Page 10 of Hearts Of Darkness

The DEA have been circling the major cartel players in Miami for a while now. Three shipments have been intercepted in the last month. Millions and millions of dollars-worth of cocaine seized, and my dad’s been heading up the operation.

I pull my chair closer to his bedside, deep in thought. Was he getting too close? Has he irritated the wrong people? Has he finally caught the attention of the Santiagos?

All of a sudden, there’s a strange prickling sensation on the back of my neck. I’m being watched. No, it’s more than that, I’m beingconsumed.

I turn to the doorway and quickly rise to my feet, my chair falling backward in my haste to stand. I barely hear the crash. My mouth is frozen in a silent scream. I can feel myself falling, falling…

It can’t be.

The same devil from my dreams and my nightmares is standing right in front of me. Seventy-two hours fall away to nothing. It’s as if they never existed. He’s dressed in black again, his dark eyes are burning with vengeance, and there’s a gun in his hand…

A gun that’s pointing straight at my head.

4

DANTE

She stares at me with those flawless sapphires widening in shock, and I swear to God they’re punching a hole right through to what’s left of my heart.

Her face is scrubbed clean of make-up, and her hair has been scraped back into a rough ponytail. She looks pure this way. Untainted. Somehow, she’s even hotter in jeans and a denim jacket than she was in that black skirt. Fear is creeping into her eyes, but there’s a touch of defiance, too. It makes my balls tighten just looking at them.

Fuck.

Does this woman have any idea what she does to me? What is she doing here anyway? Is this man her lover?

My hand clenches into a fist as my beast reawakens. Shades of red cloud my vision as I step further into the room and close the door behind me, yanking down the blind to shieldthe rest of the world from my twisted brand of justice. I pull so hard on the cord that the damn thing snaps in my hand. I toss it away as I lift the safety and aim the muzzle a little to her left. I’m going to enjoy every second of this.

“Stop, please! I’m begging you!” she cries suddenly. “He’s my father!”

Her father?

My finger hesitates as she throws herself forward to block my target. All traces of defiance are gone. She’s pleading for my leniency now.If only you knew, mi alma. I’ve pulled the trigger on countless others for less.

This message needs to be delivered. Until recently, the DEA have been nothing but flies to us—irritating as hell, easy to swat, and with a focus more backward than anything else. Now, they’re becoming a littletooaccurate… The flies are turning into wasps, and they’re learning to sting, hard. To lose one shipment in a month is careless, but to lose three? The DEA’s strike rate just hit the fucking jackpot.

It’s up to me to give them a reminder of who’s really running the show around here. In the past, a few dead agents tended to hammer it home, so the play was on. Our cousin, Nicolas, was in charge of setting up the local side of things. My plan was to fly in, get the job done, seek her out and then reward myself with her body. But life has a way of complicating the hell out of everything.

“Get out of my way. I’ll deal with you when I’m done.”

“You don’t need to do this…” Her voice cracks. “He’s a good man. A decent man.”

Unlike me.

She must love her father to sacrifice her life for his. I feltnothing for mine. I felt even less when I made an ugly mess of the back of his skull.

“How did you find me?”

“Who says I’m here for you?”

Are you curious, Eve? Have you been craving my touch as much as I’ve been craving yours?

There’s a fresh flare of pain in her eyes, and for the first time I find myself questioning the validity of this hit. I can easily find another ten DEA assholes to eliminate before dawn.

“You don’t need to hurt him. I’m the one you want.”

I raise my eyebrows in amusement. “Is that so?”

She flushes, but meets my gaze head-on, daring me to contradict her.

---