said, confirming what I already hoped. “Five blocks from an old textile warehouse on the outskirts. We can set up there, it’s empty.”

A grin spread across my face. This was too easy.

I leaned closer to the screen. “Nice working with you, Luca.”

He looked at me in suspicion. “You’re not gonna kill her, are you?”

“That's none of your business,” I said, and ended the video call.

I slowly stood from the chair, rolling my shoulders to ease the tension I've been feeling. The room fell silent as everybody looked around, waiting for the next move. 

I looked around.

“Get ready, boys,” I said, a wicked smirk growing on my face. “It’s time to play.”