Adrian
The call came at midnight.
I was in my office, going over security reports, when my phone buzzed. The number made my blood run cold.
"Blackwood."
"Mr. Blackwood, this is Detective Martha Ross. I'm sorry to call so late, but we found remains. A female, early twenties. The location matches where your sister was last seen."
I couldn't breathe. After six years of searching, six years of hoping and dreading in equal measure, they'd found something.
"I need to see her."
"Sir, the remains are being examined. We'll need DNA confirmation before—"
"I need to see her. Now."
There was a pause. "Tomorrow morning. Nine AM at the morgue. I'll arrange it."
I hung up and sat in the darkness. Selene. My baby sister. The only person in this family who'd been innocent.
A soft knock on my door. "Come in."
Dante entered, and I could see he already knew. News traveled fast in our world.
"Adrian, I'm sorry."
"Don't." I stood and walked to the window. "We don't know if it's her yet."
"It's been six years. Who else could it be?"
I didn't answer. Because he was right. Selene had vanished without a trace. No ransom demands. No body. Nothing. Just gone.
Our father's enemies had taken her. I knew it. Everyone knew it. They'd wanted to hurt him, and they'd succeeded. The pain of losing Selene had killed him more surely than any bullet.
And now she was dead. Really dead. Not just missing. Dead.
"Adrian, you should rest."
"I can't." I turned to face him. "Is she asleep?"
"Ava? Yes. Martha gave her chamomile tea after the news."
"Good." I grabbed my coat. "I need to go out. Watch the house."
"Where are you going?"
"To visit an old friend."
The address took me to the bad part of town. The really bad part, where even criminals were careful. I parked in front of a warehouse and knocked on a rusted door.
It opened to reveal a scarred face. "Blackwood. Didn't expect you."
"I need information, Zarek."
Zarek Fen was the closest thing I had to a friend in the underworld. We'd grown up together, survived the same brutal training. Now he ran an information network that reached into every dark corner of the city.
He let me in. The warehouse was filled with computers and screens showing various locations around the city.
"What do you need?" he asked.
"They found a body. Might be Selene."
His expression changed. "Damn. I'm sorry."
"I want to know who did it. Every name. Every connection. Everyone who might have been involved." I met his eyes. "And I want them dead."
"You know I'll help. But Adrian, you need to be careful. If you go after everyone connected to Selene's disappearance, you'll start a war."
"Let there be war."
He sighed and turned to his computers. "Give me a few days. I'll find out everything."
I left and drove back to the mansion. Dawn was breaking as I pulled through the gates. I went straight to my room and poured three fingers of whiskey.
Selene's face haunted me. The last time I'd seen her, she'd been seventeen. Bright and happy despite growing up in our dark world. She'd wanted to be a teacher. Wanted to get away from the family business.
I hadn't protected her. I'd been too busy with my own problems, my own plans. And someone had taken her and killed her.
I threw the glass at the wall. It shattered, just like everything else in my life.
A voice from the doorway. "Are you okay?"
I spun around. Ava stood there, wearing pajamas, her hair messy from sleep.
"How did you get out of your room?"
"Martha unlocked it this morning. She said I could have freedom, remember?" She took a step closer. "Dante told me about your sister. I'm so sorry."
"You don't know anything about it."
"I know what it's like to lose someone." She moved carefully, like approaching a wounded animal. "My brother, remember? I know that pain."
"Your brother was a child who died from an illness. My sister was murdered." The words came out harsher than I intended.
But Ava didn't flinch. "Pain is pain. Loss is loss. It doesn't matter how it happened."
I wanted to yell at her. To tell her to leave me alone. But instead, I heard myself say, "She was seventeen. Just seventeen. She wanted to be a teacher."
"Tell me about her."
And I did. I don't know why. Maybe because the whiskey had loosened my tongue. Maybe because the sun was rising and I was exhausted. Or maybe because Ava looked at me with those soft eyes, and for once, I didn't see fear or judgment.
I told her about Selene's laugh. Her love of books. How she used to leave flowers on our mother's grave every Sunday. How she was the only good thing in our entire family.
Ava listened without interrupting. When I finished, she said, "She sounds wonderful."
"She was." I sat down heavily. "And now she's gone. Really gone."
"You don't know that yet. The DNA might not match."
"It will." I looked up at her. "I can feel it. She's been dead this whole time, and I've been hoping for nothing."
Ava sat beside me. Not too close, but near enough that I could feel her presence. "Hope isn't nothing. It's what keeps us alive when everything else is gone."
"Pretty words. But hope didn't save Selene."
"No. But it might save you."
I laughed bitterly. "I don't deserve saving."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm a monster. You said so yourself. I kidnap innocent women and hold them prisoner. I run a criminal empire. I've killed people, Ava. More than I can count."
"Then why did you bring me here? If you're such a monster, why not just kill me to eliminate the risk?"
I didn't have an answer for that.
We sat in silence as the sun rose higher. Finally, Ava stood. "You should sleep. The appointment at the morgue is in a few hours."
"How did you know about that?"
"I heard you on the phone. These walls aren't as thick as you think." She moved toward the door, then stopped. "Adrian? I know you think you're a monster. But monsters don't cry for their dead sisters. Monsters don't feel pain. Whatever you are, it's more complicated than that."
She left me alone with my thoughts.
At nine AM, I stood in the morgue with a detective. They pulled out a drawer containing remains that had been found in a wooded area outside the city.
The detective explained what they knew. Female, early twenties, buried for approximately six years. Clothing matched what Selene had been wearing the night she vanished.
"We'll need DNA to confirm," the detective said. "But the preliminary evidence is strong."
I looked at the bones. Tried to see my sister in them. Couldn't.
"Do it. Run the DNA."
The detective nodded. "We'll have results in a week."
A week of not knowing for sure. A week of hoping against hope that it wasn't her, even though I knew it was.
I returned home to find chaos. Guards running everywhere. Dante shouting orders.
"What happened?"
"It's Ava," Dante said, his face pale. "She's gone."
My blood turned to ice. "What do you mean, gone?"
"She vanished. We checked everywhere—her room, the grounds, everything. Martha swears she locked all the doors, but somehow Ava got out."
"When?"
"Maybe an hour ago. I've got men searching, but—"
I didn't wait to hear the rest. I ran to Ava's room. The window was still sealed. The door showed no signs of tampering. But she was definitely gone.
My mind raced. How had she escaped? Where would she go? And more importantly, who might find her first?
Because if my enemies discovered I'd been keeping her here, they'd use her against me. Torture her for information. Kill her to hurt me.
The thought made something in my chest twist painfully.
I pulled out my phone and called Zarek. "I need every camera in a five-mile radius checked. Now. A woman escaped from my property. Brown hair, green eyes, about five-foot-six. Find her."
"On it."
I went downstairs where my men were assembling. Twenty of them, all armed, all waiting for orders.
"Spread out. Check every street, every building. I want her found in the next hour. Alive and unharmed. Anyone who hurts her answers to me."
They dispersed. Dante approached me carefully. "Adrian, why does she matter this much? She's just a witness you were keeping safe."
"She's more than that."
"What do you mean?"
I couldn't explain it. Didn't fully understand it myself. But somewhere in the past few days, Ava Parker had become important. Not just as a security risk or a witness. But as something else entirely.
Maybe it was her defiance. Her refusal to be broken. Or maybe it was the way she'd looked at me this morning, seeing past the monster to something human underneath.
"Just find her," I told Dante.
My phone buzzed. Zarek. "Got her. She's on foot, heading toward downtown. Looks like she's trying to get to the hospital."
"Send me the location. And Zarek? Make sure nobody else is tracking her."
"Already on it."
I jumped in my car and raced toward the coordinates. My heart pounded in a way it hadn't since the night I'd been shot.
I found her three blocks from the hospital. She was moving fast, looking over her shoulder every few seconds.
I pulled up beside her. "Get in the car, Ava."
She kept walking. "No."
"Get in the car, or I'll put you in it myself."
"Try it. I'll scream. There are people everywhere."
She was right. We were in a busy area. If she screamed, it would cause a scene. Questions I couldn't afford.
I parked and got out, matching her pace. "Where are you going?"
"Away from you."
"You won't make it. My enemies have people everywhere. The moment they identify you, you're dead."
"I'll take my chances."
I grabbed her arm, forcing her to stop. "Don't be stupid. You think running will save you? I kept you prisoner to protect you."
"You kept me prisoner because you're obsessed!" She jerked her arm free. "I heard you, Adrian. This morning. You said you're complicated. But you're not. You're just broken, and you want to break me too."
"That's not true."
"Isn't it? You can't have your sister, so you'll keep me instead? Turn me into your captive to fill the void she left?"
Her words hit like bullets. Because maybe she was right. Maybe I was trying to replace what I'd lost with something I could control.
"Please," I said, and I heard the desperation in my own voice. "Just come back. We can talk about this."
"There's nothing to talk about. You're a criminal. A murderer. And I won't be part of your twisted world."
She turned and walked away.
I could chase her. Drag her back. Force her to stay.
But her words echoed in my head. You want to break me too.
Did I?
I watched her disappear into the crowd, and for the first time in years, I felt something close to despair.
My phone rang again. Detective Ross.
"Mr. Blackwood, the DNA results came back early. I'm sorry. The remains are definitely your sister."
I stood on the street as people flowed around me. Selene was dead. Really dead. And now Ava was gone too.
Everything I touched turned to ash.
I got back in my car and drove home. But before I reached the mansion, another call came through. A number I didn't recognize.
"Blackwood."
A voice I hadn't heard in six years. Cold. Mocking. "Hello, Adrian. I have something of yours. A pretty little doctor who thought she could run away."
My blood froze. "Malric."
"That's right. Your father's old enemy. The one who took your sister. And now I have your new toy too." He laughed. "If you want her back alive, you know what you have to do."
The line went dead.
And just like that, the war I'd been preparing for had begun.