Chapter 123: What happened to the body?

For a long moment, nothing happened. Fabio’s dark eyes slid past Viktor’s shoulder, settling on Sienna with an assessing, unreadable weight that made her more nervous than she already was.

She held his gaze, refusing to let herself look away first, even as every instinct screamed at her to disappear entirely behind Viktor’s back.

Then, finally, Fabio inclined his head, the smile sliding back into place like a mask fitted carefully over something far uglier underneath.

"Okay," he said, lowering nothing, his men’s guns remaining exactly where they were despite the easy tone of his voice.

"I come in peace. I only want answers. So I’ll be waiting to have what I need. To know what happened to my son." He let the silence stretch a beat longer before continuing, almost conversational now, almost pleasant.

"He went missing. And the last place he was seen, according to my sources, was some university library." His eyes flicked briefly back to Sienna, and something in them made her blood run cold.

"So maybe you’ll ask around. Ask your men if anyone came across a Julian Fernandez." The name landed heavy in the clearing.

Sienna understood, with a clarity that turned her stomach, exactly what this was. Fabio wasn’t asking. He was giving them a green light to start looking, because he already knew the truth, had likely known it the moment his son stopped answering calls.

What he wanted now was a war, and he needed only the smallest excuse, the body, the confirmation, the name of the man responsible to unleash it fully.

If his son was dead, he wanted proof laid at his door, and he wanted the head of whoever had killed him.

The standoff held a moment longer, guns steady on both sides, no one willing to be the first to lower their weapon.

Sienna’s heart slammed against her ribs so hard she was certain the men closest to her could hear it. This wasn’t like the movies.

There was no dramatic gunfight waiting to erupt, no clean resolution, just two dangerous men measuring exactly how much the other was willing to risk, and the terrifying knowledge that either of them could decide, in the space of a single breath, that today was the day.

Then, slowly, Viktor began backing them toward the car, never once lowering his gun, never once turning his back fully on Fabio.

Marcus and the guards moved in careful unison, forming a loose shield around Sienna as they retreated step by measured step, until finally the car doors were open and they were sliding inside, the engine roaring to life beneath them.

Fabio didn’t stop them.

He simply stood there at the edge of his men, hands loose at his sides, watching the car pull away down the long gravel drive with the same unhurried patience he’d arrived with and that, Sienna realized as the cabin shrank into the distance behind them, was the most terrifying part of all.

Because a man like Fabio Fernandez already knew his son was dead. He hadn’t come here for confirmation.

He’d come here to look them in the eye, to measure them, to decide how he wanted this to unfold, and letting them walk away without a single shot fired meant his plans had already moved past this moment entirely.

His silence wasn’t mercy. It was patience. And patience, in a man like that, was so much worse than rage.

"Do you think he’s going to follow us?" Sienna asked, breaking the heavy silence inside the car, her voice tighter than she wanted it to be.

Viktor’s eyes stayed fixed on the side mirror, jaw tight, gun still resting on his knee within easy reach. "I don’t know," he admitted.

"I can’t tell what he’s thinking." He glanced at her then, something fierce and unshakable settling into his expression. "But whatever it is, I promise you I’m going to keep you safe."

Sienna looked away, out at the mountains blurring past the window, and said nothing.

She didn’t need him to save her. She’d spent her entire life learning to save herself, running before anyone could catch her, disappearing before anyone could close their hand around her.

What she needed now wasn’t a protector standing between her and the danger it was information. A grip on what exactly was coming for her, and why, so that for once, she could face it standing on her own two feet instead of hiding behind someone else’s gun.

Because whatever Fabio Fernandez was planning, she had the growing, uneasy feeling that it had very little to do with Viktor’s territory at all and everything to do with a past she couldn’t remember, closing in on her at last.

By the time the gates of the Kessler mansion closed behind them, Viktor had already set his machine in motion.

Men moved briskly across the grounds the moment they stepped out of the car, checking perimeters, doubling patrols at every entrance, voices low and clipped over radios as they prepared for a threat that hadn’t fully declared itself yet.

Sienna stood near the front steps for a moment, laptop clutched tightly against her chest, and watched him move through it all, sharp, efficient, giving orders with the ease of a man who had commanded rooms like this his entire life.

But something in the set of his jaw, the slight tension around his eyes, told her a different story.

She recognized it because she had worn that same expression herself more times than she could count over the years, the look of someone standing at the edge of a fight they weren’t entirely sure they knew how to win.

This was new for him. Whatever wars Viktor Kessler had fought before, whatever enemies he had crushed beneath the weight of his name, this was the first time she’d seen him look like he was facing something he couldn’t fully predict.

"What happened to the body?" Sienna asked quietly, the moment Viktor turned to look at her. "Fabio’s son. Julian."