Page 7 of His to Destroy

He doesn’t need me to say her name. He’s been part of the search long enough to know who I’m talking about.

He exhales. "Alive?"

I nod and I can hear the relief in his next question.

“Is she alone?”

“Has a son. Not mine.”

I don’t know why that answer stings. It shouldn’t. I never laid a hand on her that way. But somehow, my mind is trying to make me believe I did. I’m not willing to accept that someone else took her that way. I was too furious. Too convinced she was playing me, using her sweet face and those moonlit eyes to lull me into a trap.

I misread everything.

I was cruel.

And then she disappeared.

We looked, of course. For months. My men dug through the city’s gutters, watched airports, tapped into hospital records. But she was gone. As though she’d evaporated into the night I left her in.

Something about that always ate at me. Not guilt—I was too blind for guilt then. But unease. She shouldn’t have run. Not from words. Not from humiliation, no matter how harsh. It wasn’t until later—months later—that rumors reached me. A girl bloodied in an alley.

But it matched.

The time. The place. The aftermath.

I didn’t want to believe it.

But I did.

And since then, I’ve never quite escaped the rot it left in my chest.

Now she’s back. Or maybe I just finally stumbled onto her path again.

Either way, the game’s changed.

Because this time, someone else is watching her too.

I meet with Enzo and Sancia that evening. Sancia’s tracking the syndicate whispers through her network of informants. Enzo deals with our internal cleanup. Both of them are good at what they do. I trust them more than anyone. Which says very little.

I throw the blurry photo on the table.

Enzo squints. “This is recent?”

“Yesterday. They took it while tailing me. And now they know who she is.”

Sancia frowns. “Does she know she’s compromised?”

I shake my head. "Not entirely."

I tell them what I saw. Her face. The boy.

Sancia leans back. “They won’t stop. If she matters to you, they’ll use her.”

"She doesn't matter," I lie.

But even Enzo raises a brow at that one.

"You planning to offer protection?" Sancia asks.

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