Love in the Crossfire

Chapter-4: Sharks in Valencia

"Didn’t I tell you not to touch her?"

Alejandro’s words echoed with a loud bang in Gabriel head,hours passed as the morales private jet flew

through the night sky towards the city of Valencia.He sat opposite Elisabeth in the cabin, tension between

them radiating hot and dangerous like live wire. She was seated, her legs placed unto the other and her

thighs showing slightly from her gown.

“You don’t look terrified,” she murmured, sparking a conversation. Her voice was soothing with a little

challenge underneath.

Gabriel tilted his head, meeting her lovely eyes. “Should I be?”

Her lips curved into a faint, dangerous smile. “Most men who sit across from my father are dead within the

year. You, Señor Cruz, might not last the week.”

Her words should have chilled him. Instead, they awoke something strange in his chest. “Maybe I’m not

like most men.”

Elisabeth moved slowly towards him her perfume different from anything he'd had ever smelt a blend of

jasmine and a touch of something darker, smokier slipping into his senses screaming abomination. “That,”

she whispered, “is what makes you dangerous.”

From the entrance of the cabin Alejandro’s right-hand man, Mateo,glanced behind His focus tailored on

the two of them a moment too long before returning to his tablet. A silent reminder: nothing escaped

Alejandro’s empire. Nothing.

It was about 8:45 pm in the evening the clouds grew dark and suddenly a convoy of black tinted SUVs

drove in, huge machines on the port standing tall and shadows casting into the sea Shipping vessels,

shipping containers stacked onto each other like the Egyptian pyramid, men with machine guns and

daggers tucked under their clothes patrolled the dock.

Alejandro stepped out of the vehicle, his aura unmatched, his chain glinting against his black shirt.

He carefully scanned the surrounding checking his domain.

Beside him, stood who Gabriel felt the weight of a dozen guards, lieutenants, killers, all assessing and

scanning, waiting for him to slip.

“This,” Alejandro muttered, his voice deep and commanding, “is where loyalty is forged—or broken.

One mistake here, and the sharks don’t wait for scraps. They take everything.”

He gestured for Gabriel to follow. Elisabeth wanted to get closer, her blue eyes, flickering with so many

things unsaid when they locked in with Gabriel’s.

Inside a container, weapons, rifles, handguns, explosives worth billions of dollars were stacked. Workers

moved with nervous precision, terrified of miscounting.

Alejandro nodded to Gabriel. “Check them. I want to see if your eyes are as sharp as your tongue.”

Gabriel knelt, opening a crate. His fingers brushed cold steel, his trained eye cataloguing the weapons in

seconds. “American AR-15s. Russian Kalashnikovs. Black market tags removed, serials filed. Clean work.”

Alejandro’s lips twitched—the closest thing to approval. “Good. Very good.”

Before anyone got comfortable, loud noises erupted outside.

Gunfire pieced through the morning air. Men running around, ammunitions flying off containers. Men

scattered, bullets ricocheting off containers. Rival banners flashed—a rival cartel had chosen this moment

to strike.

“Get her down!” Alejandro barked, shoving Elisabeth behind cover. His pistol was already in his hand, firing

back with precision that spoke of decades in blood.

Gabriel’s training kicked in. He picked up a rifle from the crate, snapped the magazine into place, and

began to unload fire with deadly accuracy. Each shot was measured, deliberate, taking men down before

they could advance.

“Who the hell told you to fight?” Mateo snarled, ducking behind a stack of crates.

“Would you rather I stand here and die pretty?” Gabriel shot back, his voice calm under fire.

Elisabeth’s eyes found him in the chaos. And in the middle of the heat, watching him take on the souls of

men, something shifted inside her. He was different from her father’s pawns. He was something else.

Something dangerous enough to draw her in, even as bullets flew.

The rapid exchange went on for minutes that felt days. Then, suddenly it was pin drop silence. The last of

the rival cartel lay bleeding on the ground, their attack crushed under the whims of Alejandro’s brutal

efficiency.

Alejandro stood staring at the pile of bodies, his shirt soaked with blood that wasn’t his own. He looked

slowly at Gabriel holding rifle firmly as though the battle wasn’t over.

“You fight like a soldier,” Alejandro exclaimed. It wasn’t a compliment. It was a question wrapped in

suspicion.

Gabriel looked straight into his eyes without flinching. “I told you. I deal in security. You don’t survive in

that business if you can’t shoot straight.”

The air tightened. For a moment, it seemed Alejandro might put a bullet in him right there on the docks.

Then, at last, the mafia lord gave a single nod.

“Perhaps I was right about you.”

Mateo’s glare burned holes in Gabriel’s back. But Elisabeth… her expression was unreadable. Except for her

eyes. Her eyes betrayed the fire he had lit in her.

That night, the Morales entourage took over an entire villa overlooking the Mediterranean. Security was all

over the dock, but inside, were loud screams of victory, alcohol, and yet an unspoken threat lingers.

Gabriel walked away from all of it and moved to the balcony, needing fresh air from the heat of Alejandro’s

scrutiny. The air was cold and sea black and endless, faint voice and secret he couldn’t afford to share.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

Elisabeth’s voice. Smooth. Soft. And far too close.

He turned. She stood in the doorway, her beautiful sexy frame made majestic by the golden lights from the

villa, a glass of red wine in her hand. Her figure well sculpted underneath her rob could tempt men into sin.

“I could say the same to you,” Gabriel replied.

She moved closer, her bare feet silent on the marble. “You saved my father today. But you’re hiding

something. I see it in your eyes. You carry ghosts.”

Gabriel’s throat tightened. “Don’t go digging where it’s dangerous.”

Her laugh was soft, bitter. “Danger is all I’ve ever known.”

Then she walked to his front staring into his eyes, close enough for her perfume to fill his lungs. Her eyes

locked on his, blue fire against a blade.

“You’re going to destroy me,” she whispered.

And she kissed him.

The whole world stood still everything fading away, their gunfire, the lies, the shackles of their names. Her

lips, soft, tender, fierce and hungry, and the thought that this was the one sin neither of them could survive.

A sudden sound of slow, deliberate clapping repeatedly ruined the moment.

Gabriel froze. Elisabeth’s eyes widened.

Alejandro was standing in the doorway, his expression vague. But his eyes, his eyes burned with

something between rage and amusement.

“Well,” Alejandro said softly, his voice deadly calm. “It seems I was right to warn you.”

The silence that followed was a noose tightening around both their throats.