Page 18 of Bride of Vengeance

The realization should terrify me. Instead, it sends heat spiraling through my chest in ways that have nothing to do with adrenaline and everything to do with the memory of strong arms pulling me against a hard body.

A hand touches my shoulder in the darkness. I spin around with my weapon raised, but another hand catches my wrist with gentle but immovable strength.

"Easy, little wolf." That voice. "It's over."

Mikhail.

I can't see him in the darkness, but I can smell him. Leather and gunpowder and something clean that makes me think of snow falling on pine trees. He's close enough that I can feel the warmth radiating from his body, close enough that if I leaned forward just a few inches, I could press my face against his chest and pretend for one moment that I'm not a federal agent who's just been marked for death.

Focus, Mariana.

"How many?" I whisper.

"Four interior, two snipers across the street, three-man team on the roof." His voice is calm, professional. Like he's giving a briefing instead of describing the small army that just tried to kill me. "All down."

All down.Seven trained killers eliminated in the time it took me to hide behind my kitchen counter. The Ghost isn't just lethal—he's operating on a level I can barely comprehend.

"We need to move," he continues. "NYPD response time to this address is six minutes. Federal backup will be here in ten."

"Federal backup?" The words come out bitter. "You mean Harrison's people?"

"Harrison's people were the ones shooting at you, little wolf. The ones coming now are legitimate federal agents who think you're a traitor and I'm a terrorist. Neither of us wants that conversation."

He's right.If federal agents find me here with multiple dead contractors and the infamous Ghost, there's no explanation that ends with me keeping my freedom. Harrison has already painted me as compromised. This would just be confirmation.

"Why?" The question slips out before I can stop it. "Why help me?"

Even in the darkness, I can feel his attention focus on me like a physical weight. When he speaks, his voice carries something I don't expect. Something that sounds almost like... tenderness.

"Because you're the only federal agent who's ever gotten close to the truth. And because..." He pauses, and I swear I can hear him struggle with whatever he's about to say. "Because you matter, Mariana. More than you know."

Mariana.Not ‘Agent Castillo.’ Not ‘little wolf.’ My actual name, spoken like a prayer in the darkness.

Don't. Don't read anything into it. He's a criminal who's probably manipulating you for reasons you don't understand yet.

But the way he said it makes my chest tight with something that feels dangerously close to sympathy.

"Can you walk?" he asks, all business again.

"I'm not hurt."

"Good. We're going out the fire escape. Stay close, move quiet, and try not to shoot me."

"I make no promises about that last part."

I feel rather than see his smile. "Fair enough."

He guides me through my destroyed apartment with the confidence of someone who can see in the dark. When we reach the window that leads to the fire escape, he pauses.

"Mariana." There's my name again, spoken in that voice that does things to my nervous system. "When we get outside, I need you to trust me. Can you do that?"

Trust him.Trust the most wanted man in the criminal underworld. Trust the phantom I've spent two years hunting. Trust the killer who just saved my life and called me by my first name like it means something.

Trust the man who chose to risk himself to keep you alive.

"Do I have a choice?"

"There's always a choice. But right now you don’t have many more."