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Vin’s eyes widen. “What are you doing?”

“Cutting our time in half.”

Vin presses his phone to his ear. “Eli, I’m sending you Clara and Charlotte’s location. Send men that way right fucking now to retrieve them.” He ends the call and looks at me. “They’re nine minutes away. There’s a chance they may make it in time.”

I wish he were right.

But I feel the truth deep in my bones.

“They won’t.”

Ten minutes later, I pull into the playground parking lot and spot our guards beside their vehicle, looking somber. Tommaso’s SUV is several feet away. I pull up beside it and jump out, running to the passenger door and opening it.

The smell of death permeates the air.

My eyes immediately land on Tommaso, and my heart clamps up at the sight of his body slumped over. Blood pours down between his wide-open eyes. He deserved better than this.

But when I look in the back seat, I find it completely empty…

No Clara…

No Charlotte…

A thunderous roar escapes from within me. One that releases into the night sky, warning all of the wrath inside me.

Vin regards the guards. “Anything?”

“No sign,” one answers. “The rain has covered all the tire tracks.”

“Go scout the perimeter for any clues.” Vin comes up behind me and places his hand on my shoulder. I shake him off and pace beside the vehicle. My heart beats at a maddening pace, my mind working overtime.

“Where the fuck could he have taken them?” I tug at the ends of my hair, desperate for an answer to pop into my head.

Leo and Mauro search nearby for anything that will lead us in the right direction.

But it’s as if a ghost took them.

My eyes land on a small object on the gravel. I step toward it, drop to my knees, and pick up the broken pieces of Charlotte’s phone, clutching them against my chest.

My only lifeline to them.

And it’s destroyed.

The fragments fall from my hand directly into a puddle.

I failed.

My daughter and the woman I love are gone. The two most important people in my life, and I couldn’t protect them.

My head hangs low, my shoulders slumped over.

My vision blurs from either tears or the rain.

And my heart shatters into one million fucking broken pieces.

“I don’t get it.” Vin’s black shoes appear in my line of sight, his voice sounding miles away.

“What’s there to get?” I keep my eyes on the puddle forming around me, every muscle in my body feeling too heavy to move. “That son of a bitch took them.”