Alejandro sat in his car, parked in a dark alley on the outskirts of the city, his fingers tapping against the steering wheel. His entire body burned with the need for violence.Miguel had taken Sophia. The words echoed in his mind, fueling his rage. Every second that passed was a second too long. He wanted blood. He wanted to rip Miguel apart with his bare hands.The low rumble of an approaching car made his muscles tense. His gun was in his lap, ready. But when the car stopped beside him, he recognized it immediately.Aria.She got out first, followed by Juan, their faces set in determination.Alejandro pushed open his door, stepping into the cold night air. He barely gave Juan a glance before locking eyes with Aria. "You shouldn’t have come."Aria crossed her arms. "We both know you wouldn’t have waited if I didn’t."He exhaled sharply, raking a hand through his hair. He hated how right she was. He had been seconds away from going in blind, consequences be damned.Juan leaned again
Alejandro’s grip on his gun tightened as he stared at Miguel, his finger twitching near the trigger. The bastard had a gun to Aria’s head, and it took everything in him not to pull the trigger and damn the consequences."Drop your weapons," Miguel repeated, his smirk widening. "Or I put a bullet in her skull."Alejandro’s mind raced. His heart thundered against his ribs. He couldn’t risk Aria’s life, but giving up their weapons meant surrendering completely."Do it," Aria muttered under her breath, her eyes locking with his.His jaw clenched. He didn’t want to. Every instinct screamed at him to fight, to kill. But this wasn’t just about him anymore.Slowly, he lowered his gun and placed it on the ground. Juan did the same, his face twisted with rage.Miguel chuckled. "Smart choice." He shoved Aria forward, making her stumble toward Alejandro.Alejandro caught her instantly, his hands gripping her waist, steadying her."You okay?" he whispered, barely restraining the urge to turn and s
The drive back to the estate was tense. Alejandro sat in the backseat with Aria, his side throbbing from the knife wound Miguel had given him, but the pain barely registered. His mind was still racing, his knuckles raw from the beating he had given Miguel.Aria’s hands were clenched into fists on her lap, her lips pressed into a thin line. He could feel the anger rolling off her in waves. He knew she wanted to say something—probably yell at him for being reckless—but she was holding it in.Juan, in the front seat, kept glancing at them through the rearview mirror. "We should’ve killed him," he muttered. "That bastard won’t stop until one of us is dead."Alejandro exhaled sharply, looking out the window. "I know."They had left Miguel unconscious, but not dead. Alejandro wanted him to suffer, to know that his time was running out. Killing him instantly would have been too easy.Beside him, Aria shifted, finally breaking her silence. "You scared me back there," she admitted, her voice b
Aria swallowed hard, her body stiffening under Alejandro’s hold. The warmth of his breath against her neck sent an unwelcome shiver down her spine, but she forced herself to stay still. She didn’t know what would happen if she moved—if she broke this fragile moment between them.But she had to.Slowly, she shifted, trying to slide out of his grip. His arm tightened instantly, his fingers splaying over her stomach in a silent refusal."Stay," he muttered, his voice deep and husky from sleep.Aria's breath hitched.Stay?Her heart pounded wildly. He was dangerous, controlling, and everything she should fear—but right now, he was just a man half-asleep, holding onto her as if letting go was the last thing he wanted.She closed her eyes for a brief moment, gathering her thoughts. "Alejandro, I need to get up."His grip didn't loosen. Instead, he exhaled heavily, pressing his forehead against the back of her head. "Just a little longer," he murmured.Aria's resolve wavered.This wasn’t the
Aria’s hands trembled as she gripped the edge of the sink in her bathroom. She stared at her reflection in the mirror, her chest rising and falling rapidly. Her lips were still swollen from Alejandro’s kisses, her skin still tingling from his touch.She needed to stop this.Whatever was happening between them, whatever emotions were trying to take root in her heart, she had to kill them before they destroyed her.A knock at the door startled her."Aria."Alejandro’s deep voice sent a shiver through her, but she clenched her fists and forced herself to breathe."I don’t want to talk right now," she said, trying to keep her voice steady.There was a pause. "Too bad."The door handle twisted. She gasped, stepping back as the door swung open. Alejandro stood there, his dark eyes locked onto hers, unreadable yet intense. He stepped inside, closing the door behind him."You can’t just—""I can do whatever I want." His voice was low, firm, leaving no room for argument.Her pulse pounded. "Ale
Aria sat on the bathroom counter, her body still buzzing from Alejandro’s touch. Her fingers curled against the cold marble as she forced herself to breathe. Her emotions were tangled—desire, frustration, fear—all mixing into one unbearable storm inside her chest.She shouldn’t have let him kiss her.She shouldn’t have kissed him back.But God, every time he touched her, she lost all sense of control.From the bedroom, she could hear Alejandro’s voice, sharp and commanding. Whoever had knocked on the door had clearly interrupted something urgent.She swallowed hard, pressing a hand to her chest as she listened."I don’t give a damn what Miguel said," Alejandro snapped. "Find out where the shipment went—now."Miguel.Aria stiffened.Agent Miguel had been playing a dangerous game, working with Alejandro’s enemies while keeping up the act of being his trusted ally. If Alejandro ever found out…Her stomach clenched.She had to talk to Miguel soon, before things spiraled out of control."Bo
The explosion had ripped through the underground facility with a force that shook the very foundation of the compound. In the ensuing chaos, smoke billowed into the corridors and the acrid stench of burning debris mingled with the iron tang of blood. For a long, agonizing moment, it was as if time itself had fractured into splintered fragments—a cacophony of screams, clattering metal, and the roar of collapsing walls.Aria’s mind swam in darkness as she struggled to regain consciousness. Her head pounded relentlessly, and her body, bruised and battered from the struggle earlier, throbbed in protest. She could barely distinguish sound from silence amid the turmoil. All she knew was that she had to wake up; she had to survive. Slowly, she opened her eyes and tried to focus. The room around her was dim and chaotic: fragments of concrete littered the floor, and the distant wail of sirens hinted at the impending arrival of reinforcements or perhaps the approaching authorities.Her wrists w
With a heavy sigh, she nodded, her eyes shimmering with tears that she refused to shed in front of him. Alejandro disappeared into the darkness, the door slamming shut behind him as he set off to reassemble his forces and lead the counterattack.For what felt like an eternity, Aria sat in the van, her mind adrift. The silence was oppressive, every sound magnified by her worry. She clutched the phone that Alejandro had left behind, refreshing it repeatedly in a desperate search for a message, a sign, any indication that he was safe. Time crawled by, each minute stretching into an eternity of uncertainty.Outside, the world was a tapestry of chaos—sirens wailed, distant gunfire echoed, and the estate loomed like a graveyard of shattered dreams and broken promises. Aria could only hope that Alejandro’s promise wasn’t empty, that the man who had risked everything for her would soon return.Suddenly, the van’s engine roared to life, jolting her from her reverie. Through the rear window, sh
The storm came in the middle of the night, heavy and relentless, with wind that screamed like ghosts clawing at the windows and thunder that shook the walls of the estate. Aria woke with a jolt, heart thudding against her chest, her hand instinctively reaching for the other side of the bed only to find it empty. The sheets were still warm where Alejandro had been lying moments ago. She sat up slowly, listening. No footsteps. No voices. Just the rumble of rain and the hollow echo of her own worry filling the room.Wrapping a robe around herself, she padded barefoot down the hallway, her eyes scanning every shadow. The storm outside seemed to seep into her bones, a reflection of the unrest brewing within her. The revelation of Luciana, Miguel’s sister, had shaken her more than she’d let on. It wasn’t just about another enemy, it was about history. About the kind of legacy blood carries whether you want it or not. If Luciana was anything like her brother, then they weren’t just facing a
The warmth of the morning sun did little to erase the lingering tension in the estate. Though the threat to Jace had been lifted, and Alejandro had begun mending the cracks between them, there was an air of unfinished business hanging over everyone. The silence in the hallways was not peaceful, it was watchful, heavy with the weight of memories and anticipation of what could come next. Aria felt it in the way the maids moved, whispering behind corners, in the way Alejandro’s guards doubled their shifts without complaint, and in the way Sophia barely left Jace’s side.Inside the master suite, Aria stood alone in front of the mirror, slowly tying her hair back. Her hands trembled slightly. There was a bruise on her wrist, faint but still visible, a reminder of the scuffle at the warehouse. She ran her fingers over it not out of pain, but remembrance. The past few days have changed everything. Love wasn’t a fairytale she’d grown up dreaming about. It was brutal, it was aching, it was the
The journey back to the estate felt endless. Alejandro drove in silence, one hand on the wheel, the other wrapped tightly around the steering wheel as though holding it could keep him from falling apart. Jace sat in the backseat, his head resting against the window, bruised and bandaged. Aria was beside him, her fingers interlaced with his, like she couldn’t risk letting go. Valentina was quiet too, arms crossed, her jaw set, eyes watchful through the rearview mirror. It wasn’t just exhaustion. It was the aftermath of a storm that had left all of them changed.Aria couldn’t stop glancing at Jace. Even with his cuts and injuries, he still looked like the boy who had grinned at her from Alejandro’s rooftop, the man who had fought for her when Alejandro didn’t know how. She kept replaying the moment he opened his eyes and said her name, the rasp in his voice, the relief in it. She had been so close to losing him, and it terrified her how easily life could tilt into tragedy. All that time
Alejandro stood still in the middle of that abandoned building long after the recording ended, his fist clenching around the cracked phone until his knuckles turned white. There was something different about hearing Jace’s voice, something raw. He wasn’t speaking like a man running from guilt. He was speaking like someone fighting for something more sacred than survival. The fear in his tone hadn’t been for himself. It had been for Aria. And that realization twisted something sharp in Alejandro’s chest. He had doubted his brother. Worse, he had turned his back when Jace might have needed him the most. The guilt was thunderous, the silence around him heavier than bricks.Sophia stood by the doorway, watching him. “Do you want to keep searching here?”“No,” he finally said, his voice low and broken. “He’s not here anymore. But we have a direction now. This wasn’t random. They wanted him alive. That means they still need him.”Sophia nodded slowly. “And that gives us time.”Alejandro loo
Morning crept in with a coldness that didn’t belong to the sun, but to the hearts of those who had spent the night wrestling with truth and betrayal. Alejandro stood in front of the mirror in his suite, buttoning his shirt slowly, mechanically, as if the simple act might distract his mind from the raging war within. There was a hollow ache in his chest, a dark void left by the thought that Jace, the man he called brother, might have handed over his secrets to enemies. But it wasn’t just anger that consumed him. It was the sting of disappointment, the disintegration of trust, the slow unraveling of a bond built on blood and loyalty.Downstairs, Aria sat at the breakfast table, untouched toast lying cold on her plate. Her thoughts drifted like smoke thick, suffocating. She didn’t know what was worse: the possibility that Jace was guilty or the fear that Alejandro might be wrong. Everything was turning to ash around her again. When she looked up and saw Valentina approach, there was no n
The night was thick with silence, but Aria’s heart was anything but still. She sat by the large bay window in her room, knees pulled to her chest, watching the stars blur through the film of unshed tears. Alejandro’s words from the garden echoed in her mind like a song she couldn’t stop humming. She wanted to believe him, God knew she did, but believing meant opening herself again to the kind of pain she wasn’t sure she could survive twice. It meant risking everything she had become, everything she had built inside herself since the moment he turned her life upside down. And still, some small, stubborn part of her ached for his touch, for the warmth that only he ever made her feel. That was the cruel truth her body still remembered what her mind was trying to forget.Down the hallway, Alejandro stood in front of his bedroom door, hand raised, knuckles grazing the surface but never knocking. He had said what he needed to say, and she had asked for time. He had to respect that. But pati
Alejandro sat in the darkened study, the amber glow of the fireplace casting flickering shadows across the walls. His hand gripped the edge of the desk, knuckles white, heart thundering like a storm trapped inside a cage. Aria’s face haunted him, her eyes no longer filled with trust, now brimmed with doubt and pain. And it wasn’t just about the secrets. It was about the silence. The silence that had widened the gulf between them until he couldn’t recognize the bridge they once stood on together. He had promised to protect her, yet the world he built to keep her safe had become the very thing tearing her apart. Alejandro could almost hear her voice, the tremble, the crack when she asked him if he ever truly loved her, or if she’d just been another pawn in his empire’s twisted game.Outside the door, Valentina paced like a storm cloud, her heels sharp against the marble floor. She had seen enough of men like Alejandro cold, controlled, calculating. But this time was different. She had s
The forest was eerily quiet as dawn bled through the twisted silhouettes of trees. A thick mist hugged the earth, softening the edges of bloodshed and ash that had stained the night. Alejandro sat by the fire they barely had time to light, his eyes locked on the flames like they might offer absolution. Across from him, Aria wrapped a torn blanket around her shoulders, shivering not from the cold but from the storm inside her chest. Jace was resting nearby, his wound stitched with trembling hands and the pain dulled by makeshift medication. For now, they were alive. But they were cornered.Aria's mind wouldn’t rest. Dario’s words echoed relentlessly: "She doesn't even know what she's carrying." What did it mean? She stared at the data drive again, holding it as if it might explode with answers. Somewhere within its encrypted layers lay a truth powerful enough to drive a cartel mad. A truth they were now willing to kill for.Alejandro noticed her grip tightening and stood, walking to he
The night air was thick with tension, so much that it clung to Aria’s skin like a second layer. The distant crunch of footsteps on gravel made her grip the pistol tighter. Every shadow seemed to pulse with danger, every sound a possible threat. From where she crouched beside the jagged cliff edge, she could make out the dark shapes of their enemies disembarking from the boat, weapons drawn, eyes sweeping the terrain.Beside her, Alejandro’s breathing was calm, calculated. He crouched low, his back against the rocks, a rifle balanced on his knee. Though the moment was dire, there was a stillness in him, like the eye of a storm. His hand brushed Aria’s shoulder gently a silent promise that they would survive this. Not just for themselves, but for everything they had endured together.She turned to look at him, their eyes locking in the darkness. His gaze held fire, but beneath it, she caught something unexpected. Regret.“Alejandro,” she whispered, “if we don’t make it ”“We will,” he c