Chapter 4 - The Betrayal in the Dark
The night devolved into chaos.
Damian was forced to leave the gala immediately to command his forces at the docks, deploying Lucian and thirty armed men to defend their primary shipping hub.
For Elena’s safety, Damian ordered Mateo and a secondary convoy to escort her straight back to the security of the hill estate.
The heavy armored Mercedes sped through the rain-slicked streets of the city, flanked by two black SUVs. Inside the car, Elena sat in silence, staring out the tinted window at the passing city lights. Her mind was racing. The look in Damian’s eyes back in the ballroom—the raw, protective tenderness—had shaken her to her core.
She was falling in love with him.
It was crazy, terrifying, and completely illogical. He was a mob boss, a man surrounded by violence and blood. But she had seen his soul—his fierce loyalty, his hidden gentleness, and the way he looked at her as if she were the only thing that mattered in a dark, cruel world.
Suddenly, the SUV screeched to a violent halt.
The force of the braking threw Elena forward against her seatbelt. Outside, the headlights illuminated a heavy construction truck parked diagonally across the narrow mountain road leading up to the estate, blocking their path entirely.
"Mateo! What is it?" Elena asked, panic surging through her blood.
"Ambush! Stay down, Mrs. Cross!" Mateo roared, pulling his firearm and speaking into his radio. "Unit Two, flank left! We have a roadblock!"
Before the guard vehicles could maneuver, the surrounding pine trees erupted with gunfire.
Heavy automatic rounds shattered the windows of the lead security SUV. Explosions echoed down the narrow canyon as smoke grenades were tossed under Elena's car, filling the air with suffocating white gas.
"Out! Out!" Mateo yelled, opening the door and pulling Elena out of the vehicle, shielding her body with his own heavy frame as bullets hissed through the night air.
Elena scrambled through the mud, her silk dress tearing on the sharp underbrush as Mateo guided her toward the cover of the tree line. The sounds of screams, gunfire, and metal twisting filled the mountain pass.
"This way! Move!" Mateo barked, leading her down a narrow dirt trail into the dark woods.
They ran for two hundred yards through the soaking rain until the sounds of the gunfire grew faint. Elena was gasping for air, her heels discarded somewhere in the mud, her emerald gown ruined, her chest heaving with cold terror.
"Mateo..." she panted, leaning against a large oak tree. "We... we need to call Damian..."
"The Boss isn't coming, Elena," a voice said calmly.
Elena blinked through the heavy rain, looking up.
Mateo wasn't holding his gun toward the road. He was holding it pointed directly at her chest.
Elena’s blood ran cold. "Mateo... what are you doing?"
A low laugh sounded from the shadows behind the trees.
Victor Calloway stepped out into the rain, wearing a heavy leather coat, flanked by four armed men. He carried a broad, victory-filled smile on his face.
"Good job, Mateo," Victor said, tossing a heavy leather bag of cash at the guard’s feet. "Your offshore account has been credited with the rest."
Mateo caught the bag, stepping back without looking Elena in the eye. "Nothing personal, Miss Hart. Calloway offered five million. Cross only paid me a salary."
Elena stared at Mateo in utter disbelief, betrayal slicing through her heart like a physical blade. "He trusted you... Damian treated you like a brother..."
"In this city, nurse, money is the only brother that matters," Mateo said coldly, turning his back and walking away into the darkness of the woods.
Victor stepped forward, grabbing Elena forcefully by her wrists, pinning her against the oak tree. He pulled a thick cloth soaked in a sweet-smelling chemical from his pocket and pressed it over her nose and mouth.
Elena fought violently, kicking and scratching at his face, but the fumes swept into her lungs, making her head spin and her limbs grow heavy.
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"You played your part well, little nurse," Victor sneered into her ear as her vision began to blur into blackness. "Let's see how much Damian Cross loves his 'wife' when I send him her fingers one by one..."
The world went completely dark.
