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“After Marcela shot Ciro, the compound split apart. Rafael Duarte had been her mother’s guard since before Isabella was born, and he’d spent the last twenty-five years protecting her under Ciro’s nose. He used the chaos to get us out of the dungeon and moving toward the south side of the compound so we could escape.”

Isabella’s folded arms tightened across her middle.

“He was shot before we made it through the service door.” I hated making her hear this again, but Nik needed the truth. “While Rafael was dying, he told Isabella that Ciro wasn’t her biological father. That he was.”

“She found that out while he was dying?” Nik asked.

“Aye.”

“Jesus.”

I continued before he could start asking questions. “Marcela caught up with us along with her operations man and one of their gunmen. Isabella opened Marcela’s left cheek with a kitchen knife. I killed the gunman, put a round through her operations man’s right upper arm, and we got through the service door before anyone else could reach us.”

Nik took all of that in without comment.

“Tell me what I need to know about her.”

Typical Nik. He wasn’t asking out of curiosity; he was already building a file.

“You won’t find much. Ciro kept her locked down from birth. Her mother was a princess. Tell them exactly who she was, Mouse.”

For the first time, she stepped closer to the phone.

“Hello. My mother was Princess Eliana Sofija Dravik of Eslovenya.”

There was a beat of silence.

Lucian recovered first. “Hello, Isabella. It’s nice to meet you. And Lach, only you could get kidnapped and somehow come out with a princess who carries knives.”

I almost smiled. “Apparently.”

Nik’s greeting was considerably less welcoming. “You’ve been listening this whole time?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Then you understand why I have questions.”

“I do.”

She pulled out one of the chairs and sat as though being questioned by Nikolai Volkov was merely another problem to handle. Damn, I was proud of her.

“Ciro Delgado abducted my mother and brought her to La Cruzona before she had me,” she said. “I grew up there and was never allowed to leave. When I was thirteen, Mamá tried to escape with me, but our jeep went off a mountain road. She died, and somehow I survived.”

“I understand this is difficult for you, but I need to rule something out. Has anyone ever checked you for a tracker?”

Isabella blinked. “No.”

“Did Ciro ever put anything under your skin? Medical implant, contraceptive device, identification chip, anything you didn’t fully understand?”

“No.”

“You’re certain?”

“I’m certain about what I know. I can’t promise what someone might have done to me when I was too young to remember.”

Nik continued. “And how do I know Marcela didn’t set this up too?”

My jaw tightened.