Taken

The morning light cut across the bed in soft, golden angles. Elena stirred, the warmth of the sheets replaced by a deep, gnawing emptiness beside her.

Luca was gone.

Again.

She sat up slowly, her body aching with confusion and something else she couldn't name. Her skin still held traces of him — the way his fingers had trembled as they held her, the way his breath had slowed when he kissed her like it was the first and last time.

She pulled the blanket around her and tried not to cry.

Her phone buzzed.

A message from Liam.

> "Where did you go?"

She stared at it for a long time and didn't answer.

Last night wasn't something she could explain. Not to herself. Not to anyone.

Especially not to Liam.

---

Luca had left before dawn.

He hadn't wanted to.

But he'd known the moment he stepped out of the party shadows to protect her… they would come.

And they did.

By noon, he was halfway across the city, walking the alleys he knew too well. He kept his head down, hands tucked in the pockets of his black hoodie. His face had changed. Hardened.

The moment he'd touched Elena again, something inside him snapped.

He wasn't the kind of man who got to keep softness.

Not when his last name was Romano.

The first black car pulled up beside him when he crossed the bridge. Luca didn't flinch. He didn't run.

Two men stepped out.

Suits. Sunglasses. The shadows of pistols under their coats.

"Luca Romano," one said.

His jaw tightened. "I don't go by that anymore."

"You think your father cares what you go by?" The man stepped closer. "You broke the deal. You came back."

"I didn't come back for him."

"No. You came for the girl."

Luca's fists clenched at his sides.

"We warned you. Stay gone. Stay invisible. But you—"

"Don't talk about her," Luca growled. His voice was low, venomous. "She has nothing to do with this."

The second man smiled. "That's what you think?"

Luca moved first. He was fast — years of fighting taught him never to hesitate. He struck the man in front, sending him stumbling backward. But the second had already drawn his weapon. A sharp, cold click echoed in the wind.

And then silence.

Luca's chest rose and fell as they surrounded him.

He didn't fight this time.

---

Back in her apartment, Elena checked her phone again.

Still no message. No missed calls.

Nothing from Luca.

Her stomach twisted with dread, though she didn't know why.

She walked to the window.

The street was quiet. Empty.

But something in her heart whispered: He's not coming back.