Luca’s pov
My head was still reeling from disbelief as I entered the house and shut the door behind me. James had felt as flabbergasted as myself the moment I relayed the most important of the dinner to him. I pulled off my time as soon as I entered the room, and then I splashed some water on my face. The past few days has felt like pure torture to me.
When Sofia had left the house from anger, at least I had known where she had been throughout those moments. This time felt complete, it kept feeling like I was gonna stop breathing after a few moments due to how restless I was. After the drink I chugged in at dinner, I didn’t feel like drinking any more tonight any longer.
After changing, I alighted the stairs and was heading towards my office when Armani arrived from the kitchen with a drink in his hand. It didn’t look like he had been getting enough sleep from how swollen his eyes looked. We stared at each other silently till he closed the distance between us and tugged me into a hug. I let myself sink into that feeling at once, reveling in it even though it didn’t stop my heart from filling with pain even for a fleeting moment.
No words needed to be spoken between Armani and I. Once the hug ended, he patted my shoulders and offered me his drink which I just noticed was an energy drink. I declined it at first but ended up accepting it when he kept insisting that I accept it. As I got into my office, the first thing I did was to take a long chug from the drink, because I hadn’t realized I was craving it until it was in my grip.
In the office, I stayed there until morning, with my mind still reeling in disbelief.
Once it was past nine in the morning, I exited my office and motioned for Matilda to come over. I motioned for her to take a seat in the sitting room, and when I noticed how nervous she looked, I reassured her she wasn’t in trouble as I sank into the seat opposite hers.
“Did you ever notice anything weird between Sofia and her guard, Ryan?” I asked after about a minute. At once, Matilda tensed up, which made me instantly curious. She began to wring her hands together atop her thighs, gaze wandering around.
“Do you know something, Matilda?” I carefully asked and she instantly shook her head. When I remained silent and continued to stare at her, she slowly became uneasy and began to shift awkwardly in her seat.
“I- I don’t know…”
“You know something, now spit it out.”
“Well, you see…” She finally began to speak once again, still looking quite unsure. “Sofia doesn’t see it as something serious. Actually, she just thought it was friendly and nothing more, but…”
She trailed off and I narrowed my eyes at her, making her instantly continue. “Ryan was always looking at her with those eyes.”
“What eyes?” I demanded and she tensed up even more.
“It was obvious from those eyes that he liked her, but Sofia felt it was completely platonic, I swear, she had no idea and she never encouraged it.” She continued and I began to wrack my brain for any moment that has ever stood out to me including Sofia and Ryan, and now that I was thinking about it, was when those various things began to slowly dawn on me.
“It got to a point where I pointed it out to her and advised she talked to him about it.” She added, tugging me out of my thoughts.
“Did she?”
She nodded vigorously. “She said she was going to. She only liked him as a friend and nothing more, he was the one who probably took that the wrong way.”
After dismissing Matilda, I began to question myself if I wasn’t an enough friend to her that she had to find said friendship in her guard. I had no idea people even form that kind of relationship with their guards, and the more I thought about it, the more those strolls I once came home to, made more sense to me now. Thinking about how he was holding Sofia in his hands when I arrived at the club to get her on that one night sent my blood boiling from nowhere.
~~~
“Did you know Ryan liked Sofia romantically?” I asked as soon as Kayla arrived. At once, she stiffened and her eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“Did something happen?” She inquired and I sighed tiredly. “We have a very strong lead. I need to confirm this even more so please answer the question.”
“Well, frankly, yes. I figured that out after hanging out with Sofia a few times. He was always looking at her with those eyes, he liked her a whole lot. But I thought that was a good thing on its own because that way, it made it certain that he’d never let any harm befall her.”
I snorted and sank into my seat even more. “Yeah except if he’s the harm that has befallen my little wife.”
Kayla’s mouth fell open at once while her eyes widened.
“Angelo was able to tell after being around Sofia once. I had a feeling you knew about it but found it adorable.” She continued as she sank into a seat while I snorted.
“Adorable my foot. If I knew that the bastard had eyes on my wife, I’d have had him taken care of instantly.” I growled as I wondered if Ethan was also in on this twisted plan with Ryan.
How hilarious. The two guards I trusted the most with my wife had the audacity to betray me. They were both gonna beg for death from my hands by the time I got done with them.
As I shifted in my seat, I contemplated having Angelo informed about his sister’s abduction and letting him in on the search team. There’s no way he wouldn’t have heard the news by now, and from how much they cared about each other, I’m certain he’s conducting his own search right now, which made me decide against reaching out to him.
Moments later, the door flew open and James waltzed in with a bunch of men behind him, looking extremely stressed.
“Another dead end. A dead fucking end.” James growled. “I think someone tipped him off, it was obvious that they were just there about an hour ago. They knew we were on our way and were able to escape.”
I let out a long sigh as my head fell backwards against the couch.
“Oh, also… Ethan is dead. He was found lying dead. He was gutted out.”