Dante’s POV
My heart was still hammering against my ribs, echoing the frantic rhythm na pinagsaluhan namin kanina. I held her close, my arms wrapped tight sa likod niya. I could feel every hitch of her breath habang nakasandal siya sa akin, completely spent. Sa labas, the rain in Tagaytay was still pouring, relentless, pero dito sa loob? Everything was finally still.
Tinitigan ko siya. Her hair was matted with sweat, dumidikit sa leeg niya. Her skin was flushed, isang mapa kung saan ko siya hinaplos, kung saan ko siya minarkahan, kung saan ko siya kinuha. For years, I’d been working with a ghost. I was chasing a shadow. Pero looking at her now, so fragile and completely undone, I knew the shadow was gone.
I broke the code.
Iyon lang ang paulit-ulit na tumatakbo sa isip ko. I didn’t just sleep with her; I dismantled her entire defense system. I took the "fixer," the ice queen, the woman who lived in the digital clouds, and I dragged her down to the earth. She was real. She was human. And she was mine.
I traced the line of her spine with my fingertips, feeling her shiver against me. "You're still here," I whispered, my voice rough and barely audible.
Hindi ko naman talaga gusto ang fixer. I never did. I wanted this, the woman who was brave enough to let her world crash just to feel something real. Seeing her like this, so raw and unfiltered, it did something to me. Mas bumigat ang hangin. Mas tumaas ang stakes. This wasn't just a mission anymore. This was permanent.
I shifted slightly, adjusting her weight para hindi siya lamigin. She was so quiet, and the silence between us was so heavy. Ang ganda niya, I thought, a strange sense of possessiveness settling deep sa gut ko. She was a mess, but she was my mess.
Hayaan mo lang ang ulan. Let the world outside keep spinning with its lies and its system failures. Dito sa dilim, with the scent of her skin filling my lungs, I knew one thing for sure: I was never letting her put those walls back up. The system was down for good. And I was the only one left to guard the wreckage.
Elena’s POV
Nagising ako sa mahinang paggalaw ng mga daliri ni Dante sa likod ko. The morning light was trying to peek through the curtains, gray and soft. Pagdilat ko, the first thing I saw was Dante’s skin, warm, and very real.
Iba na ang silence ng room ngayon. It wasn't that suffocating silence from the past few days. It was peaceful. Pero kasabay ng katahimikan was the realization of what happened. The "fixer" was gone. I was completely dismantled.
"Dante?" I whispered. My voice sounded foreign to me.
"I'm here," he answered immediately, his voice deep and grounding. He tightened his grip on me, as if he knew na the moment I woke up, the pixels of my past would try to crawl back in. "Don't even think about it, Elena. Don't build those walls again."
I looked at him, and for the first time, hindi ko hinanap ang phone o laptop ko. I didn't check the systems. I just stayed there, wrapped in the arms of the man who saw my "dirt" and chose to stay.
"Day thirteen," I whispered.
"The first day of the rest of it," he replied.
But before we could even move, the satellite phone sa bedside table suddenly buzzed, the only device na hindi namin pinatay. It was a private alert. The mastermind wasn't just watching our data anymore.
They found the safehouse. And they were already at the gate.
0 Comments