Chapter 21
ADRIANO
I jolt awake to cold sheets where Eva's warmth should be.
I assume Eva has risen and is with Mirabella, maybe getting breakfast or playing in that fairy garden I had installed.
I shower quickly, anticipating the sight of them in the kitchen, Eva laughing as Mirabella attempts to eat pancakes without getting syrup everywhere.
I take the back stairs as it’s the fastest route to the kitchen. But when I enter, I only see our chef and one of the servants. I check the dining room, which is empty.
I roll my shoulders of the worry that’s trying to take root.
I return to the kitchen. "Have you seen Eva and Mirabella?" I ask the chef.
"No. I haven't seen them this morning."
Again, I silence the alarm bells that want to ring.
The house is massive, as are the grounds.
They could be anywhere.
The playroom, the garden, the library where Mirabella loves to look at picture books.
But as I check each location, the knot in my stomach grows.
I check Mirabella's bedroom again, noticing details I missed before.
The missing stuffed unicorn she never sleeps without.
Her dresser is open and if I’m not mistaken, a few clothes are missing.
"Find Eva and Mirabella," I order the first guard I see as I hurry downstairs. "Now."
My phone rings. It's Alessandro. "The east gate was opened last night."
The coil in my chest snaps.
She's gone. Again.
Fuck. I try not to rush to conclusions.
Instead, I tear through the house like a madman, my mind racing through all possibilities.
The Bratva could have taken them, but how? Our security is airtight.
The cameras would have caught something.
The guards would have heard a struggle.
Unless there wasn't one.
My stomach drops as a new thought forms.
What if she went to them willingly?
What if everything, her fear, her desperation, even her passion for me, was all an act?
What if starting with Dmitri’s telling me about Eva was a setup?
I rush back to my room, looking for any clue, any hint of where she might have gone.
I yank open drawers, finding nothing missing except…
My wallet.
It's sitting empty, nearly all the cash gone, almost five thousand dollars.
She ran. Again.
I slam my fist into the wall, plaster cracking under the impact.
Pain shoots through my knuckles, but I don’t register it.
I don’t feel anything but rage at being duped again.
All this time, I'd been trying to protect her, to make her feel safe, to earn her trust.
I opened my home to her, welcomed our daughter with open arms.
I'd even started to imagine a future together, despite everything.
What a fucking fool I've been.
Did she ever care?
Or was I just the most convenient protection until she could figure out her next move?
I think of all the moments together.
The picnic.
Playing with Mirabella.
At night in my bed.
Was any of it real?
I suppose it doesn’t matter now. What matters is that no one betrays the Dantes twice and lives to tell about it.
Even if she is the mother of my child.
Even if she still owns pieces of my heart.
I find Alessandro in his office, his face already set in that knowing expression I've come to hate. No point dragging this out.
"She's gone." The admission is another thing I can resent Eva for. She’s made me look like a fucking sap in front of my brother.
"Of course she is."
I grip the back of the chair resisting the urge to hurl it across the room. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means I expected this." He tilts his head, almost as if he’s surprised that I expected her to stay. "The moment she was strong enough to run, she would. You were just convenient protection while she healed."
I want to argue, to defend her, but the evidence speaks for itself.
Over four-grand cash is gone.
Mirabella’s stuffed animal is gone. Eva’s bag is gone.
How long did she plan this?
Was fucking me last night a part of her escape plan?
How the fuck did she even get out?
"She played you, Adriano. She played all of us."
I pace the room, unable to stand still with the fury coursing through my veins. "Why? She could have stayed here, been safe. We could have been a family."
"I guess she didn’t want that." Alessandro shrugs. "She's made her choice. You need to let her go."
I slam my fist on his desk. "She took my daughter."
"Yes," Alessandro says, his voice softening slightly. "That's the real crime here."
I run my hands through my hair, tugging at the roots as if the pain might clear my thoughts.
I've killed men for less than what Eva's done to me. Twice now, she's ripped my heart out.
Twice, she's disappeared with my child.
"I have to find her," I growl.
"And then what?" Alessandro asks. "What will you do when you find her?"
What will I do? Part of me wants to punish her for this betrayal, make her feel the pain she's caused me.
But another part, the part that still remembers the softness of her skin, the sound of her laugh, the way Mirabella calls me "Daddy" now, that part just wants them both back safe.
"I'll figure that out when I have them in front of me," I finally say. "But I will find them. And this time, she won't escape me again."
"Let her go, Adriano," Alessandro says, leaning back in his chair with a weary sigh. "At least now you won't grieve for a ghost. You've seen her true colors. The woman you put on a pedestal doesn't exist. She doesn’t deserve you."
Part of me knows he's right.
The Eva I loved, the one I mourned for years, was a fiction. I’ll learn to accept that.
But I won’t have my child taken from me. Not again.
"I have to find her," I insist. "Mirabella—"
"Are you even sure she's yours?" Alessandro interrupts, his tone casual, as if he hasn't just dropped a grenade into the room.
I shake with anger. “Don’t you fucking dare—”
“Have you considered that’s why Ivan is after her? That the child could be his, or Maksim’s? I mean, why the fuck are they so interested in the daughter of a low-level associate of the Dante family?”
“That child is mine.” I want to reach across his desk and wring his neck for suggesting otherwise. “One look at her and you know it."
To his credit, Alessandro doesn't flinch. Even with a look of murder in my eyes, he remains cool. “You remind me of Luca when he learned about Enzo.”
“Yeah, well, fatherhood will do that to you.” I suck in a breath, needing to get my bearings. "I'll tear apart every city, every country until I find them. And when I do, Eva will learn what it truly means to fear a Dante."
But even as the threat leaves my lips, I wonder which emotion drives me more. Rage at her betrayal or terror that I might never see either of them again.
“Alright, you can find your daughter, but let me be clear," Alessandro says, rising from his chair. "When you find them, I don't want Eva back in this house. The woman is poison."
I nod. "You don't have to worry about that. I'm going to find her and get my child. Eva is on her own."
Alessandro studies my face, searching for weakness. "I'll arrange—"
"I'll handle it myself," I cut him off. "This is personal."
I leave his office without waiting for a response.
In the hallway, I pull out my phone and dial a number I rarely use but always keep close.
The line connects after one ring. "Gabriel."
"Mr. Dante." His voice is smooth, professional. Gabriel isn't family, isn't even Italian, but he's the best investigator money can buy.
Ex-FBI with connections everywhere and a moral compass that points directly toward whoever pays him.
"I need you. Now." I keep walking toward my room, already mentally packing. "Eva Santoro. She's taken my daughter and disappeared."
“Eva… do I know her?”
When she disappeared the first time, I didn’t know Gabriel. If I had, he’d have probably found her.
“No. Her father worked for us.
She’s been on the run for four years but was just found by Ivan Vasiliev.
She escaped him and I found her with my daughter. Now she’s run again.”
“How much head start does she have?”
I check my watch. It’s now nearly eight thirty. “Six to eight hours. She has just over four-grand in cash.”
“Any idea where’d she run to?”
I scan my brain for any information she might have given me about friends or other family, but I’m certain she never mentioned any. Her father was killed not long after she went missing.
My father said it was the Bratva, but now I wonder if it was him since he’d had Eva on his list of suspects.
“She ran to Boston last time, but I doubt she’ll do that. She’s smart enough to try and hide her tracks, but she’s no match for the Bratva who is also hunting her.”
“Or me. I’ll check buses, trains, rentals… the whole deal. If she has a kid with her, she shouldn’t be too hard to miss. Do you have a description?”
“Of the child?” I ask.
“Both.”
I give a description of Eva and Mirabella and even include one of the stuffed unicorn.
"I'll start now. I assume time is critical?"
"Every second." I pause at my bedroom door, seeing the rumpled sheets where we made love hours before. "And Gabriel? When you find her, call me directly. No one else."
"Understood."
I end the call and stare at the empty bed, hardening my heart against the memory of her touch.
Of how I’d once again given her parts of me no one else has ever had. But it meant nothing to her.
She could cut my heart out with a dull blade and it still wouldn’t hurt as much as I hurt now.
I leave my room, deciding work, perhaps killing someone who needs to die, will distract me.
It doesn’t work well.
Every minute that passes feels like an hour.
Eva has a several-hour head start, and with each passing second, she's putting more distance between us. Between me and my daughter.
I think about Mirabella. Is she confused? Scared? Does she miss me?
The next thought has me calling a few of my men. “Put extra men watching Ivan and his goons. Let me know what they’re up to,” I order. The last thing I need is for Ivan to find her first.
It’s hours later before my phone vibrates with Gabriel’s call.
"Talk to me," I answer immediately.
"We've got something. Security footage from Port Authority shows a woman matching her description with a small child purchasing tickets to D.C. at around 4 a.m.”
“D.C.?”
“Yeah, but she got off in Philly. She’s on a train heading south to Florida, Miami.”
Florida. I guess that’s a smart move.
It’s far from New York.
But she has to know I’m going to hunt her down.
She wouldn’t make it this easy.
In fact, she’s already shown her hand, but buying bus tickets to Washington D.C., but getting off in Philadelphia… she’ll do the same on the train.
The question is where?
"I need eyes on every station between Philadelphia and Miami," I order. "Every single stop that train makes. I want facial recognition running on all surveillance footage."
"Already on it. I've got a team monitoring the cameras remotely. If they step foot on a platform, we'll know."
I’m eager to get myself on the train, but I know I’ll just as easily miss her as find her if I don’t wait for Gabriel’s intel. “The moment you spot them, I want to know. And Gabriel? Keep an eye out for any Russians. If the Bratva is tracking her too…"
"Understood.”
I end the call and pull up the train route on my phone.
There are way too many stops on the long journey.
Eva could disappear at any of them.
But not this time. This time, I'll be waiting.
My phone buzzes with a text from Alessandro.
Any word?
Headed south. I'll handle it.
No matter where she runs, I'll find her. And when I do…
Eva Santoro has betrayed me for the last time.