THE ENEMIES

❝Your friends are you enemies and your enemies are your friends.❞

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PROLOGUE

*****

LOLA STRUTTED INTO the office, uncharacteristically happy as she set eyes on the young man who watched her curiously. Her grey eyes twinkled and her black wig swished against her shoulders as she took a seat right in front of the dark-haired man, on the other side of the desk.

"It worked."

The man stared at her in confusion, wondering what she was talking about. "What worked?"

"The plan, idiot," she hissed, making him slam his fist on his oak desk in a silent warning. She only rolled her eyes and continued. "Boss' plan to 'help' the bitch, had worked. Daniel has stopped searching for her, Esteban."

Esteban's face broke out into a wide smile as he relaxed into his seat and thought about how happy his boss would be once he heard the news. Maybe a raise would be next on the table.

"So what? We can go get her now?"

"No," Lola glared, offended that he even had the audacity to propose something so foolish. "Now that we broke her away from Daniel, she's with this other couple. Morgan and Derek. They're protecting her for some reason. We watch her carefully and then when she least expects, we swoop in."

"Wouldn't Daniel want his child though?" the man asked, tilting his head to the side.

"That's why the stupid rat isn't going to live that long." She thought about Araceli's child and thought about her own. Wouldn't it be sick, she thought, if I could take her boy and use him to replace the one I had lost because of her?

She shook the thought out of her head. She could think about that later. Right now, she had to stay calm and stick to the plan.

"Oh," the goofy man laughed, "That's a good idea. Then boss can take her for himself. That's all he really wants."

Lola smiled at him delicately, knowing that his heart had skipped a beat in that moment before whipping out her phone. "Right, Esteban. Now do me a favour and go tell your boss that we need to talk."

Esteban licked his lips and let his eyes run over her entire body before nodding and getting up. He held the door open for her and she rolled her eyes and got out of her seat.

Of course he wouldn't let her meet his boss. That man was smart - so smart that nobody who had ever seen his face has lived long enough to tell the tale.

Not even his own daughter.

Lola complied and walked out the door, not forgetting to place a soft hand on his shoulder as a form of affection to keep him on her side before walking down the hall of the office.

She waited until she was outside the main doors of the office building before pulling up the contact and placing the call.

"Hello?" the man answered almost immediately, making her smile as she walked over to her jeep. "You have good news for me, my Lolita?"

"Daniel has stopped looking for the bitch," she said, not hesitating a minute before she finally spilled the beans. "They both hate each other now and they've been separated, but she's currently being protected by one Derek."

"We can kill him, no?" the man's thick Russian accent rang through the phone. Oh, how alike Vincent he was. No surprise, since they were cousins.

"We can't," Lola answered, rolling her eyes. The man, Edward, was too caught up with avenging Vincent's death to properly analyse the playing field he was on. Where would he be if she hadn't found him? "Derek is the head of a large cartel. Murdering him will ensure your death too."

"So what do we do now?"

"I already have that covered," she sighed, reveling in the security of her plan. "The Costillo's are monitoring the situation. When everything is aligned, the plan will be set into action and we'll be able to swoop in and kill her."

"Ah," Edward made a sound of agreement. "I see. Leave the hard work to the Costillo's."

"Exactly!"

"And the boy?" he asked, making Lolita wonder how he knew the gender of the baby. "What do we do about him?"

"We kill him right in front of her."

"And Daniel?"

She pressed her lips into a thin line, tilting her head to the side as she thought hard about his question.

"I know that man," he continued, his voice ringing through the phone. "The reason he stopped searching for her is only because he has succeeded in finding her. As we speak, I wouldn't be surprised if he has eyes on her."

Lola didn't want to admit it, but the words 'you're right' danced on the tip of her tongue. She knew that the way she had set things up, Daniel hated the woman. But she doubted he hated the child. He was most likely watching her, making sure no harm came to her or her son.

"I'll take care of that," she answered with gritted teeth. "You just stick to your end of the plan."

"Whatever you say, Lolita." He cut the call without a word of goodbye and she peeled the phone from her face, glaring at the screen until it went blank before throwing it to the backseat.

She didn't care how big the obstacle was. She was going to take Araceli down; she was sure of it. And that was because she had someone very special helping her.

Someone close to Daniel and Araceli who wanted to take her down too. Together, there was no way she was going to fail.

*****

Yikes.