𝗚𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘆-𝗦𝗶𝘅

𝗚𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘆-𝗦𝗶𝘅

Christmas Tree

❅𝗚𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘆-𝗦𝗶𝘅❅

Mazin had called it.

It was Dove.

The person behind all of this was her, and honestly, that wasn't surprising to me.

She was always mean in high school, and now she still hangs around the people she bullied. 

She also does coke, which I feel like is off-topic, but it still shows how truly unhinged she is.

It makes sense why she stayed around us. 

She needed to be around us to strategize and plan. 

She was never the type to strike without forethought—Dove is clearly calculating, manipulative, and almost scarily patient. 

She had always known how to play people, how to sink her claws into their weaknesses and pull until she got exactly what she wanted. 

I would know from my experience with her in high school. 

Luckily, Mazin was already steps ahead of this, especially since she called this long before she told me her theory. 

It wasn’t just a suspicion to Mazin—it was a fact she had pieced together long before the rest of us even considered it. 

Mazin was so prepared that by the time Dove landed in Miami, she’d be intercepted. 

We had people waiting for her the moment she stepped off the plane, even if she thought she was being careful.

Apparently, she had gotten on the next flight out of Aspen under a fake name so we didn't know her plans or whereabouts. 

But there are still security cameras and facial recognition, so it wasn't that hard to spot her. 

She could try to erase her tracks, but Mazin and Tahir had resources that made her efforts look amateur at best.

As far as she knew, we hadn’t discovered what flight she took or that she was landing at an airport in Fort Lauderdale rather than Miami specifically. 

That was her last-ditch attempt at staying ahead of us. 

But Mazin had been watching her moves all night, and Dove was getting sloppier. 

It wasn’t a question of if we would catch her—it was when.

I think she’s aware that Alena called out her name before the explosion, so she has to know that we know. 

Otherwise, why would she go through the trouble of using forged documents to board a plane and land a distance away from Miami? 

She was afraid, and fear made people reckless.

"Does she need anything?" I asked, standing from my chair when Tahir came out of her hospital room.

Alena had woken up a couple of hours ago, but the nurses needed room to take various tests. 

We also wanted to give her and Tahir their privacy rather than crowding the room. 

The explosion had been bad, and honestly, it was a miracle she was even awake right now.

"No, she's doing better," Tahir said, gently closing the door behind him, "The nurses think she could travel if it's absolutely necessary."

Tazmin nodded, arms crossed over her chest, "At this moment, it is necessary, especially since a lot of people know that we're here," she said, standing from her chair with Lena, "I'm thinking we have paramedics on the plane just in case, but we need to get back to Miami at a secure location."

Tahir gave a slow nod, considering her words carefully. 

"We can't all be under the same roof," Mazin suddenly said, standing beside me, "We'll have to follow protocol and separate to different safe houses."

Tahir sighed, running a hand over his jaw, "Yeah, Alena mentioned someone else was with Dove," he said, immediately making my brows furrow, "Another woman, she thinks."

"Can she identify this woman?" my dad asked, taking a step forward, "We could try to trace security cameras and show her different faces."

Lena nodded at his idea, "Yeah, we should definitely do that," she agreed, and I couldn't help but internally agree—determining that was better than nothing.

"We also could see who was closest to the bomb location throughout the night," Mazin suggested, grabbing her phone from her pocket.

"Let's start there—I'll go ahead and get the plane ready," Tazmin told us, walking away as she gently grabbed Lena's hand to follow her.

I turned my attention to Mazin, who was already busy typing on her phone, "Should we get our bags and stuff?" I asked her, wondering what we should do next.

"We'll send a team to grab our things," she said, barely looking up from her phone, "They're still handling damage control from the bomb, but it seems to have only affected the lobby."

"Dove just wanted our attention," Tahir clarified, glancing over when he noticed Ronan coming down the hallway with our coffees.

Which would be perfect after the night we had. 

I swear I've never been more excited to get caffeine in my system. 

The exhaustion was settling deep in my bones, and the cold weather only made hot drinks that much better.

By the time we were boarding the private plane a few hours later, I was running on caffeine and adrenaline alone. 

We had managed to gather all of our stuff and secure paramedics to keep an eye on Alena in the bedroom at the back of the plane. 

It wasn’t ideal, but at this point, we were working with what we had.

The plan for landing was straightforward—separate into different SUVs already prepped and waiting to take us to different safe houses. 

Until further notice, we’d be laying low, keeping ourselves spread out enough to minimize risk even if Dove had been successfully intercepted upon landing in Fort Lauderdale.

But that didn't matter. 

Not when someone else was working with her. 

I never imagined this was how we would spend our Christmas Eve, but here we were. 

It honestly didn’t even feel like Christmas anymore.

The safe house Mazin and I were assigned to was buried in the suburbs of Miami, tucked behind the gates of an exclusive, private neighborhood. 

It was public enough that any suspicious activity would be noticed instantly, but protected enough to keep anyone from just waltzing in. 

The place itself was impersonal, with sleek white walls and minimalist decor—one of those modern, cookie-cutter homes that served a purpose but lacked warmth.

It didn’t even have a Christmas tree.

All of Mazin and I’s wrapped presents sat in the corner of the large living room, untouched and out of place in a house that didn’t feel like home. 

The weight of everything that had happened settled in the quiet, and for a moment, I just stood there, staring at the gifts.

We had unpacked and showered, and still, everything felt out of place here—distanced away from everyone we love. 

"Not how you pictured spending Christmas?" Mazin suddenly asked from behind me, gently running her arms around my waist from behind. 

I exhaled, shaking my head, "Not even close," I admitted. 

She hummed, gently squeezing my waist, "Let's change that then," she whispered softly, pressing a soft kiss to my neck. 

"What could we possibly change?" I asked with an amused smile, turning my head slightly to meet her dark eyes. 

"Well, for starters, we could decorate," Mazin said, reciprocating my smile as she leaned in to briefly kiss my lips, "It could be fun—especially on Christmas Eve." 

I pursed my lips when my smile grew, "We would have to find a tree and ornaments, and it's almost seven—" 

"Excuses, excuses, excuses," Mazin cut me short mockingly, pressing another kiss to my lips, "Do you teach all of your students to make excuses professor?" 

I scoffed jokingly, "I'm simply being realistic," I said, tilting my head at her. 

"Or negative, you remember how the Grinch movie went. How they restored Christmas in—" 

"Yes-yes, they got Christmas back within hours," I cut her short with a blank look, but inevitably smiling when she gave my waist a playful squeeze. 

"So put on your Santa hat baby," she murmured, kissing my lips again before pulling away entirely, "There's a store just down the road—we'll grab everything we need." 

I shook my head as I followed behind her through the house, suddenly imagining us living in something like this years from now. 

It was an idea that made my stomach tickle with warmth, gently grabbing my girlfriend's hand as we walked past the short foyer. 

Soon we were seated in the Range Rover together with security following behind us to the nearby Walmart. 

I will say, it was very awkward walking through the store with a bunch of people dressed in black surrounding you. 

But otherwise, it was an enjoyable experience.

"We don't need that big of a tree, Mazin," I laughed at her, eyeing the shopping cart that the large cardboard box stuck out of. 

"Go big or go home," Mazin said with her usual smile, "And we can't go home so..." she trailed off jokingly which managed to earn another laugh from me. 

"Okay, well we need to get ornaments now," I told her, motioning over to the aisle nearby where there were numerous Christmas decorations. 

"Also, these Santa hats," Mazin said, quickly grabbing two of the red hats as we slowly walked down the aisle, "And we need to get your favorite Pillsbury cookies," she added, stopping the shopping cart right by the ornaments. 

"I like the sound of that," I said as I analyzed the different ornaments before grabbing the original red and green ones to show Mazin, "How's these?" 

"Perfect," she didn't hesitate to say, naturally making me shake my head with a smile as I put the box of ornaments in the cart. 

Then we were off to grab Pillsbury cookies along with everything Mazin needed for breakfast tomorrow. 

Otherwise, she insisted that we grab dinner on the way back—which I made her pick for once. 

Pizza was what I managed to get out of her, so we stopped to grab a large pizza from the local Italian place. 

Once we were back at the house, part of our security detail helped carry our stuff in while the others kept a close eye on our surroundings. 

It didn't take long to get everything inside, it was more or so the tree that we knew would take a while to put up. 

It was one of those artificial trees with three parts that you put together. 

Getting it out of the box, fluffing it, and then adding ornaments took us almost two hours, but it was totally worth it and it distracted me entirely from the current issues at hand. 

Our presents also looked very nice under the tree. 

It's crazy how one change can light up the entire house. 

"Happy?" Mazin asked me as she sat down next to me on the couch, handing me one of the plates of pizza. 

"More than happy," I said, eyeing the lit-up tree as I picked my piece of pizza up, "Thank you for this."

Mazin briefly kissed my temple, "Anything for you baby," she didn't hesitate to say, now grabbing the remote, "What did you want to watch?" 

"Something Disney—it needs to be Christmas," I said, watching as she navigated over to Disney Plus. 

"On it, professor," Mazin said, smiling slightly when I jokingly rolled my eyes at her words. 

Soon she had up the old Good Luck Charlie Christmas movie, which was something I hadn't seen since we were children. 

It was the perfect way to end our night, especially with the cookies we planned to eat after dinner. 

I didn't imagine tonight would end anything like this, but I swear I couldn't be more thankful. 

“Just open one gift,” Mazin said, walking over to the freshly set-up tree.

I shook my head at her with a smile, “Patience is a virtue,” I tried to remind her even if a part of me wanted her to open one of my gifts too.

“This one,” Mazin said as she picked up one of the smaller wrapped boxes that fit in the palm of her hand.

“Fine, but only if you open one of mine,” I tried to negotiate, motioning her back over to the tree to pick one out.

Mazin immediately nodded, naturally amusing me as I watched her pick out a gift to open as if she were a child again.

And I could quickly tell she had picked out the belt I had gotten her, which felt like a good early gift to open.

“You first,” Mazin said as she got settled beside me, handing me the small square box.

A part of me already knew it was jewelry, but I was still beyond excited to open something she picked out for me.

I carefully undid the shiny bow, tearing the wrapping paper away to reveal the velvet box.

My lips unconsciously spread into a smile as I opened the small jewelry box—feeling Mazin’s dark eyes pinpointed precisely on me.

Somehow my wide smile managed to grow when my eyes landed on the sleek diamond earrings.

They were the perfect size and caught every inch of light that reflected off of them.

“I love them so much,” I whispered, eyeing the earrings with a grin, “Thank you, baby.”

Mazin only hummed, “Of course, let me put them on you,” she said, gently taking the jewelry box from me.

I didn’t hesitate to tuck my hair behind my ears as Mazin focused on getting the earring out of the box.

Then her attention was on me, helping secure each earring in my ears.

“Beautiful,” Mazin said, her eyes trailing between my ears before her stare halted at my face, “I love you.”

My smile grew at the three words, “I love you too,” I whispered, leaning in to kiss her.

Mazin didn’t hesitate to meet me halfway for the brief kiss, easily making the warmth around me grow.

Especially when she kissed my cheek as we pulled away.

“Okay now your turn,” I said, glancing down at the wrapped gift in her hand.

Mazin shook her head with a smile, picking up the gift from her lap, "I hate the idea of you spending money on me," she said, carefully unwrapping the corners of the wrapping paper. 

"Right back at you," I countered back, knowing it was only fair if we both spent money on each other. 

Mazin only hummed as she finished opening the gift, revealing the black Saint Laurent box. 

Just like that, my smile grew into a grin, watching as she opened the box to reveal the belt I had picked out for her. 

"I figured it would be a good staple to have in your closet. Also, you're really hard to shop for so I really hope you like—" 

"I love it," Mazin gently cut me short, leaning into me for a kiss, "Thank you beautiful," she said, briefly pressing her lips to mine. 

"Anything for you," I purposely said, smiling wider when my girlfriend chuckled. 

"Yeah, okay," she murmured, briefly kissing my lips again as I leaned closer to her for a deeper kiss. 

At least until one of our phones vibrated, which was enough to make us pull away slightly. 

Mostly because now is not the time to ignore a text. 

Luckily, Tazmin provided us with new phones to keep contact.

"It's Xavier," Mazin told me, setting the belt down in her lap as she unlocked her phone. 

I furrowed my brows, watching as she tapped on her phone—seemingly watching something he sent her. 

"What is it?" I asked her curiously, wondering if we had made any progress with this gang leader situation. 

Mazin remained silent for a moment, clearly engrossed in whatever video was displayed on her phone. 

Until she suddenly glanced up and met my stare with a serious look. 

"We got the leader," was all she said, her brows furrowed so deeply. 

She looked confused. 

And as soon as I glanced over to her phone displaying the familiar face so clearly, I think I was confused as well. 

"Mazin," I whispered, drawing in a deep breath as I stood from the couch. 

Because suddenly I'm anxious. 

Theoretically, this doesn't even feel possible. 

My head is already thinking of reasons why it's not. 

"It can't be her," I forced out, briefly closing my eyes for a moment. 

But all I could see was her, suddenly questioning everything that had happened over these last few weeks. 

What was real? 

"I know baby, I'm sorry this is—" 

"Mazin." 

Her name burned the back of my closed-up throat, tears suddenly burning in my eyes as I tried my hardest not to break down right here. 

I mean, Dove felt expected. 

Even Alena felt expected before the explosion happened. 

But this never crossed my mind. 

She never crossed my mind. 

Why would she? 

My lips parted as soon as I felt a soft touch at my upper back, flinching away before I could process it. 

"Virelai," Mazin whispered almost in disappointment, lowering her hand from my back to give me my space. 

I quickly glanced down to the floor, avoiding her dark eyes, "I think I'm going to get ready for bed," I quickly forced out, walking away from her before she could say anything else. 

Mostly because I can't have this conversation right now. 

I can't even begin to process that this is happening right now.