Page 110 of Contempt

“I can disengage it,” Renzo murmured. “Let me try.”

Lucian shook his head. “Impossible. You heard what he said—he’s got three backups on the bomb, Renzo. It’ll blow if a door opens to let someone out. It’ll automatically begin to count down if you start fucking with it. And he’s got a kill switch in his hand as he watches a live feed.”

None of that mattered to Renzo.

“I can disengage it. I can.”

Lucian’s hands shook, but he hid it by shoving them into the pockets of his slacks. “It’s a death wish.”

“I could get them out. Somehow, there has to be a way out, right? I just … let me try. I can’t know if I don’t go in there and try, Lucian.”

“Renzo—”

“You have to let me try, Lucian. Look at everything you did, and gave to me. This is what I do. Let me try.”

EIGHTEEN

“Hey, dolcezza.”

Lucia looked up from her lap to find her father standing in the doorway of the hospital room wearing a smile that felt a little forced. She wasn’t going to tell him the truth—that she’d stayed just beyond the corner where he couldn’t see her so that she could listen to the whole conversation he had with Renzo, and the phone call that followed.

Oh, yeah.

She knew everything.

Lucia knew, without a doubt, that her father had enough to worry about. His son being trapped in a warehouse that, at literally any moment, could blow up. And, what could her father do about it?

Nothing.

Hospital policy meant he was going to have to sit in this room for at least another hour so that they could monitor him after his treatment. Sure, he could probably force his leave, if he wanted, but that still wasn’t going to change the situation her brother and other members of her family were currently in.

It would only put her father closer to danger.

Wasn’t it bad enough that her brother was there? And now … now, Renzo was on his way there, too. Because yeah, she heard that. He hadn’t even said goodbye, but she understood why. She didn’t blame him.

That would have been the fight of his life against her—she never would have let him go willingly, and he was smart enough to know that he was going to have to just go. She was pissed, sure, but she would deal with it later.

Right now … she had to figure out a way to help. To help her father, her brother … the rest of her family.

Renzo.

They needed all the help they could get, even if they wouldn’t ask for it. So, she would do it. Somehow. She just needed to figure out how.

“Everything okay?” Lucia asked.

Her father nodded. “Fine, but I’m not feeling great. Nauseous, you know.”

Yeah, she bet.

And not just from the chemo, either.

“Come sit down,” she told him. “One last day for this, right? And then you’re done with all this, Daddy.”

Lucian smiled, and for a moment, it did look genuine. That fear and panic in his eyes that he wasn’t very good at hiding disappeared for her, although it was quick to come back, too. He crossed the room, and dropped into his chair with a groan. Scrubbing a hand down his face, he swore under his breath.

“Cazzo. What a day, Lucia.”

“But it’s almost over, Daddy.”