Page 195 of Vicious Games

Bonus Epilogue

Luciano

Three years later

Twenty-four hours.

A whole fucking day has gone by, and still no sign of Annamaria.

It’s like she just vanished—vanished into thin air without leaving a note, a trace, without a goddamn whisper left behind.

But people don’t just vanish.

Not in our world.

“You should grab a few hours of sleep,” Enzo says beside me, voice low, taut with exhaustion. “I can take over for a bit.”

I don’t look away from the screen. My fingers hover, frozen above the keyboard.

“No. I’m good.”

“You’re not good, Lucky.” His tone sharpens, but there’s worry in it too. “You’ve been at your computer all night. How are you supposed to find Anna if your brain’s fried?”

“Have you slept?” I ask through gritted teeth.

Enzo bows his head. “No.”

“That’s what I thought.”

I turn back to my monitor. “Run every number that pinged in the two-mile radius around Uncle Sal’s estate.”

“I already did that.”

“Then do it again,” I snap before I can stop myself.

Enzo flinches slightly, causing guilt to gnaw at me.

“Fuck. Sorry,” I mutter, dragging a hand over my face. “I’m just—”

“I know,” he cuts in quietly. “Me too.”

He pulls up a chair and opens his laptop beside me. The sound of keys clicking quickly fills the room again.

“I’ll expand the search radius,” he says. “A few extra miles. Maybe whoever took her got sloppy. Turned on a phone when they thought they were in the clear.”

Whoever took her…

What Enzo really means is whoever kidnapped our baby sister.

For a few hours, we let ourselves believe she might’ve just fallen asleep somewhere. Maybe curled up in some quiet corner with a romance novel, hiding from the chaos of our parents’ twenty-fifth anniversary party.

It wouldn’t have been out of character for her. Anna’s never been the type to enjoy crowds. She fades into the background by nature, not because she’s weak—but because peace and quiet is where she thrives.

No one noticed she was gone. Not at first.

And that’s what makes this even worse.

Dad was right.

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