Page 72 of Falling for the Enemy

I shrug. "It is."

I squeal, the high-pitched sound ripping through the air when he lunges onto the bed, and gently fists the hair at my nape, careful not to tug. "One thing you should know about me is that I always get what I want."

"Is that right?" I parrot his words back to him.

The durak shrugs, mimicking me. "It is."

I cup his shoulder, my fingers curving over the rock-like muscles that twitch beneath my palms. "Tell me, Alejandro Santiago, what is it that you want most in life?"

Releasing my hair, he cups my face, his thumb caressing my cheek. "I want you, Ari." A chunk of ice breaks free of my heart as it swells, plummeting into the abyss. "But more than that, I want to use my power to protect the women in my life, ensuring pain never touches them."

He gently rests his forehead against mine.

"You, Carmen, my nieces, my sister's loca Grandmama..." Knowing full well of the colorful older woman he speaks of, I drop my hands and smile. Each time I take Anna to visit Carmen, she greets me with a fresh-baked pie, the gesture one of the sweetest I’ve ever received. "Mina and Anna—"

I suck in a breath, my gasp audible.

Mina.

He said he wishes to protect Mina.

Anna too.

"My sister..." My chest tightens, each swift inhale of breath evaporating before it reaches my starving lungs. "You don't even know—"

"I don't need to know her," he interrupts, reading my thoughts correctly, a power he’s possessed since our first meeting. "You love her. That's enough for me."

Another of my walls collapses.

To rubble and dust, it's rendered.

Hands shaking, I wrap my lithe arms around his neck, the peace his presence conjures surrounding me, keeping the numbness at bay. No matter how close we are, it's never close enough.

"We have to find Stefano."

He leans back the slightest bit and gently traces his thumb over my bottom lip, forearm tensing as he glares at the split he mended earlier with dissolvable stitches.

The cartel trained him well.

His first aid skills rival my own.

"Every minute that he's alive," I continue, urgency quickly eroding the grip I have on my emotions, "our families are at risk. Mina especially. If he gets his hands on her..."

Unable to finish, I flatten my lips, pressing them together. I have both suffered through and doled out torture, but nothing I've done or endured would compare to the pain La Famiglia would hand my sister as punishment for my sins.

She wouldn't survive it.

Even now, after years of peace, her mind is still nearly shattered, her heart I fear permanently broken. After what Papa did to her—

"We'll find him," Alejandro says, saving me from the soul-destroying memories fighting to take center stage in my mind. "And when we do, we'll kill him together."

Together.

I can't help but smile.

The word is one I'm starting to love.

More so than I ever have another.

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