Chapter 35 - The Seed of Betrayal
Absolute pandemonium consumed the cargo ship's deck as the fuel explosion sent shockwaves through the steel. Alejandro’s mercenaries abandoned Preston, scrambling frantically toward the fire stations and defensive perimeters. Alejandro barked orders in Spanish, roughly grabbing Claire by her chestnut hair to drag her toward the fortified bridge—a horrific mirror image of Preston’s abuse in the Beaumont ballroom. But this time, Claire did not cry. The paralysis from the taser was entirely gone. As Alejandro pulled her, she drove her knee viciously into his hip, forcing the cartel boss to loosen his grip.
"Do you honestly think my father is going to let you survive this ocean?" Claire hissed, her voice cutting through the storm with razor-sharp defiance. She glared at Preston, who was currently crawling through the puddles of blood and rainwater, trying to hide behind a massive shipping container. "And you trust a coward who fed his own wife to his enemies? Preston Beaumont will sell you to the feds the second he finds a radio. He signed his own mother's death warrant. You think he'll stay loyal to a sinking ship?" Claire's words were venomous, striking with lethal precision at Alejandro’s deeply ingrained paranoia.
Alejandro froze, his furious eyes snapping toward the pathetic, crawling form of Preston Beaumont. The cartel boss knew the aristocratic family’s reputation for ruthless, self-serving betrayal. "Execute that piece of trash!" Alejandro roared to his nearest guards, pointing directly at Preston. Preston heard the order, his arrogant face contorting in unadulterated horror. "No! I'm on your side!" he shrieked, but the mercenaries were already raising their rifles. Leveraging the exact microsecond Alejandro was distracted by his own paranoia, Claire reached down to her ankle. In a blur of fluid motion, she drew the hidden combat blade and drove it deeply into Alejandro’s thigh. The cartel boss roared in agony, completely dropping his hold on her. Without hesitating for a single breath, Claire spun around and sprinted into the labyrinth of towering steel shipping containers, finally reclaiming her own freedom in the dark.
