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Chapter Text

THE CONCRETE JUNGLE OF MONTERREY, MEXICO loomed in the distance on the grassy knolls and fresh, dewy grasses of Parque Rufino Tamayo, tinted pinkish-orange and maybe even red as the sun went down over the glassy spires and rocky hills. Crickets sing, as do the songbirds nesting in clusters of trees, and the leaves rustle in the wind, some plucked from their branches and falling to the ground below.

It's the evening now, and many people for the night are beating traffic to return home, yet in the park, some linger. They jog on the winding trails, walking their dogs and staring at the crystal waters from bridges made of natural logs. The air is fresh and warm, so what's wrong if you happen to stay for a little longer to admire the beauty?

Two certainly could admire it, and on a flat patch of grass, surrounded by Mexican passion flowers and orchids, sat what appeared to be two ordinary people, a righteous man and a noble woman, on a checkered blanket. The latter sighed, dreamily glancing over at her partner, her wavy blonde hair swirling over her shoulders.

The man, his hair blonde and smooth, smiled back at her, acquiring a truffle between his fingers.

"Want one, my sweet Dany?"

Eagerly, she nodded, taking a bite right out from the palm of his hand and loving the taste, but not as much as she loved him, and she scooted closer to him, jingling the silver necklace around her neck.

"It's lovely," she commented, wiping her lips with a napkin, and he reached for another one, spooning the melting chocolate confection into her mouth. His eyes flitted down to her lips, smooth, round, and perfect, outlined in red - a sight that for the past year, he had cherished greatly.

Dany had cherished it too, and trying not to let the rich chocolate of the truffles distract her mind, she laced her fingers with that of the man she proudly hailed as her boyfriend, watching him relax and stare up at the sky, ruminating over all they'd seen to get to here.

"It's a little unexpected, isn't it?" he mused, leaning next to her and finishing off a powdered truffle with a few chews. "A heiress of the wealthiest mafia family in all of Monterrey and the heir to their greatest rival, just naturally falling in love? No premeditated marriage and family meddling, only coincidence?"

That was one of the things that made Vito a standout to Dany. He was a natural man, not a plant, and though he was a crook... he wasn't a crook that played with her heart to gain the favor of her family.

Perhaps it was because of him that two rivaling clans, Villarreal and Villamizar, had come to find peace in the year since their hands first brushed during a luncheon downtown, and striking blue eyes had met a fiery, resolved brown. He was a man to fear, but when it came to Dany... Vito had let his walls fall and his respects for Clan Villarreal increase.

He was let inside... and Dany welcomed him, his kindness, his willingness to abide by her family's policy. His looks, his lethal blue eyes that traced her body like a blade. His insistence on always spoiling her with the best, only the best, as the heir of Clan Villarreal deserved.

When even your frosty parents could see potential in a well-meaning man from the very opposition of your clan... you knew you had found the right one.

For a year, Dany had been sailing over the moon and through the stars calling Vito her boyfriend.

"It is unexpected," she said, sweetly nuzzling his cheek and inhaling the rosy scent of his cologne. "But I wouldn't change a thing, Vito. You complete me."

"You're been the girl I've spent years searching for. Days, nights. My favorite little patch of sunshine."

"Not just sunshine," she teased, her hand gliding on his thigh, and he blushed, counteracting by tracing her lips with the pad of his thumb.

"Oh, not fancy enough for you, Solecito?"

Now Dany was satisfied, rewarding him with a peck to his cheek, and she giggled at the imprint her lipstick left behind.

Vito was hers. Only hers. She put the emphasis on that by closing in on his lips, chocolate, mint, and strawberry flooding her mouth, and he guided her steadily onto his lap to return the favor. Luxurious black satin clashed against a regal black tuxedo, but not as passionately as two lips, bright red and pale pink, converged on the other, hands fighting for leverage and eyes closed blissfully.

Quickly, the battle was won by Vito, and pulling his girl close to his chest, he wrestled her to the blanket of the picnic, straining to keep her pinned.

"Goodness gracious, they say you're a strongarm for a damn reason."

"You think?" Dany, snickering, sat up, straightening her wild blonde hair. "I am a sun that burns. How unfortunate most of our, hm, dearest enemies could never see that."

"Truly, truly."

"Gosh, I still laugh at how we both have two siblings each."

"Alex and Paulo look so much like Alejandra and Paulina."

Dany smiled at the mention of her younger sisters, thankful that they'd gotten along with Vito's brothers. Their relationship really had made tensions between both sides of their families lessen, like blood being staunched on a wound...

Could it be possible that tranquility was upon them? She wanted to hope so, grinning so hard that the corners of her lips would probably hurt later, and she rested her chin on Vito's shoulder, mumbling into the material of his tux.

"You're so handsome."

"You're the most beautiful princess in all of Mexico," he murmured, planting a kiss on her forehead. "With the prettiest eyes..."

A kiss to the bridge of her nose.

"A lethal mind."

Another kiss to her forehead.

"A personality as warm and dangerous as the sun."

A kiss on the pulse point in her neck, which nearly had her doubling over in serotonin.

"Beautiful sisters."

"Vito, stop!" she playfully whined, giggling so much that tears welled in her eyes, but he only summoned her to her feet, twirling her in her arms.

"Never. You are a woman who deserves the best, infinite compliments, the whole world. You are the future of Clan Villarreal, my sweet Dany! You are everything I have ever wanted in a woman. Every damn thing, you hear me?"

"Vitoooooooooo!"

"I want to make sure you understand. We have bright futures ahead of us both. You will be what makes Clan Villarreal Mexico's most elite mafia family, and I will eclipse Father when his last breath comes to take the reigns of Clan Villamizar. Do you see it, Dany? Me and you, king and queen of the world, unable to be crushed?"

"Even by Reyes?"

"Miguel Reyes can go fuck himself for all I care. The only thing that matters is me and you," Vito promised, holding her cheeks and nuzzling her lovingly. "We are not meant to be two heirs from two rich families... we are meant to be one for time eternal."

Dany gasped, but her surprise left her flabbergasted when a moment later, Vito, proudly, sunk onto one knee, and from the back of his pocket, brandished a ring box, opening it to reveal a studded, rose-gold ring with a blue rose sculpted onto the top.

This had been no picnic they decided to go on during sunset.

It was - for now - the time of Dany's life.

"Te amaré por siempre. Together, we will unite Clan Villarreal and Clan Villamizar and put the past in the past. We will have all the power in the land, all the wealth, peace, everything we have both ever dreamed of. There isn't any girl out there that I want to have all that with, forever, but you. Daniela Villarreal, will you have the honor of marrying me?"

The unexpected had brought Daniela Villarreal and Vito Villamizar together into harmony, into a deep pool of romance that blossomed into lotus flowers on what once were choppy waters up top.

He was a righteous man.

She was a noble woman.

What happened next, neither could know, but if there was anything Dany had wanted more, pining for it in secret, sneaking it into text messages, implying it each time she took his hand under the table...

...it was for their families to stop warring and for Vito to be hers until the end of time.

"Yes!" she declared, tackling him in a hug. "Yes, yes, YES!"

"I knew you'd say yes," he purred into her cheek. "I love you, sweet Dany."

Dany, about to sob and smear her makeup, held his cheek, forgetting about the last truffles or the tipped empty glasses of wine on their blanket.

Nothing else mattered but her boyfriend, now, her loyal, handsome-as-hell, groundbreaking fiancé.

"I love you more, darling. Siempre."

With that, they kissed as the first stars, a plethora, appeared in the night skies above them, signaling that soon, Villarreal and Villamizar would unify for good, and two rivals would gain the power to put all of their other enemies in Mexico in their place.

Not just in their place. They'd be put out of business.

Monterrey was theirs, all theirs.

And Daniela, as she knew it then, getting lost in the taste of Vito's lips, found herself quietly asking only one thing: dime, ¿qué más quieres?

Chapter Text

A HARSH CRACK ECHOED IN A small gray room as an onyx-black pistol struck the forehead of a sweating, greasy-skinned, dark gray-suited man, and he howled in agony, saliva flying out of his mouth.

"Start fucking talking, Double H," a woman with auburn-brown hair sneered, circling him like a shark, and he snorted.

"What is there to talk about?"

She kicked him in his groin, savoring his high-pitched squeal, and toyed with the trigger on her pistol, resting it idly onto the frills of her black-and-white suit.

"Don't play coy with me, Hernandez. You haven't repaid your debt to Clan Villarreal... and you know what happens to those who refuse to pay us back. Why?"

Debating his options, slimming options as he thought, the man with the last name of Hernandez glanced into the bloodthirsty, malicious beady eyes of the clan's middle daughter, a short but domineering woman with a love for spilling blood in the name of her family.

She was no doubt ready to put a bullet into his head, and if it wasn't her...

He swallowed, dryly.

"You demand too much out of Imperio Hidalgo. We are... quite strapped on funds... at the moment..."

The middle daughter tilted her head, disbelieving.

"Please! You must believe me! I don't want to be an enemy of Clan Villarreal!" he pleaded, trying to raise his hands, but they were bound by chains to the handles of the chair he was sat upon, and he attempted to flee, rocking side to side.

Whack!

"You're a liar," a taller, but younger woman snarled, and out from behind him emerged the youngest daughter of Clan Villarreal, her medium-length raven-black hair tied back into a bun, suit perfectly matching that of her sister. She aimed her pistol at his skull, far from the quiet woman everyone perceived her as.

"Al-"

"When we donated our guns to you," she pointed out, acid dripping off every word, colder than winter stone, "we made it clear when you signed our agreement that you would repay us. We don't just do gifts and call it a day, Hidalgo. You. Owe. Us."

Hidalgo Hernandez was very, very far up Shit's Creek without a paddle, and frantically, he blinked, tears (or was it his sweat and grease on his ugly skin?) trickling down his face.

"Please! I have a family!"

"Oldest excuse in the book," the middle daughter muttered. "Ale, hit him again."

Whack!

"Nooooo!"

"It's been two months, Double H. You pledged in the contract to pay us five-hundred thousand. Where is it?"

"I can give it to you, tonight! Free of charge!"

Liars always got frantic when they knew the end of the line was near, and Hidalgo seemed to understand when middle and younger sister faced each other.

"Ale? Break his nose."

She gladly did so, pistol-whipping it so hard that blood erupted down his lip, and he screamed, strangling his skin reddish in his chains.

"Only the weak believe a foolish lie as that," the tall woman growled, crossing her arms and stepping back. "You're wasting Pau and I's time, you useless fucking traitor."

"I didn't betray your clan!" he snapped, and the short woman stomped her foot on the tile floor, bristling.

"You had until yesterday, but your lazy ass wanted to hog our weapons for yourself to gain an advantage. We don't tolerate betrayal. Has your pathetic roundtable even reminded you about what we do to people like you? Hmm?"

She gripped the collar of his suit, baring her teeth in his face, and he whimpered, unable to say a word.

Good. She and her sister loved to dispatch filthy little cowards.

"Looks like the cat has ripped out your tongue. Pity, really, throwing out your whole life because you chose to be the small man."

Bootheels clacked, and when Hidalgo, nose stuffed up with clots of blood, stared up, she'd rejoined the side of her younger sister.

"You want the kill?"

The cold-as-stone lethality shook her head, grinning at her. "Nah, I'll pass today. All yours."

"With pleasure!"

Her gun precisely pointed, she unleashed the five copper bullets she had stored inside onto the sixth-most wealthiest man in Monterrey, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, and he slumped, head practically blown open, his precious ruby blood dripping down his body, to the chair, to the floor.

Total, utter desecration of a Villarreal rival. That was just her style.

"Jesus, Pau," her sister, slightly aghast, exclaimed, but she smirked, stashing her pistol in her back pocket.

"Ah, but it's a pretty sight. Mother and Father shall be pleased."

"Indeed," she agreed, and they high-fived. Mission success, and the fortune and revenge was theirs to reap.

AN HOUR LATER

"Ah, casa sweet casa."

The short one held open the door of Casa Villarreal for her sister, and they entered, marveling at the grand architecture of the perpetual palace they had called home for all their lives.

Living within a gated community in Monterrey had its perks, and this place stood out among the rest of the modern mansions, perched on a slight hill with large, sloping glass windows providing plenty of natural light in the day. The outside was pure white brick, but on the inside, the walls were brown, warm and homely. Varying portraits were hung on the walls, and as the girls passed by the living room, they caught the custom-commissioned one of them with their family.

Gorgeous as ever illuminated by the fireplace.

PAULINA could say she could admire the handiwork and the lifestyle that she lived. She was Clan Villarreal's agent of chaos, a mafia brute so scary that you wouldn't fathom crossing her once you met her. She was among one of the most skilled users of weaponry, and whether dagger or gun, poison, strangulation, or neck snapping, she could do it all and in seconds.

She'd never give mercy to the wicked. Opposition to her family was the gravest mistake anyone could ever make, and she lived for revenge paid in murder. Some even said that she wouldn't leave a room, sometimes, until all of the blood from a dead foe had gone dry.

So what if she was cruel? Cruelty was the way of life in the mafia. It was how you survived. She always got thrill in keeping enemies on their toes.

Codename: Wildstyle.

ALEJANDRA, next to her, was often her partner-in-crime and the person she considered her most common voice of reason. Alejandra was practical, an adder coiled under the rocks in wait, and despite being the youngest daughter of Clan Villarreal at age nineteen, she was deadly and never to be underestimated at work.

She was methodical, intelligent, always the one to calculate the bases and torture the enemy, ever so slowly, until she or one of her sisters struck the killing blow. To outsiders, she was the quiet and introverted one, staying to the shadows until her time was called, but really, she had stopped being introverted since her training begun as merely a little girl.

She was no introvert like she used to be, but a perfectly-oiled killing machine that held no remorse for backstabbers, thespians, and adversaries to her family. And if you came near her family, any of her sisters, you could describe the look on her face as being colder than ice.

Codename: Stonecold.

"Paulina! Alejandra! You're back!"

The two sisters turned around a corner hall of the mansion, discovering their Aunt Bianca on a stepladder dusting off the top corner of a portrait with a feather duster. She was a peppy woman, often choosing to stay at Casa Villarreal to do the housework, but when duty called for her, she'd rise to the challenge with one of the family's sacred daggers.

She was the one that insisted it be apart of their sigil, just tipped in blood and engraved on a shield.

"Hey Aunt B!" they chorused.

"Is the bitch dead?"

"I let Pau finish him," Alejandra revealed, tucking her hands into her suit pockets, and her sister wildly nodded.

"You should've been there, Aunt Bianca. I blew off his head."

"As you should've! Excelente, my niece."

Smaller footsteps pattered around the hall, and revealing themselves to the sisters were their triplet cousins, all sixteen, all hyper, and all excited that they'd returned alive and in one piece with more family glory.

"Pau! Ale!"

Leading the group was the firstborn triplet, Isabela, or as they called her, Isa, aspiring guitarist who'd taken an affinity to the knife as her weapon. She hugged Paulina, burrowing into her suit.

"You owe us all the details. We should've been there!"

"Maybe, maybe," Aunt Bianca tutted, "but you have music to practice, lessons to attend, and housework to help out with."

"I knowwww, Mom," Isabela drawled, and Paulina giggled.

Her sisters, Tiana (nicknamed Tia) and Octavia (nicknamed Via) were also aspiring musicians, with Tia taking to the drums and Via the bass guitar. Both shared the throwing star as their type of weapon, and more often than not, Alejandra would overhear them sneaking to the practice room in the dead of night to train.

Secret activity... now that was shit she approved of.

"How was today's music lesson, girls?" she asked, and Tiana and Octavia excitedly stared up at her.

"Perfect! I think I might have broken one of my drums..."

"No you didn't," Via teased Tia. "I'm getting good at my basslines."

"The world better watch out. You three are going to be the next big thing in rock, I just know it."

"Damn right!" Isabela cheered, separating herself from her middle cousin to regroup with her sisters, and Paulina, glancing around, noticed a certain someone happened to be missing.

This hall looked dim, did it not?

"Have any of you seen Dany?"

"Dany? No, not today to my knowledge," Aunt Bianca reported, making the brows on her nieces furrow, and Alejandra looked to her cousins, also blank of an answer. Tiana appeared to try to restrain herself from chuckling, but didn't go unnoticed.

"She's probably "busy" with Vito again..."

*Of course. Should've guessed,* Paulina muttered, albeit affectionately, to herself.

Casa Villarreal could only talk about one thing as of late, and that was how in two weeks, her and Alejandra's older sister, as well as the family heir, would be marrying Vito Villamizar, the one and only heir of their greatest rival, Clan Villamizar, in what had been called the "wedding of the century."

Vito was a clever weasel, slick as a serpent, and to Dany, insanely fucking attractive. She found it impossible to not swoon over him with how he exuded confidence and charm at every turn, procured her favorite flowers to put in her hair, how he accepted the differences between their families so casually and treated her as the princess she was almost going to be when the day she inherited their empire came.

He was a dangerous man, but one that had laid down his arms to propose of unity between Villarreal and Villamizar. Something so great, it almost sounded too good to be true, and yet, here they were, with a marriage and unity in two weeks. One less rival, more arms, more power, more wealth.

It was everything Paulina and Alejandra could ever want, and they were especially, especially happy for Dany, someone who had spent most of her life longing for love and a powerful husband that would provide a pillar of support, plus additional love and respect, for her family. Someone who could keep their history and crime record in the dark, away from the prying hands of Monterrey's fearsome police chief in Miguel Reyes (that bastard boiled their blood bad).

But did it mean that they were qualm-free with Vito? Not entirely. Paulina always found herself disliking him, and not just because she lacked sexual attraction or general favor towards men. Something about that man bothered her, made her itch beneath her flesh.

He had an overzealous amount of power, and the way he spoiled Dany was, to her, excessive. Yes, she was an heir, and yes, she was someone to tread with carefully, but with all the gifts he'd personally given her, costing tens of thousands of dollars?

It was like she could smell blood in the water, but each time she tried to find the trail, it was dry, and she was cursing herself for suspecting someone who, for all she knew, could have a squeaky-clean record and no foul intent for her sister. Dany deserved happiness, and she'd never forgive herself if she ruined it all for nothing.

Alejandra, meanwhile, had less of an issue towards Vito herself, but more towards his younger twin brothers, Alex and Paulo. They were almost exactly akin to her and Paulina, for one thing, and that unnerved her.

For a second thing, they could only lighten up when they were either drunk, playing in the game room, or had gone off to be with Vito alone. Their demeanors when around her and her middle sister were, at best, broody.

Like all they could muster in them was a fish-eyed Hamlet expression, eyes hooded with intrigue, always watching. Still, they were innocent of harm to her family, and as long as they never laid a finger on Dany or Pau, she was fine breathing air with them and breaking bread inviting them into her family.

Their parents had no issues with the Villamizar brothers and certainly hadn't entrusting them to roam freely around a few weeks ago as the date of the wedding neared, allowing them to accommodate the home they would now come to share in harmony between Villarreal and Villamizar. Mother and Father Villarreal were gone at the moment, negotiating a deal for new arms with the richest clan in Chihuahua in exchange for taking out their largest enemies.

Mafia negotiations were no party trick to accomplish. They'd been gone for a month, and last the Villarreal sisters had heard... there'd been reservations on both sides. Knowing their parents, however, they'd get shit done and be back in time for Dany's wedding - it'd be an unmendable sin to miss it.

Humming, Paulina and Alejandra went down the main hall and past the kitchens, about to get into a debate of what post-job snack they'd have today, but a clack of heels, a slap-happy gasp, and a familiar, sunny face alerted them to the face they'd been missing at home all day long.

"Pau, Ale!"

"Dany!"

DANIELA was the oldest of the Villarreal daughters and as such, the heir to the fortune. She was a picture of elegance, strutting her way up to her sisters with tied-back, dyed wavy blonde hair and the brightest brown eyes, her white satin, gold-embellished dress flowing behind her as her walk increased to a run.

In the face of the mafia, she was the perfect daughter who knew how to charm and seduce much as she knew how to plant bullets in the vital organs of enemies. She might appear to be material of a damsel-in-distress, a bubbly, oblivious soon-to-be-housewife, but she was never the fool and never to be undervalued. She was deadly as they came.

Dany was the sun, warm and full of blessings, but scorching hot when provoked. You didn't get away with hurting her sisters or her family without sorely regretting it, and it'd be mercy if she ever let you escape with your life after that fact.

Codename: Solecito.

"There's our bride-to-be!" Paulina commented, opening her arms, as did Alejandra, and Daniela fell into them, greeting them both with a squeal and abundant pride.

"So, if I had to guess, Double H is Double Dead?"

"Double Dead," Alejandra verified. "You look wonderful today, Dany. Did Jasmin style you?"

"She did! I told her this should be the wedding dress, but she had a grander idea."

"Well, in that case, let her cook," Paulina insisted, slinging her arm around her older sister and putting her hand to the sky. "I can just imagine you, in the most expensive gown known to man, walking the isle and showing all of Monterrey that you are simply untouchable..."

"I can see it," she visualized, "but I'm not walking alone. You two are with me, in the prettiest gowns..."

A fashion statement so dominating that everyone in Monterrey would bow at their feet. Being a Villarreal was an art form in of itself.

"Hell yeah," Alejandra whispered. "Or suits!"

Suits were deathly intimidating, especially for someone like the woman hailed as Stonecold... and a prime source of a nosebleed. It humored Daniela, and she let out a laugh, rolling her eyes.

"Whatever you say, Ale. Congrats on the mission today, by the way. Another rival eliminated!"

"Another head to mount on a wall," Paulina snickered.

"And another name to spit upon." Daniela fist-bumped her sisters, leaning against the wall of the kitchens, and Alejandra joined her side, polishing off her pistol with a handkerchief in the pocket of her slacks.

"Assuming you and Vito were discussing wedding plans earlier?"

Her oldest sister nodded, eyes going dreamy at the mention of her fiancé, dimples upturned to a light smile. "We haven't agreed on much yet. There's so much to plan... so many things to set up... but we can agree on one thing: lots of crimson, lots of blue. Vito wants an even batch of both to be symbolic of Villarreal and Villamizar coming together under one roof."

"I'd never thought you'd like blue," Paulina teased, sticking her tongue out at her. "You've always been one to like crimson."

"It's still my favorite color... but Vito's given me an appreciation for blue. How could I not like it when the azul roses are my favorite flower?"

The symbol of Clan Villamizar was a blue rose, otherwise known to the sisters as La Rosa Azul. They had their own assortment of roses in the garden, including the sacred Villamizar symbol that Vito and his brothers had gifted them as a peace token, and they grew triumphantly in the sunlight in a bed shaped like the sun.

Solecito, a dedication to the Villarreal family's star-studded bride.

"Also, when you combine red and blue," Daniela went on, going into her loving rambles relating to her eternal flame, "you get purple, a color of royalty, imagination, transformation, power... think about it, it's perfect!"

Both sisters agreed on that, and Alejandra grinned, able to imagine the beauty that'd be the wedding flora and decorations in the ballroom, the magnitude that night would have for both families. Perfection.

"Anything else you want at your wedding, Dany?"

"A delicious cake, lots of family and friends, quality music... you name it, everything that makes a wedding special. I need to think more on the specifics."

"You do that, but we know one thing's for certain," Paulina affirmed, her hand laying flat on Daniela's shoulder as a gesture of faith. "You will be the most beautiful bride Monterrey has ever seen."

"Oh, she will be, that I know for sure."

A suave, deep, romantic-laden voice rumbled down the hall, and the moment Daniela heard it, her heart pounded at her ribcage, her cheeks going rosy and her eyes, smiling themselves, filling with a rainbow of emotion. She propelled herself off the wall and into the arms of her lover, swinging her off the ground, and she squeaked, blushing heavily.

"Vitooooooooo!"

"I wouldn't lie to you ever, gorgeous. Neither would your sisters."

He set her on the ground, and smushing his cheeks, Daniela smashed her lips into his for a kiss, one that was cute much as it was sloppy and additionally heated. Alejandra rolled her eyes, flicking her hand while Paulina feigned disgust (oh who was she kidding, these two were disgustingly romantic).

"Get a room!" she snorted, and Alejandra's facade of stone cracked when she let out her own huff, elbowing her sister. Daniela pulled away, shrugging, and Vito then beamed a grateful smile at his fiancé's sisters.

"Afternoon, Paulina, Alejandra," he greeted, bowing to them, and they dipped their heads at him. Pridefully, he smoothed out a portion of his short blonde hair and took up Daniela's hand, finger tracing over her rose engagement ring.

"Still beautiful as ever."

"You too, handsome." She leaned in, peppering the corner of his mouth in a kiss.

"Oh my God if I witness you two kiss one more time I am going to throw the fuck up," Paulina muttered, pretending to gag, and Vito awkwardly laughed, Daniela laughing even harder while Alejandra elbowed her middle sister again, giving her a stern, "Paulina!"

"It's alright, Pau. We'll go be disgustingly adorable lovers somewhere else. Vito, didn't you want to see the Rose Gardens today, love?"

Interested, Vito cambered his head toward her, linking their arms together. "Certainly. I'd like to see how our roses are doing."

"Only if you want to gawk at all of ours."

"Deal."

Like two birds of a feather, they skipped past Paulina and Alejandra and disappeared around the corner, enveloped in conversation; the two sisters felt twin glares piercing their backsides and heard the scuffle of flats on the carpet.

Vito wasn't the only Villamizar lurking in Casa Villarreal today.

"Paulo and Alex," Alejandra beckoned, summoning the brothers out from the kitchen. The twins, Paulo short and auburn haired and Alex tall and black haired, were as muscular as Vito and had a similar stature as him, and they wore matching dark blue vests, their eyes dark brown in stark contrast to the heir's blue.

"Alejandra, Paulina. Nice to see you," Paulo said, simple and short, but Paulina, unimpressed, didn't find it sweet.

"Hello to you too. Sneaking confections out from under the cooks' noses?"

"Maybe yes. Maybe no," Alex replied, picking at his teeth with a toothpick. He and Paulo stared at them the same, half-broody, half-curious as to what they were up to.

Okay, no, this wouldn't stand. Any staring contest between them was uncomfortable enough already.

"Wanna play darts in the pool room? I place a bet you'll lose to us," Alejandra challenged, cracking her knuckles, and Paulina, enticed, cracked the muscle in their neck.

The best way to acquaint ex-enemies into the family fold?

Game on.

"I place a bet we'll finally beat your asses," Paulo retorted. "And if not at that, pool."

"You'll lose."

"We'll win."

The broodiness was eradicated, and leading them to the game room, Paulina and Alejandra embraced the silent conspiracy of stratagem.

MEANWHILE

The Villarreal Rose Gardens were a luxurious paradise fit for royals. Topiaries, perfectly trimmed and vibrant green in the summer, dotted spaces between the hedgerows, adorned themselves by hundreds, upon hundreds, of picturesque roses. The majority were shades of red, scarlet, burgundy, wine, crimson, ruby, you name it, and in a tiny courtyard, Daniela and Vito had their eyes on them from under the shade of a Montezuma cypress tree, towering as high as Casa Villarreal itself.

"They're lovely," Vito observed, his approval oozing off his tone, "but not as lovely as you, Dany."

"You'd rather have my thorns over theirs," she teased, trailing off to a bush and stroking the petals of one, and Vito followed, his hand linking with hers.

"Didn't you once tell me that prickled fingers were just another way into someone's heart?"

Content, she hummed, a finger sliding up onto his chin, and her voice, quiet but sultry, filled his ear.

"They are, my dear." Her lips brushed his earlobe, and he stiffened, undoubtedly interested in where this was going. "We need lots of them at the wedding."

Nobody bled confidence as much as persuasion like Daniela Villarreal, and Vito was sold, not needing to be told twice.

"Yes, yes. They're part of your family's symbolism... but we should balance it out with our symbolism. Our roses."

They strutted into another section of the Rose Gardens, crossing under an arch decorated with dahlias and to one of the newest sections, the one allocated with funding (and flora) from Clan Villamizar. Daniela knelt down to study the design, cobblestone outlining tilled patches of soil in the shape of a sun, growing from that soil, bushes of blue roses.

Thorny, but resilient. Dark and tempting, yet in the sunlight, sacrosanct speciality.

And it'd been made all for her.

"My favorite flowers," she murmured, awestruck and petting the delicate petals, and Vito cracked a grin, kneeling down beside her.

"I had to dedicate this to you, my Solecito. Why have such an exquisite garden if it didn't have your favorites?"

"No idea. You've made it so much better than it was."

"Once we're married, it'll get even better," Vito promised, kissing her on her forehead. "We should hang these visibly in the wedding."

"Don't tempt me with a good time, Vito," Daniela mocked, brown eyes shining, and he twirled a strand from his ashy-brown mustache, smirking.

"I'm afraid I already have." Somehow, his smirk widened, and in a flash, he plucked one of the arcane roses, bequeathing it to her, and she gasped, a hand to mesmerized lips.

This man just knew how to spoil her rotten.

"Oh, Vito-"

"Take it, darling. It's yours."

Cheeks red as the crimson roses, and falling into royalty, Daniela accepted the gift, putting the rose above her ear where it rightfully belonged. Her heart was fluttering, nearly racing, from the gesture, and that only intensified when her eyes found Vito's blue.

Lord, prevent her from becoming a puddle! He extended his hand, and together, they rose, future bride, future groom. There were laughs, and then, in flats and heels, they'd run to one of Daniela's other favorite parts of the Rose Gardens, the five-tier fountain and wooden awnings that were decorated in dark ivy and black and white roses. The afternoon sun cast on the water, illuminating the lovers in every color of the rainbow.

Slowly, they danced, spinning on heels, sliding in flats, reversing, going forward, dipping to the ground, and being lifted to the sky. They were misted by the holy water and tickled by the edges of the roses, but not once pricked by the thorns, only blessed by skin-on-skin contact and the sweetest serenity of their lips meeting, again and again, until they were sore and sitting on the fountain's edge, out of breath, and yet never out of love.

Daniela was never out of love to give Vito, brushing strands of her blonde hair out of her eyes, and she blushed, jutting out her lower lip.

"So beautiful," Vito praised, pressing his forehead to hers. "Mine."

"You're mine," she declared, her lips almost to his neck to write it out, but he stopped her, almost as if reminding her that here was too special for that kind of decree.

Caught red-handed.

"Always having ulterior motives, are you, Dany?" he taunted, tapping her shoulder, and she guffawed, crawling onto his lap, allowing the birdsong and rushing fountain water to calm her.

"Always. The mafia life stops for no one."

"No one at all," he whispered, hands moving to the small of her back, and with little effort, even with her muscular body, he raised her into his arms. "Soon, the world will be ours, cariño. We will prosper, and we will be the king and queen of Monterrey!"

Daniela could have never imagined that she'd get so lucky finding Vito, and in his arms, she could glimpse the future where instead of rivalry, there was serenity, and she and Vito, hand in hand, would bring forth a new era for Villarreal and Villamizar.

They'd be the most powerful crime syndicate in all of Mexico. The wealthiest.

They'd destroy all their enemies, and it'd be so discreet, wrapped in shadow, that not even the seasoned asshole that was Miguel Reyes couldn't pinpoint them as the culprits.

In two weeks, that dream would become her reality, and with passion, she'd kill that time waiting with her one and only.

"God, I love you," she chanted, her face in his chest. "God, I fucking love you."

Vito pinned her there, keeping his smile and something more locked behind his chiseled lips.

ONE HOUR LATER

Thud.

"And weeeeeeee win!"

Paulina issued the indictment determinedly as the dart landed square in the center of the target - joining all of her and Alejandra's darts that hit the center two rings on the board.

Alex and Paulo... had unfortunate luck hitting the outer rings. Only three of their darts had impacted the rings with the highest points.

"...god fucking damn it," Alex deflated, irritated that he and his brother had been outfoxed by the Villarreal sisters once again, and Paulo grumbled noticing them silently gloat with a fist-bump and a wink.

"You need better throwing hands," Alejandra remarked plainly at them.

"You never play fair," Alex fired back, but undaunted, she only arched a brow at him. Paulina scoffed.

"We're Villarreals. Fair isn't our method of playing... and even when we play fair? The enemy is always guaranteed to lose."

To demonstrate, she went over to one of the pool tables, grabbed a stick, touched it up, and after Alejandra cued the balls in a triangle, she struck. All of the solid ones went into holes, and Paulo, for a brief second, looked repulsed by her act of class.

"I see you brooding like an angsty teen over there, Paulo. Dare to challenge me?"

Paulina was nicknamed Wildstyle among Clan Villarreal for a reason. Where there was fire, she didn't just incite it, but played with it.

Sometimes it scared her sisters. Other times, they lived for it, and right now, watching Paulo and Alex get humiliated brought immense joy to Alejandra, sniggering at the Villamizar brothers.

Paulo had enough, to say the least. "Fine, Paulina. Two can play this game."

Grabbing his own stick, he aimed at the white ball at one of the striped balls, but misfired, and the white ball bounced off the rim, nearly landing in a hole.

"Are you fucking kidding me??"

Alex, frustrated, ran a hand through his long black hair. "I can't believe Vito finds you people tolerable."

"Welcome to the family, Alex," Alejandra stated, shit-eating grin and everything. "We can keep playing. You'll win eventually."

So they did, and pool proved to be easier for the two brothers, who did manage to pull away some rounds and finally lighten up, prancing around Paulina and Alejandra in victory, but by the time they had grown jaded, it was the sisters that had still scored the most victories.

A Villarreal almost always won. They almost always left their enemies reminded, and Alex and Paulo scowled at them, their happiness depleting for annoyance.

"One day we're gonna whoop your sorry selves," Paulo threatened, angling towards the pool tables and dart board. "And we'll remind you that a Villamizar doesn't surrender."

"Hmph," Alex added, and twin brown stares gleaming, they went out the door.

Paulina and Alejandra would be calling them their in-laws and accepting them as kin after Daniela and Vito's marriage, but that didn't mean that they wouldn't ever fully like those damn chucklefucks.

"Everything about those two is weird..." Paulina muttered, and Alejandra nodded, her brown eyes lidded with suspicion.

"I mean, I guess they're still used to being on unfriendly terms with us. We can only hope they'll loosen up after the wedding."

"Doubt that."

We can try, at least, Alejandra thought to herself, checking the time on her watch. 6:30.

In an hour, they'd be off to Casa Villamizar for the family gathering and dinner, hosted by Vito to celebrate his upcoming marriage with Dany as well as toasting to his own family's name... and right now, with sweat-soaked skin and business suits glued to said skin, they were vastly unprepared for the night's festivities.

Time for a change of outfits and a shower.

"Pau, we should get ready for the evening."

"A long evening," she huffed, cross, but not disagreeing. "But you're right. We reek of murder and exhaustion. Race ya!"

Wildstyle, being Wildstyle, took off out the door, and Stonecold, humored, followed after her, hearing the shower and a regal dress call her name.

Warm waters running down bare backsides lasted for about fifteen rigorous minutes of scrubbing, and afterwards was another ten minutes of drawing out eyeliner, fluffing and priming hair, adding in the extensions, and then, pulling on their chosen outfits of the night.

Alejandra got ready the fastest, slipping into a long, deep scarlet leather pullover dress with two large flaps covering almost all of her chest; the upper half of it was left bare, and she retied her hair into a bun, but left her side her bangs hanging, a classic detail to her look. She coated her lips in pale lipstick, and snapping the tube shut, she completed her appearance by attaching two thick silver earrings to her ears and sliding into matching heels.

Stonecold, tonight, would be even colder in the family colors at the dinner table. Her body, however? Not for sale, so the admirers could eat their hearts out to her delight.

Next to get ready was Paulina, ever meticulous in how she looked. She extended her auburn hair into two nearly ankle-length long braids (so long she could also use them as a scarf around her neck in the wintertime if she wished) and dressed in a rich, long red bodysuit that transitioned to more of a dress around her calves, a thick high collar shielding much of her collarbone. Topping off her outfit were tall, white platforms and long, silver chain earrings ending with a ball.

Wildstyle was going to eat at that dinner table in style. She was certain to be ten times more attractive than her rivalry in Paulo - nah, he'd never compare to her.

Once the two were done, they headed over to Daniela's room, her door still shut, and Paulina rapped on the wooden door three times.

"Dany! You ready yet?"

"Almost! Give me a minute!"

There was a scrabbling of makeup utensils and the clink of earrings, dress fabric scraping against the carpet. All became still, and a moment later, the door opened. With it, the sisters' jaws fell to the floor.

At first glance, it appeared Daniela's body was only covered by thin strips of crimson, much of her skin bleeding through the gaps, but a closer inspection revealed a covering just slightly darker supporting the strips in question. Her arms were bare, and she was platformed by similar white heels as Paulina's, her rugged hair straightened out and falling over her shoulders, mostly covering the silver linked earrings beneath her ears.

Talk about a seven-shade stunner.

"Holy fuck," Paulina breathed. "Dany, the men in that manor are going to squirm."

"Let them squirm," she sneered, tossing her hair back with a flair of elegance. "Soon they're gonna bow to my will anyway."

Alejandra nodded, tapping her shoulder with an open palm. "You look stunning."

"You and Pau too, Ale. I haven't seen you get this revealing in a long time."

"It's called gaining confidence in my appearance." Snickering, Alejandra ruffled her hair, and Dany, proudly, smoothed it back down.

"Definitely. Let's go, ladies. The Villamizars aren't going to be themselves on empty stomachs, am I right?"

The three were escorted by Villarreal personal into a limousine, partition rolled up. Along the fifteen minutes to Casa Villamizar, Daniela rambled hopelessly about Vito, his plans for the night, and how romantic the dinner would be, and both Alejandra and Paulina rolled their eyes, Paulina in particular longing for her own partition to shut her older sister out.

She loved Dany's hopelessly romantic whims. What she didn't love was Vito.

He's just some blonde guy! I never thought my sister could be this off the deep end... but then again I'm still single. What the fuck do I even know about love?

And Alejandra was trying not to laugh from seeing the sunshine and rainbows emitting from Solecito, yearning herself for romance... just not with a guy like Vito.

Oh, one day, perhaps.

The fifteen minutes were greedily used up by Dany's yapping, and the limousine parked in front of a circular ring of blue roses. The doors were propped open, and leading the charge was Daniela, stepping with absolute, unmatched determination through the front, her sisters following. Vito and his brothers were waiting just around the corner.

"My ladies, you have arrived," Vito greeted, bowing, and all three held their chins up high, Dany's the highest. He admired it, offering a hand, and she hugged him, touching the bridge of her nose to his.

Afterwards, they took their seats at the dinner table, Dany next to her fiancé and Paulina and Alejandra, thicker than thieves, sticking by each other, sat across from the equally inseparable Paulo and Alex (a staredown was mandatory). Several older men belonging to Clan Villamizar took their seats on their side while they were joined by other members of Clan Villarreal until all thirty seats were occupied.

Vito rung a bell, and the chefs wheeled out trays of cooked salmon, Cornish game hen, stirred salads, halibut, steak, bread, and other small appetizers, and chatter commenced at the table as sides and main courses were helped onto plates, drinks filled up with red wine and champagne.

The Villamizars were talented in the kitchen department, and the food was stellar, beyond scrumptious on the tastebuds. Dany scarfed down her steak and downed it with a glass of champagne Vito poured her straight from the bucket, her lipstick imprinting on the glass, and with love hearts in her eyes, she watched him eat his salmon, conversing with other high-ranking members of his clan. Paulina and Alejandra settled on pork, chewing slowly and adding salad on the sides, and for much as they didn't fully like their ex-opposition... they couldn't deny that this hit the spot (and their chefs needed to take notes).

Although not a drinker, Alejandra didn't refuse a glass of red wine, and she savored the drink, letting it bubble down her throat. Paulina, the reckless one, had downed her glass within a minute and had stuffed her mouth full of bread.

Chaos gremlin. Amused, she smiled at her, and she winked at her back. Across the table, Paulo and Alex ate in total silence, not having much to say verbally, but their dead stares pretty much said everything.

An hour and a half passed by of casual conversation, food consumption, and wine being poured into flutes and glasses by servants and chefs. Villarreal and Villamizar scanned the scenery, the dark, near-black walls and portraits of the Villamizar greats, the white, black, and blue roses scattered on the dark wood of the table and on the walls, the trimming and embellishments on every surface.

Daniela, watching everything, eyes wide with wonder and love, couldn't wait to also declare this place her home, and she rested her chin in her hands, catching Vito raising a glass drank clean of champagne, and he tapped it with his spoon.

The clank promptly silenced everyone, and he stood up, his dark navy tuxedo trailing behind him.

"Thank you, thank you. As you know, in two weeks, I am marrying the saintly woman seated beside me, and to that, I say cheers."

"Cheers!" the room chorused. Paulina and Alejandra clapped for Daniela, who blushed and grinned so brightly at Vito that she was sure to make the sun jealous.

"But that's not all I toast to!" Vito went on, eyeing his crowd solemnly, his wife-to-be never once looking away from her love. "These past months have been tough for Clan Villamizar. It was five months ago that I lost my father to cancer, and I promised Carlos Villamizar on his deathbed that when I inherited his fortune, I would carry on his legacy and continue making us stronger. Better. More powerful than the eye could see..."

He's done it, Daniela pondered, blinking, and his eyes met hers, shimmering with affection. He invited her up to her feet, and defiantly, she rose beside him, snuggling into the crook of his shoulder.

"I'd say I have achieved that, all thanks to the love of my life." Vito held up her hand, kissing her knuckles a few times and studying the beautiful rose-gold engagement ring on her finger. Even more affection flickered in his eyes, and Paulina and Alejandra observed as their older sister practically melted in his embrace. The tears they shed were for Dany only.

"Together, Villarreal and Villamizar will rule as one. The days of fighting, trading arms, and killing for the lion's share are over. We will prosper and be the wealthiest mafia family in all the land!"

"Amen!" the crowd cheered, clapping and whistling, and Vito, waving to all and saluting, sat back down with a happy-go-lucky Daniela, holding his cheek and beaming.

"You spoil me too much, sweetheart."

"Ah, that means I must spoil you more," he whispered, his lips brushing her own. "We will be one family under one roof. Spoiled royalty."

"Lovers and partners," she vowed, pressing her lips to his, and secretly, under the table, their fingers intertwined, another hand being placed on Vito's inner thigh, and he shot her a look.

Dany often didn't care about time or place, and she slipped him an even more sinister smirk.

They'd be doing more than having a feast and laying together tonight, and thought of it made her blush more furiously than a tomato ever could, even more so when Vito made it a promise by whispering it into her eardrum, his tongue darting out to cement it.

She could hear Paulina scoffing and feel Alejandra's eyes roll into the back of her head, but it didn't matter, and she inhaled everything about Vito in.

Two more weeks. Two more weeks until the happiest day of her life and Monterrey had its shit rocked to the core.

I cannot wait!

Separating herself from kissing Vito all over his handsome face, she turned to her sisters, mischievously glaring at her and knowing her all too well by now.

"Isn't he the best?"

"Trust me, Dany, we know," Paulina reassured her.

"They know too," Alejandra added, pointing at Paulo and Alex, who didn't like the sudden attention drawn on them and blushed under the might of Solecito, giggling like a schoolgirl at them.

Boys will be boys.

"Mother and Father are going to be elated by all this," she said, looking at the ceiling, the table, and at Vito again. "They never thought they'd count Clan Villamizar as a friend, but Vito... he's changed everything."

She dabbed at her eyes, careful not to smear her makeup too much, and Alejandra smiled, curling a strand of black hair with her index finger.

"Not just him. You changed the game too, Dany."

"Aww, Ale..."

"All this wasn't just built by Vito, y'know!" Paulina exclaimed, crossing her hands on her lap. "Mother and Father? They're gonna be so proud of you, Dany. I just know it. Mother is going to sob when you walk the isle."

"Father... might be hysterical," Alejandra chimed, and the sisters laughed, toasting with refilled wine glasses to that. They, especially Daniela, hoped they'd be back in time for the wedding.

They just have to be, she thought. It's going to be beautiful... and I'm going to bring the house down.

Lost in her thoughts, she turned back to Vito, peppering his cheek in more kisses, and he kissed her back on her lips once before he rose, dusting off his suit (though did it need dusting?) and his cuffs.

"I'll be back shortly, mi amor... I must deal with concerns relating to my wedding outfit. Paulo? Alex? Come with me if you may."

Almost relieved that they were excused from the scene, Paulo and Alex sprang out of their chairs and followed their older brother down the hall, and sighing, Daniela sat back in her chair, dreaming of the rest of the night.

She could feel the tiredness in her bones from being at dinner for so long, ears ringing from the constant chatter, and if there was anything more she wanted right now... it was some quality time with her future husband.

Alone.

With nothing but sheets in between them and her in con-

"Dany."

Paulina's voice snapped her right back to reality, and she gasped, flustered. Her sister was on the verge of bursting out into laughter.

"What?"

"Your lipstick is smudged."

"How badly?"

"Like you just... hmm, how do I put this in table-appropriate words?" Paulina tapped her chin, thinking. "Matan's sambo."

Oh.

OH.

Shit! She flushed, harder, and Alejandra dipped her head in quiet agreement with her middle sister. Well, that wasn't too professional, was it?

"Thanks for telling me. I'll be right back!"

Excusing herself from the table, Daniela went down the nearest hall, trying to recount the layout of Casa Villamizar from her initial tour last month. There were at least three bathrooms here... she just had to recall the nearest one.

Was it left down the hall or right? Or was it in the other hall closer to the foyer?

I think it was left? Daniela trusted her gut, going left down a dimly-lit hall and propping open a few doors, but none yielded her the tile of a bathroom.

Study. Guest bedroom. Game room...

Daniela kept herself walking, passing by two wooden double doors, and hushed voices made her stop in her tracks.

"...either way, it's working."

That's Paulo! Vito and his brothers are in here... but I thought they were talking about Vito's wedding outfit...?

Stealthily, she pressed her ear to the door and listened - but as intelligent, prepared, and militaristic as she was, Daniela wasn't at all prepared to hear her fiancé chuckle, deep and twisted.

Something dropped onto her heart, and it was more freezing than a bullet to the chest.

"It already has. Dany is all too easy to fool, Paulo. She thinks this marriage will benefit her... but little does she know that she's dead wrong."

It was a dagger, and it'd sliced through the center of her guarded heart. She gasped, hands over her mouth, and her pupils dilated.

Too easy to... fool?

All those times he promised her he loved her. That they'd be forever and ever.

He... he promised me. He told me he loved me!

"There can only be one mafia family in Monterrey. Clan Villarreal's days are nearly over," Vito hissed, his brothers chuckling. "That fortune will be ours, and there is nothing she and her pathetic baby sisters can do to stop it."

Those pieces hurt more than the cut of razor blades. They were fragments of broken glass that scarred Daniela so deep, she could taste the blood in her mouth.

She was choking on it.

He... he never...

But the roses. Constantly showering her in kisses and gifts. Hailing her as his everything. Telling her she was the one of his dreams.

All the times they'd laid together, learning each other's bodies, sharing sacred secrets, walking in the gardens, musing about how grand their futures would be.

He said they'd be king and queen.

Daniela swam in denial, begging that it was all a bad dream, pleading that the real Vito would come through those doors, sweep her up off her feet, and give her a flower crown of blue roses to prove to her that he always cared.

"What about after the wedding?" Alex asked, and Daniela gulped when she heard the click-click-click of a revolver wheel spinning. She nearly stopped breathing, her ears ringing so loud that it sounded like a train had run right through them.

After... the wedding? What-

"Don't you worry, Alex. I'll take care of her myself."

The imaginary glass ripped through her skin, but it didn't hurt as much as the tears that burned her face or the realization that sunk deeper than the blade of the dagger into her back.

I was never anything to him.

Vito had never loved her at all.

Daniela was only a pawn, a pawn who had so foolishly fallen in love with someone who had remained the enemy. He'd gotten her trust. He'd gotten intel on her family. He'd spoon-fed her lie after lie after lie.

He said he loved her.

He said he wanted her hand in marriage.

He said they'd unite their families as one.

He promised her everything.

He'd secured her heart - and now, he'd broken it into a million pieces that left her falling to her knees in the wake of a broken never.

Chapter Text

PAULINA AND ALEJANDRA HAD JUST FINISHED a game of 20 Questions out of boredom when they heard frantic footsteps click against the wooden floors of Casa Villamizar, and both turned, expecting Daniela, happy as can be, begging to go home so she could be back in Vito's arms.

However, what they got was the horrific opposite, and they gasped, terrified, by her appearance, hair bedraggled, her eye makeup smeared and dripping down her face like raccoon markings, her eyes dark, pained... and heartbroken.

"Dany- I- what happened to you??" Paulina, worried, demanded, and Alejandra put a hand on her mouth, unease bursting out of her skin like fleas. Their older sister wheezed out a sob, tangling in their embrace.

"I can't... I can't be here right now. Please just..."

She lost her words, sniffling, and Alejandra blotted her tears with a table napkin, helping to block her from view of the stragglers in the room. "Whoa, okay. We need to get you home."

Running even with blistering pain in their heels, the three made a dive into the limousine out front, rolling up the partition and tinting the windows to reduce their visibility. Balling into herself, Daniela retreated into her dress, reduced to a shell of the Solecito her sisters knew her as.

She didn't talk for the fifteen-minute drive back, communicating only through whimpers and sobs, but both Paulina and Alejandra knew something was horribly, horribly wrong.

Something happened, and that something had torn their sister in two. They couldn't stand seeing her like this.

It takes almost everything in someone to smash her into pieces, Alejandra wondered, her heart breaking, and though she lent her comfort via stroking the knots out of her blonde hair, Daniela didn't have much of a reaction at all. She'd disassociated from reality.

The moment the limo parked, the two ran to her bedroom, dodging lingering members of Clan Villarreal and even their cousins, too busy jamming out a few rooms down on their instruments. Paulina locked the door, heading into her adjoining bathroom, wetting a rag, and wiping the ruined makeup off her face.

"Dany, Dany, it's okay. You're home now," she tried to soothe, but her sobs only grew louder, and she crawled onto Alejandra's lap, seeking her warmth.

"Nothing is okay!"

"What happened?" Alejandra questioned, holding her face, and tears streamed faster than a river down her cheeks. In her grasp, she'd never been so vulnerable.

She'd been tough for so long that she'd never given thought to being heartbroken. The truth caught in her throat, and all that came out of her throat was a hollow, empty sound that made her hunch over, and yet, she vomited out nothing.

Nothing. That was all she ever was to Vito and his brothers.

Nothing, or a pawn, or a means to an end. An asset that he'd eliminate after he'd gained her clan's wealth marrying her.

"Dany, stay here with us," Paulina intoned, tilting her chin up. "Please. What happened back there?"

She held her hand, finger unintentionally gliding over the rose engagement ring, and that was enough to finally break Daniela once and for all. Unraveling, she spat out a shard of her shattered heart in a metallic outcry.

"He never loved me!"

Both gasped, and sick to her stomach, she cried into her knees. Paulina and Alejandra glanced at each other, knowing she could have only referred to one man.

A man who loved money has much as he "loved" his fiancé.

A relentless spoilsport.

A conniving rat.

Paulina grew deathly serious, and Alejandra, deep inside, flamed with harsh resentment of the Villamizar name, but she didn't dare let it show to her betrayed older sister, hugging her tightly as her middle sister did the questioning.

"Dany. What did he say? Did he tell this to your face?"

"I... I eavesdropped," she admitted, weakly, her voice in stutters. "He- he f-fooled m-me. He j-just... wants to m-marry m-me for the m-money and p-power..."

At once, Paulina caved into rage, growling. "That cheap dime whore!" she spat. "I knew something was off about him! He and his brothers are going to regret ever-"

"Paulina!" Alejandra barked sharply, shutting her up. "Dany doesn't need this right now. We worry about them later."

Protectively, she rubbed more of the tears off Daniela's face, her bloodshot eyes clawing into her heart, and overwhelmed with pity, Paulina relaxed, snuggling into her sister's other side.

"Everything he ever told me was a lie," Daniela croaked, sniffing. "He never loved me for who I am. He never loved my family or any of you. He told me... he told me I was his forever and he fucking LIED!"

"Oh, Dany," Alejandra cooed, rubbing her back, but it didn't stop the tears from coming again, and the guilt clogged her throat and lungs, turning her cries guttural.

"I believed everything he ever said to me. I believed it was love. How... how could I not? He was the sweetest and always wanted the best for me and... he was so genuine about everything to me. I thought he was honest... but he made me let my guard down. I've... I-"

Paulina's lip wobbled, the agony about to make her unleash the waterworks herself, and she steadied Daniela as she convulsed, tears splashing onto her lap.

"I've made the worst mistake of my entire life!"

That mistake, as she knew it, was a criminal one - now, Clan Villarreal was in exceeding danger, and once she took the Villamizar name, her family would crumble until no one was left standing.

Piece by piece, broken away. She'd be the only one to blame.

How could she have ever been so blind?

Paulina and Alejandra were infuriated that their night had come to an end like this, but moreso, heartbroken for Daniela, a ray of sunshine that had been stifled and pulverized into the ground by a vicious, cruel moneygrabber who'd never wanted her heart, only the power and wealth that came with her name.

She'd only acted as a puppet for him to get what he wanted: triumph over their family and their destruction. They couldn't let it happen.

They hated how Daniela had taken up the blame on herself too - how could she blame herself when the blame only could lie with Vito? They had believed his intentions to be mostly good, too, and he had proven himself trustworthy with his interactions towards Daniela. He made her the happiest she'd ever been.

Even if his spoiling was extreme, he'd convinced them that he did care for her and did love her. When Daniela had first come to them to inform them about the proposal, they had danced with joy until their heels hurt more than a wound on a mission.

All of that was a waste. A false pretense. They'd all fallen victim to Vito and his charm... but they wouldn't let it happen again.

Paulina and Alejandra refused to let him break Daniela's heart ever again.

And more than ever, they'd prevent this wedding from being a disaster in the making.

For now, all they could do was stay by Daniela as she cried it all out into them, grabbing them and holding on, and when she'd shed the final tear, she had clung onto Paulina, relaxing into her chest finally registering that she was safe.

Here, with her and Alejandra, she was safe, and Vito and her brothers wouldn't dare intrude on them.

"You should get some sleep," Paulina told her, and she nodded, nails digging into her younger sister.

"Please stay tonight. I can't... I don't wanna-"

"We will," Alejandra reassured, and that brought a half-smile back to her face. The sisters hugged, and then they went into their bedroom to change.

In their pajamas, they returned, and Alejandra shut off the light, curling into Daniela's chest while Paulina, a heavy sleeper, found herself on her stomach. With her sisters beside her, Daniela was able to relax, but her mind wandered into dangerous territory with Vito, and for two hours, she thought about everything they were supposed to be.

Perhaps the heartbreak was enough to make her body give out into slumber, all the blood in her heart bled out onto the floor.

ONE WEEK LATER

It was officially a week until Daniela married Vito, and though she would have been excited, bouncing down the halls and off walls and talking every chance she could about her fiancé to her sisters and everyone else in Casa Villarreal, the days had become a drag, and her world had been drained of color, every time she had gotten reminded of the momentous occasion.

Momentous? Who was she kidding? It was going to be the worst day of her life, having her dignity and her family's name stripped, tarnished, and burnt to ashes at the stake. She couldn't be happy about a damn thing anymore, not when everything she'd been told had been a fat fucking lie.

Love was a lie. Romance was fleeting. Her favorite flowers were a secret death knell. She'd let herself be put under a spell by the most dangerous man in Monterrey, and she had dared, willfully, stupidly, to believe there were redeeming factors in Vito Villamizar.

He was as evil as all of their other enemies. Around him, she wasn't herself, plastering on a mask of joy that her sisters could see through, and the closer she got to the wedding, the more it cracked.

He never suspected that inside, she was suffering all because of him. Her heart was broken because he had so carelessly stomped on it behind the scenes with his crooked brothers, plotting to destroy her family.

He'd even said the explicit part out loud - after they married, he'd get rid of her himself.

Now, as she strolled with Vito through the Rose Gardens, laid with him in bed and falsely sought dead comfort in a cold embrace, Daniela didn't come to life under his touch. She reacted, but only on instinct, not from love and adoration.

Where he wanted her, she'd heed his command. When he paraded her around, he'd started to tout her with every passing hour as the future.

Less of his wife. The future. Glory. Everything he had ever desired.

She could read what was quiet when he moved his lips and produced what seemed to be words of validation for the Villarreals, and it didn't just make her want to cry and vomit and run to her sisters, it made her sick.

Daniela didn't want to be anywhere close to Vito, but she had to be, or he'd suspect her. Her family would suspect her, and everything would crash down and break her apart until atrophy had a hand in her death.

She also noticed that when he spoke to her family, joking around with Aunt Bianca and giving her cousins flowers "free of charge," his smile was wide and fake. He never appreciated them, but thought of them as redundant.

Uninteresting factors on his game board compared to her, her sisters, and her parents, the true meat he'd wanted to consume in his plan.

The more she thought about it, recounting their past days and nights out together, the more his collection of personal gifts and romantic diatribes had been love bombing instead of kindness.

A red flag so obvious, and yet she hadn't seen it because she was a young, dumb fool in love. The fall was upon her, and the drop was steep.

At the end of it, Daniela would pay the price, and so would her family. Vito and his brothers would wipe them out, and if he ever laid a finger on Paulina or Alejandra, or her parents...

There would be no forgiving herself. When she was allowed to be alone with her thoughts, she cried it out into her pillows or took it out training in the practice room, firing bullets and throwing knives until her arms were too sore to cooperate with her.

The only things keeping Daniela going as the marriage loomed over her head were her sisters, there for her when missions weren't calling their names, playing Loteria with her in her room and going on actual, meaningful walks in the Rose Gardens and around the mansion, and her cousins, their skill at their instruments only sharpening and bringing her actual light by the end of their mini performances.

Still, it didn't heal her broken heart and give her an escape from her sad, miserable reality. She'd fallen in love with Vito and accepted his proposal, and now, she'd have to be the bride or face deadly consequences of which she could never bear.

Paulina and Alejandra, concurrently, were able to bear the devastation their sister had faced and put their resolve into trying to gather more information on what the Villamizar brothers had planned for Clan Villarreal, shadowing Paulo and Alex when they traversed the halls of the mansion, but their trails ended in them rejoining Vito almost every time.

When with Vito, there were too many risks, and sooner or later, they'd figure out they were being stalked. The last thing Daniela needed was for them to get busted and to land her in even deeper shit than she was already.

No matter how much either one of them (namely Paulina) longed to beat the ever-loving fuck out of their smug faces to avenge their sister, that just wasn't an option, and with no plan, they had no action. Until Daniela had gotten out of her haze enough, they couldn't debate on what came next or if the wedding would even go on at all.

A nagging, ugly feeling told them it had to... or else, they'd be further than six feet underground.

It was three in the afternoon, and at Casa Villamizar, Daniela sat alone on the sofa in the living area, messing around with one of her family's silver daggers, and her finger ran along the dull side, her mind elsewhere.

One week until what should've been the best day of my life...

Yet she'd been left to pick up the pieces of a shattered heart she just couldn't put back together. Daniela, toughening up into her Solecito form, resisted the tears and bit them back. She would not be weak towards Vito.

I can't let him play with my heart, but I can play pretend.

Only Paulina and Alejandra, sitting beside her, knew that she wasn't perfectly okay, and like guard dogs, they protected her in their sunglasses and fur suits, Alejandra in leopard print, Paulina in blood-red print.

She was their contrast in a fluffy gray-cream sweater, the sharp mafia daughter everyone knew her as on the outside, inside, someone who begin to feel flames being ignited in her gut.

The sound of footsteps made her tense, and then, in a snigger, Vito had made himself envelop the energy of the room, straddling her lap; Paulina hid her face in repulsion and Alejandra, hiding in her bangs, scowled disapprovingly.

"Dany," he husked into her ear, and he dug into a sweet spot, accidentally making her groan harder than necessary, "it's time we discussed more wedding details, don't you think?"

His words oozed promise of a reward, but also, deceit, something that made Daniela hesitate, and her soon-to-be-husband saw, lips scraping the underside of her chin.

"It won't be long, Solecito."

She had no choice in the matter whatsoever, and faking a smile, she stood up on her feet, the burning feeling transcending to the beginning of hunger deep inside her. She put her sunglasses back on, pocketing the dagger.

"Okay. But Pau and Ale come too. I'd like their opinion on matters."

"Very well," Vito acquiesced, shrugging. "I planned on bringing in Paulo and Alex as well. Come with me?"

He outstretched his hand, and like before, Daniela took it, but she didn't feel the spark, only a dead ember.

The others had died away in the ashen remnants of her heart.

She and Vito walked a short distance, crossing intersecting halls and past the doorway into his personal room, where Paulo and Alex were already waiting, lounging in office chairs. Flanked by her sisters, she took a seat in a chair across from his desk, and he faced her, tenderly stroking her fingers with his eye on his engagement ring.

The thing that had actual value compared to her, and she cleared her throat, lowing her sunglasses, beckoning his attention back on her.

"What else would you like at the wedding, dearest?" he asked, and masking her sadness, Daniela thought about one of the few bright spots in the pitfall, and the smile wasn't forced onto her face.

If this wedding was to make history...

"I want the music to be performed by our cousins."

"Oh, that's a great idea!" Alejandra praised, nodding, and Paulina added her own series of nods to show her approval. Isabela, Tiana, and Octavia deserved a stage for their prowess, and at the wedding, they'd not only get to do that, but honor their eldest cousin as she took on a new name.

It'd been happier... had the man agreeing with Daniela not been such a nasty, preposterous backstabber. "I like that. Your cousins are remarkably talented, Daniela. Isabela reminds me so much of you."

Under her sunglasses, Paulina grew cross, staring at Vito, and Paulo and Alex grew as equally cross towards her and Alejandra. Alex was the one that spoke up next, messing with his black jacket.

"Every Villamizar will be in attendance," he said, gruffly. "Will every Villarreal be showing up? A seat being empty would, say, be a major disgrace."

Daniela shivered at the implications of that, but was soothed by a gentle touch of her youngest sister's hand on her shoulder, encouraging her to speak, and her tone broke even.

"Of course, Alex. Everyone will be present."

"Including your parents?" Paulo prompted, and she heard Paulina's nails harshly scrape the surface of her chair.

"If you think our parents would miss Dany's biggest day, you've got another problem coming."

"Pau," Daniela softly corrected her, easing her middle sister's raging temper, and Vito chuckled, diffusing any possible tensions that could've resulted. Another thing he agreed upon with her... but behind those blue eyes, eyes she no longer found handsome, but a threat, she saw blood leaking down the detailed portrait.

He wanted to play hardball for power, and whatever happened in this room, she couldn't cede any control. Out of the ashes, streams of fire began to take ahold, and she curled her nails into her palms.

"What flavor do you want the cake to be, Vito?"

"Strawberry."

"Sounds delicious," Alejandra noted; Paulina and the Villamizar twins nodded.

"How about strawberry-vanilla for more flavor?"

"Sure."

"Alright," Vito continued on, scratching his chin. "Everything else has been pretty much settled, and I know your family will do an excellent job booking the chapel and designing the ballroom, yes?"

"Certainly," Daniela replied, looking deeper into his eyes, and she could feel the flames in her heart now lick at her feet. What are you planning, you dirty son of a bitch?

A lot, as reaching into his desk, he pulled out a series of documents and a pen, laying them flat before her, and surprised, she and her sisters peered at the text.

PRENUPTIAL AGREEMENT

"Legalities," Vito revealed with such a fake smile it made bile burn the back of Daniela's throat, and she wormed in her seat, stabilized by her sisters.

Another trick up his sleeve for him to negotiate his share of Clan Villarreal out of her hands - and worst of all, she couldn't refuse the prenup, or he'd openly suspect she'd gained awareness to his intentions.

And what then?

He exterminates us all. No!

Leaning back, Daniela recused herself for a moment, her sisters lending her the ears that she needed.

"You should go through with this," Paulina whispered, gingerly holding her hand. "It'll give you a one-up card over him."

"Pau's right. Do as he says," Alejandra advised. Daniela put herself back in the game, swallowed, and picked up a pen between her fingers.

She could not break in front of Vito and give him the slightest clue that he was the source of her woe.

She. Could. Not. Break.

She was Solecito, and the heir to Clan Villarreal would not yield to the blue rose of a bittersweet lie.

"Okay."

First things first on the prenup were their bank accounts, and she and Vito mutually agreed on creating a joint bank account to store their funds, writing off their names and initial values in the necessary boxes.

"In the event where anything happens to you, Dany," Vito remarked, applying duress to her hand, and her eyes widened with shock. "I want all of your money transferred to me for safekeeping."

"All?" she gasped, and uncomfortable, Alejandra and Paulina drew themselves up around her as Paulo and Alex did to Vito, who nodded far too calmly for their liking.

"If word gets out that you're injured, or worse, dead, the other mafia families will make a move, and I cannot let them do that to you, my Solecito. I hope it never comes to that."

You don't deserve to call me Solecito! she retaliated internally, taking in a breath and shaking. That'd be thousands going all to him and his brothers, stripped from her in an event where she couldn't operate her own account or-

I die...

"Do you not agree?" Vito canvassed, and she gave a dip of her head to confirm, unable to get a sentence out. Paulina and Alejandra, thankfully, could assist, and they glared him and his brothers down.

"That's excessive, quite frankly. Leave some in Dany's account, not a desirable amount, but still something. She's got years in her, Vito," Alejandra explained, tipping her sunglasses, and Paulina, covering for her sister, let loose the tiniest of a protective growl from between her teeth.

"She's not going anywhere."

"Anything can happen-" Paulo started, but Paulina had the glare of La Muerte in her eyes, and before he could provoke unfavorable terms among the mafia families, he shut his trap and conceded, as did Alex.

Vito was overruled, and realizing, he made the change, leaving thousands in Daniela's account should the scenario ever happen.

For an hour, the six discussed more aspects of the prenup, going over investment incomes on multiple fronts, and with her sisters' instruction, Daniela fought her stress to take a predominant stake in benefits should there be a divorce or death, successfully getting Vito to agree on her keeping most of her pensions, investments, and of course, the main stake in Casa Villarreal.

But debating him wasn't easy, and constantly, he stated his need to take chunks into the assets of Clan Villarreal, wanting investments, some portions of the property (he had to be talked out of taking all of it by a secretly-aghast Daniela), and some business subsidies for himself, claiming it as protection of the family's name and a continued beam of unity.

Daniela had read this book before, and after a week of straight-up reading it, it was getting old, as well as stressful. When the majority of the prenup had been negotiated, she had maintained fifty percent of her finances, investments, subsidies, and her honor... and the other half, she'd been forced to hand over to a Vito at last satisfied with the rewards he was receiving.

He was never in it for me, she somberly told herself, tears straining to fly free, but she held them in. He wants me for the money... and he wants this prenup to take advantage of me.

Her only consolation was Vito handing over half of his own assets, finances, investments, and subsidies to her name if he ever divorced her or died, and that was enough to keep her afloat, propped up by her sisters.

"That all, Vito?" she questioned, and he grinned, nodding at his brothers, who took a step back.

"Of course. I wouldn't want to keep you away from personal matters for too long. Nervous?"

"I kinda am," she admitted, telling one truth instead of all of it. The wedding was going to be huge - nothing could remotely go wrong on that day.

Absolutely nothing.

It wasn't helping that the man who had pushed himself as her perfect, devout, intelligent, handsome future husband had wanted to secure an overwhelming amount of her personal assets in case anything nefarious ever happened to her.

Don't you worry, Alex. I'll take care of her myself.

She grimaced, but Vito held her chin, pulling her up to her feet.

"There will be nothing to be anxious about, baby, you hear me?" he promised her. "I will never let any of our enemies come near you. Our wedding will be perfect as we've been dreaming it."

*It's going to be a hellhole.* Daniela couldn't voice her despair out loud, but she smiled, playing along with him and hugging his chest, taking in his cologne, but the rosy scent would never calm her ever again.

"It'll be beautiful. I'll always love you and protect you, Vito."

"As will I." His promise was plastic, meaning not a thing to Daniela, but regardless of the circumstance, their lips closed in on each other's as they always had. She bit on his lower lip, feeling his warmth, and grabbed him by the thighs, seeking to gain control.

"Ugh, straight people," Paulina muttered, groaning. Alejandra then slapped her on her shoulder. "Ow!"

Chuckling, Daniela separated to breathe, and Vito blew her a kiss goodbye, regrouping with Paulo and Alex at his desk.

"See you soon, love."

"Bye, Vito."

Daniela wished it was as simple as saying goodbye permanently, but drawing her gray-cream fur coat over herself, and loyally guarded by her sisters, she took her exit from his study and closed the door, sighing lightly once they were all out of earshot.

"That was," Paulina gritted, "the worst thing relating to a contract I've ever helped to negotiate."

"...I want a nap," Alejandra, deflating, tacked on, rubbing the creases on her forehead. "You okay, Dany?"

She shook her head, her brown eyes diverted to the floorboards. "Not really," she confessed, fingers kneading her sweater. "He took... he took so much out of us... and I know he's conspiring to take more."

"More, more, more. How greedy is this fucker-"

Suddenly, Daniela jolted, and Paulina cut herself off, briefly worried she'd been too loud and that the brothers had overheard them talking, but with no sign of anyone around, she and Alejandra approached, treading the dangerously shallow water closer to the door.

"They're talking," she mouthed to them, telling them with a finger sliding over her lips that they could not make a sound at all.

Confidential information was being shared.

They couldn't afford to miss it.

Three ears became pressed to the wood of the door, and words, rich, seeping with milk, honey, and a tinge of arsenic, became audible to them.

"We need to get rid of her as soon as that wedding is over, Vito," Alex snapped to his older brother, revealing a gun from his back pocket. "She's still too powerful for my liking."

"And so are her sisters. We can't just leave Paulina and Alejandra on the premises. They're too smart to not immediately suspect foul play."

Paulo's snarl made Daniela gasp, and concerned, Paulina slapped her palm over her mouth to quiet her. All three of the sisters were quaking, and tears of betrayal filled Daniela's eyes, her fists shaking with sudden anger.

Oh no, not just anger.

Hatred.

How DARE they threaten my sisters??

"Indeed. I'll let you two decide on what to do about Paulina and Alejandra yourselves. I'll keep buttering Dany up and convince her to give me more and more of Clan Villarreal. I'll give her credit, she's not foolish... but she's lovesick and naive. Exactly how I love my women."

Vito poured kerosene on her wounds, the hatred burning violently, and the ashes in her heart had developed into an inferno. She growled, staunched by Paulina's hand and partially restrained by Alejandra, and nudged the doors open just enough to get a peek at the brothers inside, gazing up at the portrait of their late father, Carlos.

"He always hated the Villarreals. Uptight, arrogant, prideful. No one ever taught them that they breed off sin," Vito monologued with calumny, chuckling madly. "They've never lived a day where they felt the need to be humble in their lives."

"They always feed us to Reyes when it suits them," Paulo hissed, and Alex cracked his knuckles.

"They're going to regret ever making foes out of us."

"Oh, they will, Alex," Vito assured. "But don't forget: we still own ultimate power over them."

With ease, he pulled out a curved golden key from his pocket, fastening it around his neck, and Daniela watched his eyes dart up to the portrait of his father.

There's something hidden there!

Something powerful. Threatening. Life-changing.

He had sworn that the Villarreal name would be destroyed, starting first with her and her sisters, leaving Pau and Ale against Paulo and Alex after she'd been removed from the picture.

She hadn't been the only fool that had trusted in Vito, and she finally realized that, like her, they'd made a terrible mistake letting him into their name.

He sweet-talked us all with prospects of family and reformation. We've always wanted less rivalries and more support, and he... he disguised himself to get through to us. To me.

Beneath the snake-oiled skin of chocolate, wine, daylight, diamonds, and thousands of dollars, Vito had never wanted her or the Villarreals. He'd wanted to use them, milk them dry, butcher them brick by brick.

Murder them. Her. Her sisters.

Solecito's fire was more fatal than lava, and stepping away from the door, she was remade into a new woman - and she would never, ever grieve for a love that was undeserved.

"We're leaving. Meet me in my room."

FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER

Paulina and Alejandra, refreshing themselves with a splash of water to their shocked faces in their shared bedroom, ran to Daniela's room, where she stood before her mirror, fists clenched, her eyes a firestorm of magma and solar flares.

Daniela was not at all the depressed, languishing, teary-eyed woman she'd been when Vito had kicked her heart of glass to smithereens.

It was now a heart of metal.

"I'm done moping," she declared, and Paulina, liking where this was headed, cracked her own knuckles with a mad grin.

"Now that's what I love to hear! Vito doesn't know what he's done deciding to cross us."

"Oh no," Daniela sneered, grinning herself, "no he doesn't. No one tries to betray Clan Villarreal without facing the consequences."

Her eyes blazed more maniacally, and her soul became eaten by fire. Alejandra, tempting it, fired her shot.

"So, Dany, how do you propose we deal with him?"

Stepping towards her, envisioning a future where he lay at her feet begging for mercy she'd never give, gold-tinted with secrets exposed and dug up, and a key to catastrophic power around her neck, Daniela's smile grew ear to ear.

In her eyes was a look that wouldn't just kill. It was a look of a lion about to go on the prowl.

"Revenge."

Chapter Text

THE BASEMENT OF CASA VILLARREAL WAS soundproofed, hidden away in what had appeared to the human eye to be a storage closet. Its walls were dark, and above, a small light lit the room where Daniela, Paulina, and Alejandra were sat in three chairs at a table, all clad in black. Before them, scattered across the sleek black surface, were a flurry of playing cards as well as muffins and drinks for brain fuel.

When deciding the fate of an enemy, they'd often found it a ritual to ascend down the shadowy steps, take a seat, and conspire through their favorite game, a beloved Mexican tradition - Loteria.

Their Loteria, however, was quite different from the typical version akin to bingo. They played like they were playing a cross of Go Fish and Cards Against Humanity, taking turns picking a card and agreeing, or disagreeing, on the method the card suggested. Once a method was found, then that was how the enemy perished.

Alejandra, taking up the role of unofficial Card Czar, shuffled them one more time with gloved hands before leaning back in her chair.

"Dany, you were the most wronged, so I think it's only fair you pick first."

"Gladly." Keeping her wicked grin from her room, she drew the first card, displaying it in her hand.

LA DAGA

"Dagger. Our family's primary murder weapon," she noted, thinking, and her gloved fingers tapped on the table. "Could be used as the murder weapon or a part of a grander scheme."

She wouldn't rule out wanting to slash Vito's throat out when he wasn't paying attention, watching the blood trail out of his soul, the life slowly die out from his eyes...

...yet, that didn't feel like enough. She wanted more... but what more?

Her sisters didn't voice opposition, and Daniela set the card down, turning to Pau on her left. "Pau? Draw."

The middle sister, reaching into the pile, drew and displayed the orange card belonging to a candelabra.

EL CANDELABRA

"Arson," she suggested. "But that's way too risky. Fire draws moths..."

"Reyes," Alejandra growled, unleashing her rampant disdain towards Monterrey's doggish police chief while Daniela developed a sour taste on her tongue.

I'd love to watch Vito burn in my wrath... but that's not suitable either. And besides, I can't have Reyes on the hunt for my family.

She shook her head, and Paulina put the card off to the side. "Could also use the candelabra as a weapon... highly inefficient death, though. Ale? Whatcha got?"

The youngest of the Villarreal daughters procured a jester between two fingers.

"El Tonto. I say we trick Vito the way he tricked Dany."

"Perfect," Daniela purred, and Paulina gave two-thumbs up, fully on board. Deception was a natural Villarreal art form.

Make the enemy comfortable... then rip their guts out for the world to see. To Daniela, it was also a flawless way to earn more, and she fucking loved it.

You don't know what's coming for you, Vito Villamizar.

Taking her turn, she acquired a new card depicting a drop of cyanide falling out of a jar.

"El Veneno... often a woman's choice of killing a man. We've done our fair share of these, haven't we?"

"Remember Tavares?" Paulina, a manic shine in her eyes, recalled.

"You dumped a whole bottle of cyanide into his wine and he croaked at the dinner table," Alejandra stated. "Scary, yet fitting justice."

"Fitting... but not for Vito," Daniela disagreed, setting the card down. All their options so far had sounded extreme, and while she did want Vito to suffer, and suffer cruelly...

If I want total revenge...

"Pau, your turn."

"Let's see," she whispered, taking up her new pick: El Ahogo.

"Are we up for choking him-" Alejandra started, but Daniela, raising a hand, quieted her.

"I don't want to kill Vito."

She kept her hand held, preventing them from questioning her line of thinking, and divulged into her thoughts, hungry and honed on only one word.

More.

"Don't get me wrong; I want him to suffer and feel every ounce of my pain," she explained, inviting her sisters nearer in curiosity, "but killing him isn't the justice I want. What I want is for Vito to live knowing that he will fail to destroy us. I want him to live broke and deprived of all of his power. I want everything he loves stripped from him and for Reyes to throw him into the coldest, dirtiest cell he has so that for the remainder of his life, the Villarreal name will haunt him into insanity."

Rarely was it in the Villarreal family code to spare an adversary for any reason. Mercy was weakness in the mafia, and the families that often practiced it were soon met with persecution and execution.

However, Paulina and Alejandra didn't deny that Daniela's idea was nothing short of genius, much as it was vicious capital punishment for bringing disgrace onto their family.

The visuals that came with it too? Like her, they'd become thirsty for more.

"Now this is getting spicy," Paulina tittered, rubbing her hands together, and she angled her head at her younger sister. "Ale, we need another card."

"Coming right up." Sniveling, her eyes were enticed by a blue card, which she held up proudly, and the inscription on the bottom had lit up sparks in her sisters' eyes.

EL CRIMEN

"The crime," she stated, finger pointed to the missing body of a man and yellow-and-black tape drawn onto the material. "If we're going to get Vito in the slammer... we're gonna need a crime."

"And what better way to do that then to frame him?" Paulina pitched. Daniela slammed her hands on her table, an unhinged look overtaking her face.

Yes... she didn't want to kill Vito, but take him down and have Reyes grab him with his dirty hands. The safest way to do that?

"Frame him for a crime he didn't commit..." Oh, how the light would die from his eyes and he'd stare at her in horror, realizing that he'd fucked with the wrong girl and the wrong family...

A stack of sins Daniela buried herself in like cash.

"Pau, that's brilliant!" she complimented, snapping her fingers and urging her to go on.

"That's not all, Dany. If we want Reyes to come for him, we're going to need some evidence... hard evidence."

She snapped up a brand new card in her fingers in an instant, pink with a crown jewel so luxurious that her sisters had gasped. What she had clutched was not just any card.

It was a card with a blue rose on it, and not just any blue rose... Clan Villamizar's symbol rose.

"La Rosa Azul... my favorite flower," Daniela realized, her eyes so wild that you could see the flames in them from a mile away. Her flower was gorgeous, the shade of blue fitting perfectly in her hair whenever Vito tucked one above her ear.

They were also perfect for the very thing Paulina had suggested, and those flames only intensified.

"The rose is a calling card to lure Reyes to Vito! We have plenty of them we can plant as evidence."

"Not just that, but think about the wedding too, Dany," Alejandra chimed in with her own stone-cold, yet blissful look. "Vito's gonna want his roses all over the place there. In all essence... he's gonna set himself up."

The wedding! All of a sudden, Daniela didn't hate that she was getting married in a week.

No, she didn't hate that she was still getting married at all. Not anymore.

In fact, she couldn't wait.

"We get Vito arrested at the wedding," she hissed, insane with glee. "We'll have convinced him he's got everything he's wanted. He'll eat his cake... and then we reveal it was laced with poison."

Revenge had never, ever tasted so sweet for the Villarreal sisters. A plan was coming into fruition, and the specifics would have to be worked out...

...but in a week, they'd have scrubbed the Villamizar name from the face of the earth.

"I'm in," Paulina voiced, and Alejandra added her support with a simple nod. Daniela turned to her, offering another turn.

"Ale?"

"This is all you, Dany. I'll skip."

Bless her heart. Standing up, she crawled onto the table, intuition guiding her by fate to a card in the middle. Grabbing it, Daniela rested on her knees, holding it up for her sisters to see.

Bordered green with envy, but also poison ivy, was a golden key that, at the moment, was kept on the body of her fiancé.

"La Llave. I don't just want Vito rotting behind bars and humiliated and deposed of. No, that won't do."

Tossing her rampaging blonde hair back, Daniela seized a muffin from the table, raising it to her lips.

"I want Vito to be left with nothing. Not his brothers. Not his support. Not a family... and not any semblance of money or power. He's hiding something in that mansion, and only that key can lead us to what it is."

"Infinite power," Paulina mused, intrigued and slavering at the mouth with greed. "What's behind that portrait... money. Infinite money..."

"A fucking fortune," Alejandra cursed, squirming with veneration. "All to ourselves..."

"The perfect revenge," Daniela proclaimed. "Your days are almost over, Vito Villamizar. You will regret ever trying to play me for a fool... and you will regret ever coming near my sisters and my family!"

Grabbing their own muffins, the sisters raised them high in a toast, and laughing, they dug in. Daniela tilted her head back, downing her muffin in two gulps; her sisters finished up and put their hands down on the table.

The ball was rolling. The chains of restraint were off.

It was time to spitball on the specifics.

They reshuffled and threw about the cards, discussing the leadup to the wedding, where to get information, and when the crime of passion framing Vito would be committed - to what extent, robbery or murder, they couldn't decide on, but anything would suffice in the long run. Paulina scribbled those dates onto their planning board, tacking pictures and strings together.

Hmm... still looked barren. A lightbulb went off, and she hung up the dart board, a picture of Vito tacked right in the middle. Public enemy No. 1, noted.

Payback is magic, bitch.

Alejandra sat in silence, working out statistics quietly in her head as she gathered the Loteria cards, and the middle sister went back over to her, noticing that she'd missed one in her collection. She picked it up, and immediately, was struck by lightning.

"La Pepsi?!"

That card, in their Loteria games, was considered Ultra Rare for a reason. Alejandra smiled, holding her own can of Pepsi Black, just how she liked her soda.

"We're blessed, Pau." Winking at her, she took a sip and was then joined by Daniela, clutching a crimson dart and toying with the sharp end.

"We are. You'll get what you deserve, Vito," she growled, aiming with her dominant eye towards the board. "For shattering my heart, for threatening my family... you will goddamn pay."

She threw, and the dart struck his photograph cleanly on his forehead. If only photographs had the capability to bleed.

Either way, she was satisfied, and Daniela laughed triumphantly, Paulina and Alejandra sneering beside her.

The countdown to the wedding was on.

ONE DAY LATER

Six days remained until the union of Villarreal and Villamizar, and Daniela's mood couldn't have been any better as she searched around Casa Villarreal for the man that gave his heart, supposedly, for her, and she licked her lips, craving something more addictive than only vengeance.

Today was the first part of the plan. What was love without a pinch of war?

Vito and his brothers will be spending the day with us, and I know Paulo and Alex are going to be guarding him wherever he walks. Attached by the hip, just like I am to you guys. But don't fret about Vito... I can handle him.

Many people didn't know that Daniela wasn't just a skilled, merciless, flaming-hot killer for a living. She could be someone more when it came to her... affections for men.

The hunger burned, sharp flames licking her from her throat to her gut, and the scent of smoke in the air led her to the game room, where Vito and his brothers were playing pool, brighter with the lack of her sisters to compete against them. Her fiancé's back was turned.

Fatal mistake.

Slinking in for the kill, Daniela wrapped her arms around his stomach; he gasped in surprise, but she interrupted him with electric lips colliding with his, pushing back with desire and lust, and she scratched down his suit down to his hips, making him mumble incoherently.

"Mm- Dany- what's this-" A bite to his neck had him squeak, and Paulo and Alex, pretending that she wasn't there, stared at the ceiling and anywhere but the unsavory heated scene before them. "-about?"

"I've been too distant from you," she husked, seductively lapping at the pale skin on his neck and teasing him with nips up to his chin. "I miss you, mi rey. I want..." Her lips cornered his. "To make it up to you."

Vito flushed, fire erupting beneath him when she pressed her knee to his groin and went back to his neck, and alert, his nails went down her back, barely covered by her loose wifebeater. She could see the saliva fall from his lips, the thirst grow in his blue eyes.

He hadn't been expecting this on his schedule... but he couldn't resist, hypnotized by the essence of her body.

"I want you," he professed into her ear, biting the lobe, and shot an apologetic glance at his brothers, letting himself be dragged away by a deprived, seductive Daniela - and just when he'd gotten occupied on her skin, she made a signal with her left hand behind her back.

Make sure Paulo and Alex are distracted. You think the cousins would appreciate another audience?

Paulina and Alejandra were adept at waiting in the shadows, and nodding, they went into the game room.

Daniela focused on no one else but Vito, and reaching her room, she growled, kicked the door open, and threw him inside, locking the door and lunging for his body again, kissing him with more fervor until she could taste the sangria he'd been drinking on his mouth, until she'd grown numb by her carnal need to please, and he dug his nails under her wifebeater, scratching her skin and going down to her hips.

Not so fast, and warm, sugary lips sucked on his ear, husking hot breath that had him melting and trying his hardest not to put the whole manor on edge.

"Off," she commanded tersely, and Vito nodded, lip bobbing. He shed his suit, then his undershirt, only a tanktop remaining.

An expanse of unmarked skin that Daniela was dying to claim with her teeth, and she tossed her hair back, wetting her lips and priming them for work.

"On the bed."

She pointed, and Vito obeyed, drooling at her command. He laid back, and turning into a wild animal that been starved for too long, Daniela crawled onto him, straddling his thighs and raking her nails in deep, slow lines from his chest to his stomach.

Oh, she'd wanted to worship this for as long as she could, and she panted, smiling maliciously. He had nowhere to flee, and didn't want to, if the way his body reacted to her below was no evidence of that.

"You are mine," she rumbled, once again sucking on his earlobe, and he muffled his cries by biting on his lip, hips bucking for friction she wouldn't grant. Her nails pierced the exposed skin on his stomach.

"Please-"

"Did I say I was done talking?" she snarled, seducing him into turning pink, and her teeth scraped the side of his neck, tongue brushing his sweet spot on his pulse point.

"You. Are. Mine. Only mine."

Daniela bit down, bruising the tender skin before sucking on it hard.

"Please," Vito pleaded again, bucking against her thighs, eyes nearly rolled back into his head from the pleasure. Didn't he know it was only just beginning?

She didn't say anything, biting on his neck and feeling herself get impeded by the last piece of fabric on his upper body. Wolfishly, she tore it off with her bare hands, raking her nails down as she supplied the sun-kissed flesh with a slew of messy, uncontrolled kisses; Vito was practically about to scream from the endless teasing, and his nails, searching, scraped the comforter before finding her body, feeling her up.

"Mmm." She let him take his dues, moving lower and lower, and suddenly, Vito pulled her onto him and flipped her down onto the bed, attempting to sink his teeth into her neck.

Daniela didn't appreciate that, and in a moment, she'd flipped him back over with wrists wrestled to the mattress, her voice bleeding raw power and lust.

"I am in control," she told him, rocking her hips against his lower body, hard, slow, teasing. "Don't you fucking think of disobeying me."

Her body rocked against his, and Vito's legs became Jello underneath her. He could barely take this anymore.

"Yes- Dany- mmm-"

A slap echoed around the room, and though he still had his slacks, the imprint of Daniela's palm would linger on his thigh from the force alone.

"Excuse me?" she demanded, her nails so deep into his hips that she posed a significant chance of making him bleed, and the pleasure made his eyes go hazy.

"Dany- I need you, please, Dany-"

She growled, her knee crushing his groin.

"Have you forgotten who I am, Vito?"

"Dany-"

He was starting to chant her name like an unholy virtue. Daniela lived for being in control.

She lived for domination - and she always got what she wanted in bed.

"Who am I?" she husked into his ear, licking him in such an agonizing manner that he screamed like a skinned rabbit.

He was lucky the loudest sound in Casa Villarreal right now was the cousins putting on a rock concert for his brothers.

"You better use your fucking words when you talk to me."

Finally, Vito cracked, locking stares with the animal that didn't just love him, but also owned his soul in the sheets.

"Yes, Daddy!"

"Good boy." Showing him no clemency, Daniela crashed down onto him until her senses grew numb to everything but animalistic pleasure.

MEANWHILE

Paulina and Alejandra weren't going to get many answers from stalking Paulo and Alex around Casa Villarreal, but with Daniela out distracting Vito in the wildest way possible, they had an opportunity to collect information without the risk of being discovered.

Especially since the only thing they could hear was their cousins covering Motley Crue's Kickstart My Heart, blasting Paulo and Alex's eardrums out as they were forced to politely sit and watch. They'd stayed for a minute, trying to listen in on their whispers, possible plan leaks, or something else in the name of conspiracy, but their lips were airtight.

All that was in discussion was praise for Isabela, Tiana, and Octavia, appreciated, but not what they wanted.

The real answer would lay in the brothers' guest room, soon to become their full-time rooms when the Villamizars moved in with the Villarreals, and they paused at the door, Paulina trying the knob.

"Locked."

"Not for long," Alejandra said, flashing a bobby pin that she stuck in the lock. Crack.

Smoking guns, here they came.

The twins' room was simplistic, mostly white, grays, and beige with two beds, the unmade one Paulo's and neat one Alex's.

"They are way too much like us," Alejandra muttered, shuddering, and Paulina spat at the foot of Paulo's bed.

"Can't wait to get rid of them."

They began their search, Paulina going for Paulo's nightstand and Alejandra checking under Alex's bed. The middle sister opened the drawers, finding her rival's gun, golden bullets, and a pack of Marlboros, and when she was unsatisfied by the results, she dipped under his bed, fingers catching paper.

Oh? What's this?

She tugged out the item in question, a leather-bound journal, and opened it, flipping through the pages, which detailed Clan Villamizar escapades, heists, and plans. Boring at first, but as she kept flipping... she observed that Paulo enjoyed talking about Dany.

What to do with Dany with the wedding coming up.

Make her distracted. Placate her and her sisters with gifts. Get to know her family...

She flipped to the next page and gasped, almost dropping the diary when she saw what Paulo had scribbled down.

-Talk to Vito about taking out a life insurance policy on Dany

"Ale."

Her younger sister, concerned, made her way to her side, and kneeling beside her, she also gasped at what was written.

"A life insurance policy? Oh fuck," she hissed, panic in her eyes. "They really do want to kill her."

Kill her, then reap even more money apart from the prenup and inheritance. Clan Villamizar was a bottomless pit of power and gluttony, and it made Paulina irate.

"That is never going to happen!" she spat. "This only confirms that they want us for our wealth, and then when they're done with us, they'll kill us."

"Worse," Alejandra intoned, revealing from behind her back a series of personal notes belonging to Alex. Tinges of green appeared on her cheeks, and cautiously, her sister took the papers in her hands, reading over what was written.

Her jaw fell to the cold, wooden floor.

Make the most out of them.

*Steal what they have
*Torture them
*Have some fun with them

She gagged, swallowing down bile, and shakily, gazed at Alejandra. "Oh my fucking God. They want... they want to-"

"Don't even say it," she curtly instructed her, coughing into her arm. "We have to get them arrested with Vito at the wedding. If we can't, we have to kill them."

"Won't be pretty."

"Some kills don't deserve to be pretty," Alejandra quipped, tucking the papers under her suit, and Paulina kept reading through the journal, coming across most of what Vito and his brothers had already planned.

More tricks for Dany and their family. More events, more family dinners...

A colorized picture fell out of the next page she turned to, and shocked, she unfurled the edges to large lettering - and a recent, hefty bounty that could only be instated by one man.

WANTED

VITO, PAULO, AND ALEX VILLAMIZAR

IN CONNECTION TO: HOMICIDE OF MULTIPLE POLICE OFFICERS AND ROBBERY

REWARD FOR TURNING IN: $500,000

PLEASE CONTACT POLICE CHIEF MIGUEL REYES OR MONTERREY PD WITH INFORMATION

"Ale... I think we'll be able to arrest Vito's brothers at the wedding." She giggled, presenting the wanted poster to Alejandra, and she sniveled, relieved and maddened by her thirst for retribution.

"Reyes is already on their asses. Good find. Think we should get out of here?"

"...definitely."

Undetected, Wildstyle and Stonecold slipped out of the premises and went across Casa Villarreal to the "storage closet" - the basement - and shut the door, knowing Daniela would be on her way soon enough.

Around ten minutes later, she bounded down the dark stairs into the black room, stepping under the sole light. Her skin was slicked with sweat, bite marks mostly covered by makeup on her neck, clavicle, and stomach; her blonde hair was untamed as a thornbush and wet from a quick shower, but her eyes were blazing with resolve.

Solecito had come on business.

"Vito won't be leaving my room for the rest of the day." She crossed her arms, mischievously smirking before her lips formed a leer. "In all seriousness... I think I'd have it better with a woman."

Paulina blushed, caught off guard by the comment, and she examined her older sister incredulously head to toe. "Have you cleansed every part of yourself-"

"PAULINA!" both she and Alejandra exclaimed in unison, her face flushed pink, but Paulina, unbothered, only shrugged, completing her examination.

"What? I don't want his filth remaining on you."

"I'm squeaky-clean, Pau, I promise," Daniela reassured, patting her on the shoulder and glancing at her and Alejandra. "Report."

The two filled her in, divulging into Paulo and Alex's secret writings and what they had schemed to do to all of them, and she roared in disgust upon learning just what the brothers had yearned to do to her sisters.

They'd be lucky she didn't use a dagger to cut off all of their fingers by the end of it all.

When Paulina demonstrated the wanted poster for the brothers, Daniela chuckled darkly, her confidence towering higher than a house of cards.

"So Reyes is actively onto them... delightful," she simpered, pacing around her sisters. "This bodes perfectly with our plan."

"Because if there's one person in Monterrey you don't mess with..." Paulina began, and Daniela, evil glinting in her eyes, finished for her.

"...it's Miguel Reyes."

Chapter Text

FOUR DAYS NOW REMAINED UNTIL DANY'S wedding, and the Villarreal sisters, in preparation, toured the grand ballroom of Casa Villarreal. The first decorations had begun to get set up, including the dance floor and stage where their cousins would perform with their instruments.

Slick and spotless all thanks to their family's maids and cleaners. The only one in the room right now was Anna, who was sweeping off the floors, and she blushed in excitement when Daniela gave her a wink well done.

Wedding plans weren't the main thing the sisters focused on, and as they roamed, checking up on the status of Casa Villarreal's occupants, they continued to work on the kinks in their plan - namely, deciding on what they would do to specifically frame Vito.

There was, of course, going in for murder, but who would they murder? They couldn't just randomly slay an opposing mafia member without paying horrific consequences, and there wasn't a way in Satan's asshole they'd drag an innocent into mafia matters.

Murder was an act that had to be used responsibly. Abuse it, and they'd be facing life imprisonment and humiliation... worse, the death penalty.

There was also a robbery, which if they were quick, would work as well... but that also posed a risk and would provide Reyes with less evidence besides the planted rose.

Time was running out. Soon, they'd have to pick and choose, and if necessary, live with the repercussions of what they'd selected.

The three arrived at a closed door in a corner of Casa Villarreal, and Alejandra rapped on it two times.

"Jasmin! Are we allowed to come in?"

"Sure thing!" Jasmin called from the inside, and the sisters entered, discovering their stylist hard at work sketching their wedding dresses on their outfits; eraser markings and pencil sharpening were everywhere on her desk, and she rested her hand, pink from overzealous marks, strides, and scribbles.

"How are they coming along?" Daniela probed, trying to catch a view, but Jasmin blocked her, mischievously flicking her fingers at her face.

"Swell. You are going to look gorgeous, you three. These'll be done in record time. I've had so much fun designing your outfits."

"Can we see them?" Paulina begged, stimming by bouncing on her knees and brandishing the puppy eyes, and the stylist huffed, grabbing two sheets of finished paper.

"You and Alejandra can look first. Daniela, no peeking!"

Guilty, she noted to herself, looking up at the ceiling and putting her hands behind her back. Her younger sisters scanned the outlines, oohing and aahing at the color and details.

"We're going to be twinning!" Alejandra stated, loving it, and Jasmin recollected her papers, putting them on her desk.

"You and Paulina had to twin. You're partners-in-crime."

"And Bonnie and Clyde remain jealous of us in the grave," Paulina sniggered, discreetly fist-bumping her younger sister, and Daniela stepped up to the plate, overtaken by curiosity.

"I'm not sure if you're ready to see yours, Daniela," Jasmin teased. "The sketch isn't complete, and you're the bride and all..."

"Please?"

"Oh okay, fine. One sneak peek."

Covering most of her sketch with her hand, Jasmin showed off part of Daniela's outfit design, and she gawked, hearts flashing in her eyes.

"I love the bow."

"Current veils are too traditional for my liking. Yours needed some oomph. I'm relieved you like it, Daniela - I was kind of worried it'd be too much."

Daniela, sympathetic, put her fingers near hers. "You could never disappoint, Jasmin. I love it, and I know by the time of the wedding, we're all going to be in love with our outfits."

"And you'll be a beautiful bride," Jasmin responded, going back to working on her sketch, and a certain look was given to her sisters.

You don't even know, Jasmin.

Leaving the stylist to sketch away, the Villarreal sisters departed, passing the living area and their room before stopping at another door, decorated with glittery pink, red, and white lightning bolts. It was Paulina's turn to knock, and her knuckles hammered the door at least seven times.

"We already did our chores, Mom!" complained Isabela from the inside of the cousins' room, and her cousin snorted, tapping her foot.

"Who says I'm your mother?"

Instantly, the door was opened by Octavia, excited beyond belief, and Tiana and Isabela joined her, throwing fists up to the air. "Oh! Hey!"

"We wanted to check up on your song for the wedding. How's it coming along?" Daniela asked, and Tiana rushed to her desk, snatching the lyric sheets and holding them to her chest.

"I've done most of the writing. Ignore the scratched-out lines; Isa was tinkering."

"For the better, Tia!" Isabela shot back. "Want to hear a snippet?"

"Bless our ears," Alejandra beckoned, and jumping in the air, her cousin went to grab her electric guitar.

They helped her, Tia, and Via set up, plugging in their amps and setting up their microphones, and once their setup was complete, Daniela, Paulina, and Alejandra sat on the bed, counting down with their fingers.

Three.

Two.

One.

Holy fuck, were their ears blessed by the most fluent Spanish singing they'd ever heard, Via's basslines shaking the ground and balanced out by Isa's skill on guitar. Her vocals, low growls mixed with potent anger and wickedness, had them leaning off the edge of their bed to hear more, following along with the hook and the drama. Did they even mention how hard Tia was smashing her drums?

When they finished, the applause from them could have shattered a mountain. Alejandra whistled, and Daniela and Paulina, impressed, went over to hug all three of them at once.

"Goddamn!" Paulina uttered, ruffling Tiana's auburn hair. "You are a menace on the drums, Tia!"

"Thank you, Pau! I like the song's rage."

"You should title it Feminine Rage," Daniela suggested, drumming her fingers on her thighs. "With those lyrics? Man."

"Actually, we already have a title for it, Dany!" Via piped up, setting her bass on the carpet, and Isa did the same with her guitar.

"Qué Más Quieres."

"What more do you want..." Intrigued, Alejandra sauntered up to her cousins. "Sure sounds like the mafia."

"True art," Paulina complimented, and the cousins took a bow. "Don't you think we should reward them for such a banger song, Dany?"

Daniela smiled, getting an idea, and she nodded. It wasn't going to be a wedding if her walkway to the altar wasn't decorated...

"Would you like to be our flower girls?"

Suddenly, Isa, Tia, and Via screeched and piled onto her, taking her to the ground in a heap. "YES!"

"Whoa, I forget you guys are not six anymore."

"We're sixteen!" they chorused, and she, Paulina, and Alejandra laughed, telling them to inform Aunt Bianca, and they crammed themselves out the door.

Daniela smiled, prideful, and crossed her hands in front of her stomach. "True rock disciples in the making."

Her sisters nodded, and with nothing left to do (and certainly not wanting to lurk in the cousins' bedroom), they went outside, but didn't make it far before they bumped into three freshly-washed suits, and rosy perfume caused the oldest sister to blush in her fake lover's arms.

"Vito! What a surprise!"

"I just saw your cousins run by," he clarified, Paulo and Alex backing him up with nods, and he smoothed his ashy-brown mustache. "A phenomenal performance, if you ask me."

"I know, right?" Daniela, indulging in deception, agreed with him, and he grinned, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"I have a gift for you, sweet Dany. Eyes closed."

Alejandra had to pinch Paulina hard on her shoulder to prevent her from verbally expressing her disgust, and her sister's moment remained undisturbed as Vito drew a crown of vines and blue roses out from behind his back.

"Now open!"

Obliging, Daniela gasped when she noticed the flower crown made of her favorite flowers, woven tightly together, and happy as could be, she placed it on the top of her head, where it adorned her blonde hair like a halo.

Or to Vito, a display of Villamizar ownership she didn't buy, though concealing the distaste, she hugged him and nuzzled his chest, pressing chaste kisses to his neck.

"Aw, Vito, you're too sweet to me. Gracias!"

"De nada. Would you walk with me? I'd like to talk to you about something."

She could feel a fake smile being pressed into her cheek, and Daniela knew there was no getting out of what this was... but she didn't like where it was going already, judging from what her sisters had found in the twins' guest room.

Insidious.

"Lead the way, dear."

They took up hands, and eagerly, Vito hauled her off down the corner, leaving Paulina and Alejandra with Paulo and Alex, arms hung over their chests, eyes narrowed and distrusting. They wanted to be anywhere else as always.

"...so!" Paulina, trying to rip off the bandage of tension, clapped her hands together. "Darts?"

"Noooo," drawled Paulo, agitated, and Alex chuffed at her and Alejandra, not interested and in full loathing. Not a chance given the last time they played.

"Solitaire? Ale has the cards."

"No thank you," Alex, tartly, responded, brushing the sisters off, and he hooked his arm with Paulo, both sharing a telling glance. "We're going to grab lunch. See you later."

They walked off, leaned close to whisper, and Alejandra, dipping into the coldness of Stonecold, followed them with her eyes.

Too blunt. Too secretive. She turned to Paulina.

"Bullshit. They're not getting lunch. They're up to something."

"You bet your ass they are. Come on!"

Wildstyle and Stonecold, elusive as the black panther, crept on slight feet, pursued their prey, sides hugging the wall as they rounded corners, ventured through two gathering areas, and eventually, made it to one of the offices in Casa Villarreal, notably, the one belonging to the currently absent Mother Villarreal. Paulo and Alex opened the door, vanishing inside, and both snarled, fists balled up.

"What are they doing in our mother's study??" Paulina demanded in a whisper, and Alejandra, furious, gnashed her teeth together.

"Hell if I know, Pau. But we need to listen - this is not good."

The two stalked all the way up to the door, listening, and their blood began to flow colder than a Siberian winter.

"...what have you found so far, Salas?"

"Only what I already know about the Villarreal daughters, Paulo."

The man's voice was unfamiliar to Paulina and Alejandra... but his occupation wasn't, and Paulina had to fight desperately to stop herself from barreling through that door and taking on all three men with bloody brass knuckles of vengeance.

"But," the strange man said, his boots clacking against the wood floors, "I've got some details on their crime activity. Specifically, a murder the younger sisters committed last week..."

"Shit," Alejandra hissed under her breath, her nails clipping her younger sister's wrist. "They hired a private investigator on us!"

IN ANOTHER OFFICE

"Mmm," Vito breathed into Daniela's mouth, tongue scraping teeth, as he fell back into his office chair, her sat on his lap. Swinging her legs around his lower body, she increased the pace, an open mouth clamping and sucking on his neck, and he growled, shocked to life by just how she worked it.

He wanted a taste of her magic, as he then went for her own neck, his tongue darting out to leave a trail, and Daniela wasn't too pleased, not feeling pleasure from the skin-on-skin but only the broken never she'd felt when her heart had been left to break on the floor.

And did she give Vito permission to take control? No she didn't, and growling, she went right for his belt, about to push his suit down his arms.

"Dany," he ordered her, daring to defy her command, "I'd love to, but be patient. I have something important to discuss with you."

A no was a no, and relaxing, Daniela dialed down on her deviousness, but remained comfortably on Vito's lap, steadied with his hands on the small of her back.

"Yeah?"

Her eyes watched his hand, reaching for a paper on his desk that he placed in her palms, and tenderly, he rubbed circles on her back as she read and gasped.

It wasn't that she was shocked, knowing he intended to do this from Paulina and Alejandra's snooping... but it'd been only days since the prenup, and now?

"A life insurance policy?"

"Hear me out, I know you're going to tell me that this is extreme. However... I want to cover all my bases when it comes to protecting you. When we marry, our power is going to attract enemy clans, and the mafia is a ruthless machine of violence. I want to be prepared if anything ever happens to you, love."

Protecting her? What a fucking lie. Daniela was repulsed, and inside, her heart was simmering with illness at how much Vito wanted to cash out on her life once they married.

First the prenup, now a life insurance policy... had he always planned to kill me before he proposed?

That thought utterly sickened her to the core, and feigning uncertainty, she tilted her head, messing with the edges of the paper.

"Isn't the prenup enough, Vito?"

"Nothing is ever enough when it comes to my concern for you," he whispered, kissing the bridge of her nose and pushing her closer to his face, and his blue eyes were ablaze with affection.

A facade. What truly blazed behind them, Daniela observed, was greed.

She was his cash crop to be farmed until she was a withering skeleton at his feet, and she despised it, hate burning her bones but not enough to melt her theatrical mask of confusion.

"Are you sure I need this?" she asked, and his lips moved to her forehead, pressing a firm kiss there; his fingers grasped her hands.

"I want you safe, my love. Please?"

Nudging her chin upwards, he smothered her in another wave of kisses, but contrary to what he believed from her light mumbles and gasps for air, he wasn't buttering her up or pleasuring her into agreeing, but rather incensing her.

She would live for when she ruined his life the way he almost ruined hers at the wedding, yet for now, all she could do was play fiddle.

"Okay," she acquiesced, hopping off his lap, grabbing a pen, and signing, pushing the paper aside and sitting on her fiancé's lap again, her face even with his, hands threatening him by tugging on his belt and loosening it.

He'd forgotten that a Villarreal specialized in getting repaid by their enemies - and when Daniela wanted her way, she'd go to any length to get it.

Even if it meant driving Vito crazy.

"But if you want me to do this, it's only fair I take out a life insurance policy on you, too."

She undid his belt and slipped her fingers under his shirt, causing him to whimper right as she trapped his lips with her mouth.

Heaven was a place on earth.

"Dany- I don't-"

The soft pads of her fingers were replaced with nails digging into his back. In a second, his suit was gone.

"Sorry, what was that? You don't agree with me, Vito?"

"Please-"

"Play fair. This is your only warning," Daniela growled, marking his collarbone visibly, and he shuddered, his lower body giving away his need beneath her. He shook his head, mulling over the options, but she spilled them out by carefully slotting her knee between his thighs.

Eureka.

"Alright, alright- I'll get the form. Mm, Dany-"

Slap.

"Daddy?" he squeaked as quiet as a mouse, and carnivorously grinning, Daniela studied how easily he'd submitted before her, vulnerable and willing to obey.

A Villarreal always got their repayment. She took care of him, not needing his in return, and after that, treated him to a picnic of finger sandwiches and salad in the Rose Gardens that erased his troubles and took his mind, for once, away from riches to focus on her - as it should have been from the start.

Half an hour later, and between banter (that was one-sided with Dany having to put in most of the effort) over jokes, family members and murder to affectionately feeding each other olives and grapes off the vine, to just laying together and prophesizing of their futures (which Daniela did giddily, her visions a blood-red contrast to that of Vito's), the two entered Casa Villarreal through the back, and Vito waved his fiancé farewell, producing a cigarette he went to smoke in the private lounge.

Good. Maybe that'd way he'd waste away faster in prison, Daniela thought to herself with a snivel, and she went back in the direction of her room, just crossing the threshold into the living room when a shuffle of footsteps made her stop.

"Dany! We need to talk to you!"

Paulina's worrisome voice made her tense, and she faced her and Alejandra, noticing how bone-weary and disturbed they looked, and she put her fingers to her lips.

"Pau? Ale? What happened?"

Alejandra, holding her wrist, ducked over to whisper in her ear. "They hired a P.I-"

"Ladies?"

The youngest Villarreal daughter flinched so violently that she accidentally dragged Daniela a centimeter, and the latter, along with Paulina, stiffened by the appearance of a pale older man in a simple black tux with a ruffled white collar, a scar on his left eyebrow, and swept-back, graying brown hair. His smile was of chivalry, and he gave his hand to them all.

This time, Daniela wasn't oblivious to the red flags. He's not trustworthy.

"I'm Geraldo Salas, friend of Clan Villamizar. Vito invited me over to tour the place today. It's majestic."

From the way Paulina and Alejandra were quietly bristling beside her, she knew that wasn't what he was truly here for... and she had a feeling it had something to do with what Alejandra had just told her.

So this was Vito's newest trick? Daniela would accept it - after all, she'd been taught by Mother and Father dearest that the best way to learn your enemy was to keep them close.

"Nice to meet you, Geraldo. Casa Villarreal treating you well?"

"Exceedingly. I've heard raving things about you and your sisters. Vito really fell for a perfect girl in you, Daniela, and I wish nothing but the best for you two."

"Thank you. I appreciate it."

Daniela gazed at her sisters, signaling with a finger pointing towards the hall, and they nodded in agreement.

"Would you like to grab something from the kitchen with us?"

Geraldo politely declined, shaking his head and straightening out his ruffled collar. "I'd love to, but unfortunately I ate shortly after I arrived here. Another time, perhaps?"

"Another time," Paulina ascertained, and he trotted past them, vanishing into the bathroom and shutting the door. Once all was still, she gagged, eyes slits, and Daniela's eyes batted between her and Alejandra.

"He's bad news."

"As I was saying, before I was rudely interrupted," Alejandra muttered, again leaning close to her eldest sister's ear, "he's a private investigator they hired to get dirt on us."

Daniela, lightly gasping, took up her and Paulina's hands, looking between them and then in the direction of their bedroom.

What they needed to talk about was closed-door business. Knowing what she knew now, openness would leave them naked for the taking for the Villamizars.

"Basement," she instructed, and the three speedwalked towards the door the untrained eye would mistakenly perceive to house a closet.

They rounded a corner, slipping through shadow, and suddenly, Paulina felt eyes on the back of her skull, motioning for her sisters to stop.

"We're being watched."

"Is it who I think it is?" Alejandra questioned, her voice low, and peering around the corner, the middle sister, sure enough, found Geraldo, his back on the wall, eyes on his phone.

Scum of the earth!

"He's trying to follow us."

Goosebumps sprouted on Daniela's pale skin, and she hugged her sides, glancing anxiously around. "You two go first," she whispered at the lowest register she could muster. "I'll join you as soon as he actually fucks off."

"Roger that," Alejandra copied, opening the basement door, and down she and Paulina went. She stood guard, and despite being creeped out, held her ground, killing time playing games on her phone, yet always keeping track of what was happening in her peripheral.

Silence until Geraldo stepped out, an eye focusing on her, and then, whistling, went away, and his footsteps trailed until Daniela could no longer hear them.

Too close.

She traveled down the basement steps, regrouping with her sisters. "Okay, we have a serious problem on our hands," she intoned, pacing, and Paulina snarled, stomping the concrete floor in pure wrath.

"That bitch was rooting through Mother's study earlier. He's in active cahoots with the brothers on getting intel on us!"

"How much does he have?" Daniela inquired, and Alejandra, soothing her middle sister best as she could, approached her older sister.

"What the Villamizars know about us, at most, but as we speak..."

"He could be gaining more." Daniela's eyes darkened, and she bellowed, craving violence instead of rutting in circles.

Geraldo was an even bigger threat than Vito at the moment. If he found something damning about them, he'd leak it.

If it leaked, the most cynical police chief in Monterrey would be onto them... and then it'd be over with them in a jail cell.

Or we're dead.

"We need to get rid of him," she desperately stated, shaking. "As soon as he hits gold, he's gonna sell us out to Reyes and line Vito's pockets, and we cannot let that happen."

"Luckily," Paulina, with a sudden smirk, clasped her hands together. "We have a plan that requires a crime."

Lightning had struck the dim lighting of the basement, illuminating the eyes of the three Villarreal daughters in white - white that then turned as crimson as the bloody dagger on their sigil.

They'd been searching for the perfect crime to frame Vito... and now they had the perfect crime.

A close confidant.

A cynical betrayal.

A crafty, easy lie.

"Yes," Daniela declared, her pacing becoming fervent and desiring. "Yes! Two birds with one stone - it's perfect. We got the time, we got the weapons..."

"We got everything."

There was nothing to deliberate, and Alejandra's brief statement only put emphasis on that. Daniela had put more than just two and two together, going over to the drawing board and adding in a stick figure for Geraldo, lines around him connecting him to the Villamizars as well as Reyes.

They despised the man... but the police chief had a role to play in this now too.

"Pau. Ale. You up for some slaughter?"

"Slaughter is my middle name," Paulina, making finger guns, reminded her, and Alejandra nudged her shoulder, grinning devilishly.

"It's what we Villarreals do."

"Right. You two, shadow Geraldo for the rest of the night. If he just came under Vito's thumb, he wouldn't have yet had the time to move into Casa Villamizar yet. Find his hotel, and when you get him alone... kill him. You know what to do after that."

They saluted, with Alejandra being the next to continue the drafts. "What about the brothers? They're having dinner with us tonight."

"Not to fear, Ale," Daniela teased, and her smile rivaled the Grinch in baleful. She loosened a strand on her tanktop, throwing her hair back.

"I know just how to make them stay longer."

LATER THAT NIGHT

After dinner, a roaring success with scallops, steak, calamari, soup, salads, and red wine, Daniela took Vito up by his hand, guiding him away from the dinner table and to her room.

"What are we doing, Dany?"

"A game," she sweetly told him, and his nervousness when she reached into her nightstand drawer faded when she procured a box of cards, displaying them to him, and his frown turned into a smile.

"Loteria?"

"And not just for two," she promised, hauling him out by his wrist, and she didn't have to go far to find Paulo and Alex about to enter their quarters for the night.

"Paulo! Alex!"

Startled, they jumped and faced her, but slackened themselves and adopted their professional laid-back look, Paulo taking up the speaking mantle.

"Are we needed for anything?"

"Oh, yes," Daniela purred, being sure to strut with a certain power in her hips, and satisfaction increased her confidence when she saw that both he and Alex were watching.

She could swear she could scent the wine right off their lips. Enjoying yourselves, boys? I'll give you a show.

"Loteria in the Rose Gardens. You aren't allowed to say no."

"Listen to her, Paulo, Alex," Vito cautioned, and the terse look in his eyes told the brothers they were in for it.

No one refused a Villarreal.

No one also refused Daniela Villarreal at anything. Ever.

"What the hell, sure," Alex assented, and Daniela made sure that they were staring at every little detail of hers as she led them out into the night.

They weren't aware that nearby, at the dinner table, Paulina and Alejandra had just finished helping out the maids with cleaning the dining room, feeling extra generous tonight... but also because Geraldo had insisted on staying longer than necessary to try out a classic Villarreal dessert, and they were the vultures assigned to watch him.

He had tried four desserts, chocolate mousse, tres leches cake, a creme brûlée, and pavlova, praising their goodness, layers of flavor, and hidden ingredients, much to the awe of the chefs, and he remained to text messages to what the sisters assumed were his associates.

Villamizar associates.

It was past nine in the evening now, and finally, Geraldo made his departure, pushing his chair in. Paulina and Alejandra pulled leather gloves over their hands, bid farewell to the maids on duty that night, Anna and Marty, and followed him down to the other side of Casa Villarreal to where the guest rooms were located.

He stopped, baffled, and went to check his phone. "Oh," he said to himself, going inside and closing the door.

"Seems like he figured out that Dany's got the boys," Paulina noted to Alejandra, who nodded, and the two, deathly quiet, hid behind several potted plants.

Two minutes later, Geraldo reappeared with a briefcase, his luggage, and went towards the foyer, whistling a light tune to himself. Wildstyle and Stonecold, hot in pursuit, tracked him to his car, parked next to theirs.

It had been Alejandra who'd insisted they buy themselves more time setting up their unmarked car and parking it up front. The small edges and corners of the plans were a foundation for greater escapades, and it was time for the grandest escapade since the homicide of Double H a week ago.

Stealthily, they crept inside, Alejandra driving and Paulina on shotgun, and as Geraldo's car pulled out, they did the same, trailing behind him on the Monterrey freeway.

The drive took them twenty minutes from home past evening traffic and through downtown until, at last, he parked at the Holiday Inn Monterrey Valle, waiting out front for valet. Nearby, Alejandra put the car in park on a side road, opened the trunk, and she and Paulina slung their work bags over their shoulders, crouching in the bushes.

They didn't have to wait too long, as the valet driver appeared, nodded, and took Geraldo's keys, moving his car out back. He entered the hotel, and sneakily, they prowled up to the unmanned door and listened behind a potted hedge.

"Salas?"

"That's me. Have my room key?"

"Z404 your room, sir?"

"Yup. Thanks."

Paulina poked her head out from behind the hedge, watching him head to the adjacent elevator. "Up he goes."

"We need to get inside," Alejandra stated, looking for a clean entry point, and her sister took up her arm, shaking her head.

"Not as we currently are, Ale. We are dressed way too suspiciously."

In fancy crimson, with black gloves, thousand-dollar accessories, and mysterious bags... yeah, that'd be a dead giveaway to their life profession.

"Well, Pau, do you have any ideas? We can't sit around here all night waiting!"

No we can't, she thought, squinting harder, and watched the concierge pick up the phone, taking to someone over the line. He gasped, dropping it, and spoke to another employee, rolling his eyes at him before they headed away to the diner.

Empty of life... apart from two janitors fussing over a stain on the ground in a nearby hallway.

"Pollo para cenar," she remarked, pointing Alejandra to the janitors, and wide-eyed, she glanced at her.

"Pau, this is super risky. If they hear-"

"We have to take the chance, Ale. It's either we get suspected as we are or we blend in and get somewhere."

Time was being wasted, and not in favor of either Villarreal sister. Geraldo could not survive this night.

Vito and his brothers could not suspect anything was amiss - Dany herself was running on borrowed time to distract them.

Alejandra chose to get somewhere over having Reyes putting them in handcuffs.

"Let's go. Don't make a sound."

On stealthy feet, they entered, ducking behind a potted plant and a dip in the wall, meticulously analyzing all angles.

No people behind, in front, or to their right. To their left... the janitors, facing away, staring at the ground, conveniently located next to them, a storage closet half-open.

Paulina and Alejandra hit the jackpot.

Creeping, they stood inches behind the janitors, mopping and humming some Spanish tune to themselves, and Alejandra, with waggles of her index finger, counted down.

Three. Two. One.

In sync, she and Paulina jumped, and two faint cracks echoed down the hall. The janitors' dead bodies crumpled on the floor, and they didn't waste a second, like magicians, enveloping themselves into the darkness of the closet.

Five minutes later, no one could tell that two janitors had gone missing and had been swapped by impostors wearing their uniforms, wheeling a cleaning cart into an elevator and traveling up. Which floor was Z?

Apparently, the fourth floor, and they high-fived, a step closer to their final destination. The halls were quiet, most of the hotel's visitors out for the night, and it gave them the ideal cover they needed to take out Geraldo.

They went around a corner, and in the middle of the hall sat a closed door to a room marked with a hotel tag as Z404.

"Here we areeeee," Paulina sang lightly, tapping her fingers together. "How are we gonna do this?"

Alejandra snatched her bobby pin from her pocket, studying the lock and determining her typical method would work fine. "I'll kill. You distract, but try not to make too much noise. We need to give Reyes a crime scene without having all of Monterrey dogging us."

"You got it. I'm a connoisseur of distraction myself."

"That you are."

Kneeling, Alejandra started to fiddle with the lock.

"Ay! What are you two doing? Cleaning ended one hour ago!"

The feisty tone alarmed them, and the two, trying to pose as calmly as they could, met the tired eyes of a senior janitor holding a broom.

"Oh! Uh... we thought we'd check to make sure everything was spotless. OCD, I swear," Alejandra lied, and imagining a speck of dust, pointed at it to the janitor.

"I haven't seen you-"

"Could you help us out here? There's dust that was missed."

"Dust to dust, blah blah..." Annoyed, the janitor moved over to Alejandra and squatted, his eyes trained on the spot so intensely that he hadn't counted on Paulina shifting out of view.

Without warning, she grabbed his head and twisted it hard to the right. He didn't have time to gasp before the fatal crack took his life away, and lifelessly, he dropped to the floor.

"Close one," Paulina murmured. "What should we do with him?"

"Leave him in the bucket or something. We can't afford another delay."

Sniveling, the middle sister dumped his body into the murky mop water, folding him so he sunk in deep and abandoning the cart a few doors down. Alejandra went back to cracking the door, fiddling until she heard the click, and it swung open.

"You got the knife?" Paulina prompted, and she nodded.

"I got everything. You?"

"Prepared."

"Good."

Alejandra shoved the door open wider, and on all fours, they crawled inside. Geraldo's room was dark, lit only by three lamps, and soft Latin music played from the speakers on the TV. Though most in the hotel were asleep, Geraldo was awake, his back to the sisters, swaying to the music and holding a glass of Corona.

He was drunk. Even better.

Cautiously, the two rested their bags by the foot of his bed, and Paulina scooted into position by the table lamp, waiting for Alejandra, who snuck over to the curtain and immersed herself behind it. Still swaying to the music, Geraldo didn't hear her, no less detect anything odd, as he took a large drink from his beverage, head tilted to the sky.

The youngest Villarreal daughter took the leverage, crouching up by his nightstand. They were in position.

It was now or never. Alejandra cued with her hand.

Paulina, shooting up like a Hot Pocket, knocked the lamp off the table, and it crashed to the ground, flickering; Geraldo yelped and faced her, pupils dilating in horror. His glass dropped from his hands, shattering onto the floor.

"Wha-"

The word never left his mouth, and Alejandra, seizing him, slashed his throat with one of the family's daggers. Blood sprayed the bed and floors, and gargling, the private investigator collapsed dead in a crimson pool on the carpet, his hand the last to fall, and his palm unfurled.

Just as the sisters had planned.

"Let's fuck this up fast!"

Alejandra's proclamation spurred Paulina to action, and with gloved hands, she pried open Geraldo's luggage, throwing papers, personal belongings, and anything else on tables around the room. She messed up the bed, chucking one of the pillows, and left no stone unturned.

A crime was also an opportunity to profit their pockets for themselves.

"Ale! If you see anything worth shit, take it!"

Silently, she took note, searching in drawers and Geraldo's pockets, taking his wallet, stray cash, and other valuables, though her sister had more success, stealing glistening rings from his briefcase.

Once the room had been pilfered and trashed thoroughly, the two dressed out of their janitor uniforms and into their dinner outfits from that night, Paulina taking it to additional levels by redoing her lipstick and wearing the new rings (crime and serving cunt were quite literally the same thing to her).

There was one last thing to do before they left, and Paulina reached in her bag for a manilla envelope sealed with the fated La Rosa Azul, Alejandra for the rose itself, ripe and verdantly blue.

She gently placed it on Geraldo's palm, and right in front of it, the middle sister planted the invite for Daniela and Vito's wedding, stolen from Paulo's room under the guise of her using the restroom.

Perfect crime scene: complete.

"We did it!" Paulina cheered, doing a handshake with Alejandra, and she nodded, hugging her.

"Now let's get out of here - I have a feeling someone's gonna call the cops in minutes."

Collecting their things, the two ran down the hall to the emergency stairwell, using the rails to slide down to the bottom, and with her bobby pin, Alejandra picked the emergency door (thankfully older and not the ones that triggered alarms), and the two were out into the night, back into the car, into their outfits where they started.

Wildstyle and Stonecold were victorious. The man had been killed.

And they had gotten away unseen, driving home in the darkest of Monterrey night, with the best part yet to come.