Adrian sat at the edge of the bed, elbows resting heavily on his knees, his hands clenched so tightly that his knuckles had turned bone-white. The veins stood out sharply on the backs of his hands, a visible sign of the storm raging beneath his controlled exterior.
He tried to think.
He tried to retrace every single moment, every detail, every possibility from the moment Raya had left the room.
But it felt like she had taken his ability to reason clearly with her when she disappeared. His usually sharp, calculating mind, the same mind that built empires and crushed enemies without mercy, now felt fractured and sluggish.
Nothing fit.
Nothing made sense.
"Damn it…" he muttered under his breath, the words low and rough, laced with frustration and something dangerously close to fear. He dragged a hand roughly through his hair, messing the perfectly styled strands in a rare display of agitation.
Then he reached for his phone.
