by Cora Kenborn
He brought a lit cigar to his mouth with his free hand, ignoring me while puffing on the end. Blowing out a cloud of smoke, he swung a cold stare my way. “King.”
“Fuck you.”
The barrel of a gun pressed against the back of my head. “Want me to shoot him now, boss?”
Ignacio waved a hand. “Leave us.”
The pressure against my skull lessened. “Are you sure? I don’t think…”
Ignacio rolled his eyes. “I don’t pay you to think.” Dropping his cigar, he stomped it out with his shoe. Before I knew what was happening, he reached for a gun, aimed it at my head, and pulled the trigger.
All I could do was blink, waiting for the inevitable white pain of the bullet or the darkness of death. Neither happened. A heavy thud hit the floor, and I turned to see the guard lying on the concrete, half his face blown off.
Ignacio let out an annoyed sigh. “Good help is hard to find.”
I didn’t have time to think about what just happened. Steeling my expression, I stepped out of the blood pooling under my shoe and made my way closer to the man who’d turned my life into a living hell. I had so many accusations. So many threats. So many questions. However, I couldn’t stop myself from asking the main one burning on my tongue.
“Why the act?”
He shrugged. “Entertainment? Come on, Harcourt, you had all the pieces. You were just too stupid to put them together. I toyed with you. I even told you Ignacio Vergara was Colombian after you and this whore visited my mother, remember?”
Jesus. All the information I gave him. It made me sick.
“How long have you operated on the sidelines, Carlos?”
“Long enough. I’ve watched all of you, but nobody bothered to see me. Nobody thought I’d have the cojones to come from behind and sink my teeth into both cartels’ jugulars.”
“Because you’re a coward.”
“You’re nothing in my world, gringo. I’ve been under your nose the whole time, and you never saw it. Plain sight, remember? I told you it was the last place people ever looked.”
Plain sight. Two words that took me back to a Chicago strip club. The defining moment that set everything in motion.
A tense breath whistled through his teeth, and another line creased his forehead before a slow smile parted his lips. “The man’s name is José Rojas. I don’t know how much you can find out from that, but that’s all I got. We both know their reach extends far beyond border walls. They’ve already infiltrated Chicago. If you ask me—”
“I didn’t.”
The smile on his face faded, irritation flaring in his eyes. “If you ask me, whoever has the balls to rebuild is hiding in plain sight. It’s the last place people ever look.”
Ignacio pocketed the gun, his hearty laugh drawing my attention back to his smug face. “You fell right into my trap because you’re weak. You were so fucked up in the head wanting to defy Carrera all I had to do was give you the nudge.”
I narrowed my gaze. “But Leo Pinellas—”
He growled, digging the knife deeper into Adriana’s neck, and the words died on my tongue at her sharp inhale. “I’ve been planning this for months, you stupid pendejo! Leo Pinellas was a puppet just like the rest of you. Who do you think was in his ear telling him to give you the goods on her?” He tightened his hold on the knife, and a tear rolled down Adriana’s cheek. “I knew what you’d do with it. I planned on it. I knew Carrera would be weaker without that Lachey bitch, but you couldn’t even close that deal, could you?”
Blinding rage shattered my control. “Shut up!”
I was coming unhinged, and the sick son of a bitch seemed to enjoy it. An assumption proved when, with a flick of his wrist, Adriana cried out, and a trickle of blood rolled down her neck.
“You’re being disrespectful, boy.”
“Touch her again, and I’ll fucking kill you.”
He held my eye and laughed. “She led your dick around on a leash, and you’re ready to die for her. How pathetic.”
Letting out a roar, I didn’t think. I charged. The instinct to protect her overpowered the need to keep her close. “Adriana, run!”
“Brody, no!”
My body snapped back as another arm wrapped around my neck pulling me back. “Let me go, asshole!”
Ignacio chuckled. “Run? She was with me all along, you fool. She told you as much in that piece of shit motel room, but you were too stupid to listen.”
“Shipment for seventeen million, right? Disappeared near the Chicago port? Brody open your eyes. Every contact you have is being turned. You can’t trust anyone. Not your friends, not your contacts, and certainly not your informants.”
“Not even you?”
“Especially not me. I wouldn’t if I were you.”
I turned a conflicted stare toward a wide-eyed Adriana.
Panic flashed across her bruised face. “He’s lying! Yes, he offered me a deal, but I was telling you the truth when I said I accepted just to get away from him. I always planned to bring him down. I didn’t care who I was...Marisol Muñoz, Adriana Carrera, I told him, and I told you—I bow to no one. Whatever I did it would be on my own terms.” She glared up at Ignacio. “Not yours.”
“So, she went after you herself. How touching.”
“You set me up,” she shot back. “I had no choice.”
Keeping his eyes on me, Ignacio smiled and leaned down to press a kiss against her temple. “Is this where you tell your lover that when I made my offer you were hiding out with my son?”
Chapter Forty
Adriana
The question on Brody’s face hurt worse than any knife. “You were with Cristiano?”
“It wasn’t like that! I had no idea Cris was his son!”
A laugh reverberated behind me. A sick and twisted laugh I felt in my soul. “You believe that?”
“Shut up!” I hissed. He was messing with my head, but my nerves were raw, and my body battered. I searched the tortured hazel eyes I’d come to know so well. “Brody, everything I’ve said to you is real. That kiss was real. I know you felt it.”
Behind me, Ignacio groaned. “I know what I feel, and it’s boredom. Deshazte de él,” he commanded, and the new guard grabbed Brody from behind. Get rid of him.
The guard gave a slight nod in acknowledgment and shoved a gun against the back of Brody’s head. But he fought back, a dead resolve in his eyes that set everything in motion and tore one word from my throat.
“No!” Ignacio was at the end of his rope, and I knew neither of us had much time. So, fighting against the haze, I jerked against him, the blade digging deeper into my skin. “Don’t hurt him! Do whatever you want to me but let him go!”
Ignacio’s arms tightened around me, dragging me up from the chair to a standing position. “Are you still trying to win? I can appreciate that kind of fortitude, and if I were a patient man, I’d watch you kill yourself slowly, but you’ve proven to be somewhat of a pain in my ass.”
Thick fingers grabbed my cheek, squeezing until I tasted blood. The harder he squeezed, the more Brody fought. Lights dimmed, and blackness swarmed in from the edges of my peripheral vision. More silent words fell from my restrained mouth until the crack of a gunshot gave them sound.
A scream of loss and heartbreak tore out of me as I closed my eyes and prayed for the knife to sink hard and fast.
“Let her go and face me like a man.”
My eyes flew open to find Brody standing in front of me, gun in his hand and the slumped body of the guard on the floor behind him. I didn’t know what to feel first—relief or fear. I wanted to tell him to save me. I wanted to tell him I loved him. I wanted to tell him I’d never leave him.
Instead, the words that fell out of my mouth told him goodbye. “Brody, go find Santi, please. Find him and take him back to Val and Eden.”
“No! I’m not leaving you here.”
“You made me love you, and now I’m lost.” I choked out. “That’s what me hiciste amarte,
y ahora estoy perdida means. That’s what I said after I told you I loved you. But I was wrong, Brody. I didn’t lose my way when I fell for you. I found it.”
I’d been strong this whole time, but time wasn’t a luxury I had anymore. Desperation overtook me, and although I hated myself for it, I used Brody’s own words against him. “No one was there to save me when he tore me out of my mother’s arms. I’ll never forgive you if you let Santi suffer the same fate. You promised me. You told me you wouldn’t make me regret kissing you, and I believed you. I told Val you’d never hurt me. Please don’t make me a liar.”
The pain in his face destroyed me. “Who’s going to save you?”
All those nights we confessed our truths, the one I needed him to infer on his own was the one he never heard.
“I told you. No one can save me.”
Stepping forward as much as the blade allowed, I kicked backward, landing a hard heel between Ignacio’s legs. He let out a grunt, and the pressure against my neck lessened just enough that I managed to land an elbow into his ribcage. Grabbing onto his wrist with both hands, I spun around, both of us fighting for the knife.
“Time to die, pinche puta!” He shoved downward with a hard twist of his wrist.
“You first, asshole!” Chaos ensued as a second shot rang out, and pain slashed through my body, shredding every fiber into frayed threads. Ignacio’s eyes widened just before he collapsed in a lifeless heap onto the concrete.
I felt like I’d slipped underwater. Everything sounded muffled and waves rippled across my vision. Arms circled around me, holding me tight as hands pressed tightly against my middle. My mouth tasted bitter, and all I wanted to do was close my eyes and sleep.
“Adriana! Oh, God, no!”
A child’s cry floated somewhere above the surface, and my lips parted in a weak smile. “I broke the cycle.”
Then everything went dark, and I sank to the bottom of the sea.
Chapter Forty-One
Brody
Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
The tiny waiting room got smaller by the minute. There wasn’t enough room to pace, and if someone didn’t give me an update soon, I’d tear this place apart with my bare hands. Every time I passed Leighton, she pursed her lips, which I returned with a glare.
I was stalking around a hospital in blood-soaked clothes, but no matter how many disapproving looks I got, I refused to change. This was her blood. The only part of her I had with me, and I’d be damned if I’d let it go.
I glanced at the clock and ran my hand through my hair. We’d been here over three hours. Three hours since I fired the bullet that severed Ignacio Vergara’s jugular. Three hours since I realized I was a second too late. Three hours since Val walked in with Santi in his arms to find Adriana in mine. Three hours since she slipped away from me.
Three hours since everyone filtered into this piece of shit waiting room to hear if Adriana was alive or dead. I shifted a glance to the corner where a man sat by himself, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.
Val’s hand landed on my shoulder. “It’s a hard pill to swallow, isn’t it?”
“What is?”
He lifted a paper cup filled with coffee toward the man in the corner. “Your pride. Cristiano was with Adriana before you met her. They have a history. You want to hate him for it, but he just risked his life to save hers, knowing her heart belongs to another man.” Tipping the cup, he took a sip, giving me a side-eyed glance. “Sound familiar?”
I sighed. “Does the jealousy ever go away?”
“No. We’re men. We’re hardwired to protect what’s ours when we think it’s being threatened. But with time, you learn to trust in what you have and the person you’re with. In the end, you have to remember that, yes, there was someone before you, but despite the stupid shit he pulled to get her back, and regardless of how bad you fucked up, she chose you.”
I gave him a quick glance. “Are we still talking about me?
Val didn’t answer. He just smiled and clapped me on the back. “Sometimes your worst enemies become your strongest allies, Harcourt. You helped me find my son. That’s twice you’ve saved the people I love most in this world. Anything you want is yours.”
I exhaled, the ache in my chest deepening. “I want a miracle.”
His fingers tightened on my shoulder. “Never count a Carrera out. When we want something, we fight for it.”
He walked away before I could say anything else, but it was just as well. My attention was already redirected. Letting out another breath, I walked across the room to make my worst enemy my strongest ally.
Cristiano glanced up, his gaze suspicious as I sat next to him. “I’m sorry about your father.”
He didn’t answer.
“Look, believe it or not, I know what it’s like to find out you’re the son of a psychopath.” That earned me a raised eyebrow, and I shook my head. “Long story for another day.”
“Yeah, well, I’m glad he’s dead,” he said, his jaw ticking with repressed rage. “The world’s better off.”
I believed him. It took balls to come here knowing whose blood flowed through his veins. I had to respect that. “I know that feeling too. Listen, I want to thank you for what you did.”
“I didn’t do it for you.”
“Christ, can you knock that chip off your shoulder? I’m trying to extend an olive branch here.”
He started to say something, then flattened his lips, silence sitting between us like a rock. Finally, he scrubbed a hand over his face. “Is there any news?”
My pride yelled at me to drive my fist in his face and walk away, but Val’s words kept echoing in my head.
“You want to hate him for it, but he just risked his life to save hers knowing her heart belongs to another man.”
So instead, I did the opposite. I swallowed my pride, proving I earned Adriana’s kiss. “Not yet, but you should come sit with the family. Val will be the first person they tell.”
He sat up, his eyebrows bunched in confusion. “With the Carreras? I’m a Muñoz.”
I chuckled and clasped him on the shoulder. “I don’t think you’ll burst into flames. But if you do, we’re in a hospital. Besides, you could stand some scarring, pretty boy.”
“¿La familia de Adriana Carrera?”
Six heads popped up followed by twelve feet hitting the floor. My heart dropped as a man dressed in scrubs stood in front of us, his dark skin weathered and wrinkled.
Val looked over at me, giving me a quick nod. “En inglés, por favor.” In English, please.
The doctor glanced between us. “Very well. Are you Valentin Carrera?”
Val nodded. “Yes, how is my sister? Is she…” His voice trailed off, and Eden wrapped her arms around him.
“Mr. Carrera, the laceration your sister suffered was serious, but it could’ve been a lot worse. The blade missed her liver by millimeters. She lost a lot of blood, and there was some internal bleeding, but we were able to repair the damage and stop it.”
My eyes bounced between them, the words twisting around in my head.
She’s all right.
Val released the breath he’d been holding. “So, she’s going to be okay?”
“Mr. Carrera, the information you gave stated your sister received a kidney transplant when she was fourteen.”
Val and I glanced at each other in silent acknowledgment of “Marisol’s” medical history I exposed a year ago.
“Yes, she was born with type 1 diabetes.”
The doctor flipped through the chart in his hands and rubbed his eyes. “Eleven years is a long time for a donor kidney to last even with proper care, however from examination and bloodwork I can tell you hers is failing at an incredibly rapid pace.”
Cristiano cleared his throat, and we all turned around. “When I was in that warehouse, Ignacio told me when he took her the first time, he tortured her and gained her cooperation by withholding her anti-rejection meds.”
“Do you
know how long she was without them?” the doctor asked.
“Two days, maybe three?”
Everyone’s eyes turned back toward the doctor. “One to two days would cause serious problems, but three days would’ve caused irreversible damage to an already deteriorating organ. The donor kidney is failing, and with the stab wound, Adriana’s body is going into shock.”
“What are you saying?” I whispered, words sounding like they came from someone else.
“We have her stabilized for now, but without an immediate transplant, there’s nothing we can do.”
Val exploded, shaking off Eden’s arm and crowding against the doctor. “Then give her one, goddammit!”
To his credit, the doctor didn’t back down. He stared up at the man who everyone knew owned the hospital and everyone in it. “Mr. Carrera, we can’t just hand one over. There are waiting lists with thousands of people on them. I understand your unique situation, but I refuse to play God with people’s lives.”
“I’ll donate.”
Leighton whipped around, her jaw dropping. “Brody!”
Mateo laid a heavy hand on her shoulder, and she immediately pursed her lips in silence, but I didn’t care. I’d give her both kidneys. I’d give her my heart. Hell, she already had it.
The doctor shook his head. “As admirable as that is, it’s not that simple. There needs to be testing done. Blood matching is required to ensure the kidney won’t be rejected. Ideally, she would need a parent for her best chances.”
I refused to back down. “Her parents are dead.”
A distant look crossed Val’s face. “What about a sibling?”
You could’ve heard a pin drop. No one said anything until a fiery redhead attacked him like a linebacker. “Val, no! I know you want to help her, but it’s major surgery. We just got Santi back, and I can’t…” Tears spilled down her face. “…I can’t risk losing you too.”
He leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Adriana is my sister. She just risked her life to save our son. I owe her more than a kidney, Cereza. I owe her my life. We both do.”