Alejandro’s breath was warm against Aria’s temple, his grip firm despite the exhaustion weighing down his body. He hadn’t let go of her hand since waking up. It was as if he feared she’d vanish the moment he loosened his hold.Aria sat beside him on the bed, her fingers gently tracing over the bandages wrapped around his torso. He was still pale, still weak, but alive. And that was all that mattered.“You should rest,” she murmured.A smirk tugged at his lips, lazy but filled with amusement. “I’m resting. With you.”She rolled her eyes but couldn’t fight the smile that curled at the edges of her lips. Even now, battered and barely holding himself together, Alejandro found a way to be insufferably charming.His hand squeezed hers. “Aria…” His voice was rough, raw with something she couldn’t quite place.She met his gaze.And that was when she saw it.The weight of everything that had happened. The fire. The near-death experience. The war still raging outside these walls.And something
The night air was thick with tension as Aria slipped out of the safehouse, her heart pounding in her chest. Every step she took toward Miguel’s secret meeting felt like she was walking into a trap. And maybe she was.Jace was right behind her, his presence a steady reassurance even as danger loomed ahead.“You sure about this?” he murmured as they reached the dark alley where their stolen vehicle was parked.Aria nodded, tightening the strap of her leather jacket. “We don’t have a choice.”Jace exhaled, shaking his head. “You’re starting to sound like Alejandro.”She smirked. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”Jace scoffed but didn’t argue.They climbed into the black sedan, Jace behind the wheel. He didn’t turn the headlights on as he pulled onto the road, keeping their movements discreet.“You know,” Jace mused after a few moments of silence, “I don’t think Alejandro has ever let anyone talk him into something the way you do.”Aria glanced at him. “Is that a bad thing?”Jace smirked.
Alejandro paced back and forth in his study, his fingers gripping the edge of his desk so tightly that his knuckles turned white. The tension in the air was thick, pressing down on him like a storm waiting to explode. His thoughts raced with a thousand possibilities, but none of them gave him a clear solution to the chaos that was unfolding.Valentina had made her move, and it was a reckless one. Her betrayal was no longer just a suspicion, it was a reality. And the fact that she had gotten this far without him realizing made his blood boil.Juan entered without knocking, his expression grim. He had always been Alejandro’s most trusted man, the one who had stood beside him even in his darkest days. But even now, Alejandro could sense the hesitation in Juan’s stance.“She’s gone too far,” Juan said, his voice laced with frustration. “If we don’t act now, she’ll tear everything apart.”Alejandro exhaled sharply, his jaw tightening. “I know. But we can’t make a move without knowing exactl
Alejandro stood by the window of his study, staring into the darkness outside. The city lights in the distance flickered like fireflies, a deceptive beauty masking the rot underneath. His world was spinning out of control, and for the first time in a long time, he felt a sliver of uncertainty.Valentina’s betrayal was one thing. He had expected it, anticipated it, even. But Aria? She was different. She wasn’t supposed to be part of this madness. And yet, here she was, standing in the middle of a war she didn’t even realize had already started.His fingers tightened into fists. He needed to get ahead of this before it was too late.A knock on the door pulled him from his thoughts.“Come in,” he said, his voice rough.Jace stepped inside, his face unreadable. He closed the door behind him and leaned against it, arms crossed. “You’re making a mistake.”Alejandro arched his brow. “Which one?”Jace scoffed. “Take your pick. Valentina’s plotting against you, and you’re hesitating. Aria is as
Aria’s breaths were uneven as she leaned against Alejandro, her body molded against his. His lips moved with a possessive hunger, stealing every thought, every hesitation, every reason she had to resist him. She knew she should push him away, demand more answers, but her body betrayed her.Alejandro’s grip tightened around her waist, his warmth surrounding her, his scent intoxicating. But even as he kissed her, even as his touch sent fire through her veins, she couldn’t forget what she had just uncovered. Target secured.Was that what she was to him? A mission? A chess piece in whatever game he was playing?The thoughts clawed at her mind, pulling her from the haze of desire.She broke the kiss, turning her face away, breathing heavily. “I can’t…”Alejandro’s hands lingered on her waist, his forehead resting against hers. “You can’t what, mi amor?”Her heart clenched at the way he said it so softly, so intimate. But that was the problem. It was too easy to fall into this. Too easy to f
Aria had never seen Alejandro this angry before. His hands were clenched into fists at his sides, his entire body rigid with tension. The moment Jace had said Valentina had kidnapped Sophia, the atmosphere in the room had shifted. The air had become thick with barely contained fury.She could see the war raging inside him. He wanted to act, to lash out, to go after Valentina and Miguel without hesitation. But he was restraining himself, thinking, calculating. Alejandro wasn’t a man who reacted impulsively. He was a strategist, a man who always stayed three steps ahead.But this wasn’t just any situation. This was Sophia.Aria’s heart pounded as she stepped closer to him. “We need to find her,” she said, her voice steady despite the fear clawing at her insides.Alejandro didn’t look at her. His eyes were locked on Jace, his voice dangerously low. “How the hell did this happen?”Jace ran a hand through his hair. “Valentina must have been planning this for weeks. We underestimated her.”
The moment the gunshot rang out, Aria flinched, bracing for pain. But none came.Instead, Valentina staggered, her smirk faltering as blood bloomed across her shoulder.Aria gasped, realizing what had happened. Alejandro stood in the doorway, gun raised, his expression cold as death itself.“Step away from her,” he said, his voice like steel.Valentina let out a breathy laugh, staggering but refusing to fall. “You always did have good timing, Alejandro.” She turned her head slightly, eyes sharp. “But you won’t kill me. Not yet.”Alejandro’s grip on his gun didn’t waver. “Try me.”Aria took the opportunity to lunge forward, ripping the ropes off Sophia’s hands. The moment Sophia was free, she collapsed into Aria’s arms, weak but breathing.“You okay?” Aria whispered urgently.Sophia gave a shaky nod, but her eyes remained fixed on Valentina. “She was going to kill me.”“I know,” Aria said, swallowing hard.Alejandro stepped forward, his gun still trained on Valentina. “You lost.”Valen
The flames still burned in Aria’s mind. The warehouse. The explosions. Valentina escaped once again. The sense of failure clung to her skin like smoke.She sat in Alejandro’s office, staring at the screen in front of her. The glow of multiple encrypted messages illuminated her face, but her thoughts were scattered.Miguel had a plan. A bigger one. And she was running out of time to figure out what it was.Alejandro stood near the window, his body tense as he spoke to Jace.“She won’t hide for long,” Alejandro muttered. “She’s desperate now. And desperate people make mistakes.”Jace sighed. “We should’ve finished her back there. She knew exactly when to trigger those bombs.”Alejandro clenched his fists. “She had an escape planned. She always does.”Aria barely heard them. She scrolled through the encrypted messages, her fingers moving fast across the keyboard.Then something caught her eye.A message, heavily coded but with a pattern she recognized.Aria’s pulse spiked. “Wait.”Alejan
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
The moon hung low in the sky, casting a pale glow over the water, but the night felt darker now heavier. Aria’s breath came in shallow bursts as the boat jolted through the waves. Every second felt like an eternity as the engines of their pursuers roared in the distance. The sound was a constant reminder of the danger they were in. But even as they neared the narrow mouth of the cove, there was a sense of urgency in the air. This was it the moment of reckoning.Alejandro stood tall, his figure unwavering against the pressure that weighed down on them. His eyes never left the distant horizon as he clutched the wheel, steering them with precision and determination. He was a man used to fighting for survival, but Aria had seen enough of his vulnerability over the past weeks to understand that even he didn’t know if they would make it out of this alive."We’re almost there," Jace called out from the back of the boat, his voice strained. "But they’re right behind us. We won’t have time to
The boat rocked gently in the moonlight, its hull cutting through the water like a knife slicing through soft fabric. The soft sound of waves was a stark contrast to the chaos that had unfolded hours before. Aria stood at the edge, her hands gripping the cold metal of the railing as she looked out over the vast ocean. Her thoughts were a tangled mess, much like the storm that raged inside her.Alejandro stood behind her, his presence solid, unwavering. He hadn’t spoken much since the ambush, his mind undoubtedly weighed down by the same fears and worries that gripped her chest. But he had said one thing that had lingered in her mind: "We can’t keep running."She couldn’t help but wonder if he was right."We need to face him," Alejandro had said earlier, his voice low but certain. "Santiago will never stop. He’s too dangerous, and now that we’re marked, there’s no escaping it."But how did one face a man like Santiago De La Cruz? A man who had no morals, no hesitation, and no fear in h