Lucian had not slept.
He stood by the floor-to-ceiling window of his penthouse office, watching the city crawl into dawn. It had been years since that night, but some memories refused to dull. The sound of her scream still lived under his skin.
Behind him, the door opened.
"You're going to burn a hole through that glass if you keep staring like that," Silas said casually, striding in with two coffees. He set one on the desk. "Black. No sugar. Because apparently you enjoy suffering."
Lucian didn't turn. "Did you get the report?"
Silas nodded, tossing a thin file onto the desk. "It's not much, but it's all we have. Hotel security finally released the enhanced footage."
Lucian crossed the room and flipped open the file. There it was,a grainy image of a filthy man stumbling out of the hotel suite.
His jaw clenched. "He was inside with her."
"Was," Silas said pointedly. "You threw him out before anything worse could happen. If you hadn't…" He trailed off with a low whistle. "Well. You know."
Lucian's grip tightened on the folder. He could still feel the man's collar in his fist, the weight of him as he hurled him into the hallway. He remembered the girl's half-conscious body on the bed, the smell of the drug in the air. He had barely had time to make sure she was breathing before the same drug dragged him under too.
When he woke, she was gone.
"She must have thought I was one of them," he said quietly.
Silas shrugged one shoulder. "You were unconscious in the same room. Hard not to jump to conclusions."
Lucian shut the file. "Find him."
"The beggar?"
Lucian nodded. "He's the only one who saw her awake. He might know where she went."
Silas leaned against the desk, studying him. "You've been chasing a ghost for three years, boss. What are you going to do when you find her? Apologize? Cut her a check?"
Lucian's mouth curved into something dark and humorless. "No."
"Then what?"
Lucian's eyes turned back toward the skyline. "Make it right."
Silas arched a brow. "That sounds suspiciously like guilt."
Lucian didn't answer.
Silas sighed, pushing off the desk. "Fine. I'll find him. But if this girl doesn't want to be found, maybe take that as a sign."
Lucian turned then, slow and deliberate, the full weight of his stare landing on Silas. "She didn't get a choice that night. She gets one now,whether she forgives me or not. But I will find her."
Something in his voice made Silas stop joking. He gave a short nod. "All right. We'll start digging again. But you're not going to like what we find, are you?"
Lucian said nothing. He was already thinking ahead, already calculating.
Somewhere out there, she was alive. Somewhere out there, she still thought he was a monster.
He would find her. And when he did, she would know the truth that he had saved her once. That he hadn't been the danger that night.
He was just trying to help but also become the victim of the drug .