Page 106 of Falling for the Enemy

I almost lost her.

“Shh, Manzana.” I cup the back of her head and rock her in place. I need to get up, to move, but right now I can’t. I just fucking can’t. “I’m here, baby.” I continue rocking her. “I have you. Everything is going to be alright.”

It’s a lie.

Behind my woman, a nearly restrained Stefano suddenly crashes his forehead against Benito’s nose, cracking it and temporarily blinding him.

It’s the opening the piece of shit needs.

Spinning to face us once more and with a pair of black zip tie handcuffs hanging from one of his wrists, he rips a second gun from his waistband and raises it, aim poised on Ari.

I’m not given the chance to react.

Not before he pulls the trigger.

Pop!

Pop!

Pop!

Manzana’s body jerks with each bullet strike and her scorching blood pours from the wounds that now mar her back, covering my hands.

“No!” My voice is distant and foreign-sounding as she collapses against me, her breaths rattling with each quick exhale.

I lift my palm from her back, the sight of her life force covering my knuckles forcing my vision to tunnel, a red haze descending.

And headfirst into madness, I tumble.

“You motherfucker!” If I didn’t have Ari in my arms, I would already be on Stefano, my blade embedded in his gut and my bare teeth ripping out his jugular. “I’m going to fucking tear your huevos out through your cowardly goddamned throat!”

She goes limp, her body turning boneless as I rotate her in my arms, side facing the ground. With my chest cracking down the center, I stand, taking her with me as Benito tackles and wails on Stefano, his face soon to be busted and stained crimson.

For him, it’s only the beginning.

I turn on my heel, looking for Casper or Nikolai. Ivan even. Sweat beads along my brow as my heart thunders, nearly bursting free of my chest. My mind seems to separate from my body as I hold my woman tight, her weight lax in my trembling arms.

This isn’t happening.

Jesucristo, it can’t be.

“Get to the car!” Casper charges through the bodies that litter the ground, most—if not all—of them belonging to Sergei’s men. “I’ll drive!”

I ready myself to run to the SUV that the Kings left idling beyond the gate, but I freeze when a pair of blue eyes lock with mine.

Eyes that are exact replicas of Ari’s.

Why or how she’s free of the bunker, I have no idea, but with her palm covering her chest, Mina stands on her sister’s balcony. Bending at the waist, she gasps for breath as she stares at her blood-soaked back, the tears that spill down her cheeks serving as daggers to my already maimed and dying heart.

Curling both hands around the balcony’s marble ledge, she leans backward, the soul-rending wail that tears past her lips as tortured as the bottomless agony that flashes across her face.

The sound is the first I’ve ever heard from her.

It’ll haunt me for the rest of my life.

“Alejandro!” Casper calls out. “Let’s go!”

“Get out of my frickin’ way, Viktor!” Anna’s panicked voice reaches my ears as I turn, knowing that time is ticking away. Before long, it’ll be too late to save my heart. If it isn’t already. “Oh my God, no!” Each of her words is followed by a sob. “Ari, wake up! You promised you’d never leave me!”

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