Kendrick
The scent of her blood haunted me.
Even with all my men fanning out through every corner of the territory, I couldn’t silence the one thing pounding in my skull—she was gone because I failed to protect her.
Every second that ticked by felt like a claw raking through my chest.
I stood over the map spread across the war table, hands clenched so tight my knuckles cracked. Pins marked every location we’d searched. Every tunnel, outpost, abandoned house, hunter’s lodge. Still nothing.
She’d vanished like mist.
I could still hear Luca’s voice trembling earlier that morning: “We found traces of her blood in the garden. Scuffle marks. And… a cloth with a sedative.”
I should’ve been there. I should’ve known Cindy would go this far.
But I’d underestimated her.
I slammed my fist in
