83

Ariel Beckham.

I look behind me as the car comes to a stop. Through the window, I see the private jet waiting on the tarmac. I rub my damp eyes, hoping to shake off the confusion and fear, but it’s useless. Darnez is sitting beside me.

After everything with Ramirez, I feel like I’m drowning. I can’t think straight. One part of me wants to scream that running is the coward’s way out, but the other part—the louder one—knows I can’t stay. Not with him. Not with my father. Not with this chaos.

George Beckham, my dad—the same man who owns the institute I’d pinned all my dreams on—is a ticking time bomb in Ramirez’s world. And Ramirez? He’s a wildfire, unhealed, and unpredictable. I don’t want to be the spark that sets him off. I can’t be the woman he looks at and thinks of bloodlust and revenge……