--Lucian POV--
"What a pesky little fry, thinking they could get away with hacking into my company," I scoffed as I tapped away on my keyboard, offended to say the least.
"And to think he was hiding right under my nose this whole time. I've got to give it to Donovan, I underestimated that man, but we all make mistakes... I found him, so Stefan, get the security at the estate to catch him,"
"It's already been done," The man spoke in his usual monotone voice.
"And this is where my computer science degree comes to good use." I grinned, proud of myself as I slouched back on my chair, crossing my arms behind my head as I turned to look at the third party in the room, he was sat in the living area of my office with three monitors opened up in front of him.
I couldn't take all the credit for myself; Gunter, Vandenburg corporations very own experienced hacker, did most of the work in catching the intruder. However, I was the one that was able to discover what information was stolen, which wasn't anything important, just the contract between Angelina and me, but that contract was now void.
I was able to pin the blame down to Donovan, since he's the only one that would be interested in the contract, and to add to that, with the amount of time the Intruder had to go through our servers, a lot more things could have been stolen other than the contract.
"Good job, Gunter. You'll get a pay raise for the help you gave today," I sent him the peace sign as he punched the air in joy.
"I better call my wife to tell her about the good news. So, both of you, get lost for a minute. Thank you," I waved them off as they walked away, Stefan seeming more reluctant than Gunter for obvious reasons.
Turning my personal phone back on, I waited for a minute as I waited for everything to load. Stefan always made sure that my personal phone was either turned off or kept away from me when I was busy working so as to avoid any distractions, but I made sure to save Angelina's number on both my work, and personal phone in case of any unfortunate circumstances.
As everything finally loaded up, I raised a confused brow at all the missed calls, voicemails, and messages left by Alice, Reid, and even Leandro. What an odd group of people to get calls from.
But, since I had my priorities sorted, I called Angelina first.
And I waited for her to pick up, listening to the phone ring for some time until it eventually cut off with the annoying robotic voice of the lady.
"The person you are calling is not available, please leave a-"
"I figured as much, lady," I mumbled, ending the call before dialling once more, and when the same robotic voice answered instead of my Angelina, I began to grow confused.
It's 10 pm, she should be done with everything for the day and at home by now, so why wasn't she picking up? Was she in the shower?
Deciding to give it a minute, I dialled back the first missed call that I had, not having to wait longer than a few seconds as she quickly picked up.
"Oh, thank god you picked up. I was beginning to think something happened to you too," The stressed voice of Angelina's secretary spoke as I grew even more confused.
"Why would you think something happened to me?" I asked as I stood up, going to look out the floor-to-ceiling length window that stood behind me, tucking my hands into my pockets while I waited for her to answer.
"Angelina's disappeared."
And then it all made sense.
"...What?" I murmured.
My head wasn't able to process her words, and I couldn't say what it was that I was feeling, since this a feeling that I've never felt before, but I didn't like it.
"Earlier today, she didn't show up to the trial so we had to cancel and reschedule until further notice. I've called her probably more than 100 times already, but she hasn't picked up even once, and there's no tracking on her phone so I can't locate her."
"You're telling me that Angelina disappeared. Just like that... You can't be serious, who are you trying to fool?" I was getting angry.
"You take me for a fool, don't you. Just because I'm nice to you doesn't mean that you get to pull such childish pranks on me?" I was on the verge of shouting; I was speaking without thinking. Why was I putting this innocent woman through this when I know she's probably just as stressed as me, if not more?
I couldn't think straight.
Angelina disappeared?
"I'm sorry, Alice... Give me the details," And I ran out the room, bumping into Stefan who looked surprised to see my dishevelled self.
"Sire, what are you-"
"Tell the jet to get ready to take me back to Rome," And I went to move passed him, but he grabbed my arm, pulling me back.
"You can't! We haven't finished working on the-"
"My wife is missing!" I yelled, cutting him off as I pushed him away, and he stumbled, almost falling back on his butt before quickly composing himself.
"What?" He whispered, surprised. But not as surprised as me.
"My wife is my priority. So, unless you want me to fire you for your incompetence in following your boss's orders, I suggest you hurry up and call my pilot to get the jet ready," I seethed, glaring down at him with all my fury as he gulped, quickly nodding his head to my words as I turned to rush out the building.
Why today? Why now?
Was it all pre-mediated? Did she willingly run away? Or was she kidnapped? I don't know which one would make me feel better right now.
"Since you weren't picking up, the next person I could think to call was Park Reid, and I think he tried to reach you too. I'm sorry, there's not much I know of what's happening right now-"
"-It's fine, Alice. I'll check in with Reid, and then get back to you with more information when I can," And I ended the call without waiting for her reply before I called Reid, and just like Alice did, he picked up on the first ring.
"Are you okay? Did you hear about what-"
"-Yes, I did. I'm on my way to the airport now, so tell me everything you know. And why the hell was Leandro calling me?" I asked, taking a moment to tell my driver to drive faster before going back to giving my attention to the phone call.
"I looked at the CCTV from the time of her disappearance, but there was nothing unusual. She had lunch at a small cafe in an alleyway where she was a regular, and there are no CCTVs outside that caught anything, but that's when she disappeared because she didn't return to work so she wasn't in any of the camera's there either,"
"So, she disappeared at a point after she left the cafe," I confirmed.
"Yes, that would be between 3.15 to 4.15... But I have some good news, and bad news,"
"I don't care in which order you tell me, so just tell me," I scoffed, climbing out of the car as I rushed to get onto the waiting jet that was ready for take-off.
"I've got a highly likely suspect, I'm 99.9% sure of who it is," He said.
"Great, who?" I had to pause in my steps to ask, hopeful of his answer. If we figured out who it was then it would be a piece of cake in getting Angelina back, because whoever it is that had the nerve to touch my woman was unlikely to see the light of day ever-
"Donovan Moretti."
Shit.
"What... The actual... fucking hell?" I spat out.
Red. It was all that I began to see.
Donovan. Donovan. Donovan! It was that jerk, again. Why was it Angelina that he had to be obsessed with out of everyone else in this goddamned world, why did it have to be her!?
"That motherfucking jerk!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, veins popping on my arms and forehead as I paced back and forth, the flight attendant cautiously stood back as she wondered if she had the courage to ask me to sit down and fasten my seat for the flight to take off or not.
"When I get my hands on that piece of shit, I swear to God, I will rip him to pieces!" Clenching my fists, I punched one of the seats, hard, ignoring the surprised little squeal of the attendant.
"Lucian, calm the fuck down! Maybe that way you'll actually be alive to do any of what you just said!" Reid quickly shouted back from the other end as I huffed, nostrils flared in raging anger as my chest beat up and down to go with my heavy breathing.
"Alright," I grumbled, calming my fury as I went to sit down, strapping my seatbelt on, and leaning my head back as I closed my eyes, feeling the aircraft beginning to take off.
I had to wait a few moments before I had signal again to continue talking to Reid, but once I did, he spent the rest of the flight explaining the situation to me.
"Leandro called you cause I called him to help, which he was most happy to comply with. He was probably just checking in, but it's probably a good thing you didn't pick up his call because he was most likely just going to get entertainment out of your angry self anyways," I rolled my eyes at that, knowing it was probably true.
I've never been this angry before.
I've always been the guy with the fake smiles, welcoming aura, and joking personality. I always did well to hide behind that facade, Angelina and the rest of my family are the only ones that know me for who I truly am, and I guess I let that real personality slip today.
And once I get my hands on Donovan's sorry ass, I'm going to stain my hands with his blood, Nevaeh can be a single mother for all I care, she nor her child are any of my concern since its most likely that child will end up like either one of its parents anyway.
But the fact remains; The only way the Moretti's will stop pissing me off so much is when I kill Donovan with my own hands, and it's unfortunate that I can't see him burn in Hell myself.
As the plane finally landed, I didn't waste a moment to leave, the warm night breeze of Angelina's birth country embracing me as I jogged down the stairs and towards a waiting Donovan as he leaned against his sports car.
"Leandro and his men are already where they need to be. We just need to get to the estate, and find Angelina, and quick. Before they begin to suspect that something's up," I nodded, going to sit in the passenger seat as he drove off.
"I got a warrant to search the place, but we'll have to search well if we're even a minute too slow. It's likely that he'd have drugged and hid her in a hidden room if he gets wind of us being on our way to catch him,"
"I'll beat him to deaths doors if I need to get the answers out of him,"
"Dude, I'm a man of the law. Please don't go around saying such cold-blooded things so easily in my presence. How many times am I expected to turn a blind eye when you keep getting yourself involved in these kinds of situations?" He sighed as he spoke.
But I couldn't care less.
I just needed Angelina back safe and sound.
"Donovan better start praying to prepare himself for what's coming his way," I spat. "I've been enduring him for too long, but this fuckers' just gone and passed a line that he won't be able to turn back from," I glared out the window as I spoke, my hands fisting themselves up until they began to go white.
And dear God, let this man burn in Hell for his sins because if not then I might just end up doing a lot more damage.
...