Page 88 of Dangerous Seduction

“Remember the plan,” I said. “We get in, find Javier, and end this. For good.”

Marco grinned, a predatory thing that would’ve sent lesser men running. “With pleasure, boss.”

I hadn’t told Natalia or the DEA about the meth lab Marco and I had discovered. It was a secret I had kept close to my chest, a trump card that I had been waiting to play at just the right moment.

And that moment was now. Because I knew that if Javier was going to be anywhere, it would be there, in that hidden room deep in the bowels of my father’s building. He would be trying to grab as much product as he could before he ran like the coward he was.

We watched in silence as a sleek black car pulled up to the building, and a lone figure emerged from the shadows. Javier Cruz, in the flesh, and surprisingly, he was alone. There was no crew and no backup. Just a man on the run, desperate to save his own skin.

“Showtime,” I muttered, slipping out of the car and motioning for Marco to follow. We moved like shadows, silent and deadly, as we made our way into the building, our guns drawn and ready.

The lobby was deserted, and the only sounds were the soft hum of the air conditioning and the distant ding of an elevator. We took the stairs toward the secret room where I knew Javier would be.

But he must have spotted us because all hell broke loose the moment we stepped through the door to the floor. Gunfire erupted, the sound deafening in the enclosed space. The acrid smell of cordite filled the air, mingling with the coppery tang of blood.

I dove for cover, my heart hammering in my chest as I returned fire. Beside me, Marco grunted in pain, his hand clutching his shoulder as blood seeped between his fingers.

“Fuck,” he hissed, his face contorted in a grimace. “I’m hit.”

I spared him a glance, my jaw tightening at the sight of my best friend, my brother, wounded and unable to fight. But there was no time to dwell on it, no time for anything but the battle at hand.

“It’s just a flesh wound. Go on. Get the motherfucker for me,” Marco said and managed a thumbs up. “I’ll wait back here.”

That rat bastard Javier was always one step ahead, laughing as he darted through the shadows like a goddamn ghost. Bullets screamed past me, close enough I could feel their heat kissing my skin. But I didn’t flinch. Couldn’t. Not with Marco bleeding out back there, trusting me to finish this.

Javier had to die. No mercy, no quarter for disrespecting and stealing from me. And for hurting my people? The ones I loved most? Oh, he’d pay. I’d make damn sure of it.

But the slippery fuck was too quick. He led me on a wild chase, always just out of reach. And then, in a flash of movement, he was behind me, gun pressed to the back of my skull.

“Drop it, Dante,” he growled, voice dripping venom. “Or I’ll paint these walls with your brains.”

I had no choice. Heart hammering so loud, surely he could hear it, I slowly let my gun fall. The metal clattered against the concrete floor. But this wasn’t over. No way.

“You’re too easy, chico. Just like your girlfriend’s DEA partner,” Javier said, his words casual, almost conversational. “Matt, wasn’t it? He was getting too close to our operation, sticking his nose where it didn’t belong. So I put a bullet in his head.”

My blood ran cold at his words, a wave of fury washing over me.

“And that little bitch of yours, Natalia?” Javier continued, his voice taunting. “I saw how you spared her that night, how you let her live. I almost killed her myself, you know. Would have, too, if I hadn’t heard the sirens.”

He laughed, a cruel, mocking sound that made my skin crawl. “I should have pulled the trigger on both of you. Then, Ricardo would have gotten what he wanted.”

I closed my eyes, my thoughts on Natalia. The memory of her bloodied and beaten in that jail cell, her eyes haunted and her spirit broken, was seared into my mind, a nightmare that would never fade.

But then, Javier’s words sank in, and a cold, creeping dread settled in the pit of my stomach.

“Ricardo?” I asked, my voice hoarse. “What did my father want?”

Javier chuckled, the sound low and menacing. “Oh, Dante. You really are naive, aren’t you? Your father wanted the two DEA agents dead and you to take the blame for it. He gave me the order himself. And, it would have worked brilliantly if you just had shot that fucking bitch.”

I felt like a freight train had slammed into me, the air rushing out of my lungs in a single, painful exhale. My own father, the man who had raised me, who had molded me into the man I was today, had wanted me gone, framed for murdering cops?

Javier raised his gun, taking aim at my head. “And now, I get to fulfill half of his order. Goodbye, Dante Reyes.”

I braced myself for the end, for the searing pain of the bullet tearing through my skull. I thought of Natalia, of the life we could have had together, of the love that had burned so brightly between us. I thought of my sister, Sofia, of the promise I had made to protect her from the darkness that had consumed our family.

And I thought of my father, of the man who had betrayed me in the most ultimate way possible. In that moment, I felt a hatred so pure, so all-consuming, that it threatened to swallow me whole.

But the end never came. Instead, a single shot rang out, the sound like a thunderclap in the stillness of the room.

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