“No!” Snapshots. So many fucking snapshots. “She can’t! Not yet! Not here!” My chest... Fucking hell, I couldn’t breathe. “I swear to Christ, I will throw you out of this helicopter and laugh as your body hits the earth. Make. It. Stop!”
Delicate fingers brushed against my ribs. “Danger...”
Her voice was all it took to silence the roar and cage the beast. Everything else faded away as I dropped by her side. “Cereza…”
Drawing in a ragged breath, Eden raised a blood-stained hand to my cheek. “Valentin Carrera. I fell in love with you the minute you walked into that cantina and sat at my bar. I loved you even when I hated you.” Lines darted across her forehead, and she scrunched her face through another contraction, blood still staining the makeshift tourniquet wrapped around her chest.
I can’t hear this. I won’t let her leave me.
“Eden, please. Stop talking. You need to save your—”
“I loved you when I despised you for taking me from a life I didn’t realize wasn’t meant for me,” she continued, that fierce determination I loved about her forcing my ear. “I loved you for being my devil and my hero. My sinner and my saint. For loving all my wrongs and somehow making them feel right. You gave me a home. You gave me a son. You gave me a life I’ll never ever regret.” A scream tore from deep within her, her grip on my hand weakening as her eyes fluttered. “I need you… I need you to teach Santi it’s not weak to love, and… and I need you to show our daughter she can stand beside a strong man and still have a voice.”
Those words were too real. Too final. “Cereza, what the hell are you doing?”
“Promise me!”
I didn’t want to. I wanted to deny her. I wanted to demand she take everything back. I wanted time to fucking reverse. But red wouldn’t let me. Red, the color of love and passion and forever ripped the words from my chest and laid them at her feet.
“Te prometo.”
“I trust you, Danger.” Her fingers entwined with mine, her diamond ring digging into my skin. “I believe in you. But most… most of all… I love you.” Before I could tell her those same words back, she locked eyes with the doctor. “Take her.”
My heart exploded. “What? Fuck that! No!”
“Val…”
“Eden, if you have the baby here, you’ll die.”
Offering a tight smile, she held my stare, her eyes gentle but firm. “If I don’t, we both will.”
The roar I let out was inhuman. Powerful enough to level cities and topple mountains. Loud enough to mask another agonizing scream from the woman I’d lay down my life for and painful enough to bring Ava and Adriana from Brody’s side to mine.
My sister held my other arm as Ava crawled toward Eden’s head and spoke in soft whispers. I had no idea if I was still shouting or if it was Eden. All I knew was that in between, I heard Dr. Vidal swear in Spanish, and then say the eight words I’d never forget as long as I lived.
“The baby is crowning. It’s too late, señor.” Situating himself, even closer, he instructed Eden to push. I stared horrified as Eden pushed. This small, brave, fierce, powerhouse of a woman pushed and pushed as a bullet sank deeper into her chest. And just when I couldn’t take anymore; just when Eden’s face turned the color of ash and the fire in her eyes dulled, I heard it.
“She’s here, señor! It’s a girl!”
I forgot how to breathe as the doctor held up the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen since the day I walked into a bar and a blue-eyed bartender cocked her head and smirked.
“Cereza…” I rasped, words failing me.
“Ava?” The woman behind her nodded and slipped her hands underneath Eden’s soaked hair, lifting her head up. A serene smile spread across Eden’s face as she gazed with love at our creation. “Happy birthday, my sweet girl,” she whispered.
Then her eyes rolled back, and her chest stilled.
Chapter Sixteen
Dante
The bruised sky divided and then conquered as the jet began its final descent. The second flash of lightning illuminated the gray metal wing as we dropped sharply, the landing gear kicking into action beneath our feet.
No one had spoken since we stole Carrera’s car and left Mexico City. No one dared. Not even the rolling peal of thunder could drown out the silent snarl of my retribution. Val Carrera was a dead man walking, and as soon as I delivered Eve safely home to our children, I’d be setting plans into motion to direct that bastard straight to the nearest unmarked grave.
I couldn’t give a shit if he’d blown up his own estate to hurt me or not. He could have hurt Eve and that was more than a Black Hand in my world. It was a bullet aimed straight at my heart.
I could sense Eve watching me like she would an unexploded bomb—wary, fearful, and a lot apprehensive. Even Rick was keeping his mouth shut for once, choosing to flip and fold a black pack of gold-tipped cigarettes between his fingers instead. Roman had taken a separate flight back to New York City to spare himself the epic fireworks, while Joseph was loading me up with bourbon after bourbon to keep my fuse damp and useless until after we landed.
We lost five tonight.
Five good men who deserved their vengeance as much as I did.
A violent landing unleashed another wave of anger. The tempest was settling in, both inside the cabin and out. It was too much of a burden to consider all the what ifs and the near misses of the night. I’d put my best men, my wife, in harm’s way. For the first time in my life, I’d gone against my instincts and it had damn near been the ruin of me.
“Take them straight to base,” I ordered, unclipping my seat belt while jerking my head at the two men bound to the seats at the back of the jet. “They’re bleeding all over my fucking leather.”
Joseph nodded and gestured to a couple of my other men to help him.
“Dante…” Eve placed a tentative hand on my arm, but I was too far gone to feel her light.
“Go straight to the house,” I said, shrugging it off.
“You’d rather kill those men than kiss your children?”
It was her last-ditch attempt to appeal to a sliver of mercy that had been splayed and gutted on the front lawn of a Mexican estate a few hours ago. Only a bloodletting could fix it now. I wanted the truth, and I wanted to hear it from my prisoners’ mouths before I cut them brand new ones.
“I’ll kiss my children once I’ve purged this night from our lives.” My response was bitter and harsh. Even so, I pulled her into my arms the moment our feet touched my island. “I put you in grave danger, mi alma.” I murmured. “Forgive me, my angel.”
“Always,” she whispered.
The same sense of calm I always felt around her was attempting to wash over me, but I pushed back the tide like I was fucking Moses.
I didn’t want calm.
I wanted murder.
“Be merciful,” she begged.
“Be reasonable,” I said coldly. “These men were ordered to kill us. I’m only returning the favor.”
She sighed and broke free from my embrace. We’d played this game a hundred times before. I’d return to her later, soaked in crimson and demanding her light. She’d welcome me into her arms and hold me close until the worst of my storm had passed. Eve had accepted long ago that she loved a devil. She lived with her choice because even devils could be taught to repent when the worst of their devilry was done.