Only Her Touch のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 41 - チャプター 50

Carla filed the charges at nine in the morning. By eleven, Ignacio Vasquez had already answered.Roberto watched the press conference unfold live from his office, Alicia standing rigid beside him, both of them silent as Ignacio stood behind a podium outside the Vasquez estate, his composure immaculate, his voice carrying the same calm, measured authority Roberto had come to understand was always most dangerous precisely when it sounded most reasonable."Last night," Ignacio said, addressing the cluster of cameras with practiced solemnity, "my daughter Doris was taken from this estate against her will by armed men working for Roberto Alvarez. I have remained silent until now, hoping to resolve this privately and protect her from further trauma. I can no longer stay quiet while baseless legal claims are filed against me by a man who has apparently decided kidnapping is an acceptable strategy in whatever campaign he's waging against my family."Roberto felt his jaw clench, fury rising sh

"An arrest warrant requires a judge willing to move faster than any judge typically moves," Carla said, already dialing before she'd finished the sentence, phone pressed hard against her ear while she paced the length of her office. "Fortunately, I know exactly which judge owes me a favor large enough to justify calling her at home on a Tuesday night."Roberto watched Priya's screen, the private jet's flight plan glowing in stark, damning detail. "Wheels up in forty minutes. Destination unlisted, but the fuel load suggests somewhere far enough to make extradition complicated.""Forty minutes isn't much time," Alicia said, already reaching for her jacket. "How far is the airfield?""Twenty five, with traffic cooperating," Priya said. "Which leaves almost no margin at all."Carla's call connected, and Roberto listened to her lay out the case with rapid, practiced precision, thirty two years of documented crimes compressed into the tightest possible summary a judge could absorb and act

Alicia woke slowly, warm and tangled in soft sheets, Roberto's mouth pressed lazily against her shoulder, his hand tracing slow, unhurried patterns along her bare skin."We should be moving already," she murmured, though she made no effort at all to move."We will," Roberto said, voice rough with sleep and something warmer underneath. "In a minute." His lips trailed higher, along her neck, and Alicia felt her breath catch despite the urgency waiting for them both outside this room. "Let me have you for just a little longer, before the world remembers we exist."She turned in his arms, meeting his mouth with her own, unhurried and soft at first, then deeper, hungrier, both of them chasing a few last stolen minutes before duty pulled them apart again. His hands found her waist, pulling her flush against him, and for a while neither of them thought about fugitives or forged evidence or dead men's letters, only each other, warm and slow and entirely present.When they finally rose, the su

The old chapel sat quiet and forgotten at the edge of what had once been the Vasquez family's original country estate, its stone walls weathered by time, its narrow windows still holding fragments of colored glass despite years of neglect."Matt's letter said Camila used to come here quietly, back when she still worked near the family," Roberto said, pushing the heavy wooden door open slowly, the hinges groaning in protest. "I didn't even know this place still existed until his letter mentioned it."Alicia stepped inside behind him, the air cool and still, dust motes drifting lazily through thin shafts of afternoon light filtering down from the high windows. Rows of simple wooden pews lined either side of a narrow aisle, leading toward a modest stone altar at the far end, exactly as Matt's letter had described."Beneath the floor, near the altar," Alicia said softly, her voice carrying strangely in the empty stone room. "That's specific enough. She must have marked it somehow, or trus

Marcus never made it out of the city.Priya's team intercepted him less than an hour after the chapel, boxed in at a gas station two exits from the tower, apparently still waiting for further instructions that were never going to arrive. By the time Roberto and Alicia reached the small, windowless room Priya had arranged for questioning, Marcus already sat slumped in a chair, exhaustion and resignation written plainly across his face."You knew," Roberto said, standing across the table from him, fury barely contained beneath his carefully controlled voice. "Weeks ago. We debated whether to trust you, whether to keep you in place as bait, and the entire time, you were exactly what we feared."Marcus's jaw tightened, old shame visible beneath his exhaustion. "It's not that simple.""Explain it to me, then," Roberto said. "Simply or otherwise."Marcus was quiet for a long moment, staring at his own hands, before finally speaking, his voice rough with something that sounded almost like re