The bridge changed everything. The silence of the family business was replaced by the screams of betrayal.
When the orders came from Stephen to bring Alliana and Pat in "by any means necessary," Matt didn't hesitate—but he did so with a heart like lead. He forced them into the Rover, his face a mask of iron while Alliana screamed Joie's name in terror.
When the doors opened at the Blue Marlin and Cheska saw her best friend shaking, her clothes torn and her eyes filled with the look of someone whose world had just ended, something in Cheska snapped.
She waited until they were in their private quarters. The second the door clicked shut, she lunged. She didn't use words; she used her fists, hammering them against Matt's chest with everything she had.
"You animal! You goddamn hollow animal!" she shrieked, the sound tearing from her throat like a physical wound. "That is Alliana! She's like my sister! She's the only good thing I have left, and you hunted her down like she was a bounty!"
Matt didn't move. He didn't raise his hands to defend himself, and he didn't flinch as her rings cut into his skin. He stood like a statue of salt, his eyes fixed on the rain-streaked window, absorbing the blows as if he deserved the pain.
"I saved her life, Cheska," he said, his voice a low, vibrating growl that barely rose above her screams. "Lolo's hitmen were ten minutes behind that bridge. If they had reached that car before I did, they wouldn't have brought her back for questioning. They would have burned that car with them inside."
"Don't you dare lie to me! You did it for Stephen! You did it for the name!"
Matt suddenly grabbed her wrists, his grip like iron manacles, forcing her to stop. He stepped into her space, his face inches from hers, stripped of the professional mask. His eyes were bloodshot, rimmed with a desperation she had never seen.
"Look at me!" he roared, and the sheer volume of it made her freeze. "You saw Joie out there. She was covered in her own blood because she used her body as a shield. She saved Alliana and Pat because she would rather die a thousand times over than see a hair on Alliana's head touched. That is the Tenorio blood. It is poison, but it is loyal."
He shook her slightly, his voice dropping to a harsh, jagged whisper. "And I am exactly the same. I will never, ever let anything happen to you. Do you understand? I will let them tear the heart out of my chest, I will let them bury me alive before I let a single shadow fall on you. I hunted her because it was the only way to keep her alive. That is the only logic I have."
Cheska ripped her hands away, her chest heaving, her eyes wild with a cocktail of rage and devastating betrayal. "That's the problem, Matt! Your love is a cage! Your protection is a death sentence!"
She punched him again, one last, desperate strike to his jaw that made his head snap to the side. "You chose the family crown over the people we love! You're a monster, Matthew! You're a goddamn Tenorio monster, and I hate that I ever let you touch me!"
She cursed him until her voice broke, the insults turning into ragged, wet sobs. She collapsed against the wall, sliding down the cold surface until she was a heap of white silk and heartbreak on the floor.
Matt reached out a hand, his fingers trembling as he moved to steady her.
"Don't," she spat, flinching away from him as if his skin were white-hot acid. She looked up at him, her mascara running in black tracks down her face, her gaze filled with a cold, dead loathing. "Don't you touch me. Don't you even breathe the same air as me. If you ever come near me again, I won't just leave. I will kill you myself, and I'll smile while I do it."
Matt stood frozen, his hand still hanging in the empty air. He watched her crawl away from him, the woman who was the only soft thing in his life, and he realized that in saving her life, he had effectively ended his own.