Page 46 of Falling for the Enemy

I turn back to her, my gaze finding her watching me, the diamond necklace that rests atop her heaving chest sparkling beneath a ray of moonlight that spills through a busted window.

“Don’t you dare get sentimental on me, Alejandro,” she says, successfully reading the thoughts circling my mind. “I didn’t do it for you.” Lowering her gun, she steps forward, her lips pursed in what I’m guessing is annoyance. “After what she did for Anna, I saved your life for her.”

Mind whirling and senses remaining on high alert, I listen for approaching footsteps in case a third shooter lurks, the meaning of her words taking root in my conscience.

“Who?”

She raises a hand and trails the tips of her painted nails down the side of my face. Softly. Sweetly. A complete one-eighty from her disposition seconds ago, the addicting touch further binding my soul to hers.

“Carmen.”

An invisible boa constrictor wraps around my throat, making speaking impossible. After what she did for Anna. Her words from seconds ago echo through my skull, shredding the fog her nearness never fails to conjure.

I need to find out how she knows Carmen.

Grasping her wrist, I push her back against the wall, roughly pinning her in place. “Tell me how you know my sister.” My face dips, the urge to kiss her lips gnawing at me. “Exactly how—”

“Again, my answer is simple,” she begins. “Carmen rescued Anna from a man intent on destroying her, and in turn, I saved her.” She lifts her chin and exhales through parted lips, her minty breath ghosting my face. “Her ex-pimp may have been locked away in prison, but his mental hold on her remained. So I did what I’m good at and freed her from his grasp.”

“You put out a hit on him.”

My words aren’t a question.

Rather, a statement.

“Da, and I’d do it all over again given the chance. After what he did to her, he deserved to die a thousand times over, each death more brutal than the last. My only regret is not being the one to deliver the kill-shot.”

This is the moment.

The one where I begin to fall.

“That’s why you were in Toluca. At the shelter,” I say, each piece of the puzzle I’ve been trying to solve snapping into place. “She’s under your protection.”

“They all are. The entire staff, residents too. But that’s not why I was there.” The longer she talks, each of her words acting as an ax picking away at my crumbling walls, the more obsessed I become. “Each month I donate a large cash gift to help them offset costs. When you saw me, I was there delivering it.”

Regarding the donation, I suspected as much.

I’m not blind.

Yet the world beneath my feet still shifts.

“You killed to save my sister from one of her demons.” She may not have been the one to land the fatal blow to Carmen’s pimp, an honor I’ve long wished for, but it was her order that ended him all the same. “And I killed to save you from one of yours.”

“Nyet.” She shakes her head. “You and I killed to save one another.” A smile lifts her lips, the gleam in her eyes one I never want to go another day without seeing. “That makes us even, da?”

I don’t answer her question. I can’t. Not when all I can think of is lowering my face to hers and taking her lips in a soul-binding kiss that will forever ruin us both.

“You just made a mistake, Manzana.” A dam inside me breaks. It washes away my waning restraint, along with every ounce of common sense I possess. “You just made a huge mistake.”

She tilts her head again, a move I’ve learned she does when studying me. “How so?” Her fingers continue to stroke my cheek. “If you’re ready to pout because I stole your kill—”

“Fuck my kill.” My tone is harsher than I intend. “This isn’t about that. The only thing I’m upset about is the fact that I ever considered ending you in the first place.” Her hand stills. “No, you made a mistake by changing my mind.”

Eyes unblinking, she waits for me to continue.

“Instead of getting rid of you by any means necessary…” I slide my hand into her hair, fisting her curled locks tightly, anchoring her to me. “I’m keeping you.”

She gasps when I jerk down, forcing her neck to arch, the move reminiscent of our last encounter in her study. Her parted lips are the opening I need. That I crave. Seizing my shot by the huevos, I press my mouth to hers for the first time.

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