Page 32 of Falling for the Enemy

I have to end him.

Now.

Pulling his focus from me, Alejandro starts to glance at my sister. “Do not look at her!” I scream, trying in vain to keep his stare locked on me, the sound of my shout most likely alerting my men.

But it’s too late.

His eyes are already on my entire reason for living, and with one glimpse of her face, which is a mirror of my own, he knows exactly who she is.

As well as what she is.

My only weakness.

Refusing to let myself fail at keeping her safe, something I did many years ago, I take three steps back, weapon raised once more, as Mina’s gaze burns holes into my side.

Likely reading the situation correctly, I expect terror to possess her at any moment, quickly seizing both her ability to breathe and move.

I begin to squeeze the trigger—

“I won’t hurt your sister.” His whispered words strike something inside me that causes me to freeze, my racing mind freefalling into a tailspin. “Just as I now know you won’t hurt mine.”

His sister? This information comes as a surprise. Many background checks and deep dives have been done into the kingpin’s elusive past, but nothing was ever uncovered about a living sister.

It’s another of Viktor’s failures.

And quite possibly his last.

Ignoring the firepower trained between his eyes, Alejandro slides his hands into his pockets, his demeanor casual despite his looming death. “Not when you know how it feels.”

I inhale sharply. “How what feels?”

He nods at Mina, whose face is oddly absent of the fear I expected to have already begun choking her, its invisible hands banded around her throat.

“To love someone so much that you’ll do anything to keep them breathing, including killing the one person you know could someday mean something to you.”

His words shouldn’t affect me.

But they do.

More than I care to admit.

Gun drawn, Casper moves toward Mina, his movement momentarily capturing my attention as Nikolai remains leaning against the open door, a blade clutched in his powerful fist.

Too caught up in the man before me, who seems to possess a blueprint of my emotions and hidden desires, I missed the moment they entered the room, no doubt intent on tearing Alejandro apart.

Piece by bloody piece.

It’s a move I won’t allow. Not after the unforgettable and striking words he just spoke. Regardless, I still need to act.

If I don’t, Casper and Nikolai will.

“Leave, Alejandro,” I snap, moving closer to him as my chest begins to ache, the words I’m about to speak evoking a dull throb. “Leave my home, along with North Charleston.” I drop my gun to the desk, the metal clanking against wood echoing through the otherwise silent room. For now, I call a truce. “And as I’ve already told you once, never come back.”

If he values his life, he’ll listen.

Appearing unaffected by the underlying threat accompanying my command, he cups my cheek, much to Nikolai’s displeasure if the inhuman-sounding growl he emits is anything to go by, and presses his lips to my forehead in a featherlight kiss I never see coming.

But that I soak up, committing to memory.

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