“Okay, okay,” he said quickly, his earlier bravado crumbling into uncertainty. “Just stop looking at me like that—like you’re ready to bring me down.”
Another chair scraped back.
Faster this time.
Marcelo’s footsteps retreated into the crowd, swallowed immediately by the bass and laughter and artificial normality of the club resuming its shape around us.
My fingers pressed lightly into the bar for balance, the polished surface cool beneath my palm.
My breath felt uneven—not panicked, but alert in a way that made my body feel suddenly too aware of itself.
Ramiro’s presence shifted back toward me immediately.
“Loretta,” he said, voice still tight but now focused, “we need to leave. Now.”
I didn’t argue.
I nodded once, even though he couldn’t see it.
My heart was still hammering against my ribs, fast and unsteady, like it was trying to find an exit through my chest.
I slid off the stool carefully, one hand still on the counter for orientation.
“Let’s go,” I said quietly.
Ramiro guided me again, this time with urgency.
We moved fast.
The bar disappeared behind us as sound shifted again.
We stepped out.
Night hit my face immediately, sharp and real.
It might have seemed as though I had become part of the war the Italians were bringing into Spain—especially into Rafael’s world—without meaning to
We reached the car quickly.
Ramiro opened the door and guided me in without slowing.
I lowered myself into the passenger seat, the leather cold against my skin, grounding and real in a way my thoughts were not.
The door shut.
Immediately, the world shrank again.
The engine roared to life with aggressive power, louder than before, as if the car itself was reacting to what had just happened.
We pulled away fast.
Tires gripping the road sharply.
Acceleration pressed me back into the seat, the force steady but firm enough that my stomach tightened instinctively.
The city blurred into motion around us, though I could not see it. I felt it instead—the shifting turns, the sudden straight stretches, the way Ramiro drove like distance itself needed to be erased.
I swallowed.
