Chapter 290

Lucas's POV

The phone's shrill ring shattered the delicate silence between us. I felt Serena stiffen in my arms, her body suddenly alert like a cat sensing danger. My gut tightened. I knew who it was. Rachel.

My hand trembled slightly as I reached for the phone, though I fought to hide it from Serena. I didn't want her to see how deeply this was affecting me.

"Hello," I answered, my voice deliberately steady despite the thundering of my heart.

"You're so clever, Lucas. You must know it's me." Rachel's voice dripped with smug satisfaction. I could picture her face, that look of vindictive pleasure I'd come to know so well.

"Where's Milo?" I demanded, cutting straight to what mattered most. The weight of Serena's gaze burned into me as she watched, her fingers gripping my arm.

"Sleeping." Rachel's voice was casual, as if discussing the weather. "It's been quite a long day for him. Travel is exhausting for someone so young. He fell asleep almost immediately."

"What have you done to him?" My fingers tightened around the phone until my knuckles turned white. The thought of my son in Rachel's hands made me sick with fear.

"What could I possibly do to him?" she asked, feigning innocence. "I've treated him like my own son since he was born. I've given him everything, poured my heart into raising him. What do you think I would do, Lucas?"

I closed my eyes, trying to control my breathing. "What do you want?" I asked directly, knowing full well she was enjoying every second of my torment.

Her voice changed then, the facade cracking into raw emotion. "What could I possibly want now? I loved you, Lucas. I loved you with everything I had, and you calculated every move against me, against my family. How can you live with yourself? Does your conscience ever trouble you at all?"

"If your family hadn't set me up to take the fall, I wouldn't have gone to such lengths," I replied, feeling Serena's questioning eyes on me. "I was only protecting myself."

"Ha!" Rachel's laugh was brittle. "That might fool a judge, but it won't fool me. I've been by your side for years, Lucas. I know exactly who you are. Wasn't it enough that your security team roughed up my bodyguards today? What more do you want?"

My face hardened, rage building inside me like a gathering storm. In that moment, I wanted to kill her with my bare hands and felt nothing but relief.

"You did all this because of her, didn't you?" Rachel spat. "You went to these extremes to avoid marrying me, all for Serena Sinclair! You knew that with my family's connections, this scandal would never see the light of day. Even if you took the blame, what real consequences would there be? Nothing would touch you. I hate you for this, Lucas. I hate everything about you!"

My control slipped. "Then take your revenge on me! Tell me where you are, and I'll come to you. Punish me, not my son!"

"This doesn't sound like the cool, calculated Lucas Harrington I know," she mocked. "Losing control so quickly?"

I gritted my teeth, fingers digging into my palm. "What. Do. You. Want?"

"What does someone who has lost everything want?" Rachel asked rhetorically. Her voice turned bitter. "Should I be grateful that I had plans to come to Manhattan before you could destroy my family completely? Otherwise, I'd probably be sitting in prison alongside my brother right now. After all, your evidence didn't provide me with any alibi, did it?"

"Fine, it's all my fault. Your family's downfall is my doing. If you want revenge, take it out on me. Tell me where you are right now, and I'll come immediately. Do whatever you want to me-just leave my son out of this!" I couldn't hide the fury in my voice anymore.

"But I don't want to see you right now, Lucas," she said softly. "Let's play a game instead."

My blood froze. I knew exactly what the Thorne family was capable of. I'd seen firsthand the methods they used to break people. And now she had my son.

"You're so smart, aren't you? Always trying to track me down." Rachel's voice took on a playful edge that terrified me more than her anger. "I'll give you twenty-four hours. It's now 1:02 AM. If you haven't found me by this time tomorrow, I'll send you something from Milo's body. And for every two hours after that, I'll send another piece. How does that sound?"

"Rachel!" I shouted, no longer caring how I appeared to Serena.

"Milo's being such a good boy," she continued, relishing my reaction. "No crying, no fussing. I wonder if he'll cry when I start taking things from him..."

"Enough," I growled, unable to bear another word.

"Everything I'm doing now, Lucas, is because you forced me to!" Her voice rose hysterically. "Now you can experience what it feels like to be tortured by someone you trusted!"

The call ended abruptly. I sat motionless, the phone still pressed to my ear, as if I couldn't believe it was over.

My knuckles turned white as I gripped the phone, Rachel's voice still ringing in my ears. I could feel the veins in my forehead throbbing, my jaw clenched so tight it ached. The room around me-filled with screens, maps, and exhausted faces-seemed to fade into a dull haze as her threat echoed through my mind.

"What did Rachel say?" Spencer's voice cut through my thoughts, pulling me back to the reality.

I swallowed hard, my throat tight with fear I refused to show. "Rachel gave me twenty-four hours to find her," I managed, feeling my Adam's apple bob painfully against the constraint of my collar. "Otherwise... she'll hurt Milo."

"Twenty-four hours?!" Spencer's eyes widened in disbelief. "That's impossible!"

I took a deep breath, forcing my racing heart to slow. Panic wouldn't help Milo now. "Everyone stay on the video feeds," I instructed, my voice steadier than I felt. "Check every frame, every shadow, every reflection. I'll coordinate with the others."

As Serena pulled away from me and returned to scanning the endless hours of surveillance footage, I reached for my phone again. My fingers trembled slightly as I dialed, betraying the storm of emotions I fought to contain.

"Miles," I said when he answered. "I'm sending you a number. I need you to trace it to its base station location. Immediately."

After ending that call, I issued orders to every contact I had in Manhattan and beyond. "I don't care what it takes," I told them, each word weighted with deadly seriousness. "Turn this city upside down if you have to, but find her."

I returned to the monitors, forcing myself to methodically review the footage at eight times normal speed. My eyes burned from lack of sleep, but I couldn't afford to miss a single detail. Every few minutes, I glanced at Serena, her delicate profile illuminated by the harsh blue light of the computer screen. Even after two sleepless days, her determination never wavered, and something in my chest tightened at the sight of her unwavering strength.

Twelve hours into our deadline, we still had nothing. The burner phone Rachel had called from was routing through virtual numbers, making it nearly impossible to pinpoint her location. I rubbed my eyes, feeling as though someone had poured sand beneath my eyelids.

"Lucas," Drew's voice came from behind me, concern evident in his tone. "Get some sleep, man. You've been at this for over forty-eight hours straight. Your bloodshot eyes aren't helping anyone. Take a break, clear your head. You might see something you're missing."

I shook my head without looking away from the screen. Sleep was a luxury I couldn't afford, not when every second brought Milo closer to danger. My gaze drifted to Serena again, hunched over her keyboard, dark circles shadowing her eyes as she analyzed traffic patterns and possible escape routes.

How can someone so seemingly fragile possess such incredible strength?

By eight that evening, we had just five hours remaining before Rachel's deadline. The room had fallen into a heavy silence, broken only by the clicking of keyboards and occasional murmured updates. I watched as Serena finally stood after hours of immobility, her face suddenly draining of color as she swayed dangerously.

I was across the room in an instant, catching her against my chest before she could fall. "Serena," I said, my voice rough with worry, feeling her slight weight against me. She felt impossibly small in my arms.

She clutched my forearms for just a moment before steadying herself, her eyes focusing with remarkable speed. "I'm fine," she insisted, though the slight tremor in her voice betrayed her exhaustion. "Lucas, I've been analyzing Rachel's potential routes. I think I've identified some patterns in her movements, some blind spots we haven't checked yet."

My heart, which had been a dead weight in my chest for the past forty-three hours, stirred with the first flicker of hope. I held her gaze, seeing the determination burning through her fatigue.

"Show me," I said softly.