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Barely there, but I caught it.

No one reacted.

I’d heard that panel move enough times to recognize the sound instantly.

Mouse.

She’d come back with the fucking room full of armed men and Nik’s live feed running.

Relief punched through me first. She’d kept her promise. Then every protective instinct I had turned murderous. If one bastard in that room noticed the wall behind me, I’d make damn sure every eye and every gun turned on me before anyone looked her way.

I didn’t move my head.

Didn’t let my eyes so much as flick sideways.

If anyone noticed that door standing open even an inch, Isabella was dead.

I lifted my chin and gave Ciro Delgado the ugliest smile I had left.

Every eye in the room needed to stay on me.

Ciro’s smile widened.

“Good. Let them see you still have some fight left.”

He stepped into the edge of the camera frame, cigar between his fingers, and looked directly into the lens.

“Nikolai Volkov. Lucian Byrnes. You have spent the last two days freezing accounts connected to my businesses, pressuring my airport contacts, interfering with my shipments, and killing men who should know better than to speak to you.”

His voice remained calm, as though he were discussing a business deal across a conference table instead of standing in a dungeon with a hostage chained behind him.

“It ends now.”

He took a slow drag from the cigar.

“Undo the account freezes you’ve already done and leave the rest untouched. Your men stop interfering with my shipments, my routes, and the people who keep them moving. You leave my port contacts, financial channels, political allies, and local operations alone.”

Smoke curled from his mouth as he continued.

“The Madrid evidence disappears. No more names given to governments. No more information passed to police, banks, journalists, or anyone else who believes my business concerns them.”

Ciro glanced toward me before returning his attention to the camera.

“In return, your brother remains alive.”

That was it.

Not freedom.

Not an exchange.

Ciro was offering them the privilege of knowing I continued breathing.

“Lachlan will remain my guest for as long as I find his presence useful. You will not speak to him. You will not know where I move him. The quicker you learn who’s boss, the better off it will be for your loyal captain.”

The bastard wasn’t negotiating a ransom.

I was leverage.