Page 271 of Corrupting Camille
My throat tightens, eyes drifting toward Camille across the courtyard, smiling, radiant, safe. Mine. “I want to believe you. But every night I close my eyes and see how quickly I could lose them.”
“You won’t,” Diego says, voice steel, his grip tightening painfully. “Because we fight, we bleed, we kill but we never fail what’s ours. And now your woman, your child…they belong to us, too.”
I turn back to him, loyalty burning hot and raw in my chest. This man, my brother in every way but blood, has walked through hell beside me. He’s never faltered. Never questioned.
“You’ve always been my brother, Diego,” I say roughly, emotion breaking through my voice. “In every way that matters.”
He yanks me into a fierce embrace, hard and unyielding. We stay locked there for one charged, silent heartbeat, promises passed without another word.
When he pulls back, Diego offers a tight, rare smile. “Congratulations, hermano. To you and your Camille.”
But the word “congratulations” has barely faded into the humid night when everything cracks wide open, violence shattering our fragile peace with brutal precision.
Camille
The laughter fractures, splintered by a scream so raw it shreds the night wide open.
My heart stops, breath frozen painfully in my lungs as Lena’s nails bite into my wrist, her eyes wild, unseeing. Everything around us crashes into chaos, bodies scattering, paper lanterns swaying violently, strings snapping loose to spiral into shadows. And then comes the gunfire, sharp and brutal, cracking through the air like bones breaking.
Men pour into the courtyard, dark, faceless, moving swift and precise, weapons glinting deadly under the fractured lights. My pulse hammers violently, blood roaring in my ears, throat closing tight.
“Camille,” Lena gasps, voice a choked whisper, panicked.
“Stay down!” I shove her behind a stone column, heart screaming in my chest, scanning frantically for Kane, for strength, for safety, for the vicious calm only he possesses.
I spot him instantly, already moving, no hesitation, a Glock in hand, black steel flashing with ruthless purpose. He fires without pause, dropping attackers with cold, terrifying precision, his face twisted, lethal, eyes wild with fury andviolence. My heart lunges toward him, desperate, terrified, clinging to his strength across the chaos.
Then, slicing through the madness, Lucia screams again, sharp and hysterical. My gaze snaps to her, frozen, vulnerable, caught in the open, eyes wide with terror, body shaking violently as bullets fly like angry hornets around her.
“Lucia!” Diego’s shout rips through the gunfire, savage and raw, propelling him forward with a desperation so powerful it steals my breath. He barrels toward his daughter, arms open, shielding her, body forming a barrier without hesitation.
Time fractures. Every heartbeat stretches into a lifetime, brutal and relentless.
Kane pivots sharply, firing instantly, one shot, two, three, each bullet finding a target, carving a bloody path toward Diego and Lucia. Blood splatters stone, screams echoing, chaos multiplying around us.
But then…
The single gunshot rings out louder, sharper, more devastating.
Diego jerks violently, eyes wide with shock and pain, staggering forward. Blood erupts hot and vivid, staining his white shirt crimson, spreading horribly fast. Lucia screams again, wretched, broken, voice tearing apart the very air around us.
“NO!” Kane’s roar fractures through the courtyard, guttural, anguished. He charges forward, firing again and again, dropping every man who dares stand in his way, his face savage and haunted.
Diego crumples to his knees, still shielding Lucia with the last of his strength, his expression a twisted mask of agony and fierce, undying love. Blood pools darkly, staining his hands, his daughter’s dress.
My chest splits wide open. Lena grips me harder, crying silently, her body trembling, terror radiating from her like heat.
Kane reaches Diego, hits the ground beside him, hands shaking violently as they grip Diego’s shoulders, desperate, frantic. “Look at me, Diego…fucking look at me!”
Diego’s head tilts weakly, gaze sliding to Kane’s, eyes dimming rapidly. “Lucia…Rosa… my girls…” His words slur, drowning in blood and agony.
“I’ve got them,” Kane rasps fiercely, voice cracking, the vow seared into his words, into his heart. “They’re mine now. I swear it.”
Diego’s eyes meet mine briefly, just a single heartbeat, burning with desperate, unspoken love. Family. Loyalty. The promise we always kept hidden. And then his gaze fades, fluttering closed slowly, peacefully, despite the violence raging around us.
Kane’s broken scream echoes through the night, raw and fractured, an animalistic sound, full of loss and fury and grief that tears into my soul and leaves it bleeding.
And just like that, everything we’ve built, every fragile hope we’d gathered, shatters around us, replaced by blood, vengeance, and a violence we’ll never escape.
