تسجيل الدخولI tried to breathe. I tried to stay still. I tried to keep my hands from shaking. But Juan wouldn’t stop hovering. He paced the room like a restless shadow, eyes flicking over me every few seconds, studying me, watching me, waiting for something I couldn’t name. I couldn’t get a read on him, not the way I used to when we were kids.Back then, he’d been… complicated. Cold sometimes, protective other times. But he’d never scared me. Now? Now he terrified me.I swallowed hard. “Juan… can we talk?”He stopped pacing. His head tilted, eyes narrowing. “Talk about what?”I forced my voice to stay steady. “About us. About when we were younger. You used to look out for me. You warned me about your father. You...”He laughed. A sharp, humorless sound that made my stomach twist. “Oh, Sara,” he said, shaking his head. “You really believed that?”My breath caught. “What do you mean?”He stepped closer, his expression shifting into something cold and cruel. “It was an act,” he said. “All of it. The
The house was buzzing like a kicked beehive. Ricci men filled every corner. pacing, whispering, checking weapons, checking phones. I’d lived through enough of these nights to know when something was truly wrong.And tonight… something was very wrong.Salvatore looked like he was barely holding himself together. His jaw was clenched so tight I thought it might crack. His father hovered close, steadying him without touching him.I didn’t know his wife personally, only that she’d been taken. Only that she mattered to him in a way I hadn’t seen since he was a boy clinging to his mother’s skirt. I was about to put on a pot of coffee when my phone buzzed. A text from an old coworker, one of the nurses I used to work with before I retired.Lori, I need help. It’s urgent. We have a pregnant woman who needs rescuing.I sighed softly. Another one. Another woman trapped. Another man threatening her. It never ended.I typed back: What’s going on? Is she safe?Before the reply came, I heard Salvat
Ghost had three monitors running at once, each one flickering with grainy traffic‑cam footage. The room was dead silent except for the rapid clicking of his keyboard and the pounding of my heart. Then he froze. “There,” Ghost said, pointing at the screen. “Highway 229. Southbound camera picked them up.”I stepped closer. A black sedan. Tinted windows. Moving fast. My pulse kicked hard.“Where does 229 lead?” Wolf asked behind me.“Into St. Joe,” Ghost said. “And that’s where I lost them.”The screen jumped to the next camera... empty. Then the next... nothing. Then the next... nothing.Ghost leaned back, frustrated. “They disappeared once they hit town. Too many side roads. Too many blind spots. And the cameras up there are old as hell.”I clenched my jaw. We had a direction. But not a location. A lead. But not enough. I hated not enough.Wolf paced behind me, muttering curses under his breath. Matteo stood in the doorway, arms crossed, face pale with fury. My father watched silently,
The car ride felt endless. Every bump in the road rattled through me, every turn made my stomach twist tighter. The bag over my head smelled like dust and old metal, and the darkness inside it felt suffocating. I tried to breathe slow, tried to keep my hands from shaking, tried not to think about Salvatore’s face when he realized I was gone or Gabe’s. My sweet boy. My baby.And now... another baby.The thought made my throat close. I didn’t even know how far along I was. I didn’t know anything except that the test had been positive. Positive. And Juan had seen it. Juan knew. God, please let Salvatore find me. Please let him find us.The car finally slowed, gravel crunching under the tires. A door opened. Then hands grabbed my arms, not rough, but firm, and pulled me out. The air smelled like pine and cold dirt but also animals, like when you are at the rodeo. We were somewhere remote. Somewhere quiet. Somewhere no one would hear me. The bag was yanked off my head.I blinked against the
Ghost’s fingers flew across the keyboard, screens reflecting off his glasses in rapid flashes of blue and white. Every camera feed in the city was up. Every traffic cam. Every toll booth. Every intersection. And none of it was enough. “She’s in a black sedan,” Ghost muttered. “Tinted windows. No plates. They knew what they were doing.” I paced behind him, chest tight, hands shaking. I couldn’t sit. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.Gabe was crying in the next room. My son. My little boy. Crying because his mother was gone. And I couldn’t fix it. I’d promised him I would always keep them safe. I’d promised Sara she’d never have to be afraid again. I’d promised myself I’d never fail them. And here I was. Failing.Ghost cursed under his breath. “I lost them. They got off the main highway and headed north. Cameras thin out up there.”North. North meant woods, farms, cabins, Old roads. Places where no one would hear her scream.My stomach twisted. I forced myself away from the screens and
Something felt wrong. I didn’t know what it was at first, a shift in the air, a silence where there shouldn’t have been one. But I’d lived too many years in this life to ignore instinct. And my instinct was screaming. I looked around the group. Kat and Ciara were arguing over which brand of pasta sauce tasted more “authentically Italian.” Abuela and Nonna were bickering in Spanish and Italian about which dessert we should make for Marco’s welcome‑home dinner.But one voice was missing. One presence. One girl. I straightened. “Where’s Sara?”The women froze.Kat blinked. “She was just here.”Ciara looked around. “She said she’d be right back.”My stomach dropped. “Right back from where?”The Ricci men trailing us stiffened. One of them, Nico, stepped forward. “She went to the bathroom.”I turned slowly. “Who went with her?” Silence. Not one of them answered. Not one of them met my eyes. I felt my blood pressure spike. “You let her go alone?”Nico swallowed. “We didn’t think...”“That’s







