I cleared my throat, shifting my eyes to her face. “Yeah. Just wondering what you plan on doing.”
“This.” Leaving us suspended for a moment, she watched for a reaction. When I offered her nothing, she kicked out her foot, smiling as we free fell into a hard arc.
Neither of us spoke as we watched everyone scattering around the grounds, enjoying what was left of the sunlight. My gaze bounced from my sister and niece to a few of Val’s top lieutenants to the first family of Mexico’s underground. However, Adriana’s eyes never left her brother. If persuasion could be attained by sheer willpower, she would’ve had him in her pocket five minutes ago.
“If you make him choose, Adriana, it won’t be you.”
She shook her head, strands of her dark hair sticking to her red lipstick. “We share the same blood. I’m his sister.”
“And she’s his wife,” I reminded her. “Not to mention the mother of his child. Besides their baby, there’s no one more important in his life. For Christ’s sake, he took a bullet for her.”
“Why am I always the villain? Blowing my brother doesn’t absolve her of sin, you know. Have you forgotten that she strung you along for months until something better came along?”
“That’s not true! She—”
“And of course, there’s the fact that after Val took a bullet for her, as you were so kind to point out, she left him lying alone in a hospital bed because she…” rolling her eyes toward the darkening sky, she curled her fingers into air quotes, “…was too good to live the life of a cartel queen.”
“Adriana…”
“Oh, and let’s not forget that you risked your reputation and ruined my life just to remind her how the horrors of our world would clip her saintly wings, and she threw it in your face. Know why, Brody? Because underneath that sanctimonious exterior lies a soul just as ruthless as the rest of us. I just don’t get why I’m the only one who sees it.”
She wasn’t. But giving credit to her already rabid contempt would only make things worse. I knew exactly who Eden had become since getting tangled up with Val. She’d always been headstrong, but there was a void nothing ever filled. Almost as if something inside her locked her away against her will. Becoming part of the most feared family in Mexico set it free, unleashing a ruthless side of her that consumed the girl I fought so hard to save.
Who never wanted to be saved in the first place.
However, the stone walls around the cartel queen’s heart cracked for her family—especially her two-month old son, Santiago. Across the immaculately manicured garden, Eden bounced the small bundle in her arms, a smile on her face as she talked with my sister. The visual was kind of comical. Santiago’s dark fuzzy hair stood out like a beacon next to the stark contrast of his mother’s long cherry red locks. The little prince peered over her shoulder, alternating chewing on his fist and her neck. I know nothing about babies, but I swore the kid saw me staring at his mother and scowled.
“Santi!” Eden laughed, wedging a finger in between his slobbering lips to pry the suction hold his mouth had on her neck. “You’re going to give me a hickey.”
I smirked at him.
Yeah, have fun explaining that one to your dad, you mute little bastard.
“What’s that smirk about?”
No use denying it. Judging by her reclined position in the hammock, Adriana watched the entire thing play out across my face. Maybe I could use it to my advantage and use her own words against her.
I shrugged, tipping my chin to where Eden cuddled Santi in her arms. “Think about what you’re doing, Adriana. If not for anyone else, at least for that innocent baby. You said it yourself, children are the only innocent things in this world.”
As expected, she tensed, drawing her leg away from me and locking it against her chest with a tight grip. Adriana’s temper was like a powder keg, and I’d already lit a match and waved it over the barrel.
I’d burn some fucking sense into her or ignite a hell storm.
“Val’s not rational when it comes to Eden, and if you reveal what I did to keep her from him, there’s no telling what he might do. You know better than anyone that truth can destroy lives. Is that what you want for Santiago?”
Adriana’s feet flew out from under her, slamming onto the grass as she spun around. “Don’t you dare use what you did to me as a crutch,” she warned. Dragging in a deep breath, she geared up to toss out what I anticipated to be some insult/threat hybrid when she stopped and narrowed her eyes, those plump lips curving into a wicked smile. “Oh, well played, counselor.”
Christ, what now?
She was supposed to knock the match out of my hand not blow it out. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m not stupid, Brody. This isn’t about the potential fallout if I continue fighting with Eden. This is about the potential fallout if I decide to rat you out to Val. You’re protecting yourself.”
I pushed off the hammock. “Look, I brought you here on a mutual agreement. You give Val a name, and I convince him to give you a chance not to fuck it up. Well we both lived up to our word, and that was supposed to be it, but here we are.” I threw my hands out wide, barely missing clipping her chin. “So forgive me for being a little pissed that this mutual thing isn’t so damn mutual anymore. You have me by the balls, and because of it, I’m stuck with your crazy ass until we can find this Ignacio and shut this reorganization bullshit down.”
She stared at me, blinking as if waiting for more. “That’s your idea of a motivational speech? You were a prosecutor. I thought you persuaded people for a living.”
“Fuck off, Adriana.”
“See, this is why you don’t have a girlfriend.”
“And this is why you don’t have an argument. As much as it pains you to admit, princesa, you need me. We have a common enemy and taking him out is more important than tearing me down.”
She turned her eyes away and brushed her hair over her shoulder. “There are always casualties of war, counselor.”
There wasn’t much to say to that, so I didn’t. Instead, I followed her gaze to where my sister and Mateo chased my niece around as she shrieked with delight. Joy and peace radiated from them. This was what I wanted. I gave up the last piece of my soul and pushed them away, so they’d have a chance at a normal life. I should’ve been ecstatic.
So why did seeing them happy make me so goddamn miserable?
“You ever think about having one?”
“One what?”
She laughed, and if I hadn’t heard it with my own ears, I wouldn’t have believed it. It sounded light and airy, a pleasant change of pace from her usual demonic growls. “Kids, you idiot. You know, a wife, house, white picket fence, dog…the whole plastic package.”
Now it was my turn to laugh, but it was neither light nor airy. It was an obstinate bark weighted in irony. “Hell, no. A kid is the last thing I need. I’m lucky to keep myself alive.” I raised my glass in a silent toast.
“Speaking of which,” she noted, taking it out of my hand. “How about slowing down, por favor.”
“I’ve only had two.”
“You’ve had six.”