The Missing Dove.

Lucy wasn’t the only one restless that morning.

At the Valerio estate, the air was thick with unease. Vince sat at the long mahogany table in the dining hall, his untouched coffee cooling by his hand. His sharp eyes had been fixed on the doorway for an hour, waiting for his sister to appear. She never did.

Adrian stormed into the room, his voice sharp with panic. “She’s not in her room.”

The words froze the air.

Vince’s jaw tightened. He didn’t answer immediately, but the grip on his cup cracked the porcelain. “What do you mean, not in her room?”

Adrian’s hands curled into fists. “I checked everywhere. She never came home last night.”

Matteo, who had been lounging against the counter, pushed off with a scoff that didn’t hide his own tension. “Unbelievable. One night out, and she thinks she’s grown wings.” His knife twirled between his fingers, the metallic gleam catching the light. “She’s playing with fire.”

Damian exhaled smoke from his cigarette, his gaze narrowing with something darker than amusement this time. “And fire spreads fast if you don’t put it out.”

Vince rose to his full height, his presence filling the room like a storm brewing on the horizon. “Enough.” His voice was quiet, but the command in it silenced the others. “We warned her. She chose to defy us. But if she’s missing… that’s not rebellion. That’s danger.”

Adrian’s voice broke with the force of his worry. “Vince, what if something happened to her? You know the enemies we have, if they find out she was alone—”

“They won’t touch her,” Vince snapped, though his own chest burned with the weight of that possibility. He slammed his hand against the table. “Not while I breathe.”

The brothers exchanged grim looks. For all their differences, they were united in one thing, no one harmed Lucy.

Vince turned sharply, his voice crisp with orders. “Matteo, find her friends. Shake every word out of them if you have to. Damian, check the clubs downtown, especially the ones crawling with our rivals. Adrian, you’re with me. We search the city until she’s back under this roof and one more thing, Father and Ma shouldn’t hear of this, At least not for now”

Adrian didn’t hesitate. “I’ll tear this city apart if I have to.”

Damian smirked, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “Looks like little sister’s about to find out what real fire feels like , ours.”

Matteo twirled his knife once more before tucking it away. “If she’s with someone…” His grin turned sharp and humorless. “They won’t live long enough to regret it.”

Vince’s gaze turned to steel. His voice was low, but lethal. “Whoever thought they could touch her will learn what it means to challenge this family.”

The four brothers moved like predators loosed from their cage.

Meanwhile, Lucy sat alone in her hotel room, unaware that the walls were closing in—her family’s wrath on one side, and the shadow of the mysterious man’s world on the other.

And in the city streets, somewhere unseen, threads of fate were already tightening.

Meanwhile, Lucy was still confused, she pressed her hand to her temple. “Damn it,” she whispered.

Not a name. Not a number. Not even a clue she thought to herself. In the wild haze of the night, she had forgotten every rational thought, given herself away so freely it made her cheeks flush hot with shame and something else, something that unsettled her even more.

She had liked it.

Lucy shook her head, dragging herself from the sheets. Her clothes were scattered across the floor, a trail of evidence to a night she could neither take back nor forget. She dressed in silence, every rustle of fabric a reminder of how recklessly she had crossed a line.

Her phone buzzed violently on the nightstand. Her friends. Probably checking if she was alive. She stared at the screen,

Maya (10 missed calls)

Selene (6 missed calls)

Kira (15 missed calls + 7 unread messages)

Lucy’s stomach sank. She unlocked the phone, scrolling through the frantic texts:

Kira: Where are you??

Maya: Girl, we looked everywhere. Did you leave with someone??

Selene: Answer us before your brothers tear this city apart.

Kira: LU, you don’t understand. Vince called ME. He’s looking for you. He sounds pissed.

Kira: Please, just say something before they find out where you were.

Guilt nibbled at her, but she ignored the call. She didn’t want their chatter right now.

Lucy’s throat closed. She shoved the phone away, pacing the room. The reality of it all crashed into her like a tidal wave. She hadn’t gone home. She hadn’t told anyone. Her brothers would have realized by now, and Vince…Vince would be seething.

Her chest ached. She thought of Adrian’s protective fury, of Matteo’s mocking grin that would cut even deeper this time, of Damian’s cigarette smoke curling through laughter that would never let her forget. And Vince, his silence would be the worst, sharp as knives.

But what unsettled her most wasn’t her brothers. It was him.

The mysterious man who she knows nothing about.

Her hands curled into fists. He had walked away without a word. She didn’t even know his name. And yet, she couldn’t stop replaying the way he had looked at her when she held ice to his bruised hand. The way the world had shrunk to just the two of them.

Lucy dragged her fingers through her hair, frustration boiling in her chest.

“Why him? Why now?” She whispered out loud

The door to the hotel room banged suddenly, snapping her out of her spiral.