Page 176 of The Art of Ruin

My pulse kicks harder.

I call again.

Nothing.

“Adi?” Matteo’s voice sharpens slightly, the instinct none of us talk about telling him something is wrong before I can voice it. The easy arrogance is gone.

I barely hear him.

Because suddenly I know, with a certainty that has no logic, that something is very wrong.

Somewhere deep in my bones, something turns violent.

Casey would never leave Letty waiting.

Never. Which means something has happened to her and when I find out who, they’re going to wish they were never born.

I’m already moving toward the door when I call Rossi. “Get security footage from every street between the brownstone and the school,” I say flatly.

Silence.

Rossi’s voice changes instantly. “What happened?”

I grip the phone harder. “Casey’s missing.”

I call Nico into my office and fill him in and he offers to get Isabella to collect Letty, knowing I’ll want him, Isabella, or Matteo, to do it in this moment. I need the people I trust most around me right now. Relief floods through me because at least I know my daughter will be safe. Now I just need to find the woman I love and bring her home and never let her go.

“Matty.” I turn to my brother, not able to finish my sentence because if I lose her, I don’t know what I’ll do. I won’t survive it.

My brother steps up, placing his hand on my shoulder and squeezing. “We’re gonna find her, Adi. I promise you.”

I nod, because anything else is unacceptable, then I pull myself together. She needs me and I won’t let her down.

“What’s the plan, Adi?”

“Get Rossi and his top men in here now.”

Casey’s phone rings once, twice, three times, each unanswered ring cutting through me in a way I can’t let anyone in see.

Straight to voicemail.

Again.

Again.

I turn my phone over in my hand because if I keep looking at her name on the screen and hearing that soft, recorded voice, something inside me is going to come apart in a way I won’t be able to put back together quickly enough. “She’s not answering her phone,” I say, and the words feel like they scrape their way out of me.

Nico goes still.

Mattey returns with Rossi and stands beside Nic, but Rossi is already moving, voice low and clipped into his phone. “Pull every camera within six blocks of the school. Street traffic, private security, dashcams if you have to. I don’t care who you have to call.”

Casey is missing.

Casey, who went to the school angry with me.

Casey, who looked at me this morning like she still loved me but didn’t know what to do with it.

Casey, who I lied to because I thought protecting her was more important than respecting the one thing she asked from me.