Love and vengeance

gray haze. It was the kind of storm that cleansed the streets of lingering heat while washing the sins of the underworld down into the roaring gutters. High abov

lence reigned a silence heavier than

man crafted from hard angles and colder resolve, earned through a decade of surviving the bloody power vacuums left behind by old guard narco lords. To th

r blades struggled against the downpour. In the passenger seat, his primary enforcer, Esteban, sat with a

ith low static from the tailing security detail. The lower roads near the river

warmth. The Cárdenas cartel is too busy burying their commanders from last nigh

bes destined for local politicians, and the quiet, persistent rumor that someone within his inner council h

dense jungle foliage on one side and crumbling brick dwellings on the other. The headlights

rld shattere

er, but a young woman running blindly through the storm. She was drenched, her dark hair plaste

ed, his hand slamming

sharply to the left. The four ton armored vehicle skidded across the hydroplaning road, its tires screeching against the slick

per clipped her wit

lowed by the soft, terrible sound of a body hitting the rain soaked

of steam from the radiator. Inside the vehicle, the sudden silence was deafening, b

safety and unbuckling his belt in one f

amiliar surge of adrenaline spiked in his veins. He unfurled his lo

wn as his polished boots splashed through deep puddles toward the ditch. His tailing escort vehicles pulled up behind him, their high beams illuminating th

tion. He slid down the mu

yellow sundress torn and ruined by grease and gravel. Her breathing was shallow, ragged,

cond thought. For a man whose hands had ordered the deaths of dozens, the sight of th

the darkness. We need to clear the area. If

. He slid his hand beneath her neck, supporting her head as

trucks caught her features

hitched in his throat f

twenty two. But it wasn't her youth or her beauty that stopped the heart of Medellín's most feared cartel boss it was the striki

connected to a ghost from his past a dead man who

ce of blood. Her hand, trembling and covered in road grime, reached out blindly

r voice barely audible ov

he was about to do. Taking her to a public hospital would mean police reports, investigations, and spotlighting hi

effortlessly against his chest. Her head slumped against hi

stepping down the slope. We leave her for t

ank, his grip tightening around the blee

ead as he carried her toward the back door of his secondary escort S

in disbelief. Boss, that's a security

nd leaned over her trembling body. He looked down at her pale, shiverin

urmured softly to himself, his voi

and pulled the bleeding girl into his lap as the c