by Cora Kenborn
The doctor offered a sympathetic smile. “I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. There are blood tests that need to be done, as well as X-rays and abdominal CT scan. Not to mention the follow-up tests that must be analyzed a minimum of three days later. This isn’t an immediate procedure, Mr. Carrera.”
Val cracked a brittle smile. “Perhaps that’s true for most of your patients. However, I’m sure you’d prefer the details of your trip to Monterrey remain private just as much as I’d prefer to stop discussing extraneous tests that aren’t any of my concern.”
The doctor’s face blanched. I had no idea what happened in Monterrey, but apparently, it was enough to bypass hospital protocol.
“Of course, Mr. Carrera, but even siblings only have a twenty five percent chance of being a perfect match, and only a fifty percent chance of being a half match.”
Val kissed Eden again, prying away from the death grip she had on his arm. “Go check on Santi. I have some odds to beat.”
Six hours later, I paced again, this time for an entirely different reason, but no less impatiently. I also had company as Cristiano, Leighton, and Mateo followed in line behind me. We were a train of anxiety, unsure if we’d arrive at our destination or derail and crash.
Until Eden appeared, her face chalky. “He beat the odds,” she whispered.
I stepped forward, too afraid to hope. “What does that mean?”
“It means he’s a perfect match.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Adriana
Tethered.
That was the only way to describe the feeling. Suspended in a quiet, private space high above the world. Like a hot air balloon still anchored to the ground. I looked down as the world still went on without me, but I remained tethered by a cord.
Beeps and voices hummed below me, but where I floated, it was peaceful. I glanced down at the rope holding me down and wondered what would happen if I cut it. Where would I go? Would I come back?
Maybe I didn’t want to. Up here, the air was clear. I could breathe. I didn’t cough. I didn’t shake. I wasn’t cold. I wasn’t tired. I wasn’t sick.
“Pretty, isn’t it?”
I spun around to see a dark-haired woman in a white flowing dress and familiar, warm, chocolate eyes dotted with gold. I’d seen her before. Not here, but in a dream.
“Mamá? How’d you get here?”
She laughed, the soft, lyrical sound of her voice carried by the breeze. “I’ve always been with you, cariño.
“Where am I?”
“Your safe place. This is where you keep all your memories.”
I shook my head, and it suddenly felt heavy. “I can’t remember any.”
She lifted a hand, brushing my hair back. “Yes, you do.”
Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
Fifteen years ago
I twisted my fingers together while standing outside Papá’s office. I knew he was busy, and it was forbidden, but the sound drew me near.
“Marisol, did you get lost again?”
Click clack click clack click clack.
I peeked into the office, keeping my eyes on the ground. “No, sir.”
“Come in here.”
The invitation filled me with anxiety, yet my feet moved without my permission, and I stepped into the dark office, the sweet leather scent of rain-soaked earth filling my nose. Papá sat at his desk, a lit cigar between his fingers as a row of silver balls hanging from wires clacked together.
Back and forth.
“What’s that?” I heard myself whisper.
“A pendulum.”
“What is it for?”
“It’s a reminder that nothing is stationary. Any situation can fluctuate from one extreme to the other at any given time. One must always prepare for the unexpected and never become complacent, Marisol.”
I didn’t know what most of that stuff meant, but it sounded scary. I didn’t think I ever wanted a pendulum. “Does it ever stop?”
He leaned forward, taking a long puff off the end of his cigar. “You should hope not, pequeña. The moment the pendulum stops clicking, the clock starts ticking.”
I giggled. “That rhymes!”
A cold smile split across his mouth. One that never reached his eyes and sent a shiver down my spine. “You laugh like your mother. The voice of an angel spoken by the lips of the devil.”
I frowned. “But Mamá never laughs.”
His gaze shifted back to the pendulum. “No, pequeña. She can’t. Not anymore.”
Houston, Texas
One Year Ago
“Hello, Val.”
His dark eyebrows bunched together. “Do I know you?”
“Probably not. But I’ve studied you for a while now, and I think I understand you more than most anyone.”
“I doubt that,” he shot back with full conviction.
Stepping out of the shadows, I ran a hand through my long hair, and he immediately took a step back.
“I’m the one who ordered the hit on your new girlfriend’s brother.” I smiled and moved closer. “I’m the one who’s been tracking you, turning all your allies against you.” I pounded my chest with my palm. “I’m the one who watched you long enough to know you had such a hard-on for your own lieutenant’s bartender that it was just a matter of time before you fucked up.”
“Oh my God,” Eden croaked, her voice hushed and strained from Manuel’s restrictive hold. “It’s you. You’re the woman from the bar. You were sitting at the end the night Val came in. I remember because…because it was the night Nash was killed.”
I pulled my hair to the side and tucked it behind my ear. “Marisol. Marisol Muñoz.”
“Muñoz?”
“Yes, Valentin…Muñoz. As in Manuel’s sister and Esteban’s daughter. I’ve been away for many years while you’ve been in America. Too bad we won’t be getting better acquainted.”
Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
One year ago
“No!” I stumbled backward toward the bookshelf. “It’s not true!”
Cristiano sat on the couch, sympathy etching in the lines drawn across his face. “I’m sorry, Mari. It is.”
But I didn’t want his sympathy. I wanted him to take it all back. I wanted him to tell me it was all a lie.
“How do you know? He’s in with the Carreras! He could be lying!”
He clasped his hands in front of him. “Brody Harcourt got the information from Leo Pinellas. I verified it myself. The birth certificate is authentic, and so are the blood records. Esteban and Carmen both have type A blood. You are AB. They can only produce children with type A or O. Adriana Carrera was born with Type 1 Juvenile Diabetes. The same thing that forced your transplant at age fourteen. Did you never wonder why your parents weren’t matches? Or Manuel for that matter?”
I heard every word he said, but I didn’t want to believe it. “They told me sometimes that happens.”
The corners of his mouth turned down, and he sighed. “Mari…”
“Why?” I screamed, ripping a book from the shelf and throwing it at him. “Why would they do this to me?”
He averted his eyes. “I don’t know.”
The cry that tore from my throat didn’t sound human. I didn’t feel myself falling until I hit the floor. “I can’t be a Carrera. I can’t!”
Present Day
I blinked, the visions fading as if they’d never been there. “I’m so sorry I never got to know you. I’m sorry I grew up hating you, and for turning into such a selfish, vile woman. You must be so ashamed of me.”
“Cariño, none of what happened was your fault. We live the life we are given. A child cannot be faulted for not seeking the truth when lies are all she knows. I’m not ashamed of you. You gave your life to save my grandson, Adriana. That’s the most selfless gift a person can give.”
I gave my life?
I looked again at her flowing white gown and glanced down at the tether. I couldn’t breathe as I spun around. “Am I dead?”
“That’s up to you. However, I believe someone is waiting for you down there.”
The tether grew slack. “I don’t know what to do.”
“You’re in charge of your own destiny, cariño.”
I glanced down once more just as the tether snapped, and a voice from below carried by me on a passing breeze.
“We’re losing her…clear!”
Chapter Forty-Three
Brody
I was staring down at my clasped hands when Eden jumped up from the chair beside me. “How are they? How is my husband? Is he…” The words caught in her throat as tears poured down her face. Mateo slipped an arm around her, bracing for whatever news came next.
The doctor smiled. “Mrs. Carrera, your husband pulled through just fine. He’s in recovery.”
Eden let out a sob and covered her face.
I cleared my throat and stood. “What about Adriana?” When he didn’t say anything, I repeated it louder as Leighton took my hand.
His face became solemn. “She coded on the table.”
Sight and sound ceased to exist. My sister’s arm tightened around me, but I jerked away from her. I didn’t want to be touched.
“But we were able to stabilize her at the last minute,” he added. “The next few days will be crucial in Adriana’s body accepting the new kidney. Anything can happen.”
“Does that mean…?”
He smiled. “It looks real good.”
Relief flooded my body, and I dropped my head back as Leighton hugged me. My heart raced with one question. “Can I see her?”
“I’m sorry, immediate family only, and Mr. Carrera is under sedation.”
No! She needed me. After all this, I couldn’t let her wake up to a silent room. She’d think she’d been abandoned all over again.
I dared this motherfucker to keep me away.
But before I could do anything, Eden stepped forward and shocked everyone. “Adriana is my sister-in-law, and as Valentin Carrera’s wife, I suggest you reconsider your stance on that rule. I’m a volatile woman, Dr. Torres. With the trauma my son and husband have endured, I’m sure you understand how unpleasant I can make your work environment should my emotions get the better of me.”
Everyone’s jaw dropped, including Dr. Torres’s who cleared his throat, a bead of sweat forming on his upper lip. “I, uh, I don’t see a problem in Mr. Harcourt visiting Miss Carrera once she’s out of recovery.”
“Wise decision.” Turning, Eden gave me a private wink. “Now, if you all will excuse me, I’m going to check on my men.”
Two hours later, I still waited for her to wake up.
It didn’t matter. I’d waited for her my whole life. I’d wait for two years. Two decades. Two lifetimes. No one was taking me out of this room until she opened her eyes.
I brushed a piece of dark hair away from her cheek, ignoring the wires, tubes, and bandages in my way. Even with ashen gray skin and the quiet drip of an IV feeding into her veins, she’d never looked more beautiful.
This woman.
This force of nature who bulldozed her way into my life with threats and a vendetta.
She challenged me. She argued with me. She made me question myself and everything around me. She was both a brazen criminal and a fierce protector.
She was selfless.
I was the selfish one. I needed her here with me. I needed to hear her voice instead of the damn beep of the machines. And once I did, I was going to kick her ass for hiding something so huge from me.
From all of us.
I pressed my forehead against her hand and closed my eyes. “Just say something. Anything. Let me know you’re coming back to me.”
“Hola.”
My neck snapped up as her eyes fluttered open. It felt like every muscle in my body gave way at one time. “You gave everyone a scare, Carrera.”
She attempted a smile. “I like to keep things interesting.”
I tightened my grip on her hand. “How long have you known?”
I didn’t have to elaborate. By the guilty look on her face, she knew what I meant. “A few weeks.”
A few weeks.
The words settled at the base of my brain, and little clues came rushing back in a blaze of truth. “When you were sick on the plane, and when I wasn’t able to wake you up in Morelia, the dizziness, the coughing, all the talk about the end, and death…all of it makes sense now. I can’t believe I didn’t see it.”
She shook her head, reaching for my arm and wincing as a jolt of pain shot through her. “You didn’t see it because I didn’t want you to. You were never supposed to get close enough, remember?”
I remembered. It didn’t mean I was over it.
“Val gave you a kidney.”
“I know.”
“How?” When she just offered a secret smile, I shook my head. I probably didn’t want to know. “They said you coded. I thought I lost you.”
“You did.”
“Huh?” Something was off about her. Her demeanor seemed too calm. Almost at peace.
“It would’ve been so easy to walk away from everything, Brody. This life hasn’t been kind to me, so I thought the next one had to be better.”
She didn’t say the words, but the implication was there. I knew what she meant, and I stilled. “Do you still think that?”
“No, I’m ready to finally start living. I used to want power, but that was the old me.”
“What do you want, Adriana?” I looked away, not wanting to see her face if her answer wasn’t the one I wanted to hear. I’d laid all my cards on the table. I still had some damn pride left.
“A home,” she whispered, her voice hoarse and raspy. “I want to belong.”
I entwined our fingers together, turning them so her palm faced up. “You have that, princesa, and I’ll never take it from you again.”
She swallowed hard, her brows pulling together. “Does that mean you’ll be going back to Houston soon?”
“I have to. Val needs me there, and it’s my home. He’s put a lot of trust in me, and I won’t let him down.”
“I understand.” She tried to pull her hand away, but I gripped it tight.
Maybe a little too tight.
Because what I’d mulled around while she was in surgery took a lot for me to say. It wasn’t something I offered on a whim, and it made zero sense.
Maybe that was why I trusted it.
“Come with me,” I blurted out.
Her mouth dropped open. “What?”
“We have hospitals in Houston. You can recover there. I’ll take care of you.”
“What are you saying?”
What was I saying?
Standing, I leaned over the bed and braced my hands on either side of her head. I got as close as I could to her without touching her, my lips hovering above hers.
Above the kiss I knew was mine and mine alone.
“I’m saying I love you, Adriana Carrera. I love the rival you were. I love the fighter you are. And I don’t want to miss a moment of the leader you’ll become. I don’t know how to do this. I’m winging it. I’ve only begged a woman one other time in my life, and now I realize it wasn’t out of love. It was out of fear. Fear that I wasn’t good enough for anyone else, or that I was just too fucked up for anyone to look beyond the mask to see the man. Then I met you. I met a stubborn, bossy, mouthy—”
She narrowed her eyes. “Watch it.”
I grinned. “Beautiful, amazing, pain in my ass who wouldn’t let me kiss her. When she told me why, I stopped wanting to steal one, and started wanting to earn it.”
“Brody…”
“Once this woman gave me her kiss, I knew that was it for me. I never wanted to kiss anyone else for the rest of my life.” I ran the pad of my thumb over her bottom lip, and it was like coming home. Adriana closed her eyes, and I waited.
Waited for the answer of a lifetime.
When she finally opened her eyes, that smirk that I loved so much curved under my th
umb.
“Does Houston have any decent food carts?”
Chapter Forty-Four
Adriana
Mexico City, Mexico
Six Weeks Later
I was getting cabin fever.
Well, if one could get cabin fever inside a mansion.
Still, in the six weeks since becoming the proud owner of my brother’s kidney, I’d barely been allowed to lift my own fork. Val insisted on doing everything for me, and when I argued, he swore he was just protecting his investment.
Right.
However, the minute I got out from under Val’s watchful eye, Eden was there to serve as his stand-in warden.
Yes, I said Eden.
I couldn’t believe how much had changed in such a short amount of time. Not that we were best friends, but the animosity was gone. There was peace in the Carrera house, which only made the cartel that much stronger.
And deadlier.
Brody flew back and forth from Houston to Mexico City as much as he could, which ended up being every week. Val just rolled his eyes, but I saw the smile when he turned his head. Those two weren’t best friends either, but they’d found their peace too.
If the four of us could get along, anything was possible.
I zipped my suitcase closed, shaking my head at the mound of clothes Leighton was making me take to Houston. I didn’t have the heart to tell her half her stuff didn’t fit, so I’d just donate them.
I did charitable shit like that now.
“Do you have a minute?”
I glanced toward the door where Eden stood, her bright red hair piled high on top of her head, and Santi cradled in her arms.
“Sure. Is everything okay?”
She nodded, fidgeting as she walked into the room. “I owe you an apology.”