But it was his eyes that captured my attention—as dark as his hair, but bottomless as the ocean. A depth only known by those who never spoke of it again. Even from five feet away, I saw the gold flakes glitter in them, and I couldn’t decide if they were seductive glints or the leftover embers of a return from Hell.
“Cereza…” The word whispered from his lips like a prayer. There was no time to speak before he crossed the room and dropped to his knees by my side. “Dios mío, gracias. Gracias, Santa Muerte.”
I cleared my throat. “Um, I don’t—”
Nothing could’ve prepared me for the moment his hand cupped my cheek and his lips crashed down on mine. I froze, the concrete block doubling in size.
Cue the siren.
“Señor Carrera, por favor. The señora, she is still weak. We must keep her calm.”
Yeah. What he said.
“Forgive me, mi amor. It’s just been so long since I’ve seen your eyes. I never thought this day would… I hoped… I even prayed, but I never dared to let myself believe you’d come back to me. But, fuck, Cereza, you did it. You’re here. You kept your promise.”
I had so many questions. Where was here? Why was I here?What happened? Why was that man in the white coat still poking at me? But the one on my tongue—the one that rushed ahead of all the others and tumbled out first—was the one I couldn’t hold back.
“Who are you?”
Chapter Nineteen
Eden
It was the wrong thing to say.
Silence filled the room like carbon monoxide. Odorless, colorless, tasteless.
But deadly and fatal.
The softness that had just smoothed the handsome man’s face tightened. It sank into hardened lines that splintered out from the corners of his eyes and settled into the deep horizontal ones that shot across his forehead. It disappeared into the intimidating parentheses framing his mouth and pulsed in the rigid muscles in his neck.
And right away I knew…
This man was dangerous.
“What did you just say?” He punctuated each word with a deliberate pause.
I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to repeat the question, but I was scared not to. Something bad had happened, and until I knew what, the less I upset this man, the better. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“I asked you a question.”
“I, uh, I asked who you were,” I repeated, my mind spinning into overdrive as panic flared in my chest.
Instead of answering me, he shot a lethal look at the man in white. “What the fuck’s wrong with her?”
“I am not sure, señor. With cases like these, there are many variables. We never know what to expect when the patient wakes. I won’t have a definitive answer until I examine her, but for now, my best guess is some sort of memory loss.”
What the hell was he talking about? My memory was fine.
Well, mostly. If I could just remember how I ended up in this bed.
The dark-haired man spun back around. I only had seconds to brace myself before he launched himself on top of me, his hands taking a brutal hold on my shoulders. We were nose to nose, and I couldn’t draw in breath fast enough. Sirens wailed again, and if he heard them, he didn’t care. The gold in his eyes glittered like fire as his voice dropped to a low growl. “What is your name?”
“Eden Lachey.”
“Where do you live?”
“Texas,” I stuttered, my voice breaking. “Houston.”
“Are you married?”
I shook my head, unable to take my eyes off his.
His voice got eerily calm. Like the serenity of a clear sky seconds before a tornado touched down. “Who are you fucking?”
My mouth gaped open. “I’m not answering that!”
“Who are you fucking, Eden?” he roared, his eyes blazing. “Don’t make me ask you twice. You won’t like what happens.”
I believed him. “Brody. His name is Brody, but it’s not serious, so please...whoever you are, leave him alone.”
The man let out a bestial roar that brought tears to my eyes—out of fear, but also out of confusion. My heart hurt to see him like this. A man I didn’t know. A man who frightened me to my core. A man I knew in my soul was a dangerous criminal.
But something inside me also broke for him. And I cried because I didn’t know why.
“Please,” I whispered. “I don’t know what happened or why I’m here, but I just want to go home. I just want my brother.”
His body turned to stone. “You want who?”
“My brother, “I repeated, because fuck, what did I have to lose now? “We don’t have much, but he’ll pay you whatever you want. His name is Nash Lachey.”
I had no idea what to expect from him. My brain told me to shut up. It warned that this man could kill me as soon as look at me. But I couldn’t stop talking. Something drew me to him. It was like some unknown jagged piece inside me fit perfectly with a jagged piece I knew dwelled within him.
It was crazy. Maybe I was crazy. Maybe this was all a dream, or maybe I was already dead. But if not… If this was real, I couldn’t ignore it. Even if it killed me.
“I trust you.”
A callous smirk slowly curved across his mouth. “Why?”
“I don’t know,” I rasped. “But I do. I can’t explain it, but I trust you to do the right thing.”
“The right thing.” His low chuckle sent shivers down my spine. “Well, let me tell you a little secret, Eden Lachey…” The closer he got, the more my heart sank. “I’ve never done the right thing. But you’re correct about one thing. You do trust me. And you gave me that trust even after I stole you away from Houston, Brody, and Nash.”
I was going to be sick.
“You trusted me when I chained you to a metal bed in a dirty stash house. You trusted me when I set you free, and you trusted me when you followed me to Mexico. Three years ago.”
“No…”
“You want to know who I am?” he snarled. “I’m Valentin Carrera, your husband.”
That name. I knew that name.
Carrera. Carrera. Carrera.
Then it hit like a punch to the gut. He was the son of the Mexican cartel drug lord? Oh God, no. No, no, no, no.
“And you’re my wife. My equal. My Cereza. We have two children together, Santiago and Lola.”
The tears flowed like rain now, trickling down the sides of my face like an unholy baptism. In response, this man, this monster, took my mouth in another demanding kiss, and God help me, as weak as I was, with sirens blaring, and the concrete block slowly suffocating me, I responded. My body betrayed me, and I kissed him back.
Why? Why, why, why did I do that?
Groaning, he cradled my face, taking from me one last time before pulling away. The gold glitter in his eyes, I now knew came from the devil himself, captured me and held me prisoner as he made his vow. “I remember everything about our life together, and someday, Eden Carrera, if it’s the last goddamn thing I do, so will you.”
Chapter Twenty