Too late.
I heard her heels click behind me then abruptly stop. It didn’t matter. She had the same view I had and two perfectly good ears.
“Remember when you pointed out that a woman ensures her own survival? You were right.” I smiled as her little homemade porno projected on one of the stark white walls of the ballroom.
As if that weren’t enough, she gasped as the words I just said to her repeated in her own voice in surround sound during her damning confessional.
“This proves nothing,” she insisted. “I’ll say it’s all faked.”
“Go to hell.”
She grabbed my arm, her nails sinking into my skin. “You ensured that for yourself the minute you spread your legs for a second-class criminal.”
I stared down at my arm and shook my head. “Conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, extortion, and law enforcement tampering. That’s not going to fare too well in the polls.” Prying her claws off me, I patted her hand. “Enjoy prison, Mother.”
As I walked down the hall toward the side exit, she let out a harsh laugh. “You’ve had the chance to kill me for weeks, and you didn’t have the guts. You expect to survive in their world?”
Mateo waited in the shadows by the door, yet I still stopped. “There are plenty of Carrera and Muñoz wives and girlfriends in prison. Why do something for yourself when you can pay other people to do it for you? You taught me that.”
“You’re just a drug runner’s whore,” she yelled as voices grew louder behind her. “You always have been, but you could have been so much more.”
I laughed but kept walking. “Like you? A pathetic and desperate excuse for a woman? Yeah. I’m okay with that.”
“The police are here!” I heard someone shout behind her. “I see the mayor. Don’t let her leave!”
“Leighton!” she called out as Mateo took my hand and pushed the door open.
I couldn’t resist one last look at her. “That’s Mrs. Cortes to you, bitch.”
Chapter Forty-Six
Mateo
“Are you sure you won’t come with us?” Leighton begged.
Brody smirked. “And leave this quiet little town? Not on your life. Besides, I have to bury my grandparents, make my mother’s life a living hell, quit my job, and oh, yeah, play the grieving brother for my presumed dead sister. I’m swamped.”
Leighton’s guilt-ridden face fell. “There’s no other way, Brody.”
“I know,” he said, lowering his eyes to the floor. “I want you to go. The Harcourts don’t fare too well around here.”
I wanted to punch him, but as long as he talked, Leighton was happy, and as long as Leighton was happy, I’d keep my hands in my pockets. Besides, no matter what we said, he’d set himself on a dark path, blaming himself—not only for Luis—but for telling his mother about Stella in the first place. He’d intended to reunite his estranged family but ended up destroying what was left of them.
“Oh, I almost forgot.” I watched curiously as he pulled her gold necklace from his pocket. “I think this belongs to you.”
The second he clasped it around her neck, her fingers dove for the pendant. “I won’t say goodbye,” she said, her voice breaking. “Promise me you won’t either.”
He nodded, although she couldn’t see it. “How about, ‘I’ll see you later.’”
“See you later,” she whispered, squeezing the pendant between her fingers. At the last minute, she spun around and threw herself in his arms. This time he awkwardly held her for a few beats before catching my eye in a silent plea for help.
“Hey,” I said, standing and running a hand down Leighton’s back. “Why don’t you go check on Stella? I’m sure she’s in the car talking Eden’s ear off.”
“Yeah.” Letting her brother go, Leighton wiped her eyes with the back of her hands and pasted on a smile. “Good idea.”
Once she was gone, Brody handed me an envelope. “Fake passports to get them out of the country,” he explained. “Consider it my last official illegal act as ADA.”
I tucked it under my arm. “Speaking of which, there’s an opening as the head of Houston operations.”
“I thought it took years to earn that kind of position.”
“Time is measured by sacrifice, not a clock. You deserve the title. I’ve talked to Val, and it’s yours if you want it.”
He shrugged, and I saw a glimmer of the old Harcourt in his eyes. “What the hell. This one foot in, one foot out shit was getting old anyway.”
I held out my hand, and Brody stared at it before finally accepting it. Just as I turned to leave, he grabbed my shoulder.
“After being in that fire, she needs to see a doctor. Both of them do.”
Way ahead of you, counselor.
“I’ve already called our doctor in Mexico. She won’t have a choice.”
“Good.” He seemed satisfied with my answer but still held onto my arm. “Take care of them, Mateo. They’re all I have left.”
“With my life,” I promised. “Anything else?”
“Yeah.” Nodding his head toward the open door, I followed his eyes to where Stella sat in a car seat next to the window. “Don’t let her grow up and marry a man like us.”
We waited in the car outside Hobby Airport as workers prepared Val’s private jet for departure. Stella pressed her forehead against the window and gazed up at the sky with curious eyes.
“Have you ever been on an airplane before, Stella?” I asked.
She shook her head, her dark waves bouncing around her shoulders. “No.”
“Would you like to?”
She cocked her head, staring at me with inquisitive eyes. “Wif you?”
I bit my tongue, honoring Leighton’s request to ease her into the idea of who I really was. “Yes, and your mommy.”
“Awe you Mommy’s fwiend?”
I nodded. “Yeah, old friend.”
She seemed to consider that for a minute, rolling it around in her head. “Wanna be my fwiend too?”
She might as well have ripped my heart out and held it still beating in front of my face.
“Would you like for me to be?”
“Uh-huh.”
And just like that, we were friends. Apparently in kid world, an agreement could be forged by an acquaintance and an uh-huh. Maybe the cartel world could take a few lessons.
Still studying my face, Stella ran her tiny fingers through a strand of my hair. “Pwetty,” she said, offering me a smile. “Wike me.”
I laughed softly, never wanting this moment to end. “No, I think you’re much prettier. Te lo prometo.” I promise you.
She leaned away from the window and scrunched up her face. “Te...huh?”
I shifted in my seat next to her. “It’s Spanish, little star. Would you like me to teach you?”
Lowering her head to my shoulder, her cheek brushed against my shirt as she nodded.
“Something tells me you’ll be a natural,” I laughed.