Page 7 of Fall
He flicks out his wrist to check the time. “The sun will set in a few hours. Let me go to her. I’ll give her a weapon and proper clothes.”
I narrow my eyes at his request, knowing the reason but choosing to ignore my own hateful panic for her safety. “Why?”
He snorts like he’s shocked by my question. “To give her a fighting chance, sir.”
Churning organs revolt in my core, and the thin line taming my disposition snaps. I lash out and grab his throat, noting his Adam’s apple bob. “Really? Do we have a fucking problem here, Salvador?” Anger hurtles through my limbs with a toxic rush of bane.
Brown eyes harden to smoky quartz. “No, sir,” he grits out. “She doesn't deserve to die out there. Not like that. Not alone.”
Fury prickles the vision of his fretful concern. Fisting his shirt, I shove him against the helicopter and reach for my gun that’s wedged beneath my belt. “Perhaps you persuaded her to send a note? Are you conspiring against me too?” My lungs burn. “Were you fucking her?” I jab his cheek with hard steel. A blinding jealousy sabotages rationality. I have no reason to suspect such a crazy claim. My thoughts are tied in knots and pinned to crosses. “Tell me,” I snarl into his face. “Were you fucking her as well?” The pending answer jabs my heart with spears of envy. Such painful splinters that have no right to hurt me like they do.
“No,” he grits out. “It was obvious the woman was utterly fascinated withyou.” His head shakes with pity. My pulse trips. A flashback of graceful sweetness, enticing lips, pleading eyes and a gasp of shock wipes my brain from every other thought. “I could tell you bonded with her,” Sal continues. The syllables tremor ever so slightly when he strains his neck beneath my ruthless palm. “I had hoped Iris could dust the ashes off your shoulders and give you something else to live for, other than this place.”
My jaw clenches so tightly I swear my teeth will shatter. “I don’t give a fuck about her. She’s a traitor. A fucking snake. Do you understand? She meansnothingto me.” I catch my breath after the growling lie.
“El Fantasma.” Luiz’s voice cuts through the intensity of our standoff. “I’ll take Salvador with me to cabin thirteen. You can let him go now. We have a job to do.”
Clenched fingers release. Staggering back a few necessary steps, I lowered the barrel biting his flesh. A sharp ache burrows into my chest. I clutch the moist material restricting the swell of both lungs. The urge to drown out the echo of her scream ripples in waves. I’m losing my mind under the palm trees. Conflicted and broken. Shaken and consumed with disappointment.
She lied to me.
A downpour of goosebumps rain from my nape down the curve of my spine. My heart stops hammering with a thirst for blood and thrums with loss.
I’m grieving for her. For what we shared.
The soles of my boots batter the walkways until I reach her vacant cabin. Spasms of doubt spread to my covered eyes, blinding me with cruel visions. I kissed her goodbye, then pushed her out of a helicopter. I watched her mouth gape when she yelled as she fell out of my reach. The flavor of eternity and false promises still tingles my taste buds. But that’s something neither of us will ever know again. It’s punishment for us both.
With my teeth gnashed together, I let myself inside. It’s either desperation or idiocy that wishes I’ll discover her safe in the lavish cage. The witless laugh that escapes me shatters the serene facade of an oasis. A cruel silence follows my outburst. She was never safe. Far from it.
This suite wasn’t a refuge. It was a glass box where I covertly observed her every move. From strolling around the suite without clothes, wrapping her lips around a straw to sip the drinks I’d left her, to foaming up her milky skin in the shower. Every step she made played out before me, burning boundaries and teasing my self-discipline. Fascination snowballed into an obsession.
And now she’s gone too.
Just like Gabriela.
After they killed my sister, I easily accepted the alternative version I’d created of myself. The merciless el Fantasma who built a hidden world where identities no longer mattered. I became a ghost who haunted demons and sacrificed my soul.
My callous actions toward my enemies were a means to an end. I clearly understood the driving force behind my alter ego. I justified savage deeds behind the mask of a devoted brother. A man lost in revenge without sight of what a peaceful future would look like, or if it even existed. Now the mask is no longer—I’ve evolved into a heartless man who’s crippled with bloodthirsty urges and incapable of closeness.
Over the years, I’ve sought little pleasure in the billions of dollars stacked up from my endeavors. I’m numbed to the satisfaction of revenge because Gabriela is still missing from my life. I became mentally untouchable and wealthier than I ever dreamed possible. I weathered the storm of heartbreak in my own goddamn secluded part of the universe where I make all the rules.
An unfair past gave me the justification to delete and alter lives. That was then, before a red-headed siren appeared out of nowhere and gave me a glimpse of a new future. Now, my conscience is muddy and stressed. I’m paralyzed by emotions I hoped to never endure again.
How do I survive the ghost of Iris Kitson?
My stomach lurches in the wake of dubiety. I punch the wall with an earth-shattering explosion, snarling out my dissatisfaction. All four knuckles take the force and ache with satisfying discipline. The lesson shudders through me with remembrance. Everyone I’ve ever loved has expired throughout time. I’m the violence that causes death. I’m the reason Gabriela's soul glitters in the night sky, a million light years away. Realistically, Iris never stood a chance in my Oasis. We were destined to destroy each other eventually.
El Fantasma got there first.
It has to be this way.
I hurry to strip down, removing every trace of my disguise because right now I am Dante Valez. The wretched man in mourning and the very man who refused to listen. I dive into the pool, breaking through the aqua blue surface. Tepid water encases my stiff form, offering a brief sense of quietude.
I’ve let Iris consume me for too long.
It’s over now.
But as I sink to the bottom, shackled with an almighty weight of regret, I realize it’s far from over.
