Page 1 of Hostile Love
1
DANIELA
I’ve been cooped up within these same four walls for long enough. I’d kick the steel door in if I thought it was going to work.
Earlier, when I’d regained consciousness on the concrete floor, I was all alone. My cell phone had disappeared and the collection of weapons I had under my base layer was missing too.
Though I’d chuckled, remembering my favorite daggers were still stuck in Eduardo’s face.
Out of my thirty-two years of life, the overwhelming sense of euphoria I’d had when my blades punctured his eyeballs…that waspriceless.
For years, I’d been harnessed by a hunger to slaughter the bastard. Then Matheus handed the asshole over to me and my soul came to life.
Even now, a shiver of justice prickles over my skin. A tingle of blissful retribution—but deep within the dark corners of my violent little heart, I’m scared.
Not because I was kidnapped from outside my father’s safe house in the city or that I’m imprisoned somewhere unknown to me all over again.
It’s because I have an inherent desire to be near Matheus Souza all the time. He got to me, and I let him.
And the bliss I enjoyed while finally avenging Margo—that was just a fraction of how I felt when Matheus put his hands on me.
Which he did––a lot––and, in truth, I loved it.
Even when the guy simply smiled at me, that connection had a way of coaxing out my vulnerabilities.
I didn’t think I had any weakness, but I guess behind my murdering mindset lies a gentle woman craving real love.
After he gave me Eduardo as a gift, he asked me to trust him. When I arrived at Blanco’s, I did. One hundred percent.
I was all in.
Call it reckless abandonment or whatever. I trusted him implicitly.
Only he slashed right through the bond we’d somehow forged and plunged a pen into my heart, making the ink of his actions poison in my veins.
The guy I had sworn to myself I’d never feel anything for signed a contract that tied him to my little sister as her future husband. He put himself in an irreversible alliance with Sofia Blanco.
Matheus picked another woman. He willingly attached himself toher. Not me.
His shady Souza ways are the reason my heart hurts and my stomach aches. He was the reason I got distracted and ran headfirst into danger.
Why I’m locked up in this shitty empty office by myself all because of a Souza.
Over time, the Souza god had worked his way under my skin. Killed my nightmares. Gave me a source of happiness. Made me truly fall for his bullshit––for him.
And then he did what every lying, cheating Souza does.
He betrayed me.
That alone should awaken all sorts of destructive emotions. I should hate the man even more.
Unfortunately, I don’t.
And that's why I’m scared.
I’m in love with a guy who’s going to marry the heir to the Blanco empire rather than an assassin.
He chose an innocent girl, a decade younger than me, all because she matches his beauty, power, and wealth.
