"Not much, boss. Some burner phones, a few weapons. Nothing that looks like operational intelligence."
"Team Two?"
"Same. This place is practically empty."
The cold feeling in my gut turns to ice. I close my eyes. They knew.
The Marchesis knew we were coming. These weren't safe houses. They were sacrifices, low-level soldiers left behind to make us think we'd won, to keep us occupied while?—
While what?
My phone rings. Romeo's name flashes on the screen, and I answer immediately. "What?—"
"Giulia is missing." His voice is sharp and urgent, and I can hear the panic threading through it. "The security team was found dead in the bathroom at the hotel. She's gone, Luca. Someone took her."
The world tilts. Everything—the van, the monitors, the voices in my earpiece—all of it disappears into a roaring silence. "What?" The word comes out strangled.
"Vince and Tommas are dead. Looks like they were ambushed. Giulia went to the restroom and never came back. Savannah went looking for her fifteen minutes later and found the guards. No sign of Giulia."
Alessandro.The realization hits me like a physical blow. It can’t be anything else.
This was planned. All of it. The Marchesi operatives were bait, expendable soldiers left behind to make us think we were winning while the real operation happened somewhere else. While they took Giulia.
"I'm on my way." I grab my gun. "Get everyone to the estate. Mobilize everything. I want?—"
"Dante's already doing it." Romeo's voice is grim. "He wants you here. Now."
I disconnect and turn to the tech team. "You're in charge," I tell the senior guy. "Finish the sweep, collect everything, get the teams back to base."
"Boss, what?—"
"Just do it."
I'm out of the van and in my car before he can respond. My hands are shaking as I start the engine.Giulia.Someone has Giulia.
Someone has my wife and my baby, and I wasn't there to protect them. I should have been there.
I knew something was wrong this morning. My instincts were screaming at me, telling me to stay, to cancel the operation, to keep her close. But I didn't listen. I left her.
“What do we know?” I ask the minute I’m in the office. Romeo looks up as I storm in.
"Not much. Giulia excused herself around eleven. Security followed protocol—stayed outside the bathroom and maintained visuals on the entrance. Someone must have been waiting inside."
"Cameras?"
"Hotel security is pulling footage now. But Luca—" He pauses. "It was professional. Whoever did this knew what they were doing."
Alessandro. It has to be Alessandro. He's been at the periphery for weeks, visible enough to be noticed but not threatening enough to eliminate. We thought he was just watching, gathering intelligence for the Marchesis.
We were wrong. He was planning this.
"Any demands?" I ask sharply, my fingers drumming against my thigh.
"Not yet. But they'll call."
They'll call, and they'll want something. Money, territory, information… me. The thought makes my blood run cold.
If they took Giulia to get to me—if this is about the marriage, about her choosing me over Alessandro—then I'm the price they'll demand. And I'll pay it. I'll pay anything to get her back.
