Clint cleared his throat as corresponding thoughts of Shay tightened his throat. “Diego was a good man. He would’ve made a great father.” He swallowed. “I didn’t know his wife, but I hear only good things about her.”
Matteo cleared his throat. He traced a fingertip along Hope’s cheek as the baby gazed up at him. “She was the best. I’ve never seen a happier husband than Diego. It was… encouraging, you know?” He looked at Clint. “To know that kind of love really exists in this world. Sometimes a person needs to be reminded of that…” He glanced fleetingly at Carmen. “… when there’s so much horror around us.”
“They do,” Clint whispered. “Need that reminder.”
“She looks like them.” Matteo smiled small, tears in his eyes. “I can see them both in her.” He kissed Hope’s cheek, then returned her to Clint. “I’m glad she has a new home with you and Axel. She’s one of the lucky ones… who didn’t get lost out there.” Again, his gaze turned to Carmen—the infant in her arms.
Clint dropped his voice. “They’re lucky, too… because they have a new home with all of you.”
Matteo stared at the trio of newcomers. “For the rest of their lives,” he murmured, “you and Cochise will be their heroes. When that baby gets older, Carmen will tell her about your heroic acts that saved their lives. They’ll never forget you.”
“By the time she gets older… she may already have a hero in her life.”
“Who?”
“A loving father.”
Matteo met his knowing stare. “Am I that transparent?”
Clint squinted. “Yes.”
“Great,” Matteo groaned.
“It isn’t a bad thing,” Clint said. “I don’t know a lot about women, but I don’t think they’re as intrigued by mysterious men—as they are by men who’re up front and honest with them. And if you need a second opinion… go ask Zoe. Something tells me, her ideal man right about now is one who’s honest and transparent.”
●●●
Carmen caught bits and pieces of Matteo and Clint’s hushed conversation, not understanding everything she heard… but enough. The real father of the cowboy’s baby daughter… had been a friend of Matteo? Her parents were dead? What had happened to them? Maybe she would ask Caterina later.
“Come on.” Caterina touched her back. “I’ll introduce you to the other girls. There aren’t a lot of us, so we need to stick together.” She laughed softly and winked at Cruz. “Got to join forces to keep these boys in line.”
Sanchez chuckled. “This whole weaker-sex theory is a bunch of bull. You know you rule our home. And this little lady here…” Sanchez turned to the cowboy and his infant daughter. “… don’t even try to tell me she doesn’t call the shots in your house, cowboy.”
“Can’t argue there,” Clint drawled.
Carmen was awestruck watching Clint and Cochise within their home environment. They were like completely different men. It warmed her heart that they had this to come home to—people would love them and cared for them, emotionally. She knew how important that was—because she’d lived her whole life without it. Camille and Roberto had given her something to live for—to fight for—but they were too young to provide the emotional support she’d desperately needed. That shoulder to lean on and cry on as life kicked the shit out of her over and again. She’d stopped thinking about it, stopped wishing for it, convinced that shoulder would never be there for her.
She looked around and decided she’d given up hope too soon.
There were shoulders everywhere.
Her dark eyes came to rest on Matteo and drifted to his shoulders. What would it feel like to lay her head there, close her eyes, and know without doubt that he would watch over her and her siblings while she rested a while?
She swallowed thickly and blinked back a sudden sting. She felt his eyes on her, but she didn’t look him in the face. This want to surrender, to let down her guard and just let go… frightened her. These people weren’t lying to her or trying to trick her, she knew that. But her insides remained tied up in knots and refused to loosen. She knew what it was—she was waiting to wake up from this wonderful dream to a nightmare ready to engulf her once again, swallow her up, swallow up Camille and Roberto, and this time… devour them for good.
“Hon?” Caterina rubbed her back. “You okay?”
Carmen trembled, blinked, and nodded. “Uh-huh.” She wanted to be, and maybe in time she would be. She cast a discreet glance at Matteo. It wasn’t discreet enough because he immediately caught her eye. He smiled softly, a glow in his eyes that both warmed her heart… and spooked it. She averted her eyes as Caterina led her from the room, Roberto trailing close at her heels.
●●●
When the room cleared out and the guests migrated to the backyard, Cochise hung back, detouring into the empty kitchen. Kane followed.
“You were right to bring them back with you,” he said. “If you hadn’t… who knows what would’ve become of them.”
Cochise took a beer from the fridge, closed the door, and stood with his back to Kane as he opened the bottle and downed half the contents.
“Cochise…” Kane whispered. “You saved them.”
The Egyptian cleared his throat. “I know.”
“Then what’s wrong? And don’t say nothing.”
The man turned slowly and the haunt in his gray eyes struck Kane like a punch to the heart. “You didn’t see that place,” he mumbled, and his face twitched. “Kids—babies—caged up like animals. Ripped away from their parents. A fucking price tag slapped on them as if they were goods to be sold.” The tendons in his neck strained as his throat worked. “What we did there… it won’t change anything. That shithole border station wasn’t an isolated incident. Desperate families are caught and torn apart all along the fucking border, children and parents who will never see each other again because—why?—they tried to escape hell? Wanted to give their kids a better life in this great land?” He stabbed a fingertip on the counter. “As we speak, children are being kidnapped from their parents, locked in cages, raped and sold.”
Kane swallowed, his eyes filling. He didn’t often see the Egyptian so vehement and verbal. “You and Clint,” Kane said quietly, “you’re just two men. You do what you can, and for those you help, the ones you save—that’s everything.”
“We didn’t save those kids at the prison,” Cochise rasped. “We got them out of the prison, but not out of hell. They were here illegally. They will end up back in the hands of the bastards who abducted and caged them in the first place. It’s a vicious fucking cycle, and they’re caught in it. And there’s not a goddamned thing we can do about it because the fucking law protects the abusers.”
Kane understood his plight—and felt the force of his frustration and rage. He desperately wished to counter the Egyptian’s despair, but what could he say? Cochise was right. Until someone decent came into power at the top—and changed the laws—what could anyone do for the victims of a cruel system?