His gaze strained.
Heart thundering.
Chris forgot everything he would say, everything he wanted, as his world came to a standstill. Now or never. Either those horses would carry a woman he had somehow fallen hopelessly in love with during the process of trying to save her life, and her child, or all of this had been for nothing.
He didn’t think that way though.
Those thoughts were poison.
Time slowed when the horses broke through the tree line, and even in the darkness, he recognized how she rode the animal. As the animals came closer, he distinguished little Maria in front of her mother with Valeria’s arm keeping her safe, and her pink book bag tight in her small hands.
Chris rushed forward before the horses had even come to a stop. The clock in his mind ticked down again. They were running out of time, surely. How long would it be before someone realized the fight between the rival cartels had been a manufactured war, only meant to distract just long enough for them to finish all of this?
They needed to get out of here.
“Come on, let me help you down,” Chris said, coming alongside the horse to reach for Maria first. Unsurprisingly, she reached back, and he almost laughed when a little gray head with two pointed ears peeked out of her backpack. That kitten of hers. “Snuck her out, did you?”
Maria grinned in Chris’s arms. “She’s my kitty, I had to.”
Right.
Goddammit.
He would get her a million kittens if that’s what she wanted.
Just not tonight.
Chris kneeled down when he had Maria’s feet on the ground, and Valeria hauled herself off the horse, too. Turning, he pointed at Alessio who was tying safety lines to the stakes he had beat into the ground for when they took the girls down the cliffs to return to the boats. The ladders were fine, and they would use them, too, but the lines were just for added protection.
His demand.
“See that man right there?”
Maria nodded.
Chris smiled her way. “He’s my brother’s ...” Okay, that was a difficult one to explain, but he managed with, “My brother’s spouse, yeah? He will take you down the cliffs, and you hold on tight, okay? Listen to everything he says, make sure you keep a tight hold on your kitten, and—”
“We’re going down the cliffs?”
He glanced up at Valeria, seeing the worry in her eyes. “It’s the safest way out of here without drawing attention. It’s how we came in, and it’s how we planned to leave, too.”
He didn’t miss the way her throat jumped at that statement.
“What?” he asked.
“You came up from the water?”
Oh.
It wasn’t her that she worried about, he realized. It was him.
“You do what you gotta do, sweetheart.” Chris went back to Maria, giving her a playful wink, so she didn’t feel as scared. “Think you can handle it?”
Maria shrugged. “It’s very dark.”
“The boats will shine lights up.”
“There're boats?”
Her surprise made him laugh.
“They go really fast, too.”
“Wow.”
“Les?” Chris called.
Alessio didn’t waste time coming over with harnesses ready in his hands—three. One for Maria, Valeria, and Abril who still hadn’t gotten down from her horse. Chris figured he would deal with that one after he handled Valeria.
Maria went to Alessio with no arguments.
Chris turned to Valeria as he stood.
It took their gazes meeting in the darkness for his world to slow again. Two days he had been in pain because he had left her, punishing himself second by second for the suffering she endured behind closed doors with no one to help. And yet, here she was, as beautiful and perfect and strong as ever.
While people moved all around them, unpacking AKs from waterproof cases, and getting the finishing touches ready for their oncoming assault on the ranch—Corrado needed to make it out alive, after all—Chris took a moment to step forward. His arm linked around Valeria’s neck, tightening to pull her close to him until he hid her away from the rest as she folded into his chest.
Closer was better.
He needed her closer always.
Chris tipped his head down and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. Her fingers curled around the edge of the Kevlar vest he’d thrown on, and he breathed her life in.
Because she was ...
Alive.
“He’ll take you down the cliffs, too,” he whispered.
Valeria looked up, eyes dimmed with confusion. “Aren’t you coming?”
“Later. We have to get my brother out first.”
“But that means you’re not coming with—”
“Soon, okay? I will follow you soon.”
“Chris.”
“Don’t make this hard, Val. Argue with me another day. Tell me this was crazy some night when you’re next to me in bed. Give me the silent treatment over dinner because I didn’t follow you like you wanted me to. Right now, though, let Alessio put the harness on you, and take you down the cliffs to the boats. Because that means you can do all those things someday. And that’s what you wanted, right?”
She nodded, bottom lip trembling. “A chance, yeah.”
“Here’s your chance, babe.”
Her grip on his vest flexed tighter. “But you’re coming right after?”
“As soon as I can.”
Valeria made a soft noise in the back of her throat before standing on her tiptoes to press a fast, burning kiss to Chris’s lips. She didn’t linger, not nearly as long as he wanted her to, but it was enough to remind him why he was here doing this.
And that was worth everything.
Her hand patted his chest over the Kevlar vest. “I’ll ... see you soon, then?”
Chris grinned. “Absolutely.”
“Okay,” she said in a breath.
He didn’t watch her walk to the cliffs because that was easier, and while he wasn’t at all scared to run into a gunfight between rival cartels for his twin ... watching that woman walk away was the hardest thing he would ever have to do in his life.
He wasn’t ready for it.
Instead, he looked to Abril still on the horse.
“You’re next,” he told her.
Abril arched a brow. “I’m not leaving.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“This is my home—my family. I have a place here, a purpose here. I can do what they can’t, and I can do it better.”
The cartel, he knew.
“Abril—”
“Do you have an extra gun for me?” she asked.
There would be no argument. Her tone made it clear.
“Pink?” he called to the Marcello enforcer handling the guns.
The man’s attention flew his way. “Yeah?”
“Toss me a gun that’s ready.”
An AK was in his hands in ten seconds, and he handed it up to Abril on the horse. She used the strap to secure the weapon at her back before nodding at the horse Valeria had brought along.
“That’s Butter—it’s a good horse. I want to keep it. You’ll ride it back.”
Well, all right, then.
“I take it, the plan has changed?” he asked.
Abril laughed airily. “For the cartel, plans always change.”