The words on the screen burned themselves into Adriana's mind long after the screen turned black.
You can't outrun blood. And she can't hide behind you forever.
L.
She lay awake long after midnight, staring up at the ceiling while shadows stretched out like fingers on the walls. Every creak of the house was a step. Every moan of the wind was the whisper of a warning.
By dawn, her nerves were raw.
She located Damian in the kitchen, already dressed in black, sleeves rolled up, speaking low into his phone. His voice was abrupt, lethal the tone of a man accustomed to being obeyed.
"No excuses," he said before ending the call. His eyes sliced to her, sharp as a knife, softening only when they landed on the dark circles beneath her eyes. "You didn't sleep."
"How can I?" Adriana muttered, helping herself to coffee she had no stomach for. "He's out there, Damian. Lucian. Victor. Both of them. And we're just. waiting."
Damian leaned against the counter, arms crossed. "Waiting is not weakness. It's strategy. He wants you nervous, upset. That's his first victory making you unravel before the war begins."
She banged the mug down hard enough that liquid sloshed over the rim. "And what am I to do? Act like I don't feel hunted? Act like I can breathe when the air is poisoned?"
His jaw tightened. "You're meant to trust me."
The words hit harder than she expected. Trust. She wanted to give it, wanted to trust him implicitly but trust was what Victor had asked for, what he had used against her before he betrayed her.
She looked away. "That's harder than you think."
Damian didn't push. He simply turned and left the kitchen, but she could feel the tension radiating from him like a storm cloud.
In the quiet of his study, Damian spread reports and maps on the desk, his mind working faster than his hands. He had doubled the guards around the villa, routed communications through three different secure channels, and installed trackers on every vehicle available to him. But it did not feel like enough.
Lucian was not an enemy you saw coming. A ghost, unpredictable and merciless. And Victor… Victor was the perfect lure.
Damian's phone buzzed. He snatched it, expecting one of his men, but the voice on the other end was softer. Hesitant.
"Damian."
There was a note of urgency in Julian's voice. "We've picked up movement. Victor was seen in Milan. Near the old quarter."
Damian's pulse quickened, though his face remained stone. "When?"
"Two hours ago. He wasn't alone." A pause. "Damian, I don't believe this is random. He wanted to be seen."
Damian swore under his breath. That was Lucian's M.O.—taunting him, luring him onto a battlefield of their choosing.
"Keep eyes on him," Damian ordered. "But do not engage until I say."
When he hung up, Adriana stood in the doorway. Her eyes widened as she searched his face. "It's him, isn't it?"
He didn't answer fast enough. She stepped nearer, her voice slashing. "Victor."
Damian exhaled, slow, controlled. "Yes. He was seen in the area."
The room shrunk around them, the walls closing in with the weight of his confession. Adriana's heart beat so fiercely she was afraid he could hear it.
"He's here," she whispered. "He's close."
Damian moved toward her, steady and deliberate, as though she were a skittish animal ready to bolt. "Listen to me this is what he wants. He knows you'll want to confront him. That you'll demand answers. That's the trap."
She shook her head, tears burning her eyes but never falling. "You don't understand. I need to look him in the eye. I need to know why."
"And if you're walking into his arms?" Damian's voice cracked, cutting sharp enough to cut. "If Lucian takes that chance to claim you? Have you any clue what that would do to me?"
Adriana flinched, but not in fear of the naked emotion in his voice. The man who never broke, never wavered, was unraveling at the thought of losing her.
"Damian…" she whispered, reaching out to touch him.
He grasped her wrist before her hand could reach his chest. Not violently, but desperately. "I cannot lose you, Adriana. Not to Victor. Not to Lucian. Not to anyone."
For a moment, their eyes trapped her pain, his fear, the fire that flared no matter how hard they fought it.
She swallowed, her voice trembling. "Then stop closing me out. If I'm already in this war, I have the right to fight with you not behind you."
Something flickered in his eyes respect, maybe, or resignation. He released her wrist slowly, his hand brushing against hers as though he couldn't bring himself to let her go.
"You're braver than you should be," he whispered. "And that frightens me."
The phone rang once more, shattering the fragile moment. Damian answered, voice low. "Yes."
Julian's voice was quick, sharp. "He's still in Milan. Same location. Watching. Waiting. Sir… I think he's watching her."
Damian's gaze snapped to Adriana, who was rigid, anger and fear warring in her eyes.
"Aim for him," Damian growled. "Don't move any closer."
He ended the call and turned to her.
Adriana's voice was level, though her hands trembled at her sides. "Take me to him."
"No."
Her chin lifted. "You said I deserve the truth. Then let me face him.".
Damian's chest tightened. She was steel and flame, the same as her father, and a part of him worshipped her strength even as it threatened to drive him mad.
"This isn't truth anymore," he said, a step closer. "This is survival. And if Victor is here, Lucian is already moving the pieces into place. I won't take you into their trap.".
Her lips parted, ready to argue, but something in his eyes stilled her.
But as the silence of his denial hung between them, she exhaled the one truth she could not hold in:
"He won't stop, Damian. Not until one of us is dead."
The air around them crackled with unspoken promises of war, of loyalty, of a love too dangerous to utter.
Outside, unobserved, Milan awakened. And somewhere in its narrow streets, Victor Alvarez waited.