Damien stormed into the mansion, his body thrumming with unspent rage, blood still drying on his knuckles. His men trailed behind him, silent, their suits stained crimson from the night’s carnage. But no amount of bodies dropped or blood spilled had brought him any closer to finding Luca.

As soon as he stepped into the grand hall, a tiny, panicked cry pierced through his madness.

“Papa! Where’s Luca?!”

Ava came running down the stairs, her small feet pattering against the marble floor. Her face was red and tear-streaked, her little hands clutching the hem of her dress as if grounding herself. Damien clenched his fists, feeling his rage shift into something else—something more unbearable.

Ava slammed into his legs, her tiny arms wrapping around him as sobs wracked her small frame. “I-I woke up and he wasn’t here! They saying he's gone..Papa, where’s Luca? I want him! I want him now!”

Damien lowered himself to his knees and cradled her against his chest, but his throat was too tight to speak. How could he tell her that the one person she loved as much as he did was taken? That his men had been slaughtered, their bodies left in the dirt like rotting meat, all because someone dared to take what belonged to him?

“I want Luca!” Ava screamed, pounding her little fists against his chest. “I want him! Papa, bring him back!”

His entire body stiffened, his grip on Ava tightening. He buried his face in her soft hair, inhaling the scent of innocence—of Luca. Her cries shredded through him, each sob slicing him open like a blade.

“I’ll bring him back,” Damien growled, the promise etched in blood and death. “No matter what it takes.”

Ava pulled back, her tearful eyes locking onto his. “Promise?”

His voice was steel, his eyes dark voids of vengeance. “I swear on everything, Ava. No one takes what’s mine and lives.”

She sniffled, nodding, but her tiny body still trembled in his arms. Damien picked her up, holding her close. For a brief moment, he allowed himself to sink into the warmth of his daughter’s embrace, the only thing keeping him from fully losing his mind. Then he set her down gently, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“Stay inside,” he ordered one of his men. “No one comes near her.”

Ava tugged on his sleeve, her voice small but firm. “Be careful, Papa.”

Damien gave her a dark smile, one that wasn’t meant for his daughter but for the ghosts of the men he would slaughter. “I don’t need to be careful. They do.”

With that, he turned and strode out of the house. His black coat billowed behind him, his eyes already scanning for the next throat to slit, the next piece of information that would lead him to Luca. He had already spilled rivers of blood, but he would drown the world in it if it meant getting him back.

Because Damien volkov didn’t lose. And he sure as hell wasn’t about to start now.

****** Damien paced the length of his office like a caged beast, his hands clenched into tight fists, veins bulging with barely contained rage. The destruction he had left in his wake was evident—glass shards from a shattered whiskey bottle littered the floor, the heavy wooden desk bore deep cracks from where he had slammed his fists, and the walls bore the marks of his fury. But none of it mattered. Not when Luca was gone. Not when his world had been ripped from him.

He took a deep, shuddering breath and forced himself to focus. His men had scoured the city, leaving a trail of blood in their wake, but Luca was still nowhere to be found. The frustration clawed at his insides, making him want to rip someone apart with his bare hands. But now wasn’t the time for mindless violence. He needed precision. He needed power. And he had plenty of both.

Damien grabbed his phone and started making calls, his voice cold and devoid of emotion, yet carrying the weight of an unspoken promise of death.

"I need every satellite feed on the docks reviewed within the last twenty-four hours. Cross-check every damn movement. Find me something."

"Triple the bounty on Mikhail. Anyone who breathes in his direction better report it to me first."

"I don’t care who you have to bribe, blackmail, or torture—get me his location."

One by one, he reached out to his most powerful contacts—corrupt officials, underground syndicates, former enemies turned reluctant allies. He spared no expense, offered no mercy. If anyone even whispered Mikhail’s name in the wrong place, Damien would know.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Ava clutched a stuffed bear to her chest, her small body trembling with sobs. The house, usually filled with Luca’s soft laughter and warmth, felt hollow, wrong. She hiccuped, wiping at her tears with the back of her hand before grabbing the phone Damien had given her for emergencies.

Her tiny fingers shakily dialed Valarie’s number.

"Auntie Val!" Ava’s voice broke as soon as Valarie answered. "They took Luca! Papa’s angry, he’s breaking things! Luca's not home, he’s not anywhere!"

Valarie’s breath hitched on the other end of the line, and for a moment, silence stretched between them. Then, her voice came through, firm, controlled, but layered with unmistakable fury.

"Ava, baby, listen to me," she said gently. "I need you to stay strong, okay? I’m coming. I promise we’ll get Luca back."

Ava sniffled, nodding even though Valarie couldn’t see her. "You have to, Auntie Val... I want my Luca back."

******** The doors to Damien’s study slammed open, crashing against the walls with a deafening bang. Valarie stormed in, her eyes blazing with fury, her hands curled into tight fists. The air in the room shifted, charged with the weight of her anger, thick enough to suffocate.

"WHERE IS HE?!" she roared, her voice cutting through the thick silence like a blade.

Damien sat behind his desk, his expression carved from stone. His knuckles were white from how tightly he was gripping the armrests of his chair, his patience already stretched thin. Blood still stained the cuff of his sleeve, a remnant of the chaos he’d unleashed trying to find Luca. His heart pounded with unbridled rage, but Valarie’s presence brought a different kind of storm.

"I swear to God, Damien," she seethed, stepping closer, slamming her hands onto the desk. "I trusted you! I let him stay with you because he said he was happy, and now he’s gone? KIDNAPPED?! Because of YOU?!"

Damien’s jaw clenched, his fingers twitching with the urge to lash out. His entire body burned with frustration. He had turned the city inside out looking for Luca, but that bastard Mikhail had covered his tracks well. Every second that passed felt like another dagger to his chest.

"I’m going to find him," Damien growled lowly, his voice a dark promise, his eyes shadowed with murderous intent.

"Find him?! FIND HIM?!" Valarie’s scream was hoarse with grief. "You let him be taken in the first place! You promised to protect him! And now my baby brother is out there, with those monsters, while you sit here and do what?! Smash things?! Kill people?! Have you even gotten one step closer to getting him back?!"

Damien exhaled sharply through his nose, his fists slamming against the desk with a force that sent a deep crack through the expensive wood. "Don’t. Test. Me," he warned, his voice dripping with menace. "I will burn the world to get him back."

"Then why hasn’t he been found yet?!" Valarie spat, her hands shaking. "You think you’re untouchable? That you’re so powerful? Then why is my brother suffering while you’re still sitting here?! If you were half as strong as you think you are, Luca would be home!"

Damien shot up from his chair so suddenly that it scraped against the floor. The sheer force of his rage made the air around them unbearable. Valarie wasn’t afraid. If anything, her hatred flared brighter, her eyes locked onto Damien’s as if daring him to fight her.

"You think I’m not doing everything?" Damien snarled, his voice a guttural snarl. "I haven’t stopped for a second. I have men tearing apart this city, I have every contact I know searching for him. You think I don’t feel it? The fact that he’s gone? That he could be hurt? That some disgusting bastard could be touching him?!"

Valarie’s breath hitched at that thought, her rage momentarily faltering under the crushing weight of her own fear. But she pushed it aside and shoved Damien, hard.

"Then DO MORE!" she screamed. "Because if anything happens to him, Damien, I swear on my life, I will never forgive you."

Damien’s chest rose and fell with labored breaths, his hands shaking from the sheer force of keeping himself from losing control. He didn’t need her to tell him that. The thought of Luca suffering, crying, alone—it was already shredding him apart from the inside.

Valarie’s breath was ragged, her body tense with fury and despair. But she wasn’t done. Her voice dropped lower, steadier, more cutting.

"You’re supposed to be his protector," she said, eyes burning with an intensity that rivaled Damien’s own. "If you don’t bring him back, safe and whole… then you’re no better than the people who took him."

The words were a bullet straight through Damien’s chest. His hands flexed, his jaw locked so tightly it ached.

"Get out," he said, his voice disturbingly calm, a storm contained just barely beneath the surface.

Valarie glared at him for a long moment, then turned on her heel and stormed out, slamming the door behind her. The room fell into silence, save for Damien’s ragged breaths.

He stood there, staring at the door, his fingers twitching at his sides.

She was right.

And he would never forgive himself if he failed Luca now.

*******

Damien’s phone buzzed. He barely glanced at the caller ID before answering.

"We have a lead."

Damien's heart pounded. "Where?"

"Mikhail’s safehouses are shifting. We just found movement near the old docks. Could be him."

A slow, predatory smile curved Damien’s lips, his grip on the phone tightening. "Then let’s go hunting."

He turned, heading straight for his weapons cache, his mind already crafting the most painful way to make Mikhail suffer. Luca was his, and he would burn the entire world to get him back.