Page 14 of Falling for the Enemy

It’s not often a woman snares my attention.

But the moment Arianna stepped into The Blue Ocean, she captured mine, rendering me incapable of pulling my stare from her as she moved through the club, her hips swaying provocatively with each of her prowling steps.

I’ve been told of her beauty by Christian, who I’ve had tailing her, gathering as much intel as possible over the past two weeks, but nothing he’s said has prepared me for seeing her in the flesh for the first time.

She isn’t just gorgeous like he claimed.

No, she’s a siren.

With her shoulder-length, golden blonde hair, red, bee-stung lips, and exaggerated curves that many men—myself included—would kill to explore, she’s enchanting. But it’s her icy blue eyes that have bewitched me, commanding my focus.

Needing to shatter the intrigue that swirls within me as I study her, I take a hit of the Cohiba I carried outside and exhale, blowing the white smoke into the balmy night air. “Who’s he, Manzana?” Apple. The name rolls off my tongue before I can stop it as I nod toward the man kneeling at her side, close to falling unconscious. “Your date?”

The inquiry is a pointless one.

I already know exactly who he is.

He’s a predator that’s been using my club as a hunting ground, a tactic La Famiglia undoubtedly allowed, but that I won’t tolerate. Benito caught onto his tricks the last time he was here, and we’ve been awaiting his return ever since.

If she hadn’t gotten to him first, I would’ve. The question is, what’s she planning to do with him?

“Nyet, he’s nothing to me,” she replies, glaring at the man with disgust. “Just some vermin in need of extermination.” Those tantalizing eyes find mine again. “Much like you.”

“Careful,” I bite out, the warning in my tone impossible to miss. My temples pound as my blood pressure rises. I’m many things, most of them villainous, but I’m not a rapist. “You compare me to the filth who kneels beside you again, and you’ll find out firsthand what kind of monster I am.”

Her gaze sears into me, my threat doing little to shake her. It’s clear she doesn’t fear me, a mistake on her behalf.

“Da?” Slipping her hand into the small purse she holds, she pulls out a switchblade and flicks it open, a devious smile lifting her slightly pink cheeks. “And what kind of monster are you, Alejandro?”

My jaw ticks, the sound of my name rolling off her succulent lips one I won’t soon forget. It’s the last thing I need. She may be both enticing and alluring, a physical temptation that in another life I would’ve seduced and spent my time exploring, but here and now, she’s nothing more than a potential problem.

A problem I may be forced to kill.

Letting her live if she proves a threat to Carmen is something I won’t allow. When it comes to my sister, I already have enough regrets. One being my missed chance to end the pimp who got her addicted to heroin and nearly killed her. Murdered in prison by a nameless inmate, he got off too easily.

He should’ve died by my hands.

“The kind that sends one of his men into rival territory in order to lure their leader into mine, even while knowing he won’t make it back alive, without giving a single fuck.”

Inviting conflict with the Fallen Kings may seem reckless, but I need to find out who truly commands the Bratva in Charleston. The last thing I expected was for her, the woman I’d have bet money on was nothing more than a spoiled prop piece to walk into my club like she owned the place.

“By the way,” I add, “where is Arturo?”

She shrugs. “I cannot say.”

My brow rises. “And why is that?”

“Because I’ve never studied the Atlantic’s currents. Whether what remains of him is on his way to Bermuda or is acting as fish food at the bottom of Charleston Harbor, I do not know.”

That earns a chuckle from me.

I’m not surprised she killed him.

His potential death was one of the reasons I chose him to sneak into the Fallen Kings' territory to begin with. After we left Medellín, I caught wind of rumors that he’d gotten handsy with one of my unwilling maids. If Arianna hadn’t ended him, whether by her gun or one of her men’s, I would’ve.

I should buy her a gift for lessening my workload.

“It’s no real loss.” I snuff out my cigar against the brick wall to my left, just next to the door, and toss it onto the ground by an overfilled dumpster. “He was already living on borrowed time.”

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