Anger replaced the apprehension lacing his face as he tucked the gun into his waistband and slammed the drawer shut. “My father is dead. This is what’s expected of me. It’s my legacy.”
Feeling overtook judgment. “What about us?”
No longer interested in pacifying me, his lips curled with a deadly smirk. “This was planned long before I tasted you, Cereza.”
“Is that what you really want? Is that what your mother would’ve wanted?”
Bristling at my words, he turned his back to me. “You know nothing of my mother. This is all I’ve ever known. It’s all I have left.” Refusing to look me in the eye, he cast a glance outside of the darkened window. “I can’t stop now.
Pushing away from me, Val stalked across the office and swung open the door while calling for Mateo. With my heart beating wildly in my chest, I listened to them make plans to cross the border into Mexico the following morning. Val instructed Mateo to arrange for them to stay at his father’s estate before they met with the cartel in Mexico City. Vaguely, I heard plans for Emilio to stay in Houston and handle the day-to-day stateside operations.
With a final nod, Val reiterated his determination to settle his father’s affairs and make his presence known to the cartel family.
As Mateo nodded in understanding, he left us alone once more to put the travel plans in motion. Disoriented by the gravity of what I was about to do, I slid off the table and took slow, purposeful steps until I stood behind him.
Gripping the wooden molding, I leveled a stare to the back of his head. “I’m going with you.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Valentin
A low sigh exited my chest, knowing the fight ahead of me. “No, you’re not.”
Releasing the doorframe, she barreled past me into the room, arms flailing. “What do I have left here? Nothing. I have a dead brother and a father that may or may not have betrayed me to save his own ass.” Standing in front of me, she placed both palms flat against the edge of my desk, the dark blue of her shirt accentuating her ample curves. “I have my own score to settle with the Muñoz cartel, Val. I’m coming with you. If you leave me here, I’m dead and you know it. Are you going to let that happen?”
I knew this was coming. In the past week, Eden and I had gotten too close. I’d disclosed information I would have never divulged to someone outside of the cartel. Women had never tempted me beyond the occasional fuck. Eden Lachey’s pussy cast out snake charming voodoo magic that hypnotized secrets straight out of my cock.
Only one phrase could shatter the bond we’d forged.
“I ordered the hit on Nash.”
The look on her face bordered on a slap as she stumbled back. “Are you trying to make me hate you?”
I shrugged, hating myself more with every lie. “It’s a fact.”
Eden’s arms drew around her chest in a protective stance. “You didn’t kill him”
“Does it matter? I’ve killed lots of people, and I’ll kill many more.”
Her features hardened, an invisible wall building between us. “I need to see the man who killed my brother, dead. Who is that, Val? Is that this Manuel guy?”
I remained silent, refusing to confirm her suspicion.
Rushing my desk, she bent her forearm, swiping everything to the floor that was left from my earlier tirade with a primal scream. “Answer me, goddamn it!”
“And then what, Cereza? Another one? And another? There are men who will always take his place and come after you. It’ll never end.”
She shook her head defiantly. “You won’t let that happen.”
“Won’t I? I’m just like them.”
“No, you aren’t.”
Having had enough, I charged into the room and shoved the chair out of my way, satisfied as it crashed into the wall. Rounding the desk, I grabbed her hands, holding both in her face. “Yes, I am! I’m a killer. I sold the drugs that got your father hooked on cocaine, and my family began the war that got your brother murdered. Do you think we care about casualties like him? It happens every day in our world. In America, murder is just bad for business. In Mexico, it is business, Cereza. I can’t be responsible for your life and mine.”
Stubbornly, she held her ground, steeling her chin against my hold. “Val, if you won’t bring me into this cartel, I’m sure I can find someone who will.”
I flinched so quickly, if she hadn’t been staring right at me, I’d have covered it. Facing her, she held in a gasp as my laugh echoed around the empty room. “I’m sure the minute you walked out of this door, the Muñoz men would whisk you off your bound feet into the back of a van and ride away to parts unknown.”
“Good.” She egged me on, apparently tired of being on the outskirts of conversations. The rhythmic tick in my jaw told her she’d succeeded in pissing me off.
Convinced she’d won the argument, she allowed a small smile to slip across her lips. In seconds, I stood over her—the familiar scent of citrus and vanilla igniting and calming me in a twisted way. My hand found its way inside her hair and wound strong fingers around a bunch of candy colored strands until my knuckles hit the base of her skull.
“Would you like to know what they’d do next, Cereza?”
She bowed her chin and violently shook it side to side. She had an idea what they’d do, and I’m sure she didn’t need to hear me speak the words out loud—especially after what happened last night. I’d explored every inch of her body with determined, but careful intent. Right now, the electricity vibrating off me was an exposed fuse, waiting to be lit with sparks of fury dancing around it.
She let out a pained yelp as I jerked her hair backward to force her eyes on me. “They’d rip your clothes off before you even got out of the van. They’d take turns fucking you until you passed out. Then, they’d torture you until you died a horribly painful death.”
The corners of her eyes pooled both from the horror of my words and the extreme angle of her head. The images I fed her detonated, shattering everything safe she had left in the world.
“Why?”
My eyebrows rose in question. “Why? You ask, why?” She nodded as much as she could with her head immobilized. “Because they’re immoral sons of bitches who think women are nothing but available holes for them to fuck on command.” Sweat rolled down my temple as it pulsed wildly beneath it. “And knowing you’d witnessed their hit, and you’d been here with me…well that’d make destroying you a hundred times sweeter.”
My fingers tightened again, and she lightly touched my arm with her free hand. “Val, you’re hurting me.”
I lowered us both to our knees and pulled her hair back again until she’d completed a full backbend. With her shoulders and head resting on my forearm, I brushed my lips against hers without kissing her. “And none of that will happen, Eden. Do you know why?”
She barely listened. Her instincts feared me and the vulnerable position I had her in, but our basic animalistic connection had her breathless with anticipation.
Eden opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off by palming the back of her head. “Because,” I growled, my voice full of unreleased fury. “Nobody touches what’s mine.”