Unlike Catalina, the girl was confident in herself and everything around her.
I had done my research and knew Ricci didn’t have any children, but he had an older sister and one niece.
She was his treasure.
None of the men here cared about that.
They just wanted to get on the good side of the Bianchi enforcer.
Maxim came up to us. Like me, he was wearing a black suit. The devil in disguise.
I looked at Catalina. “I’m gonna go let Damien and Nikolay in.”
“Should I come with you?” she asked quietly.
I shook my head, cupping the back of her head and pulling her closer to me. “Stay with Maxim. If anything happens, I need you to do what he asks of you and get out of here, okay?”
“Oh.” She nodded. “Okay.”
“I’ll be back soon,” I said, my eyes softening as I took her in. I waited for her nod in acknowledgment before I turned, feeling myself hardening with each step I took away from her.
Catalina made me soft. I could admit to that, but I would be damned if I would ever become a soft man for anyone else.
I went out to the backyard. A few people were roaming about, and a few guards. I moved along the fence line.
It was hard to tell where I was going. Because of the time constraints, we didn’t get a clear layout of the place, but the plan was to bring Damien and Nikolay in from the back, dressed as staff.
Damien was recognizable, thanks to his mammoth size and facial scar. A parting gift from Luca Monroe, the man who’d had kept Nikolay to fight in the cage matches for him.
And Nikolay was noticeable for his pretty boy good looks and his volatile attitude. I thought I heard Catalina mutter something once about him being her bomb—though I couldn’t be sure.
But if that really was the case, then it was an apt description of a man as explosive as Nikolay.
We figured it was easier for Damien and Nikolay to sneak in. Three heads of the Vasiliev Bratva in one place would certainly draw attention.
I came to a stop at the opening of a small garden and looked around.
Off to the side was a small gate with a lock on it.
I could laugh over the amateur move. Did Ricci think this lock could keep people out?
I looked around, then picked it, pushing the gate open and throwing the lock into a rose bush nearby.
I walked away from the gate, let out a bird call, and waited.
Sure enough, another bird call rang out to my left.
It didn’t take long for me to see movement, and then Nikolay and Damien emerged, Nikolay in disguise as the gardener and Damien as one of the guards, dressed in all back and wearing sunglasses.
They only partially covered his scar.
I let out a small chuckle at Nikolay’s outfit.
He flipped me off.
“Cyka,” he muttered, spitting on the ground. Bitch. “I don’t understand why I can’t be the one to escort Catalina in.”
I eyed him. “You think you can disguise how volatile you are?”