Page 290 of Vicious Temptation

“He told me to get everyone out and protect Zara. Remi, he told me that if he didn’t make it to you himself, I had to tell you he loved you.”

Bile rises in my throat.

“He said everything you two shared was real.”

Thiago said the same words to me on the rooftop, and I called him a liar. My eyes burn, and I look away from Matteo before he can see how badly that memory hurts.

“What happened after that?” My voice barely works, so I have to ask again before Matteo answers.

He lowers his eyes. “He said they found him.”

“And then?”

“He got hit. I don’t know whether they ran him off the road or T-boned him, but I heard the crash, and then the line went dead.”

I shake my head. “No, none of this makes any sense.”

“What if it’s a trap?” Mamá asks as she takes the phone from Matteo.

“I don’t think it is,” he says. “He sounded terrified, but not for himself.”

My eyes are fixed on the photograph, still glowing on the screen. “Why would they turn on him?”

No one answers, but as I stare at the blood covering Thiago’s face, the answer becomes painfully clear. He warned my family and tried to protect us, and Helios turned on him for it.

Because of me.

I grab my case and hurry to the door.

“Remi, wait!” someone calls after me, but I keep moving.

The heartbreak, the lies, and the betrayal are still there, but none of it matters right now because Thiago needs me. If I have to put a bullet in him myself after I drag him out of there, then so be it. But nobody else is laying a fucking hand on him.

“Follow me!” I yell over my shoulder without breaking stride.

I may be desperate, but I’m not reckless enough to charge in alone and risk getting us both killed. I need my family with me.

I throw myself into my car and tear out of the driveway. In the rearview mirror, Matteo falls in behind me, followed by my parents, Aunt Leni and Uncle Silas, with Uncle Derek and Aunt Eva bringing up the rear. I don’t have time to explain where I’m going or why. I tell them to follow me, and not one of them hesitates.

“Remi,” Papá’s voice comes through the speakers. “If, for some reason, you get there before us, you hold. Do you understand me?”

“I just need you to keep up.” I push the speedometer higher. “He didn’t look good.”

“I understand that, baby, but if this is what we think it is, charging in without a plan will only end badly.”

Before I can argue, Mamá joins the call, followed one by one by everyone else.

“I found the address,” Aunt Eva says. “The property belongs to a shell corporation with no business filings, no employees, and no operating history. As far as the public record is concerned, the building shouldn’t exist.”

Silence follows her discovery.

“Whatever’s inside that building,” Uncle Silas says, “someone invested a lot of time and money to keep it hidden.”

“Then we assume the worst,” Uncle Derek says. “Everybody stays together until we know what we’re walking into.”

I don’t answer. My eyes stay on the road as the world warps past the windows. Every second we spend talking is another second Thiago is trapped inside that building.

Two days ago, I was ready to kill him myself, and I almost did. Now the thought of getting there too late scares me more than anything he did to me.