3

## Chapter 3

I arrived at the clinic ten minutes early. Too wired to sit. Too cautious to wait inside.

The place was a private rehabilitation center wrapped in expensive lies—white walls, flower beds, and guards in medical coats. A perfect shell for hiding something—or someone.

I lit a cigarette with a trembling hand. I don’t smoke. I just needed something to do with my fingers besides reaching for a gun.

At exactly 9:00 p.m., a nurse in pale green scrubs opened the side door and nodded once. No words. Just a nod.

Showtime.

I followed her down a sterile corridor that smelled like bleach and betrayal. Every step echoed like a countdown. The halls twisted, deeper than they should’ve. I didn’t ask questions. I already knew the answers would cost something I couldn’t afford.

She stopped outside a door labeled 3B. My fingers closed around the handle.

"You’re sure?" she asked quietly.

I wasn't.

I opened the door anyway.

The room was dim, the blinds half-drawn. Machines hummed softly. In the bed—too thin, face half-covered in gauze, but alive—was Luca.

I didn’t breathe. My throat closed up.

Luca.

The man who used to make Antonio human. The one person I trusted after I stopped trusting my lover. The one who’d whispered truths no one else dared.

His eyes opened slowly, groggy and red-rimmed. But when he saw me, he smiled like he'd been waiting.

“Took you long enough,” he rasped.

I couldn’t speak. I didn’t move.

“Cass... they tried to kill me,” he coughed. “Antonio… he ordered it.”

I knew. I’d always known.

But hearing it—hearing it from him—was a blade between my ribs. The last thread of hope that maybe Antonio was just cruel, not murderous, finally snapped.

“Why?” I managed.

Luca’s eyes glinted. “Because I found out what he was doing with the cartel. With Camila’s father. Shipping weapons through the port—untraceable, under diplomatic cover.”

Of course.

The marriage wasn’t love. It was logistics.

“He needed me gone. And you out of the picture.”

I stepped closer, my voice cold steel. “Why fake your death? Why stay hidden?”

Luca gritted his teeth. “Because if I came out too soon, I’d be dead for real. And you… you still trusted him then.”

I laughed bitterly. “Not anymore.”

He looked up at me, his jaw tightening. “You want to bring him down?”

I nodded.

He reached under the bed and pulled out a flash drive. “This has everything—shipment logs, accounts, names. Including the ones in the DA’s office and the governor’s cabinet.”

I stared at it. That little sliver of metal could blow up everything.

“Cass,” Luca said, voice low. “If you go down this path… there’s no turning back.”

I met his gaze.

“I never planned to.”

I left the clinic with the flash drive burning a hole in my pocket and fire in my blood.

By tomorrow, Antonio’s empire would start to bleed.

And I’d be the one holding the knife.