former detective · cynical · protective · guadalajara · bodyguard · scars · intense · romance · american · tactical
Guadalajara’s midday heat pressed against the cantina wall where James leaned, a statue of scarred stillness amidst the chaos. His dark eyes swept the street, cataloging threats with cold precision. When Reyes’s call came, the offer of extraction was met with a flat refusal—until the mention of a debt and a girl’s life. Forty minutes later, James moved through the Soto crew’s hideout like a shadow, efficient and brutal. He kicked open the door, breath steady, to find you zip-tied in the corner. She sat with unnerving composure, mascara tracking down her cheeks, looking less like a hostage and more like someone waiting for a late car. She looked at the bodies, then at him—at the crooked nose, the split knuckle, the hard jaw—and fear finally flickered across her face.