CHAPTER FOUR: THE MORNING HE VANISHED

Damian POV

My mind travels up and down the room as an unutterable feeling washes over me.

I sit, and an unspeakable sorrow engulfs me, settling deep in my bones, leaving me bewildered. My everlasting love has been taken away from me. We once sat on a mountain on that glorious day and exchanged vows.

He promised me he would never leave me. The recent turn of events has been going against my favour.

He isn’t faithful and keeps secrets, but he’s still been sweet and loving at times. He knows how to make me feel good, even if it's built on lies. We are still partners, and I don’t want him to leave me like this.

“Caleb?” I call again, this time even louder. My stomach tightens. I check the whole apartment, room to room, my heartbeat racing with each empty find. No note. No explanation. No sign of where he went. Just an absence that feels wrong enough to taste like fear.

My mind darts backwards, searching for anything, anyone, who might know something. I search outside, but there is nothing to help me put the pieces together.

This particular incident didn’t make any sense. Nothing does at this point. I was neither rich nor influential, so why would anyone come to my place to take from me?

I think of Mark and how he dealt with me in the alley. It couldn’t be him. If he had a personal vendetta against me, he should have acted weeks ago. Or he probably would have succumbed to the scar-faced man and put a bullet through my skull in the alley, and no one would talk about it.

He said he would reach out, but I haven’t heard from him since then. I collected his digits, but I couldn’t reach him. The line just wouldn’t connect.

That leads me to Luca Ferraro. I have never liked the man, never trusted him. But Luca is the only familiar name in this foreign city, someone connected to our past before we left the Caldara empire behind. I resent him deeply, ever since the night I caught Caleb whispering to him in coded messages.

He was the one who undeniably brought Caleb to this city, at least that was my assumption. Caleb gave a vague explanation that our journey to this place was a divine calling from nature. But I don’t think so. It is unmistakably planned by him and Luca.

How did he know and adapt to speaking the local language so fast and blend so well with these strangers? He definitely planned it all.

I scramble for Luca’s contact on my phone, hoping I haven’t deleted it in anger. I dial it with trembling fingers. The phone rings once, twice, three times.

Then, “Damian?” Luca says, recognizing me immediately. I don’t question it. My fear is too loud. I have better things to worry about.

“Luca… Caleb is gone. I woke up, and he isn’t here. The place looks… wrong. Someone might have been inside.”

A long silence follows.

“Did he say anything last night?” Luca finally asks.

“No.” I run my finger through my hair, pacing up and down the room, my breath uneven. “Nothing out of the ordinary. He wouldn’t just disappear. Something happened.”

“I haven’t heard from him,” Luca finally speaks. “But if I do, I’ll let you know.”

It isn’t comforting, but it is something. We end the call. I wait. Minutes blur into nearly two hours, and the patience is getting on my nerves. I keep checking the window, the hallway, the door, my hands restless, my thoughts spiralling.

Then my phone rings. It comes from an unknown number. I answer instantly.

“Caleb?!”

A harsh, distorted voice cuts in, cold enough to numb my spine.

“We have your man,” the voice replies.

My breath stops. “What? Who are you? Where is he?” I am shocked to my bones.

How did we even get here? I didn’t hear any disturbance in my sleep. It seems almost planned. I mutter to myself, “This is getting out of hand,” then the voice interrupts me.

“You will bring five hundred thousand. You have twenty-four hours.”

“Please, let me hear his voice. I need to know he—”

The caller hangs up.

Immediately after, a message appears on my screen. Just like that. No explanation. No clue who they are. No clue where he is. No clue why they want money. And most importantly, no clue where to get the money from.

I stand frozen in the center of the room, phone still pressed to my ear. I lose track of time, and my head begins to spin. I am having a panic attack. My tongue tastes salty. Intense fear embraces me like a shield. Cold sweat soaks my shirt and drips down my forehead as my breath shortens.

My fingers tremble, and I feel dizzy. Nobody to even save me. Then, with a bang, I collapse on the couch.

Thirty minutes later, I pick up the pieces of my dignity, or whatever fight I still have left.

My heart still pounds rapidly. Caleb is taken. Somewhere out there. And I have nothing, no power, no resources, no allies. All except one old, familiar number in my phone. And even that no longer feels like something I can trust.

I don’t know who took him. But I know one thing: I have to save him, no matter what it costs. I pick myself up and rush toward the door when I hear a loud bang.

Fear grips me. Why the noise? What could be worse than this?

Then the door flings open as some gangsters enter my room without warning, making my place their home.

Who are these guys, and why are they so relaxed? Are they tied to Caleb’s disappearance? This realisation alone makes my skin crawl.

“Are you mad? Pour me some champagne,” one of them orders.

“And a drink too,” the other cheers on as he lights a stick of cigarettes.

I go for the gun hidden under the table, but these guys are roughly six hefty gangsters. How fast could I be to take out all six of them with my shallow pistol?