Page 302 of Vicious Temptation

Her sobs shake against my chest as she clings to me with everything she has.

“Focus on my voice, baby.” Smoke burns my throat, making every word harder to get out. “Don’t look at the fire. Just listen to me.”

She buries her face against me.

“That’s it. Stay right here with me.”

“I don’t want this to be the end.”

I close my eyes and rest my cheek against the top of her head. “It’ll be over soon.”

“Thiago...” She pulls back just enough to look at me, and I brush my thumb across her cheek.

“I’ll find you again, chama. I promise.”

“You better,” she says with a watery smile.

I pull her back against me as the building shudders around us.

“I love you so much,” she whispers.

“I love you too.”

A violent crash shakes the walls, and fresh cracks splinter across the ceiling. I cover her with my body as dust and pieces of concrete rain down around us again.

The roar grows louder.

At first, I think the rest of the building is finally coming down. Then metal grinds against concrete, and the section beside us begins to buckle inward.

“Oh, shit!”

The wall fractures as an armored vehicle plows through it, ripping away enough of it to leave a gaping hole.

“Remi!” Matteo appears through the dust. “Call out!”

I almost don’t trust what I’m seeing. After believing I was about to die with Remi in my arms, his arrival fills me with hope that she might actually make it out of here.

She jerks upright. “Matteo!”

“Fuck.” His shoulders drop the second he sees her. “Thank God.”

“Matteo, where’s my mom? Did they make it out?”

“She's out. She's okay. Kai’s with her.” He waves frantically toward the opening. “Come on! We need to move!”

Remi grabs my hand, and I push to my feet with her help. My wounded leg nearly folds beneath me, but she catches my arm and helps me toward the breach, where a section of the collapsed ceiling hangs over the opening, leaving barely enough room to crawl underneath.

She drops to her knees, but when she looks back at me, the panic is gone from her face. In its place is a resolve that sends a wave of fear through me before she even says a word.

“Remi, what are you doing?”

“You won’t fit through there.”

“I will.”

She shakes her head, her cheeks wet with tears as she looks at the opening again. “No, Thiago. It’s too small.”

I cup her face and bring her eyes back to mine. “I need you to go. Crawl through first.”