CHAPTER 2 — THE MAN SHE SWORE TO HATE
CHAPTER 2 — THE MAN SHE SWORE TO HATE
The flames reached the leaking fuel before Elena reached him.
A deafening explosion ripped through the shattered fuselage, throwing burning metal into the air.
She hit the sand hard, covering her head as heat rolled over her back like a living thing.
When the ringing in her ears faded, one thought remained.
Luca.
She pushed herself upright, coughing through smoke thick enough to choke.
The beach looked like the end of the world.
Pieces of the private jet were scattered across black volcanic sand. One wing lay half buried near the shoreline. Luggage floated in the surf. The ocean that had seemed so peaceful an hour earlier now crashed against the wreckage as if trying to erase every trace of it.
"Help!"
The cry came from somewhere beyond the smoke.
Elena stumbled toward it.
One of the guards lay pinned beneath a section of twisted aluminum, both legs crushed.
"Please..."
His face was ghost white.
She grabbed the metal.
It didn't move.
Again.
Nothing.
The guard looked toward the burning fuselage and whispered in broken English,
"Boss..."
Elena turned.
Through the wall of fire, she saw him.
Luca Romano.
Half buried beneath a collapsed section of the cabin.
Unconscious.
One steel beam pinned his left shoulder to the sand.
The flames were crawling closer.
Every instinct screamed at her to run.
She remembered another fire.
Not real flames.
The fire in her chest when Luca had looked into her eyes a year earlier and calmly said,
"Personal tragedy does not pause business."
She remembered sitting beside her mother's hospital bed believing that man had destroyed everything she loved.
She remembered hating him.
Now fate had handed her revenge.
She could leave.
The tide would rise.
The fire would finish what the crash had started.
No one would ever know.
No one...
Except her.
Elena stood frozen.
Then another explosion shook the beach.
The heat blasted across her face.
Without thinking, she ran toward him.
The closer she came, the worse it looked.
Blood soaked Luca's black shirt.
A jagged piece of metal had cut deep across his side.
His left arm bent at an impossible angle.
She dropped beside him.
"Luca!"
No response.
She slapped his face lightly.
"Luca! Wake up!"
Nothing.
The beam trapping him weighed hundreds of pounds.
She pushed with both hands.
It barely shifted.
Her muscles screamed.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Tears blurred her vision.
"I'm not strong enough..."
A groan.
His eyes opened.
Only halfway.
He looked at her as though waking from another lifetime.
"You..."
His voice was barely air.
"You should've left."
"I tried."
She hadn't.
Not really.
He glanced toward the flames.
"They'll reach the fuel tanks."
"I know!"
His breathing became uneven.
"There..."
He coughed blood.
"...hydraulic jack."
"What?"
"In... emergency compartment."
She followed his gaze.
A damaged storage hatch hung open several feet away.
Ignoring the fire, Elena sprinted across the wreckage.
Inside she found emergency supplies.
Flares.
Blankets.
A medical kit.
And a compact hydraulic rescue jack.
"Please work..."
She dragged it back across the sand.
Luca was slipping in and out of consciousness.
She wedged the jack beneath the steel beam.
Turned the handle.
Nothing.
Again.
The metal groaned.
Again.
Again.
The beam lifted an inch.
She shoved with every ounce of strength she had left.
"Luca!"
His good arm pushed.
Together...
The beam rolled away.
She grabbed him beneath the shoulders just as flames swallowed the place where he had been trapped.
A second later, the fuselage exploded.
The shockwave threw them both across the sand.
They lay there coughing.
Alive.
Barely.
For a long moment neither spoke.
Then Luca looked at her.
"You came back."
She stared at him.
"I still hate you."
"I know."
"I almost walked away."
"I know that too."
His answer unsettled her more than anger would have.
"You should've."
He closed his eyes briefly.
"It would've been easier."
"What does that mean?"
Instead of answering, he struggled to sit.
Pain twisted across his face.
Elena instinctively reached to steady him.
Their eyes met.
For the first time since she'd known him...
She saw fear.
Not fear of dying.
Fear that someone else might.
A low mechanical sound echoed across the island.
Elena looked toward the jungle.
It wasn't the ocean.
It wasn't the wind.
Branches moved.
Something was coming.
Luca heard it too.
His expression changed instantly.
The vulnerable man disappeared.
The mafia boss returned.
He grabbed her wrist.
"Listen carefully."
"What?"
"If you want to live..."
His voice was cold despite the blood running down his side.
"...when they find us, you are not my employee."
She frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
"You've never met me."
"Luca—"
"They're not rescue teams."
The sound grew louder.
Engines.
Several of them.
Moving through the trees.
Luca struggled to stand despite his injuries.
His eyes fixed on the jungle.
"They followed the plane."
Elena's heart stopped.
"Who?"
For the first time since the crash...
Luca Romano looked genuinely afraid.
"My family."
Then he whispered the words that changed everything.
"They weren't trying to kill me."
He looked directly into Elena's eyes.
"They were trying to make sure no one learned what I was protecting."
The engines stopped.
Silence.
A moment later...
Armed men stepped out of the jungle.
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None of them wore rescue uniforms.
And every rifle was pointed straight at Luca Romano.
