Page 105 of Falling for the Enemy

As if sensing my approach, Stefano looks over his shoulder, his eyes flaring when he catches sight of the devil chasing him down, intent on sending him straight to Hell.

Exactly where he belongs.

Like the fool he’s always been, however, the cabrón smirks.

It’s the wrong move.

I raise the rifle, fully prepared to end him with one pull of the trigger, a move Manzana will likely kill me for. For all he’s done, she wants Stefano to experience the pain he’s doled out tenfold.

If his death is swift, she won't forgive me.

I readjust my aim to his shoulder blade, my finger beginning to squeeze—

He whirls and jerks Ari up by her hair. With her bare feet hovering six inches from the ground, he releases her locks and quickly bands an arm around her waist, ducking his head behind hers even as it lolls.

The hijo de puta is using her as a human shield.

Fifteen feet away, I stop, my finger remaining on the trigger. “It’s over, DeMeo!” I bellow as he presses a pistol to Hermosa’s neck. “There’s no way out for you.” The fool laughs as Sergei’s remaining soldiers drop at a quick clip, his protection dying right along with them. “So put her down.”

“You think it’s that easy?” He digs the gun in deeper. “This little bitch killed my son!” One eye peeks out from behind my woman. “And you along with your men murdered the rest of them. For that, every one of you will pay.”

He speaks and acts like a cartoon villain.

“You’re forgetting someone, pendejo.” I smile knowing that each word I speak further provokes him. Soon, he’ll fly into a rage and come after me versus Manzana. I give it a minute, tops. “I killed your brother too.”

A familiar face appears behind Stefano. When he returned from the ports, I don’t know. But he’s here now. That’s all that matters.

Relief swarms me, but I don’t react.

Stefano must remain clueless.

“Do you want to know what Angelo’s last words were?” My maniacal smile grows, reaching my eyes. “Or maybe you’d rather wait and ask him yourself since you two will be reuniting soon?”

“You piece of shit! Melendez should’ve ordered Pedro to shoot you and your whore sister just as he did your mother—”

No one calls Carmen a whore.

Not without reaping the consequences.

“Now, Benito!”

My lieutenant doesn’t hesitate.

Pop!

Stefano jerks, the round striking him in his shoulder. With an agonized wail, he releases Ari and drops his gun. I run for her as she tumbles to the ground, hitting hard, her neck whipping back before her skull crashes to the gravel.

A black SUV barrels up the driveway, coming to a sliding stop behind where Benito rushes toward Stefano. Aware of his jefa’s plans to slowly kill the man responsible for nearly destroying her, he won’t end the mafioso.

But he will subdue him.

Kings spill out of the SUV, all with their weapons drawn. More gunfire erupts, adding to the chaos that Casper, and possibly Nikolai, continues to unleash behind me.

Reaching the woman who holds my heart in her hands, I drop to my knees and lift her against me, chest to chest. She whimpers, my name barely audible on her lips.

“Alejandro…”

Eyes closing, I bury my face in her hair and inhale, both her smell and warmth staving off the nearly incapacitating fear that currently has me in its grips.

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