Valentina’s POV
The waves slapped against the shore like they had a personal vendetta against me. I tasted salt and blood on my lips, the coppery tang sliding down my throat, and for a second, I let the blackness take me. My body ached everywhere—every nerve screaming, but my mind refused to surrender. Not now. Not when the city’s shadows were closing in.
I opened my eyes to a gray dawn. Mist curled over the water like ghosts, hiding secrets that I knew too well how to read. My fingers dug into the sand, the grains biting, grounding me. Dominic wasn’t there. Of course he wasn’t. He never stayed. Not for anyone.
I forced myself up, limbs trembling like someone else’s. My jacket was torn, soaked, and heavy as lead. The night’s battle, the ambush, the explosion, the betrayal—it all weighed
