ZARA – Open Waters off Maui's Coast – 6:45 PM.
If someone told me I'd be fake-married before sunset, drifting on a cartel-owned yacht off Maui's coast, I would've told them to get a grip.
And yet, here I was—dressed in a silky white sundress, holding hands with Leo Thompson like we were in love, like we were real.
We weren't. We were bait.
A husband-and-wife cover for an undercover sting operation gone dangerously quiet.
Leo leaned in, voice like low thunder against my ear. "You good?"
"Define good," I whispered back, the smile on my lips held in place by sheer will.
Guests in linen suits and sequined dresses sipped champagne, oblivious to the gunmen disguised as deckhands, the hidden mics, the trap we were walking into.
This wasn't a honeymoon cruise.
This was a loyalty test—and Leo and I were being watched.
Leo's hand brushed the small of my back. "Relax. You're brilliant at pretending."
"Don't flatter me, husband," I muttered. His lips ghosted my cheek in an act for the cameras, but the goosebumps were real.
Flashback — Two Years Ago — Ibiza.
Rain poured like liquid steel. The rooftop was slick and glowing with red club lights below. My cover was unraveling. Fast.
Kai Reyes—dark-eyed, reckless—cornered me against the stone wall.
"You know we're not making it out clean, Cruz," he said, jaw tight.
"So what?" I hissed. "You saying goodbye?"
He didn't answer. Just leaned in. And kissed me. Not soft. Not sweet. It was a kiss meant to burn bridges and light new ones on fire.
When we broke apart, breathless, he whispered, "This isn't over. I'll find you again."
Back to Present.
"Where did you just go?" Leo's voice pulled me back to the deck.
"Somewhere less complicated," I lied.
He didn't believe me. He rarely did. The crew announced a "sunset couples game"—code for surveillance. We were led below deck, into a velvet-curtained chamber with suspiciously romantic lighting.
Leo scanned the room and found it first—a micro-camera hidden in the orchid pot. They were watching.
He turned to me and said, louder than necessary, "If we make it out of this alive, you're mine. For real this time."
I blinked. Then slapped him. Hard. And kissed him harder. For the cameras. Right?
<<<<<
LEO – Flashback – Two Years Ago – Morocco.
It started with a kiss I never saw coming.
Kai Reyes was assigned to protect Zara in Marrakesh. I was pulled off her detail, told I was getting "too close."
They thought I was asleep. But I saw it.
The alley. The rain.
And the kiss.
Her hands in his hair.
His grip on her waist.
It wasn't tactical. It was personal.
For one split second, I wanted to kill Kai.
But I didn't. Because I couldn't blow my cover. Not then.
Not when Black Mamba still had leverage on me.
Not when I was still working both sides.
<<<<<
ZARA – Present.
"To us," Leo said, clinking his champagne glass to mine.
"To lies," I answered sweetly.
He just smiled. "To survival."
Then—the mast cracked. Gunfire. Screams. Smoke. Chaos.
"Down!" Leo tackled me to the ground, shielding me with his body as another shot hit the deck beside us.
I shoved him off. "You're bleeding!"
"It's a graze," he said. "We need to move."
We ducked behind the helm station. The mission was blown.
"Who sold us out?" I hissed.
He didn't answer right away. And in that silence—I saw it. The guilt.
"Leo… what did you do?"
"I didn't tell you everything," he said. "About Black Mamba. About Rina."
I froze. Before I could speak, a gun cocked behind us.
"Well, well. Did you miss me?"
I turned—and the world flipped upside down. RINA. She stepped out of the smoke like a ghost.
Leather jacket. Smudged eyeliner. A long scar down her forearm like a signature.
"Rina?" I whispered.
Leo stared like he'd seen a dead woman rise.
"I faked my death to survive," Rina said. "Now I want answers."
"Answers for what?" I demanded, stunned.
"Because someone sold me out two years ago. And I think it was you."
<<<<<
LEO – Earlier That Morning – 3:12 AM.
My phone buzzed. One voice message. From a dead girl.
<"Leo… it's Rina. You think you know who you're protecting. You don't. She's not who she says she is. But I am. I'm alive. And she lied about what happened to me. You'll know it's true when you see the scar."
The scar was real. And now she was standing here, gun raised, demanding justice.
<<<<<
ZARA – Later That Night – Hidden Safehouse.
I stared at the broken radio. Our team was gone. The mission was dust. Kai kissed me and I never told Leo. Leo lied to me about his past. Rina was alive and possibly out for blood. My heart was a battlefield. My trust? A ruin.
Leo entered the room silently, clutching his bleeding arm.
"You didn't tell me she was alive," I said.
"I didn't know for sure," he replied. "Until today."
Silence stretched between us like the ocean.
"So what now?" I whispered.
He looked at me, tired and too honest.
"Now? You decide if you still trust me."