ALEJANDRO POV

My cheeks still sting from the slap Catalina delivered to my face yesterday

My fingers brush my skin recalling the slap but weirdly, I can hardly remember the slap.

I can remember Catalina.

Just Catalina.

The way her thighs peeped out of that black dress, the way her hair was slicked back to reveal her never aging face, although she had matured from the Catalina he knew before.

The innocent Catalina, with all the poise and grace in the world. But when we were alone, in the comfort of our bedroom.

Catalina was a wildling, she made me do things I never thought I would do, she stole my soul from me each time we slipped under the covers of their matrimonial bed.

I felt her in my nerves in ways that were not normal, I used to tell her she had superpowers.

It was not the hot-filled passion, it was the way they complimented each other, they had each other's back and support, and despite being opposites, they got attracted to each other like magnets.

I gulp turning back to the mirror, my eyes glazing over with thoughts.

“Catalina is alive” I speak for the first time since last night.

I turn around picking up my phone, I have to speak to her, to get to her, I don’t even mind the slap, she must have a reason for the drama from last night.

I call Deavon, my third in command in the cartel.

“The ghost of my wife slapped me at the Syndicate ball last night, I want to know where she is now” my commanding voice fills the room.

“Already on it sir, I will have her address sent to you in the next thirty minutes”

I nod to myself, my full-length reflection staring back at me. I quickly end the call walking through the mirror

Somehow I still think this is a dream, but my palms rest on my hot cheek again and the slap resounds in my mind . She didn’t slap me like she was angry.

She slapped me like I was some stranger who had walked up to her as Don Reyes's daughter.

I turn around from my sculpted body, pulling the towel from my waist, I quickly pull on my custom-made Italian suit for work.

I sit alone in my office, overlooking the city, right in the highest building in the city. It used to belong to the Reyes cartel till I took over after that faithful night of the fire

The fire that took the old Catalina and brought a new one.

I look down at the computer screen again, the videotape from last night playing over and over again.

“Damn she’s so sexy” I utter under my breath staring at her move slightly to the music after she slapped me

She danced away like I was nothing and right after she disappeared like a ghost.

The surveillance from the ballroom plays over and over again and I watch it what? Once? Three or five times? Maybe much more.

She walked in like nothing could touch her, the audacity to come in at that moment like she was not some ghost that crawled out of her grave.

My fingers run across my face weaving through my hair, my face lands on my palm as the slap replays on my computer screen again.

The door pulls open and a redhead pokes her head through, in a full tweed black suit she shuts the door behind her

“You shouldn’t watch this” She rolls her eyes moving closer to my side.

Too close.

“I shouldn’t be doing a lot of things” My eyes rise to meet hers, “But here I am, in the Reyes Cartel head office” My tone comes off as aggressive pushing her back

She lifts a brow at me, “You shouldn’t feel bad about it either, it was yours to keep.”

“Mine to snatch as well,” I roll my eyes spinning up from my chair, my feet carrying me to the wall-length windows.

She walks up to me, “You shouldn’t be bothered by a simple slap Alejandro, she’s just making drama” she speaks, her voice condescending.

I don’t reply to her, there’s something different about Catalina. I can’t point it out exactly as we only held each other’s gaze for a second and I barely heard her voice.

I groan I would do anything to hear her voice right now, but my head turns to Veronica who has an irritated look on her face.

She always has that look on her face

My phone dings in my pocket, I pull out the phone reading the message from Daevon

Ben Kingston Street, home 303.

I look down at the address for Catalina and blood rushes to my brain, adrenaline pumping through my veins.

I would do anything to hear her voice, the sweet sound of her telling me she loves me, it always seemed to make my heart stop on command

.

“I need a hundred roses for a bouquet, book the florist immediately” I bark orders to Veronica heading to my computer, I turn it off quickly

“What…what?” She yells her eyes lit up

“Do as I say Veronica” I wave her off walking through the double doors.

“I’m heading to the florist now Veronica” I warn her as my guard presses the elevator doors open.

By the time I’m at the florist, the roses are ready, and I grab them ready to impress Catalina and of course to hear her voice.

The car comes to a stop in front of her gates and the security, faces covered in masks, bodies covered in armor and bulletproof vests.

“She’s really protecting herself from something” I mutter to myself as the security lets us in.

“How did we get in so easily?” I raise a brow at the guard

“They were expecting us sir” the guard replies me with a gulp.

We have guards around the perimeters but I can’t enter with them so it’s best to keep them in hiding, just in case.

The car doors open and my eyes land on a blue-eyed and blonde-haired beauty.

“Luisa, not surprised to find you here” I lift a brow at the deputy chief of police.

Catalina might be more dangerous than Veronica thinks.

“She’s inside waiting for you,” she says instead, ignoring my conversation, her fingers on the hilt of her gun delicately strapped across her waist

I lift my roses, turning to the double brown doors of one of the ancestral doors of the Reyes mansion.

“And De La Cruz” she turns to me slightly stopping me

I stopped to hear her warning.

“She’s angry…Very angry,” she says instead, simply walking away like I should be more scared of the woman inside than her, the Deputy chief of the city’s police.