Chapter 10

Dante Moretti POV

I must have shattered every speed limit in the state of New York.

My armored SUV tore up the estate's driveway. Impatience clawed at me; I didn't wait for the gate to open fully, scraping the vehicle's paint against the iron bars with a sickening screech.

I slammed the gearshift into park and sprinted for the front door.

"Elena!" I shouted.

The foyer echoed my desperation back at me. It was empty.

"Elena!"

Silence.

I ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

I burst into the master bedroom.

It was cold. The window was open, inviting the damp air inside.

The acrid smell of smoke hit me.

My gaze snapped to the fireplace. There, amidst the embers, lay the ashes of a painting and the charred remains of a book.

I looked at the bed. It was made. Perfectly smooth. As if no one had ever slept there.

Then I looked at the nightstand.

It was there.

The platinum ring.

I walked over to it, my legs feeling like lead.

I picked it up. It was ice-cold.

She never took it off. Not to shower. Not to sleep.

"She's gone, Dante," a voice said.

My mother stood in the room behind me. She must have followed me up.

I turned to her. "Where? Where did she go?"

My mother simply shook her head. She handed me a velvet box.

I flipped it open.

The Moretti Emeralds. The necklace meant for the Queen of the family.

"You were too late to give her these," my mother said softly.

I pulled out my phone and dialed Elena.

*The number you have dialed is no longer in service.*

I stared at the screen.

Disconnected.

"Giovanni!" I roared.

The butler appeared in the doorway instantly. He looked pale.

"Where is she?" I demanded. "Track her car. Track her phone."

"Her signal is dead, Sir," Giovanni said, his voice trembling. "Her credit cards are inactive. She... she took the cash from the safe."

I threw the phone against the wall. It shattered into plastic shrapnel.

"Lock down JFK," I ordered. "Lock down LaGuardia. No one leaves this city."

"It's been two hours, Sir," Giovanni whispered. "She could be anywhere."

I looked at the ring in my hand. I squeezed it until the metal bit into my palm.

"She can't leave. She belongs to me."

"I will burn this city to find her," I vowed.

My mother looked past me, toward the ashes in the fireplace.

"You already burned your home, my son. Now you are just standing in the soot."

I ignored her. I grabbed a fresh phone from the drawer.

I dialed Luca.

"Find her," I snarled. "Find her, or I will kill everyone who helped her."

I walked to the window. The rain had stopped. The world was washed in gray.

She was gone.

And for the first time in my life, I was afraid.