“Why?”
“I’m aware of just enough about the cocaine trade in Canada to say your father has a good supplier, and he didn’t need to come here. Jorge and my father? They think I’m a pretty face to give to whoever the fuck they want, but that’s their mistake.”
He didn’t miss how she didn’t say her other brother. The one that stayed in this house with her.
Chris didn’t point it out.
“I like Val,” Abril said, “and I don’t like very many people, so that says a lot. And my niece? She didn’t ask to be here, either.”
“What do you want?” he asked outright.
Abril smirked. “Not much ... just a guarantee. Tell me what you want, and then we’ll see what I can do for you.”
“I’m not sure you can help me.”
“Don’t make the same mistakes they do. Those who underestimate me tend to get what they deserve. Do you want to fall into that category, too?”
Well, all right, then.
“Valeria, and her daughter.”
Abril’s expression didn’t change, and she gave nothing away when she replied, “What about them?”
“What do you think?”
“I think if you came here to remove them from my brother, then you will have an uphill battle to make it happen.”
Chris laughed darkly. “That’s not news.”
“What if I help with it?”
“How so?”
Abril glanced up at the stars overhead. “I love this place. It’s mine. Always has been, always will be, but they’ve changed it over the years. And now, they want to give me to someone who will take me away from it.”
“Your arranged marriage to the García man?”
“Mmm.”
Her hum was the only agreement to his question.
Chris didn’t mind.
“Do you have the capability to take the two out of here?” Abril asked.
“Within reason.”
“What reason?”
“Time to get it done.”
“I need the night to do what I have to,” Abril said, “and I’m sure it’ll then give you some time, as you say you need.”
“How?”
The woman smiled at him.
Coldly.
“How about you follow along, Christopher? Things always go better when someone just does what I tell them to.”
“You haven’t told me anything yet.”
Abril nodded. “By the morning, you’ll have everything you need to do what you have to.” The woman picked up the wine glass at her side and winked as she tipped it up for a drink. After, she let the stem dangle from the tips of her fingers as she asked, “Do you know in English my name means April?”
“I didn’t.”
“Have you heard the saying—about the showers, and the flowers?”
Chris’s brow furrowed. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Do you know it?”
“Sure. April showers bring May flowers.”
Abril grinned wickedly. “I think it’s about time for some rain.”
What did that mean?
He still wasn’t even sure he should trust this woman, but what choice did he have?
15.
“Mamá?”
Valeria looked up from the book she had been reading to her daughter to find Maria peering over at her from just under the edge of her comforter. “Yeah, niña?”
“Jorge was angry we took the horse today.”
Well, sort of.
Mostly, Jorge got pissed that Valeria took her daughter away from the nanny and did so without telling him. Which meant she had to listen to him rant and rage for a good hour after she arrived back at the ranch.
The good thing?
He didn’t realize what happened out on the cliffs. No one picked up on the fact Valeria had taken out one horse but came back with two. They didn’t seem to notice Chris wasn’t around, either. Then again, Jorge had a one-track mind, and since Valeria took his focus when she stepped out of line, that’s all he cared about.
He calmed down.
After a while.
“Don’t worry about Papá and what he says,” Valeria told her daughter, lowering her tone even as her gaze drifted to the open doorway of the bedroom. She could take care of Maria without someone looking over her shoulder in the evenings. Meaning, the nanny. Or Jorge. Even still, she had to leave the bedroom door open, and she didn’t trust that someone wouldn’t listen down the hall. “He was angry with me, not you, Maria.”
“But—”
“But nothing,” she assured, leaning over in the bed to kiss her sweet girl in the middle of her forehead. “You don’t have to worry about that stuff, okay? All you have to worry about is you and being happy.”
Maria glanced down at her comforter. “But I don’t like it here, Mamá. I am not happy.”
God, yeah.
Didn’t she know it?
Rolling over in the bed, Valeria tossed the book aside—she’d almost finished it, anyway—and slipped under the blankets with her daughter. Jorge would ready for bed soon, and expect her in their room, but she took five extra minutes with her child. She didn’t get enough time with Maria now.
She hated that.
Once she had her arms locked around her child, Maria settled, closing her eyes as her mother kissed her temple, and sung a sweet lullaby she remembered her own mama singing to her long ago. As she finished the song, Maria sighed.
“Do you remember the promise you made to Chris today?” she whispered to her daughter.
Maria nodded. “I will not tell.”
“That’s a good girl.”
She didn’t want to put her daughter in that position, but she also didn’t think she gave Maria enough credit, either. Maria was smart—quick as a whip. She recognized when something didn’t seem right, or rather, when something was.
Chris was right.
Just in different ways.
“Do you like Chris?” Maria asked.
Valeria blinked. “I ... that’s not an easy question.”
“Why not?”
Because it was complex.
Difficult.
Dangerous.
Yes, she liked that man. She more than liked him. With nothing more than his presence, and attention, he showed her good men existed. He reminded her she deserved care, and adoration by someone like him. He made her want him more than anything ... she wanted happiness, and if possible, she wanted to find it with him. She knew happiness because he had given her glimpses. And at night, when it was just the two of them away from the rest of the world, he’d given her back the ability to be her own woman, too, although she didn’t think he understood that.
She loved seeing him with her daughter because he never dismissed her child. He didn’t walk past Maria without at the least, stopping to speak to her. He handled Maria with kindness, grace, and a tender heart, as a good man should.
She cared for Chris because of many reasons, and wanted him.
And she had more reasons why she couldn’t have him. At least, not right now. Valeria wasn’t the type to punish herself. So, she forced herself not to think about him at all because that was easier.