I walk to the nightstand and spot the cellphone I gave her. The screen glows with a paused video. I press play. My own face appears, slurred and angry, spewing threats of murder from the night before.
My blood runs cold as I watch myself, every word I mutter, feeling like a physical jab to my own chest.
“Julian,” I growl, the name tasting like poison. “He fucking took her.”
Suddenly, the worry for her safety crashes into a blinding rage. That fucking rat! That bottom-feeding coward took advantage of my and her heartbreak.
He must have been so scared of me that she ran.
Now, he had dragged her out there where Flavio and possibly Nicolo are currently hunting for her.
“Lo ammazzo,” I snarl, my voice shaking with the lethal promise.I will kill him.
“Guards say they saw a Jeep leave through the service gate around midnight,” Gio appears from behind Andreas, his voice emotionless and analytical.
“They’ve had a six-hour head start, Damiano. If they were heading for the coast, they could be anywhere by now,” Andreas says.
“6 hours?” I roar, throwing the vanity chair across the room. The wood splinters. “And no one fucking noticed?! How the hell does a vehicle roll out of our gates unnoticed?!”
“Two guards at the gates were killed silently,” Gio explains, showing me a video of a man, obviously Julian, effortlesslyslitting the throat of two guards who were supposed to be stationed at that gate.
“Find them!” I scream, and Gio scrambles downstairs to rally some men.
I go to my closet and get dressed. After, I press a hidden button at the back of one shelf. The panel slides open, revealing a small armory tucked behind my suits. I grab two handguns and a few extra magazines, tucking them into my waistband. The adrenaline finally burns off the last of my hangover as I storm toward the stairs, ready for war.
“I’m pulling the traffic cams and drone sweeps now,” Andreas says, falling a step behind me as I storm downstairs, his fingers flying across the screen of his phone with hectic speed.
“Gio, get a team ready. If the Castigliones find them first, I want enough firepower to kill every single one of them.” I bark, heading for the garage.
“Lucian, you drive.” I throw the keys of the G-wagon to Lucian. When we’re in the car, I pull out my phone and open an app that tracks Katarina’s location.
“560 KM away,” I say, connecting my phone to the car’s screen so Lucian can follow the map. The car’s engine revs to life, and in no time, we’re speeding away from the villa.
My hands are shaking as I grip the gun, my mind flooded with images of her—terrified of me.
She must think I’m a monster. She thinks I’m the one who is going to hurt her.
What have I done?
“Damiano, breathe,” Andreas says from the backseat, calmly checking the slide on a rifle Gio provided him. “We’ll find her. Julian is smart, but he’s not like us. He’ll make a mistake soon enough.”
“He already made one,” I say, “He thought he could take her from me.”
Lucian floors it, the tires screaming, and yet the speed doesn’t feel fast enough. Gio and a few guys follow closely behind in another SUV.
The morning sun is just beginning to bleed over the horizon, casting shadows across the Sicilian hills.
The hunt has started, and God help anyone, Julian, Flavio, or the devil himself, who stands between Katarina and me.
Chapter 34
Katarina
We speed through endless highways, as I watch the sun emerge over the horizon.
It has been hours, and Julian hasn’t slowed down once. His hands are locked at ten and two, knuckles tight against the dark leather of the steering wheel. Every few minutes, he glances into the rearview mirror to see if we’re being followed.
We’re not.
