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I inhale the cigar and citrus scent of him underlined by the distinctive scent of the desert. “You promised we were ride or die.”
Pain flashes through his eyes. “Until I saw what happened to Maria.” He trails his fingers over my cheek. “Dominges won’t just kill you, Anna. You’ve made him look weak. I’ve made him look weak. He’ll rape you, and torture you just to prove a point.” On a shaky breath, he reaches around me and takes the gun from the back of my shorts, holding it out in front of me. “If you won’t leave, then you promise me… if he gets you…”
I wrap my fingers around the hilt and grip the metal tightly. He’d rather I die. “I know.”
He presses a finger under my chin, forcing me to look at him. Those dark eyes are hard and determined. “Don’t get caught, avecita.”
“I won’t,” I whisper. And I hope that it’s a promise I can keep because for once, I hope that fate will actually smile on me.
Despite everything, I want a future with Rafael. I’m willing to fight my own demons and his to get it. Dominges will die.
66
Rafael
Twenty-four hours exactly. I’m waiting for some kind of stealth attack. Una is more than capable of it. Picking off my men and taking Anna would be her style, and it’s making me anxious.
Anna shifts beside me. “She gave you twenty-four hours. She won’t renege on that. She’ll give you the chance to hand me over.”
“You sure about that?”
She tucks her hair behind her ear. “Nero won’t let her just attack you.”
I laugh. “Ah, avecita, you assume Nero has her on a leash.”
“She has to adhere to a degree of politics.”
“That’s just it, she doesn’t.”
The door to the warehouse opens, and I tense, waiting. Samuel walks in, his expression steely. “They’re here,” he announces.
“Bring them in.”
I glance around the warehouse, meeting the eyes of several of my men, all lingering nearby, armed and ready. I don’t want to hurt Una, simply because it would upset Anna. I want the Russian’s alliance just as surely as I have her sister’s, but Una Ivanov is an unpredictable animal, one that can never truly be trusted. She’s dangerous, and Nero’s backing also makes her powerful. In fact, the combination of the two of them makes them practically untouchable.
Sam comes in a few seconds later with Una…and Sasha.
“Shit,” I mumble under my breath.
Anna’s hand lands on my arm as if to calm me, or maybe restrain me. “It’ll be fine.”
Una’s eyes narrow, honing in on Anna’s hand on my arm. “Wow, he works fast,” she says acerbically.
Anna places herself between her sister and me. “I’ve made a deal.” Sasha hangs back, his sharp gaze taking in every single detail of the warehouse. I can practically see him spotting every exit, planning exactly how he’ll kill each and every one of my men and in what order. There’s always something inherently unsettling about the absolute iciness that seems to infiltrate his every action. Una alone is bad, but he makes me very uneasy.
“You made a deal?” Una asks with a smirk.
“We all want the same thing,” Anna says.
Una takes out a knife, and Samuel reaches for his gun until she flashes him a halting glare. She twirls the knife in her hand as she paces a little way across the warehouse. “So, you came here to kill the men who imprisoned and enslaved you, and now you’re allowing him to imprison you and do it for you…am I right?”
I let out a low growl. “I am not imprisoning Anna.”
Anna takes a step towards her sister. “This is the smart thing to do, Una. They help us, we help them, and we can take down the entire Sinaloa.”
Una looks from her sister, to me, and back again. “And did you come to this agreement willingly or were you backed into a corner?” Anna says nothing. “That’s what I thought.”
Una rounds Anna’s still form until she’s standing right in front of me. “You overstep. Anna is not yours. The only reason you’re even aware of her existence is because you were charged with taking care of her…for me.”
“Make no mistake Angel de la Muerte, Anna is very much mine.” Una has the blade of her knife at my throat in a heartbeat, and I hear the unified sound of several guns being raised. Glancing over her head, I see Samuel with his gun pointed at the back of Una’s head. Sasha places a gun to Sam’s head.
“Tell your men to stand down,” he says coldly.
Sam grits his teeth. “Fuck you, Russian.”
“Stand down!” I call out before Sam gets his brains blown out. My men hesitantly lower their guns.
I focus on Una again. “Anna will always be mine, because I love her.” Una’s jaw ticks and the knife flinches against my throat, digging into the scabbed remains of the wound Anna inflicted last night. My heart beats heavily, and I wait for her to open my throat. Her arm tenses and I suck in a readying breath.
