Lucian sighs and picks up a paper off the desk. He walks over and hands it to me.
I take it, scanning the text. It's a list of banking routes. Money transfers. Some kind of coded ledger.
"What the hell is this?" I ask, looking up at him.
"Look at line 57," Lucian says, his voice low.
I look back down at the paper. Elena leans in, reading over my shoulder.
And there it is.
$50 million transfer.
My stomach drops.
"That's how much Elena was…" I trail off, the word catching in my throat. I can't say it.
"Wow. Fifty million," Elena says softly, staring at the paper. "That's a lot."
"Too much," Victor says.
I whip my head toward him.
Victor holds up a hand.
"No, I don't mean it personally, Elena," he says quickly.
"None taken," Elena says.
Victor takes another step toward us.
"While there is a lot of money floating around the world, a single person doesn't just go for that amount without something attached. I mean, even the Volkovs' bounty to find her, and you," he says, looking at me, "was twenty-five million."
"But I don't know anything," Elena says, her voice rising slightly. "They never tried to pry information out of me or anything."
"That's right," Lucian says. "And that routing number confirms it wasn't the Volkovs paying Lupu for a girl."
He pauses.
"It was the other way around. Someone was paying the Volkovs through Lupu to take her off their hands."
"Wait, what?" Elena says, confusion twisting her features.
"What he means," Victor starts.
I turn to Elena, cutting him off.
"It means that the Volkovs didn't pay fifty million for you. Someone paid them fifty million to take you."
Elena's eyes go wide. She presses a hand to her forehead, her breathing quickening.
"But who? That doesn't make any sense."
I turn to look at my brothers.
They are stone.
Victor shifts, his jaw muscles working like he's chewing on something.