Page 19 of Jetmir

You might never read this letter, but know that everything I am about to do comes back to my love for you. I want us to have that life we dreamed about.

Until my dying breath, it’ll always be you.

If I fail, and this truly is the end of us, then it means I no longer walk this earth. I need you to know that loving you shaped me. It made me a better man.

When I lost you, it broke me, but it also made me determined to win you back. It’s who I am. A stubborn asshole to the end.

So if this letter ever finds you, know this… living without you is hell. But living in this world and witnessing you move on is far worse.

I simply cannot let that happen, because deep down, I know you and I are meant to be.

With all that I have been and all that I still am, I remain yours. Forever.

Jetmir

I put the pen down and read it one more time before setting my plan into motion.

CHAPTER FIVE

ANYA

Adivorce in the mafia world was practically unheard of. Yet there I was—a twenty-one-year-old, soon-to-be twenty-two, divorcée. It was an annulment, but damn, it felt like a funeral.

Was that normal?

Probably not, but neither was my marriage to a complete stranger or even this French bulldog puppy who was now mine.

I was walking Dozer—my French bulldog puppy—in the early morning hours of Miami. It was my birthday present that showed up too early with a loose bow around his neck and ready to be part of my life.

The bizarre thing was that nobody was willing to fess up. It wasn’t Papa’s and Mama’s gift. In fact, they’d been ready to turn the poor guy away, but it was Gabriel, my uncle who I considered my brother, who convinced them otherwise. It made me think maybe he and his wife, Amara, had something to do with it, but they swore up and down they didn’t. Which left only one suspect.

A shuddering breath swished from my lungs.

If it was in fact my ex, I should have turned the puppy away, but I physically couldn’t. It wasn’t the poor little fella’s fault. Right?

A sports car zoomed past me, interrupting the moment of peace, and my puppy glared enough for the both of us. Then another sports car drove by, a red Aston Martin with tinted windows that hid anyone inside, but this one slowed down before it sped back up.

Strange, I thought, it was almost as if the car slowed down for us.

I promptly dismissed the thought.

It had to be a coincidence.

Besides, I wasn’t worried about my safety because my bodyguards were on my tail and I knew they’d be by my side in a blink of an eye if they sensed a threat.

Dozer resumed his snooty little trot, paws tapping against the sidewalk as if he didn’t have a single care in the world. I envied him for that.

The crisp air carried the scent of the ocean along with Florida’s earthy, humid fall breeze. It should have eased this restlessness inside me or at least calmed the battlefield in my mind.

It didn’t.

Instead, I started to think about the divorce-slash-annulment.

I tightened my grip on Dozer’s leash as memories of my ex-husband slipped through the cracks I’d spent the past several years trying to seal tight. No matter how hard I tried, my thoughts always found their way back to him. Back to us and everything that went wrong. God, all the promises. The lies.

Yet, his wrongs somehow faded and all I remembered was the way he’d once looked at me. The way he’d brush his thumb across my cheek. The way he’d kiss me. The way he’d make love to me.

“Damn it, Anya. Don’t think about that shit or that cabron… Bastard,” I whispered to the empty street, still untouched by the sun’s hazy rays.