Chapter 88 – Missing

Chapter 88 – Missing
(Luca’s POV)

By the time Levi and I reached Eden’s floor, I was already thinking about what she might want for dinner. Something warm. Comforting. Something that would make her forget, even for a few minutes, the weight that’s been hanging over her.

But when we stepped into the hallway, the air didn’t feel right.

Her apartment door was cracked open.

Every muscle in my body went rigid. Levi saw it too. We didn’t speak — just moved. He shoved the door the rest of the way open, and I followed him inside.

“Eden?” My voice was sharp, too loud against the quiet.

No answer.

The place looked… intact. At first glance. No overturned furniture, no smashed glass. But then I saw the details — the kind that tell a different story.

Her sweater lay on the floor near the couch, ripped down one sleeve. A mug of wine sat abandoned on the table, the surface still faintly rippling like it had been set down in a rush. The kitchen floor glistened with a thin layer of water, the spray nozzle on the sink twisted at an odd angle.

Levi was already moving, scanning, assessing. His gaze dropped to the edge of the couch, and he crouched, reaching underneath.

When he came back up, he had the glass paperweight in one hand and the small black panic fob in the other.

“She had this,” he said, voice low, tight. “I told her—”

His words cut off when he saw it. A smear of red on the smooth floor near the rug. Not much. Just enough.

Levi’s eyes met mine, sharp and tense. “Blood.”

I didn’t hesitate — phone out, I dialed the detective who’d helped us before, the one I knew would respond fast. “Detective Hayes, it’s Luca—”

“Not in,” a voice said on the other end. “He’s on vacation.”

The bottom dropped out of my stomach. “Then send whoever’s covering him. Now.”

Twenty minutes later, the door opened and two men stepped in — neither of them Hayes. One was his partner, Detective Marrow, the other a plainclothes officer I didn’t recognize.

“Where’s Hayes?” I asked again, scanning both their faces.

Marrow’s expression was unreadable. “Told you — vacation. Left this morning. We’ll handle it.”

Levi’s eyes narrowed. “Vacation? In the middle of—” He cut himself off, shaking his head. “Fine. Then start with the blood.”

Marrow crouched by the smear, snapping on gloves. “We’ll get a DNA rush on it. Could be hers. Could be the suspect’s.”

“Rush means what?” I asked.

“Couple of days if we push,” Marrow said.

A couple of days. Too long.

They took her ripped sweater, the paperweight, and the panic fob into evidence bags. I doubted we’d get any of it back soon — if ever.

When they left, Levi slammed his fist into the wall so hard the drywall cracked. “Someone planned this. They knew exactly how to get in and out.”

I looked at the dark smear on the floor, the place where she’d fought back. “And when we get that DNA, we’ll know who.”