Chapter 10 #2
I watched the sky blur past the windows in my periphery.
“Tell me,” he said, his voice low and smooth, “what do you think you’ll find in Colombia?”
I didn’t look at him. “Answers.”
“Answers are dangerous things, Isabella. Once you find them, you can’t go back to not knowing.”
“I’m not trying to go back.” That seemed to amuse him. His smile was subtle, but sharp.
About thirty minutes in, Nikolai approached, his expression as unreadable as ever. He leaned slightly toward Rafael, murmured something only he could hear.
Rafael’s body shifted. A sliver of tension. He didn’t argue—just stood up with one last look at me.
“I’ll be back.”
I didn’t answer him. Didn’t follow his gaze as he and Nikolai stepped toward the far end of the jet, disappearing behind one of the panels that led to the conference alcove.
Silence settled again. Ash let out a slow exhale and slouched back in his seat across from me, his legs spread out like he was trying to get comfortable.
Kellan leaned forward slightly, forearms resting on his thighs, watching me. “You alright?” he asked.
“I’m fine.” My voice was cool, measured.
“You say that a lot,” Ash muttered. “Starting to sound like a reflex.”
Before I could answer, the panel near the back of the jet slid open, and a woman stepped out. Blonde, tanned, high ponytail that bounced with every confident step she took in her heels.
Tight black dress. Fake lashes. A smile designed to be remembered. She wheeled a tray of food and drinks with her and stopped in front of us.
“Anything I can get you?” she asked sweetly, though her eyes were locked on Ash.
Ash’s mouth twitched. “Depends what’s on the menu.”
The girl giggled and leaned down toward him, saying something low in his ear. I couldn’t hear the words, but whatever it was made him grin and stand up without hesitation.
My gaze followed him silently as he trailed behind her toward the back of the jet.
Kellan watched them go, then looked at me. “You jealous?”
I didn’t answer right away. My eyes were still fixed on the door they disappeared behind.
“No,” I said finally. “Just irritated.”
“Because she’s a distraction?”
“No.” I leaned back and crossed my legs. “Because he let her be.”
Kellan nodded slowly like he understood, but didn’t say anything more. The silence that stretched between us wasn’t uncomfortable. It never was. We were too similar for that.
Eventually, I stood, brushing invisible dust off my thigh. “I need air.”
Kellan arched a brow. “We’re on a plane.”
“Don’t get clever now,” I muttered.
I walked through the jet, past the bar area, until I found one of the side lounges with a wide panoramic window.
The sky looked endless from up here. Pale blue that bled into white, then darker toward the curve of the world. I leaned a hand against the cold glass, the other still resting on my hip. The bracelet on my wrist—my mother’s—glinted softly in the filtered sunlight.
I hadn’t noticed how tight my chest had gotten until I exhaled. Everything felt like it was moving. Shifting. Like I was in the middle of something I couldn’t name yet, but it was already too late to pull out of.
And that’s when I heard his voice behind me.
“If I didn’t know better,” Rafael said smoothly, “I’d think you were in some sort of twisted entanglement with the two of them. The brooding one and the one currently being devoured in the back.”
I turned slowly, finding him leaned against the doorway, hands in his pockets. He smirked. “Is that why you brought them? A bit of variety to keep your life interesting?”
I arched a brow. “You think that’s your business?”
He pushed off the door, walked toward me with that maddening calm. “You made it my business the moment you involved them in mine.”
I didn’t move. “Don’t mistake loyalty for entanglement. Just because you’ve never had anyone willing to take a bullet for you doesn’t mean others don’t.”
He stopped in front of me, his eyes flickering over my face, down to the dip of my dress, before rising again. “So they follow your orders, then?” he asked. “Even when it comes to keeping your bed warm?”
I smiled slowly. “Would it bother you if they did?”
“I didn’t say it would.”
“Then why bring it up?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he stepped even closer, his voice lowering. “Because I’m trying to decide whether you’re provoking me for fun… or because you want me to do something about it.”
I laughed once, dark and quiet. “What would you do, Rafael?”
His eyes flashed. “I’d ruin every man who’s ever touched you,” he said quietly. “And then I’d make you forget they ever existed.”
The tension cracked like electricity between us. He didn’t touch me. He didn’t have to. The air around him moved like it wanted to.
I held his gaze, let him see that his words didn’t shake me. Not the way he wanted them to. “You’re too confident,” I murmured.
He tilted his head. “I have a reason to be.”
I looked up at him, fire simmering just under my skin. “Then prove it.”
He didn’t answer. He didn’t have to, his slow smirk was answer enough, but his words still echoed in my head.
I’d ruin every man who’s ever touched you. And then I’d make you forget they ever existed.
It wasn’t love. It wasn’t even lust. It was possession. Pure, dark, and deliberate. And maybe… just maybe, it should’ve scared me more than it did.
I tilted my chin up, locking eyes with him. “Do you always flirt with women who’d rather see you six feet under?”
A slow smile pulled at his mouth. “Only when they look like you while saying it.”
My jaw twitched. “Is that your way of avoiding the question?”
“No.” His voice dropped a little. “You asked if I always flirt with my enemies. You should’ve asked if I sleep with them.”
The way he looked at me then… it was heat without movement. Hunger without touch. My pulse was steady. My mind was not.
I gave him a cool smile. “Fine. Consider it asked. Do you sleep with your enemies, Rafael?”
His answer was immediate. “Sometimes. It’s easier to read people when they’re naked.”
I let out a soft, disbelieving laugh, shaking my head. “You’re ridiculous.”
“I’m honest,” he said, stepping closer again. “Sex has always been a battlefield. You learn more from what someone does to you when they think they’ve already won.”
There was something about that… something true. But I couldn’t let him get the upper hand. Not for a second.
“You ever think maybe you’re the one being played?”
“I’ve thought about it,” he said easily. “And then I thought—better to keep my enemies close…” He leaned down slightly, his breath brushing the side of my face. “…but under me is closer.”
The audacity made my lips twitch. I wanted to slap him.
But I didn’t move. I didn’t let him have the satisfaction of a reaction.
I simply stared up at him with fire in my eyes and said, “The only reason I’d ever sleep with you, Rafael, is because it’d be easier to stab you through the heart when you’re already inside me. ”
The silence that followed that was sharp enough to slice through glass. His eyes darkened, and for one, tight second, I didn’t know if he was going to laugh—or lunge.
Instead, he stepped back. Just a fraction. But enough. There was tension in his jaw, but his expression was unreadable. He stared at me like I was a puzzle he hadn’t solved yet—and couldn’t decide if he wanted to.
I turned away first. Slowly. Deliberately. Then I walked back toward the front of the jet, hips swaying with the same confidence he wielded like a weapon. And sat back in my seat.
Kellan glanced up at me, brow raised in question.
I didn’t answer. I didn’t speak. Instead, I looked out the window. And I let the quiet swallow me whole.
Hours passed. The sky outside turned from deep sapphire to burning gold as we crossed over the sea and into Colombian airspace.
I barely moved. Barely blinked. Every few minutes, I’d glance at the dagger resting in the pocket of my coat. The weight of it against my thigh was comforting—familiar.
That man… he played chess like it was war. And I wasn’t na?ve enough to think I wasn’t already a piece on his board.
But what he didn’t know… was that I had my own. And I’d been playing since I was ten years old.
By the time the jet began to descend, dipping through clouds with the promise of heat and danger waiting below, my thoughts were sharper than ever. And I knew one thing for certain.
Whatever game Rafael thought he was playing—He hadn’t seen anything yet.
The wheels hit the tarmac with a jolt, shaking me from the haze I’d fallen into.
I sat up straighter in my seat, fingers brushing down the front of my black tank top as I looked out the small window.
Cartagena stretched beneath us—heat shimmering off the pavement, palm trees swaying under a sun that burned brighter than I wanted it to.
The sky was cloudless, too blue, too perfect for the kind of mess we’d just flown into.
Ash leaned forward from the seat beside me, peering out the window. “This looks like the kind of place people come to die or disappear.”
“Comforting,” I muttered.
Kellan chuckled lowly across the aisle. “Let’s just hope we do neither.”
The jet came to a slow stop, and the door began to open, the rush of hot air smacking us in the face like a warning.
My heels clicked against the floor as I stood, adjusting the gold chain around my waist. I ran my fingers through my ponytail, giving myself one last look in the window’s reflection before grabbing my bag.
We stepped out onto the tarmac and the heat hit me fully, sinking into my skin. It was the kind of weather that made you sweat secrets out of your pores.
I let my eyes drift to the activity happening near the rear of the plane—Rafael stood by a line of blacked-out SUVs, talking on the phone, his voice low and unreadable.
Around him, his men were unloading large, sealed crates from the cargo hold.
Weapons. Money. Something worse? Probably. I didn’t ask.