DAMIEN’S POV

The room spun. The walls closed in. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.

Then like a switch flipping.

Rage burned through the panic, white-hot and sharp.

I snatched the phone off the floor, fingers shaking so bad I almost dropped it again.

I hit Matteo’s number again.

He answered immediately.

“What the fuck do you mean you’re sorry?” I snarled into the line. “I asked you to watch my mate! I told you—eyes on her every second! What part of that did you not understand, Matteo?”

His voice came through tight, careful, like he was talking to a bomb about to blow.

“We don’t know how to explain it,...