Before she says I do

The devil's back

The sky looked endless from thirty thousand feet up.

Sophia sat stiff in the soft cream leather seat. Her fingers gripped the armrest tight. The jet was all about Lorenzo, sleek and cold, with black marble touches and gold parts.

The faint smell of whiskey lingered in the air.

Next to her, Ellie curled up under a blanket. Her little face pressed against the window. She was only twelve, too young for this fear, too young to get the danger hiding in all this fancy stuff.

Sophia brushed hair from her sister's face. "Are you okay?" she whispered.

Ellie nodded, but it was weak. "I just don't like him watching us," she said softly.

Sophia looked across the cabin. Lorenzo sat a few seats away. He looked relaxed, but she couldn't read him. His eyes were half-closed, like he owned the whole world already. He didn't say a word, but Sophia felt his stare like a hand on her neck.

They flew on his private jet. Lorenzo could buy ten of them without noticing the dent in his bank account. As El Diablo, he was the second-richest man in the world, super rich, the kind that makes news and enemies.

No one knew who was number one. No one had even seen that guy.

But El Diablo? Everyone knew the devil when they saw him. His money came from fear, blood, and dark deals. The world learned quickly not to mess with him.

Sophia had made that mistake once.

Now her little sister was slowly been dragged into that world too.

Her stomach twisted as she watched him. His face was calm, and hard to read. She already knew he knew she hadn't acted alone that night. She joined his enemies, and they all thought the devil was dead and it was all over.

But it wasn't.

He came back stronger.

Sophia tilted her head a little to look at him.

She saw the sharp line of his jaw. The shape of his lips. How they moved a bit when he took a sip. Damn it! He was handsome. Too handsome.

She didn't know why, but she saw him differently now. It felt weird and scary at the same time. She had never looked at him this way before. Never for once found him attractive.

She tapped her forehead lightly, to snap out of it. This is the guy who hurt you, Soph. The one you hate. Get a grip on yourself, don't be a dummy.

When she looked up, he was staring right back at her. Their eyes met. For a second, Sophia couldn't look away.

That's when she saw his eyes again. It was different from the ones she knew before. It was dark blue instead of black.

The Lorenzo she remembered had black eyes. She remembered that vividly.

"Why are your eyes blue?" Sophia’s voice shaking slightly.

Lorenzo went still.

His glass stopped halfway to his mouth.

Sophia watched his fingers tighten around it.

Slowly, he lowered the glass.

"What did you just say?"

Sophia's throat went dry. "I . . . asked about your eyes. They're blue."

He stared hard, like he could cut her with his look. "Lenses," he said.

The calm expression was still there, but it no longer reached his eyes.

Sophia frowned.

"Lenses," he repeated casually. "You ask too many questions."

"It was just a question."

He said nothing.

He turned toward the window instead.

The sunlight caught his eyes, making the blue impossible to miss.

Sophia stared at them for another second before forcing herself to look away.

Ellie shifted beneath her blanket.

"I like his eyes, though."

Sophia's head snapped toward her.

"Shh, baby."

"But they're pretty."

"Elli—."

The little girl kept quiet immediately.

But Lorenzo heard. He turned his head slowly. His lips curved into a smile. For a quick second, it made his face softer. Then it was gone.

Sophia gave a shaky smile. "She didn't mean it," she said softly.

He just hummed a low sound that made the air feel colder.

The jet's hum filled the quiet. Sophia looked out the window, at the clouds. But her heart kept pounding .

********************

The room reeked of Macallan and cigarette smoke.

Damien sat still, elbows on the desk. His eyes locked on his phone screen : WEDDING INTERRUPTED BEFORE THE BRIDE SAYS I DO

His gaze lingered on the screen.

There was Lorenzo.

Damien watched in silence as he slowly drew the pistol. Something in Damien’s expression changed.

He slammed the phone against the wall.

CRACK!

The screen shattered, pieces scattering across the floor.

No one moved.

Damien’s chest rose and fell heavily. His jaw tightened as he stared at the broken phone, his hands trembling—not from fear alone, but from the rage burning through him.

He turned and drove his fist into the wall.

THUD!

Again.

And again.

The skin across his knuckles split, blood trickling down his fingers.

“f**k!” he roared.

The men in the room flinched.

One of them instinctively took a step back. Then another followed, lowering his gaze as if even looking at Damien might make things worse.

Damien stared at the blood running down his hand.

Lorenzo was coming.

And for the first time, the thought seemed to frighten him more than it angered him.

The people around him shift back fearfully.

He took a slow drag from his cigarette. Exhaled. Watched the smoke twist up to the ceiling. It looked like ghosts of all the bodies they'd buried.

Back in the day, they ran it all—the ports, guns, black markets of Mayord. Every dirty deal that could break a man.

Lorenzo did the business while He made Damien spill the blood.

They weren't just partners. They were brothers. Two devils building an empire from dirt and scratch.

But the brothers started fighting over the crown.

It started with small whispers, dealers loyal to Damien vanishing, money meant for him going to Lorenzo's secret pockets.

Lorenzo got weird shipments. Signed codes Damien didn't know. He'd built something in their world, a hidden layer.

Damien thought it was in his head at first. Then one night, the truth hit.

Lorenzo cut a deal with Eastern Trade. Billions in dirty cash, weapons, drugs, even people.

All signed "A." Lorenzo's new mark.

That night, Damien stopped being a partner. He turned into an enemy.

He didn't plan to kill Lorenzo right away. Just wanted to watch him fall. But then Sophia showed up.

She was smart, tough and full of fire. Perfect for the job Damien couldn't do.

So when she pulled the trigger that rainy night, he let her. Stood back and watched.

Watched Lorenzo drop. Rain mixed with his blood. Their empire cracked.

He thought it was done.

But now... the devil himself is back again.

Damien's jaw went tight. He crashed the cigarette out, killing the last smoke.

His voice came low and dark. "If he's back, the world's going to bleed."

He stood. His face caught in the window glass. Mayford's neon lights flashed across it.

"Get the team ready," he told his men. One of them flinched. " Let them prepare for the battle ahead."

No one in the room moved for a long moment. The air felt thick — like smoke and storm pressed together.

Then Damien turned away from the window. “Up,” he said quietly. That one word made every man in the room scramble.

Chairs scraped. Guns clicked. The whole place came alive, like a beast waking after years asleep.

He walked through them slowly, lighting another cigarette. “We built this empire,” he said under his breath. “Brick by dirty brick. I’m not letting him take it back.”

A younger man, barely twenty, stopped him halfway. “Boss … what if it’s really him?”

Damien took a drag, let the smoke curl from his mouth. “Then we kill him again,” he said simply.

The kid swallowed hard.

He left the office, footsteps echoing through the hall. Every wall was lined with men who used to bow to Lorenzo once, now they bow to him. But tonight, fear crawled back into their eyes.

At the end of the corridor, Damien stopped by the steel door that led to the vault. He typed in the code himself. The lock hissed open.

Inside was the kind of darkness that remembered things.

There were stacks of money, different kinds of weapons, files and on the back wall a photograph of him and Lorenzo. Smiling once.

Damien looked at it for a long time. Then he tore it down.

“Prepare everything,” he said again, voice low and final. “Because if the devil’s really back again …”

He dropped the photo on the floor and crashed it under his boot.

“ …then hell’s about to open.”