LUCAS'S POV

The night had settled thick and heavy over the Tuscan hills, and it brought a dark, starless sky with no wind at all. It was the kind of quiet that felt wrong, like the land itself was holding its breath.

Inside the stone house, every window was shuttered and locked from the inside. I had spent three hours putting up motion sensors along the garden fence, and I had wired our emergency alarm system straight to the small screen on my wrist. My hands had not stopped moving all evening. Work kept the fear at a distance, even if only a little.

In the main bedroom upstairs, Jaydon...