Adrian Costa had seen blood spill like wine and heard confessions whispered before death. But nothing rattled him like the image of Valentina cradling a gun, fire in her eyes and defiance on her lips. It should’ve angered him, her disobedience, her audacity. Instead, it lit something inside him. Something dangerous.
He stood by the balcony of his office, the city below him drenched in the golden hue of dusk. The windows reflected his own face back at him, sharp angles and sharper eyes. Valentina was supposed to be a pawn, a tool, or at most, a trophy. But she had become a storm.
Adrian lit a cigar, watching the smoke curl upward like the thoughts in his mind. She didn’t beg. She didn’t fold. Even when faced with death, she stared it down with a chin held high. And when she pulled that tr
