Page 44 of His to Destroy

“I should’ve been here,” he mutters.

“You always are,” I whisper. “Why weren’t you tonight?”

“I got a tip—some unrest brewing. I didn’t want it near you.”

My face falls, but my throat is top parched from sobbing and yelling to say the words hanging in them. Unrest? Is Luca’s disappearance tied to this unrest somehow?

I want to scream. Want to hit him.

But all I can do is pray.

Three hours later, while my mind goes on rampage, thinking of what could have happened to my baby, they find the van on a traffic cam five miles out.

Gaspare studies the footage like a man possessed.

“Warehouse. Industrial sector. Enzo, take four with you. I want sniper coverage. Matteo, you’re with me. We go in quiet.”

“I’m going too,” I say.

“No.”

“You can’t stop me.”

He turns, grabs my arms. “You stay here in case they try again. I’ll bring him back.”

His eyes shine with something I’ve never seen in him before.

Fear.

And beneath that… love.

I sit in Luca’s room with his favorite toy cradled in my arms like it’s a part of him.

Minutes stretch into eternities. I can’t eat. Can’t breathe.

Maria and Lisa take turns coming in to check on me. No words, just silence. Lisa comes with food. I eye her maliciously for expecting me to want to eat right now and she hurries out, muttering apologies.

And then, I hear the front doors burst open.

“ALMERIA!”

My heart sinks to my stomach as I hear him, my mind expecting the worst. I don’t remember when I stood up but I find myself running out of the room and rushing downstairs.

Gaspare storms in, blood on his shirt, Luca cradled in his arms.

My knees buckle at the sight of them.

Luca is crying, clinging to Gaspare’s neck, dirty and scraped but very much alive.

I sob as I gather him in my arms, holding him tighter than I ever have in my life.

Gaspare drops onto the couch, breathing hard, eyes never leaving us.

“I told you,” he rasps. “I’d bring him home.”

Hours later, Luca is finally asleep in his own bed, curled around his stuffed tiger, his chest rising and falling in a peaceful rhythm that doesn’t match the chaos of the day.

I sit on the edge of his mattress, watching him in the dim glow of the nightlight. He looks so small, even though he’s grown so much.

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