Fernando’s POV My entire body was burning with raw fury, every muscle wound tight, my teeth grinding together so hard it hurt. I was raging. Who.Who would dare?Who would have the guts to take Michael from me?My vision was blurred with rage, my mind moving through every possible enemy I had—every rival, every snake who had ever crossed my path. But none of them would be this bold. None of them would be this stupid.Michael was mine.I had made it clear to everyone in my organization that he was under my protection. That if anyone so much as looked at him the wrong way, they would answer to me.And now he was gone.Vanished.Taken.My driver slammed his foot down on the gas pedal, the tires screeching as we turned onto the road leading to my mansion. I barely registered the guards opening the gates as my car drove through, my mind fixated on one thing—Michael’s disappearance and the incompetence of the fools who had let it happen.The moment I stepped out of the car, Marlo was th
Michael's POV I paced the around the conference room like a caged animal, my hands clenched into fists so tight my nails dug into my palms. I was pissed.My entire body was vibrating with frustration, a storm brewing inside me that I had no way to unleash.This couldn’t be happening.They had removed me from the case.They had stripped me of my mission, my only chance at justice.For what?Because they thought I was too involved?Because they thought it was too dangerous?A bitter laugh escaped me, and I ran both hands through my hair, gripping it at the roots.Fernando Ramirez killed my sister.And now they expected me to just… let it go?No.I wouldn’t.I couldn’t.They had taken me off the case, but my evidence, my work, was still here, as if mocking me.The walls felt like they were closing in on me.I needed to do something.I needed to act.But what?What could I do when the very people who were supposed to help me were now standing in my way?The door creaked open.I turned s
Fernando’s POV I gritted my teeth as I stepped out of the black car and onto the empty street, the city lights casting making the road look less lonely than it already was.It had been hours. Hours. And still, there was no sign of Michael.Where the fuck was he?I clenched my fists, my jaw tightening as I turned to Marlo, who stood beside me, his face unreadable. The men behind us—six of them, armed and ready—waited silently for my next move. They knew better than to question me when I was in this state.We had searched everywhere.We had checked every lead, questioned every contact, and still—nothing.My patience was wearing thin.No, fuck that, my patience was gone.I took a deep breath, trying to keep my composure, but the rage inside me was boiling over.Michael had been taken.And I had failed to protect him.That thought alone made my blood burn.I turned around and started walking again, my mind racing with possibilities. Who would have the guts to kidnap him? Who would dar
Micheal's POV The second Ashley stepped out of the conference room, I knew this was my only chance.I didn’t hesitate.I exhaled slowly, my mind sharpening, my heartbeat steadying as I made my way toward the door.It was now or never and I needed to move quickly before I told myself this was a bad idea.I knew the layout of the building better than anyone. I had been here long enough to memorize every hallway, every security checkpoint, and every possible exit route.Getting out of here wouldn’t be easy, but it was possible.And I was about to prove it.I pressed my back against the cold wall, my breath slow and controlled. No need for unusual breathing which could call attention to my presence. The hallway was dimly lit, the fluorescent lights flickering slightly overhead. The FBI headquarters was quiet at this hour—most of the agents had gone home, and the ones still around were locked in their offices, finishing up reports or making calls.That worked in my favor.I kept my ste
Fernando’s POV The night was thick with the scent of gunpowder as bullets ripped through the air, each one carrying the intent to kill. I bent behind the overturned car, gripping my gun so tightly my knuckles turned white. Marlo was beside me, reloading his weapon with the efficiency of a man who had danced with death too many times before. My men were scattered, ducking behind whatever cover they could find, exchanging gunfire with the bastards who dared to ambush us.I was filled with so much rage.My patience was at its breaking point, my fury barely contained beneath the surface. Michael was still missing, and now we had these worthless pieces of trash trying to gun us down. I clenched my jaw. Someone was playing games with me, and I wasn’t in the mood for amusement.A bullet bounced off the hood of the car, sending sparks into the air. Marlo cursed under his breath.“This isn’t working,” Marlo muttered. “They have us pinned. Every time we move, they push harder. We need a
Michael’s POVDarkness.It stretched around me, thick and suffocating, pressing in from all sides. My breath came in short, shallow gasps as I reached out, searching for something, anything, to ground me. The ground beneath my feet felt solid, but the air was cold, unnatural, as if I were standing in a place that didn’t belong to the living.My fingers twitched. Where the hell was I?I turned slowly, trying to make sense of my surroundings. There were no walls, no ceiling, just an endless void stretching in every direction. The silence was deafening, filling my ears with an eerie hum. My heart pounded.Then, I heard it.Footsteps.Soft, deliberate, approaching from the darkness. I reached for my gun, but I wasn’t carrying one. My fingers curled into a useless fist.And then—I saw her.My breath caught in my throat.“No…”She stepped forward, emerging from the dark like a ghost, her legs barely touching the ground. Her hair was exactly as I remembered—long, dark waves falling pa
Fernando’s POVThe air in the meeting room was thick with cigar smoke and tension. Rodger Holt sat to my left, his usual cocky smirk absent for once and his cold blue eyes scanned the room with distrust. Across from him, Nikolai Petrov leaned back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest. Santiago, always the most calm, adjusted his pristine cuffs, his expression unreadable beneath the dim chandelier light.I sat at the head of the table, fingers drumming against the polished surface, taking in the power dynamics before me. These were men who would slit a throat over a bad deal, men who did not fear death. But today, I needed them to fear me.I exhaled slowly and leaned forward.“We have a problem,” I began, my voice calm but filled with anger.Rodger raised an eyebrow. “What kind of problem?”I scanned the room, making sure every single one of them was paying attention.“The kind that could have turned into a war.”A flicker of interest passed over Nikolai’s face, but he said n
Michael’s POVThe garden was eerily quiet, the only sounds being the distant chirping of crickets and the soft rustle of leaves as the night breeze moved through the trees. I reached into my pocket, feeling the edges of the phone I had stolen earlier. This device had served its purpose, but now it was a liability. If the FBI managed to track it, they’d find me, and I couldn't afford that—not when I was finally within reach of my revenge.I hid near the fountain, my fingers tightening around the phone. The realization had fully sunk in now: I was an enemy of the FBI. The people I had once worked alongside were now hunting me. It should have felt like a betrayal, but it didn’t.I had made my choice.With a swift movement, I slammed the phone against the edge of the fountain. The screen cracked instantly, but I wasn’t done. I raised it again, smashing it with more force. I took a deep breath, grabbed the remnants, and threw them into the thick bushes nearby.No loose ends.I was ab
Fernando’s POVThe loud sounds of two gunshots ripped through the walls like a scream slicing open the air. What the hell!?My head snapped toward the drawing room even before Santiago could react. For a moment, everything froze. Then chaos.“Those were shots,” Santiago said sharply.“No shit,” I snapped, already moving towards the door to see what had caused a gun to be fired. My mind instantly created two scenarios and I couldn't help buy fear for the worst.On one hand, I feared Andrew and Damian had subdued Santiago’s men, took their guns and shot them before making a run for it.Those fucking bastards would do anything to escape at this point.On the other hand, I considered the possibility that Andrew had annoyed one of Santiago’s men and they ended up killing him, just to shut the motherfucker up.I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.We practically ran through the corridor, Santiago’s footsteps just behind mine. My pulse hammered like thunder in my ears, my mind ra
Michael’s POVThe door slammed behind Fernando, and for a while, I just sat there, paralyzed. The room was dark, the air still pulsing with tension and adrenaline. My knees pulled up to my chest, my arms hugging them tightly, my forehead resting on them.My chest ached. Not from the pressure of Fernando’s grip or the terror of his voice mere inches from my ear, but from something deeper. Something more devastating. That man who stormed out of here wasn’t the man I once felt strongly for. The man i thought i could save. Not entirely. Fernando had always been dangerous, but never to me. Never like this.The way he had looked at me—rage burning in those eyes, the tremble in his jaw when he grabbed me—there was no hesitation. No guilt. Just power. Just rage. Just the monster the FBI always warned me about.And still, there was a flicker… something I couldn’t name. Something like heartbreak.I stayed like that for a long time, breathing slowly, willing the tears not to fall, but they
Fernando's POVMy fingers still tingled.I stared at my hand as I stepped out of the room I had just left Michael in—my palm still carrying the memory of his skin, of the way I had squeezed his throat. My heart pounded in my chest, and not from exertion. From something darker, something wilder. The rage. The possessiveness. I should have let go sooner. I should have stopped when I saw the pain in his eyes—but I couldn't. Not after he said he would leave me.I pushed the thought from my head.He needed to know where he belonged. I wasn’t about to let sentimentality ruin everything I had built. Michael was mine. He would stay mine.The drawing room door swung open before I touched it. One of Santiago’s men stood to the side, eyes darting to the ground in submission as I stepped inside. Andrew and Damian still lay on the floor, both bruised, both in restraints. The guards kept their guns pointed at them, their faces hard and unmoving.Andrew lifted his head and sneered."Well, well
Micheal's POV I didn’t think.I just moved.My body, acting on instinct or something far more desperate, had shoved Fernando’s arm up at the last second.The bullet screamed through the air and struck the ceiling.Everyone in the room froze.For a heartbeat, silence rang louder than the gunshot. I could feel the weight of a dozen eyes pierce into my back, all of them stunned—and afraid. The smell of burnt gunpowder lingered, mixing with the tense air of the drawing room.Then Santiago roared.“What the hell just happened?!”Andrew laughed—a cruel, dry, almost unhinged sound. “Looks like the boyfriend still has a soft spot for the spy.”“Shut him up,” Santiago barked.His men didn’t hesitate. One shoved a gag into Andrew’s mouth, forcing him to the floor. Andrew glared at everyone with that same defiant fire, but it didn’t matter. He couldn’t speak now.Fernando didn’t say a word. His gaze cut through the room like a blade.I swallowed. My throat was dry. My hands had started to t
Fernando's POVThe echo of my boots was the only sound in the hallway as I led Michael back into the drawing room. My hands were in my coat pockets, fingers twitching for the comfort of power. Beside me, Michael was silent. Tense. His brows were furrowed, his thoughts clearly tangled. I didn't speak. Not yet. There would be time for words—my words—soon enough.Discovering that he has been so active during my time in coma only infuriated me more each time I thought about it.It was taking a huge amount of control for me not to beat him to a pulp just staring at him with his emotionless face.He had forgotten he belonged to me—only me—and he went ahead to fool around with the enemy which ended up bringing FBI agents to our doorsteps. Even thinking of the fact he was once an informant for the FBI brought fire in my mind because it meant he has been lying to me.What else has he been keeping from me?That would be a discussion I couldn’t wait to have.Michael was bad news for me but I
Michael's POVAshley was groaning in pain, her head leaned against the window of the FBI car I had carefully laid her in. It was hard for me to watch her I'm so much pain, especially when all she had done was help us even though it meant going against the FBI. Fernando was a real monster for doing this to her.The backseat was damp with blood, and the stench of metal clung to the air like guilt to my conscience. I glanced around, hoping and praying that Marlo would suddenly appear so that he can take Ashley to the hospital along with Anabelle. I needed someone I could trust to get Ashley out of here, someone who wouldn't let her down. But the world was quiet now, eerily so, and Marlo was nowhere in sight.I looked around, towards the mansion hoping to catch a glimpse of Marlo just as he is leaving but I didn’t see him.The realization of what I feared dawned on me like a cold, hard feeling."He already left, didn't he?" I muttered, my voice low with frustration. My fists clenched
Fernando’s POV I folded my arms across my chest while i watched in delight as Andrew’s battered body was dragged through the hallway of my old mansion. His punishment was just starting and I could alread visualise numerous way to make him beg for me to just end his suffering. Emilio followed closely behind, gripping Damian by the collar, the man nearly tripping over himself with each step. The floor, aged by time and conflict, creaked under the weight of our footsteps. Blood had been spilled outside—blood of men who thought they could outsmart me, the FBI agents whose corpses now served as a warning. But inside, it was quieter. The kind of quiet that precedes a storm.Santiago walked beside me. His slightly injured face was grim, jaw clenched so tightly the veins in his neck were visible. His other bodyguard followed us, his weapons drawn and alert. Mortis had joined us near the entrance, nodding silently when I gestured toward the drawing room. That would be the stage.The mo
Andrew’s POV The night had gotten far too quiet for my liking, and in that unnatural silence, every crackle of a branch or brush of the wind made my nerves twitch. I could still remember the wave of shock i had gotten when the sound that sent ice straight down my spine, gunshots, rang in my ears and i couldn't help but think of the worse. My men were capable of handling themselves, they were FBI agents, after all, but there was a dark feeling pooling in.my stomach just thinking what had caused such amount of gun fire to ring in the air.Not one, not two, but a lot of them, echoing violently through the forest like war drums. From the direction of Fernando’s mansion. I had made sure to tell me men not to attack without receiving orders from me to do so. Which means this could only mean one thingThey were under attack.My stomach dropped.Something had gone wrong.I hadn’t planned for a situation where Michael and his pack of goons would attack when I wasn’t there.I thought they w
Fernando’s POV I watched them through the small cracks on the front door, barely breathing as I tracked the movement of the agents. The trees concealed them well, but not well enough for someone like me. I knew the woods. I knew the mansion. And most of all, I knew how the minds of men like Andrew worked.Based on Marlo’s explanation, he was the leader of those agents of fools and if there was one thing I was good at, that was gaining a upper hand against proud men.Ashley winced as she leaned against a nearby wall. Her side was soaked with blood, and every breath she took looked like it cost her something vital. Still, she didn’t complain. I was impressed. I liked that about her.Michael, on the other hand, was fidgeting."You’re going to take her out the front," I said, my voice cold and unwavering.Michael blinked. "What? Are you insane? They’ll spot us the moment we step onto the lawn.""That’s the point."He narrowed his eyes. "You want us to be bait?"I tilted my head. "I