until they got it. But when Alexandra Romanov’s justice turned out jagged and messy, public opinion took a sharp swing in the opposite direction. They idolized an icon, and when that shiny exterior tarnished, they crucified a human.
Maybe all of this could’ve been avoided if I’d never walked into the bar that day. Maybe Angel Smith would still be just another washed-up actress waiting tables in Chula Vista. Maybe Violet DeLuca and Brenda McCallum would still be alive.
But then again, maybe they wouldn’t.
Angel believes fate always finds a way. She holds firm that the universe revolves around balance and whether it takes a day or a decade, all wrongs are eventually righted.
So maybe it was fate that drew me into that bar.
Maybe fate knew Alexandra Romanov’s story wasn’t finished.
The first time I kissed Angel, I thought I chose her to make history. But maybe fate chose us to rewrite it, and then close the book for good.
A content smile settles on my face as I watch my wife chase our daughter into the surf, both of them laughing as she swings her into the air.
Once upon a time, a man taught me that wishes and hope were useless weapons. I believed him. I lived my whole life around that thought. But he was wrong. Because the man who stands with his heart open waiting for life to step up to the plate ends up with something unexpected.
Everything.
The End
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Blurred Red Lines
Want more dark and twisted mafia? Keep reading for a sneak peek of Blurred Red Lines, the first book in the Carrera Cartel Trilogy
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Prologue
Eden
There’s a fine line between love and hate.
I’d heard that cliché all my life thrown around by half-interested adults who gave few fucks about either one. The idiom du jour served to placate me enough to remove my adolescent angst from blocking Monday night football and return to my room, where I belonged.
It wasn’t until my heart blackened to a charred void that I understood the true meaning of the phrase. I found it amazing how much that fine line thickened while sweat dripped from the brow of someone I loved as I aimed a gun at his heart.
“Eden, you don’t know what you’re doing.”
His image blurred although my hand held steady. “Yours is the betrayal I never saw coming…congratulations.” In my head the words sounded cold, despite the wetness that trailed from the corners of my eyes. Crawling to my feet, I paced the small space in front of him before I realized I’d uprooted from my spot. Keeping my breathing shallow, I focused on inhaling only when necessary. The run-down house reeked of dank mildew and death.
The number of deaths that would be added to the stench remained to be seen.
“I never wanted to hurt you,” he implored, begging me to recall what we’d meant to each other. When I vacantly stared at him, he licked his lips and attempted to reach me on another level. “After all we’ve been through, it ends like this?”
“You’ve left me no choice.”
“There’s always a choice.”
Hatred burned my eyes, incinerating the man reflected in them. “Fuck you.”
His sigh turned into a cough, rattling his chest. A knowing smile curved his lips. “There’s my feisty girl.”
I waved the gun in the air—a stupid move on all accounts, but his play on my emotions ripped at my soul. “I’m not anything of yours. You sold me out. You made me believe we were on the same side.” Tears rolled harder, ignoring my commands to stop and pissed me off further. “The whole time you had an end game, you son of a bitch!”
One step. Two steps. Three steps.
If I pulled the trigger now, it’d be point-blank range. I couldn’t claim self-defense. True, it hadn’t been his hand that’d pushed me off the step and sent me careening down a flight of stairs. But, in the end, it was his actions that brought me here.
And I wasn’t the one looking down the barrel of a Colt 1911 .38 Super.
All this time I’d believed him. All this time I’d trusted him. In the end, I’d been a fool because all this time I’d been used.
“Eden,” he pleaded, searching for a shred of the affection we’d shared. “I love you.”
There’s a fine line between love and hate.
Watching him grovel for his life, I suddenly understood