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“Just chain him up and leave him there.” Transferring him somewhere else would be a waste of time, and I didn’t know where to take him either.

This place was the best when it came to ensuring that he wouldn’t escape.

Rafael’s eyebrows lifted up. “Are you sure? If you need to focus, Luca might be a problem.”

“He won’t be.” I could ignore him, and if he bugged me, I’d find a solution for that too. “I just need my damn room back.”

“I’m on it.” Rafael headed out.

I crossed my arms, looking around.

Could I really focus with Luca in the same room as me? Maybe it’d be a good exercise. Maybe I could prove to myself that he didn’t affect me that much.

Hell, he shouldn’t.

I wasn’t going to lose control around him again.

***

WHEN THE WAR ROOM WASready and Luca was all tied up, the guards left so they could take their posts outside.

Luca watched me with interest as I entered.

I did my best to ignore his presence and turned on the computer, projecting the images on the empty wall. It didn’t matter what Luca saw or didn’t see. He was never going to be able to use any of that info against me.

And here I was, thinking about Luca again when I’d told myself I wouldn’t do that.

Fuck.

I focused my attention on the images in front of me.

They were all photos of Santino. He wasn’t a man who was hiding himself. Actually, he was in public a lot. He went to a lot of events, but he also had plenty of guards, and they weren’t all obvious.

There had been a few attempts on Santino’s life, but no one had succeeded. His guards usually looked just like ordinary people, and no one knew who they were until they had to defend him.

He also had ways of finding out who entered his territory, and nothing could get past him. Slipping a spy wouldn’t be easy. Hiring someone from his territory wouldn’t work either because everyone was terrified of him.

Maybe I could convince some unsuspecting human to do it for money, but a person who wasn’t trained probably wouldn’t get too far. Santino had eyes and ears everywhere, and could probably access all the cameras in his territory.

“He loves bars and clubs, and owns one,” I said to myself as I flipped through the images of Santino in front of the entrance of his nightclub.

There were never any images of him from inside, though. It was as if he let the spies only get as close enough as he wanted them. Not an inch more or less.

“But how do I get someone into his club?” I said. “If I send someone looking for a job there, I’d have to wait for an opening, and even then, he’d check their background and find out. Sending someone clueless probably wouldn’t work, and there’s a huge chance he hires his own people and wouldn’t even consider someone else. Yep, that’s probably how he keeps himself safe. His people are everywhere he goes. Makes him untouchable.”

I chewed on the inside of my cheek.

“I need to find out if there’s a guest list. Who knows if he even lets in people who aren’t on his list?”

“You could send a band,” Luca said, and I spun toward him so fast that I felt dizzy.

He groaned. “I’ll shut up. Don’t shoot me.”

Everyone else would be beginning me for mercy, but Luca was actually rolling his eyes now.

“No, don’t,” I said. “Tell me more.”

His eyes snapped to mine. “Really?”