The Trail
RONNY’S POV
I’ve been angry before. I’ve been violent, reckless, cold, and merciless. But what I felt the second we tracked her car and found it empty—what ripped through me then—wasn’t just anger.
It was devastation laced with fire.
Her car sat there on the side of the road like a corpse. Doors locked. No broken windows. No blood. No sign of struggle. Just abandoned.
But she wasn’t inside.
Liliana. My girl. My woman. My everything. My baby’s mother.
The air left my lungs as if someone had punched me clean in the chest. My hand shook when I reached for the door handle, opened it, and leaned inside, desperate for a trace of her—her perfume, her warmth.
Nothing.
Just cold leather and the suffocating silence of her absence.
For a few seconds, I wanted to rip the world apart with my bare hands. My chest was a furnace, burning hotter with every second she was gone.
But I didn’t have the luxury of losing my head. Not now.
I turned to my men. “We find her. Every camera, every witness, every shadow—she left a trail. She always does. We just have to see it.”
Marcus and the others scattered into action, phones out, radios crackling, engines revving as they spread across the area.
I stayed rooted in front of that empty car, my fists clenched so tight my knuckles were bone white.
Then it hit me.
Her.
Her stepsister. Lily.
I could almost see her smug face, that bitter sneer that never hid the hatred she carried for Liliana.
“Track Lily’s phone,” I barked into the comm.
Silence on the other end for a beat, then Marcus: “Boss… we got it. Signal’s live. Outskirts of town. Some abandoned property.”
My jaw locked. “Send the coordinates. Everyone converge. Now.”
Within minutes, we were in the van, tires screeching against cracked asphalt as we tore through the outskirts. The city fell away behind us, replaced by overgrown roads and rusting fences. The kind of place nobody looked twice at.
Exactly the kind of place you take someone when you don’t want to be found.
The air grew colder, heavier, the further we drove. My chest was a cage, my heart battering against the bars. All I could see was Liliana’s face when she laughed, when she teased me, when she whispered my name in the dark. All I could hear was her soft voice at breakfast, asking if I wanted more coffee, trying to hide the fact she’d been sick again.
Pregnant.
She was pregnant.
I gripped the seat so hard it groaned. My child. My family. And she was in the hands of someone who didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as her.
Not for long.
We rolled up to the property—a decaying house at the edge of a field, its windows black holes, its walls sagging under years of neglect. Too quiet. Too still.
“Kill the engine,” I whispered.
The van shuddered to silence.
We moved fast and quiet, boots crunching against weeds and dirt. My men fanned out, weapons ready. Every creak of the house, every whisper of wind made my skin crawl tighter.
We slipped inside through a side door that hung crooked on its hinges. The air reeked of mold and dust, thick enough to choke on.
Then—movement.
A man rounded the corner, too slow, too clumsy. Before he could open his mouth, one of my men cracked him in the neck with a brutal strike. He collapsed like a sack of bricks. Out cold.
I didn’t even glance at him. He wasn’t who I came for.
We crept up the stairs, careful with every step. My pulse pounded louder with every creak of wood.
Then I heard it.
Her voice.
Liliana.
“Get away from me, you filthy bitch!” she shouted, fury blazing in her tone.
I froze, every muscle in my body going taut.
Then another voice—higher, venomous, trembling with rage. Lily.
“You’re going to die! You think I won’t kill you?!”
The crack of gunfire split the air.
My heart slammed against my ribs so hard I thought it would break them. I surged forward, gun raised, ready to tear the world apart if I had to.
But then—laughter.
Her laughter.
Liliana’s.
Sharp, fearless, defiant.
“You’re just a scared little coward,” she spat. “Stupid. Pathetic.”
I groaned internally, pressing my hand against the wall. Goddammit, baby girl. Brave, yes. Fierce, yes. But she was pushing the buttons of a woman with a gun in her hand.
I wanted to strangle her and kiss her at the same time.
We reached the door. The voices were louder now, echoing through the rotten wood. I raised my fist, signaled my men. Three. Two. One.
I slammed the door open, my gun leveled, my voice sharp as steel. “Put the gun down, Lily.”
She spun, her face pale but twisted with hate, the barrel of her gun aimed straight at Liliana.
“No!” she screamed. “Just let me kill this bitch! She ruined everything! She doesn’t deserve anything!”
My vision went red.
I didn’t think—I just moved.
One swift kick and the gun flew from her hand, clattering across the floor. She shrieked, clawing at the air like a feral thing, but I was already there, my gun to her head.
“You’re really fucking stupid, you know that?” My voice was low, lethal. “You kidnapped someone. And you carried your phone the whole damn time. It led us straight to you.”
Her eyes widened.
“You know what that means?” I leaned closer, pressing the barrel harder against her temple. “It means you’re going to rot in prison. A long, long time.”
“NO!” she screamed, thrashing as two of my men grabbed her arms. “No! Let me go! She deserves to die! She deserves it!”
“Take her away,” I ordered.
They dragged her out, kicking and shrieking, her screams echoing down the hallway until they faded into silence.
And then it was just me and her.
The only person that mattered.
Liliana.
She was tied, ropes biting into her wrists and ankles. Her hair was messy, her cheeks flushed, but her eyes—those eyes—lit up the second they landed on me.
“Ronny,” she whispered, relief breaking her voice. “I knew you’d come.”
I was at her side in a heartbeat, my hands working fast to untie the ropes, my chest aching at the angry red marks they’d left on her skin.
“Always,” I murmured, my voice rough with everything I couldn’t put into words. “I’d always come for you. I’d always protect you. You and our child.”
She blinked, her lips parting. “You… you know?”
I nodded, brushing a strand of hair from her face. “The hospital. I found out.”
Tears welled in her eyes, spilling over as she let out a trembling laugh. “Ronny…” Her voice cracked. “I love you so much.”
I gathered her into my arms, lifting her like she weighed nothing. Holding her against my chest felt like breathing again after drowning.
“I love you more,” I whispered into her hair.
And finally, I could breathe.
She was safe.
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