Page 95 of Falling for the Enemy

Ari catches my eye.

The cold mask that covers her beautiful face is haunting as she storms into the closet, then comes right back out, a dark blue dress in one hand, a pair of beige stilettos in the other.

“Manzana—”

She holds up her hand, silencing me. “I highly advise you not to ask me to stay behind. If you do, I’ll shoot you in both your feet and hands before driving myself to the hospital.”

Her threat isn’t an idle one.

Jade may be part of my family, but as Anna’s friend and my sister’s daughter, she’s under the King’s protection. Concerned only with reaching them, I didn’t ask how my niece was or how she’d been hurt, but if her injuries are the result of foul play, I won’t get the chance to end the hijo de puta responsible.

Ari will do it for me.

Dressed in record time, my cunning queen snaps her fiery eyes to mine. Lips pinched into a thin line, she places a hand on her hip. Any second now, I fully expect her to start tapping her foot in agitation as she not-so-patiently waits for me to finish dressing.

Three breaths later, I’m done.

Locating my keys and wallet, I grab them. Following in her steps, I head for the door. At the threshold, she stops and peers at me over her shoulder.

“If Stefano is responsible for this,” she says, her suspicion mirroring my own even though I have yet to lend my voice to it, “I won’t sleep until I clutch the durak’s still-beating heart in my hand.”

That makes two of us.

Palming her lower back, I nudge her forward. “Let’s go, Hermosa,” I tell her. “You can tell me all the ways you plan to torture him in the car.”

For once, she doesn’t argue.

* * *

“Someone ran her off the road!”

Carmen’s face is red and puffy, her breaths heavy as she paces the floor of the emergency room, five feet in front of the stretcher where Jade sits, her legs dangling over the sides.

A bandaged cut mars my niece’s cheek and a splint covers her sprained wrist, but otherwise, she’s fine. Bruised and soon-to-be extremely sore, but fine. How her neck isn’t broken after the crash she was involved in is anyone’s guess. Not many walk away from such severe accidents.

For once, luck was on our side.

“The car blew up!” my sister continues, repeating what a patrolman told me ten minutes ago. Halting her steps, she turns to face me, her panic having spiraled into anger. “That’s after it rolled down a thirty-foot embankment!”

In a move that reminds me of Nikolai, she throws her hands up. “If Benito hadn’t pulled her from the wreckage before the flames reached the gas tank, mi youngest chica wouldn’t be here!”

I glare at my lieutenant.

Covered in red dirt and smelling of gasoline and smoke, he doesn’t even register my presence. Manzana’s either. He’s too focused on Jade, whose tear-filled eyes are locked on his.

“The other driver didn’t even stop,” Carmen continues, beginning to pace once more. “What kind of pendejo does something like that?”

The kind that doesn’t want to get caught.

“James and Hendrix are in Florida helping out with the wildfires near the Everglades, and the rest of the family, Grandmama included, is at the beach for vacation. But if they were here every last one of them would be on the road hunting—”

“Oh my God!”

Ari spins on her heel at the sound of Anna’s distressed voice as she storms into the hospital. Dressed in a pair of plaid pajama pants, neon pink flip flops, and a nondescript yellow tank top, she makes a beeline for us, a set of car keys dangling from her fingertips.

Right away, I know what she's done.

And Casper is going to lose his mind.

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