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they fired on the men, now ducked behind the big, black cars they must have used to break through the front gate. This was way too coordinated and well equipped to be Diego. Which left only one other possibility.
    Lorenzo Sanchez.
    He was pulled from this thoughts by another spray of bullets, one of which came dangerously close to his head as it made its way through the empty window frame and into the wall of the foyer.
    “Fuck!” he shouted, returning fire. It was a temporary strategy. He and Farrell were outmatched and outgunned. They wouldn’t be able to hold off the men outside forever. He looked at the stairs, then glanced at Farrell, hunkered down on the other side of the door. “Isabel?”
    “Told her to stay upstairs,” Farrell said, squeezing off another round that sent the men outside running for cover.
    Luca breathed a sigh of relief just in time for another hail of bullets to rip through the entry way.
    “What the fuck…” He waited for the shots to be silent, then shouted out before he could change his mind. “Sanchez! It’s Luca Cassano. I want to negotiate.”
    His words were met with silence, but it was better than another storm of gunfire. A minute later, Sanchez’s voice rang out through the silence.
    “We have already tried that,” he said. “Turn over the traitor and we will leave you in peace.”
    Luca cut his gaze to Farrell, who raised an eyebrow in question. There was no time to explain. Luca only had two options. Tell Sanchez Diego was missing and hope he was willing to work together or try to continue the ruse and inevitably be shut down before he could find Sofia.
    “Fuentes isn’t here,” Luca shouted. “He’s been gone for over a month.”
    Sanchez laughed. “This asshole has cojones,” he said to his men, just loud enough for Luca to hear. “Why didn’t you tell me this at our previous meeting? Why should I believe you now?”
    Luca sighed, wishing they could have a conversation that didn’t involve shouting through the ruined front door while he braced himself to be hit with bullets from a bunch of semi-automatic weapons.
    “There’s a… family matter,” he finally said. “Fuentes has taken his little sister as a hostage. I thought it might make it harder to find him if you knew he was MIA. But now I think we can help each other.”
    Silence stretched long and thin. Farrell still had his gun pointed through a hole in the window, his big body as graceful as a lion sprawled out on the tile floor.
    “What are you offering?” Sanchez asked.
    “You help me get Diego when the shipment comes in so I can find the location of the girl, you get to keep him — and his territory — when I’m done.”
    Another pause. “Or I could kill you now and take the territory myself.”
    “Maybe,” Luca said. “But since we talked I’ve found some new information, and now I know when and where that shipment is coming in.” He hesitated, not wanting to show desperation but wanting to make it clear he had no interest in Diego’s supply. “I just want to get the girl to safety with her older sister. You have my word.”
    He watched through the window as two of the men withdrew back into the car, probably to consult with Sanchez. A moment later Sanchez’s voice rang out across the courtyard.
    “You have a deal,” he said. “But if you double cross me both women will be fed to the sharks — after we’re done with them.”
    “And I have your promise that we walk away as long as we live up to our end?” he shouted back.
    This time the pause was so long Luca wondered if Sanchez had changed his mind. Finally he spoke again.
    “You have my word.”
    Farrell looked at him with steely eyes. Luca could almost hear what he was thinking.
    The word of a drug dealer. Perfect.

14
    I sabel sat on the floor in the studio, the ruined pieces of her art scattered all around her. She’d been retreating more and more to the room in the three days since Lorenzo Sanchez’s men had been