The night was too quiet.
Luca felt it before he heard it, that sharp, electric tension that always came before something went wrong. The Iron Crown compound was asleep, but his instincts weren't. They had been honed under Damian… sharpened even further under Isabella.
He moved through the hallway like a shadow, hand on his gun, listening.
A faint sound.
A muffled cry.
Sophia.
His chest tightened as he sprinted toward the east wing, the only area she ever used when she was working late. He pushed the door open with a force that shook the frame.
She wasn't inside.
Her laptop sat open, a half-written report glowing on the screen… but she was gone.
That was enough to make his entire world tilt.
Luca pulled out his phone, checking the security feed and went still as stone when he saw it: two masked men dragging Sophia toward the old storage warehouse at the back of the estate.
Marco's signature.
A silent, taunting message: I can touch your people anytime.
