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Roman focused on Luca. He had taken off his headphones and was watching Roman with concern. “I have the information,” he proclaimed.
“What information?” Luca asked casually, stretching his arms over his head. Roman saw the moment it registered in Luca’s wide eyes. “The information? You know who Godfrey is? How?”
Roman stepped into the office, closing the door behind him. “Armando. Apparently, he had a change of heart.”
Luca looked stupefied. “That’s unexpected.”
Roman’s reply was hesitant. “It is.”
Luca scrutinized him, his gaze intelligent and sharp. “What did he ask in return? It must be a doozy because you don’t look happy about it. In fact, you look a little sick.”
Roman really didn’t want to drag up the past. Luca was now a happy, functioning man in love, and Roman didn’t want to ruin that. But his brother was no longer a baby, and he had a right to know. As did Salvatore. Roman knew he was going to be sharing Godfrey’s torture with his future brother-in-law. Sal would want his own vengeance.
“He didn’t ask for anything,” Roman replied, sitting on the edge of Luca’s worktable. “He told me because of what he discovered. Apparently, he dug deep for his humanity and wanted to do something altruistic for once in his life.”
“Wow,” Luca said, eyes widening briefly. “What did he find that sparked this miracle?”
Roman met and held Luca’s gaze. “My father paid Godfrey to orchestrate your sale. Godfrey is the one who trafficked you.”
Luca paled, swaying in his chair. Roman swore, jumping up and pushing Luca’s head between his knees. “Breathe. Just breathe. Damnit, I shouldn’t have told you.”
Luca stayed where he was for a few minutes, breathing deeply and evenly, before sitting up. “You did the right thing. I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine,” Roman refuted angrily. “Angel says the same stupid thing all the time. I’m fine,” he mimicked in a high voice. “It’s bullshit!”
Luca surprised him by rolling his eyes and smirking. “It seems like you’re the one who isn’t fine.”
“I’m not! This guy is responsible for hurting the two most important people in my life. I am going to kill him so dead,” he said, seething.
“You sure will,” Luca agreed with a smile.
Roman gaped at him. “Why are you smiling? How can you be smiling right now?”
“Because thanks to you, I am a well-adjusted survivor with many tools at my disposal to process bad information in a healthy way,” Luca reported primly. “I already knew I was sold off and trafficked, Roman. It’s not new information. It’s not startling. The who is kind of irrelevant. It threw me for a loop at first because I wasn’t expecting it. And I’m sure I’ll have some bad moments, but I really am fine, Roman.”
“The who is not irrelevant to me,” Roman informed Luca. “And it’s not going to be irrelevant to Salvatore either.”
“Oh,” Luca squeaked, looking suddenly anxious. “This is going to upset him.”
“Because he’s normal. Unlike you,” Roman added. A part of him was miffed about Luca’s logic. But another part was proud. Luca had come a long way.
Luca smiled and shook his head. “You’re really cute when you go into protective mode, you know that?”
“Luca...”
Luca placed a hand over Roman’s, halting his words. “Roman, this revelation doesn’t hurt me. In fact, now that I think about it, it’s the exact opposite. It’s another piece of my past that I can put to rest.” He paused, a thoughtful look crossing his face. “I can’t believe Angel and I share the same monster. What are the odds?”
“I had the same thought,” Roman admitted. “It’s fucked.”
Luca’s lips twitched. “That’s one way to put it. Now, stop wasting time and hand over the data. I’ll input it immediately, and with any luck, we’ll have something we can truly use within the hour.”
“Here.” Roman passed him the piece of paper.
Luca took it, grunting when he saw the hastily scrawled words. “Chicken scratch,” he muttered. But he turned to his keyboard, typing faster than Roman ever could. “Let me get a search running, then I want to talk to you about something else.”
Roman went on high alert again. That didn’t sound good. “Talk about what? Is everything okay with you? What did Salvatore do? I’ll kill him!”
“Why do you automatically think it’s Salvatore’s fault when something goes wrong in our relationship?” Luca fired back, disgruntled.
