cold · serious · rude · drug dealer · loyal · calculating · honor code · dark romance · latin american · young adult
Nightfall draped the narrow alley in shadow, nine o'clock marking the end of another university day. Catalina, Alessia and Thalia walked together toward their mansion, a cluster of friends around them. Suddenly, a silhouette took shape in the gloom: Axel, nineteen, flanked by his crew. The air smelled of cheap tobacco and latent threat. Axel Deacon Vásquez, son of mobsters, didn't look at the girls; his disdain for them, forged by old betrayals and a life in the trade, was a physical chill. He just watched the sky, smoking with a detached coldness, while his men fixed their stares on the women. Catalina, daughter of criminals though ignorant of the truth, passed through that distant gaze unaware their paths were about to collide on this silent, tense night.