Black Heart

by Cooper-Posey, Tracy

  “Some honeymoon, huh?” Minnie said.

  “It has the virtue of being utterly unique.”

  “I can’t believe you shot Soto. Right between the eyes.”

  “Practice,” Calli assured her. “Nick has had me doing target practice every day since we landed in Acapulco.”

  Minnie crossed her arms. “Yeah, but that was big round targets with bull’s-eyes. Soto was living, breathing animal. I won’t call him human, as I don’t think he qualified, but he was alive.”

  “He was about to shoot you. It was a no brainer.” Calli shrugged. She looked at Minnie. “Duardo told me about the soldier you dealt with in the foyer off the balcony.”

  Minnie shifted uneasily. “I had to,” she said softly. “It was him or me.”

  Calli nodded. “We’ve all been doing things we never thought we’d be able to do. Look at your father.”

  There was movement behind Minnie and a hand on her back as someone squeezed passed her. The boat was a small one and the deck cramped by sheets, the wheel and more.

  Nick stepped behind Calli and looked over her shoulder at the compass set before the wheel. “Come around ten degrees, to due north.”

  She adjusted the wheel and the boat moved obediently.

  Duardo slipped past Minnie and she jumped, startled by his appearance. Her heart jumped too. He glanced at her and looked away and she realized that he felt as awkward as she.

  “What I can’t figure,” Nick said to Duardo, as if he was picking up a conversation they had already started, “is why they tried to assassinate Zalaya at all. He was Serrano’s key to keeping everything under control.”

  “It was Torrez who tried to kill Zalaya. He was a rejected lover and resented it,” Duardo said.

  “No, it was Serrano who arranged it,” Minnie said and they looked at her, surprise on their faces. She shrugged. “Serrano was paranoid from the beginning. God, he hired Zalaya to protect his back from all the conspiracies he imagined going on around him. He had the roof of the walkway dismantled so he could see who approached the palace...everything to him was a plot to get him. In the end it was Zalaya himself he came to suspect and had to kill.”

  “Why?” Nick asked sharply, and she knew he was not disagreeing with her but simply asking for more information.

  “Zalaya has a reputation for violence, evil tastes and horribly effective methods. Plus a head for intrigue. Yet in the last few weeks, Zalaya was getting less than spectacular results. Serrano complained of it—curious holes, he said. Then I came along and really screwed things up. That’s when the holes became neon signs that even Torrez noticed. You played the part well, Duardo, but you weren’t quite ruthless enough and that was your undoing.”

  Duardo looked doubtful. “Serrano relied on Zalaya too much to get rid of him.”

  Minnie shook her head. “He was grooming Torrez to take over. It was Serrano all along. Not a rejected boyfriend.”

  “Then my use as Zalaya is truly at an end,” Duardo said.

  “God, you weren’t thinking of going back in there, were you?” Calli asked, startled.

  “It was worth considering.” Duardo replied.

  “You can’t,” Minnie said flatly. “You have to come back to Mexico. Nick is going to need your help taking back Vistaria.”

  Nick looked astonished. “How did you know I was going to say that?”

  “It’s perfectly obvious,” she said truthfully.

  They were all looking at her now. Calli said softly, “You’ve changed!”

  Minnie grimaced. “Yeah. Zombie girl has gone.”

  Nick grabbed one of the overhead sheets as the boat lifted over a swell. “So has the party girl, I think.”

  Minnie looked at Duardo. “Yes. Her too. Zalaya killed her.” She turned away and threaded her way along the deck, ducking under the spinnaker to reach the prow and solitude.

  Duardo followed her as she had known he would. She leaned back against the railing and faced him.

  He gripped the railing next to her and his knuckles were white. “I would have preferred you never learn what I had to do there,” he said at last. “Part of me died when I realized that you were there and that I must deal with you as Zalaya would.” His chest lifted, as if he wanted to say more, but he remained silent.

  She could almost feel his doubt and hesitation. He was trying to find a path through everything that lay between them. She relented and softly said, “I’ve been able to put together nearly all of it from your hints. I know you only did what you had to do. Serrano was watching you as closely as anyone else around him.”

  He lifted his hand. “I was trying to protect you. You will never believe that, but—”

  “I believe you,” she said softly.

  Again, the awkward silence.

  “You knew the end was coming,” she said. “A breaking storm. I understood that as well as you did. You didn’t expect to survive this day. That is why you kept insisting I find a way to leave.”

  She saw his chest rise and fall. “You knew that too?”

  “When I found the key with the knife, I knew.”

  Again, a silence grew between them. Minnie desperately sought another way around the barrier.

  “The story you told me, about killing Duardo in the hospital.” She grimaced. “It sounds confusing put that way, doesn’t it?”

  Duardo shook his head. “I think of Zalaya as something apart from me. It’s better that way. You want to know what happened in the hospital? How I came to be Zalaya?”

  “Yes.”

  “The story I told you as Zalaya was accurate to a point.”

  “But what happened to you, after the helicopter? Carmen told me the door they took you through led to the infirmary, but...” She shrugged. “After that, I can’t connect the dots.”

  “The bullet was too close to my heart,” Duardo said. “So the surgeons shipped me off to the city hospital for better treatment. There happened to be a cardiac surgeon visiting, one of the best in the world, and he operated. Later, when the insurrectos had taken over the city, the hospital staff destroyed all my records and took my tags so I couldn’t be identified.

  “The first I knew of any of this was when I woke up to find Vistaria in the hands of the insurrectos, the president dead and Nick and those who would be with him—including you—nowhere to be found. I spent the next few weeks going through the most painful physiotherapy and rehabilitation I’ve ever experienced. Getting shot was easier.”

  Minnie saw his ghostly smile.

  “Your English is so much better,” she said. “It’s idiomatic, almost flawless.”

  “Zalaya’s English was perfect, so I spent every moment I could watching American television and reading novels in English. There were a lot of sleepless nights.” He shrugged. “It just had to be done.” He reached out for the rail. “I must sit,” he said. “My leg was not shattered like Zalaya’s was but it still aches if I stand for too long.”

  Minnie processed that as he sat down. She sank to the deck beside him. “You really were shot in the leg?” she breathed.

  He cocked his knee and rubbed at the hamstring as she had seen him do countless times in the last few days. “Of course. I had to withstand the closest scrutiny.”

  “Ohmigod. You did it yourself.” She felt queasy and wrapped her arms around her stomach. “That was why Zalaya was in the hospital, wasn’t it?”

  “About four weeks after the operation, when I was just starting to walk again, they brought him into the same ward. He was angry they didn’t give him a private ward and made such a fuss they pulled a man in the last stages of cancer out of his room and gave it to Zalaya.”

  “The poor man,” Minnie breathed.

  “He was pleased about it—it gave him company he was glad to have and everyone was so relieved to have Zalaya out of the ward they were happy to keep him entertained. But the fuss Zalaya made alerted me. I knew Zalaya from before. One day, perhaps, a long time from now, I will tell you about that.”


  “You said—Zalaya said—Duardo tried to kill him.”

  “Reverse it and you have the truth,” Duardo replied. “Zalaya tried to kill me and yes, he had the gun. He came up on me in the physiotherapy room. Afterwards, I knew I would never survive the investigation as Duardo Peña and Zalaya and I looked enough alike that it was worth the risk. A nurse helped me arrange it. When I took his eye patch, I learned that it was a prop and the eye beneath was perfectly normal. Zalaya must have used it as a way of moving around incognito. If he took off the patch, anyone trying to describe him afterwards would never link the man with two good eyes to Zalaya with the eye patch.”

  “That was what Serrano learned—that Zalaya didn’t really need the patch,” Minnie said. “So he went away satisfied when you showed him your eye.” She thought about it. “Torrez told him?”

  “Perhaps. Who knows? Torrez will never tell anyone anything else.”

  Minnie shivered but did not regret the man’s death. “So you shot your own leg, put on his eye patch and dog tags and...?”

  “I only intended the bluff to hold up long enough for me to get out of the city,” Duardo said softly. “I knew the illusion would not hold for long. I knew Zalaya. I knew what he was. There were things Zalaya did that I would not be able to do. But there I was in Zalaya’s suite and everyone believed me, including Serrano. When I tried to find a way out, there was none, so I just had to keep juggling, keep all the balls up in the air for as long as I could.” He turned look at her. “Then you came along.”

  “Yeah, well, I know what I did,” she said. “I blew it all for you.”

  “It was inevitable anyway, Minnie. The bluff would never have lasted. What you did was find me a way out of it that left me still breathing.” He took a deep breath. “You might have got me killed, back in the helicopter, but you also saved my life today.”

  Her heart leapt hard. “You forgive me?” she breathed wonderingly.

  “There was never anything to forgive,” he said. “If anyone must ask forgiveness, it is me. There are things I have done as Zalaya... God, Minnie, I think it would have been easier if Torrez had killed me. I keep thinking of the things I have done, that I did to you—”

  She rested her hand against his thigh. “Stop,” she said quickly. “Just...stop.” She swiveled to face him properly. “Perhaps we should agree that your time as Zalaya never happened. Not between us.”

  He shook his head. “I can’t agree to that,” he said, his voice rough. “I have watched you defy Zalaya for four days and although I thought I loved you before, it was nothing compared to how I love you now. I can never pretend these days did not happen, Minnie. I am in awe of your courage and your incredible strength.” He took a deep breath. “Last night Zalaya told you to take one last moment, but that was me speaking. I wanted one last night with you, as myself.”

  He reached out, his long fingers stroking her cheek. “Could you ever again consider...?”

  She took his hand in hers and held it tight. “I can’t see a way around it, Duardo.”

  His head bowed.

  “No, there’s no alternative I can figure out. I’m afraid you’re simply going to have to live up to that deathbed promise of yours and marry me.”

  He crushed her to him and dotted kisses all over her face. “If I must, I will make such a sacrifice,” he told her.

  “On the mouth,” she begged breathlessly. “A real kiss.”

  He kissed her hard and long and when he finally let her go, she rested a hand against his chest. “There’s just one teeny condition,” she said.

  “Oh?”

  “You have to get rid of that moustache.”

  More Erotic Romantic Suspense by Tracy Cooper-Posey

  .

  Blue Knight –Book 3 of The Vistaria Affair Series

  A game of seduction where a mistake means death.

  Held hostage by the insurrectos for weeks and forgotten by the world, Olivia has watched Daniel bed every women but her, who he can’t see. Daniel lives dangerously and is forced to use her window one night to avoid the guards. Naked and faced with a long-legged woman who doesn’t want him, his curiousity is piqued.

  Under the hostile, suspicious gazes of the guards they begin a game of heated seduction where the stakes are so high, no one, not even their fellow hostages, must suspect there is a connection between them. As Daniel teaches her how to defy the guards the tension between them, both sexual and personal, spirals until it threatens to shatter.

  Olivia learns that Daniel is not quite who she thought he was. Now she is fighting for Daniel’s life, too, for if the insurrectos find out who he really is, then the man she has come to love will be instantly executed….

  Click here to buy Blue Knight now! http://bit.ly/HPVnDQ

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  Other books by Tracy Cooper-Posey

  Blood Knot Series (Urban Fantasy Paranormal Series)

  Blood Knot

  Blood Stone

  Blood Unleashed (Upcoming)

  Blood Revealed (Upcoming)

  Beloved Bloody Time Series (Paranormal Futuristic Time Travel)

  Bannockburn Binding

  Byzantine Heartbreak

  Romani Armada

  Kiss Across Time Series (Paranormal Time Travel)

  Kiss Across Time

  Kiss Across Swords

  Kiss Across Chains

  Guardian Bonds (Gargoyle Paranormal Series)

  Carson’s Night

  Beauty’s Beasts

  Sabrina’s Clan (Upcoming)

  Destiny’s Trinities (Urban Fantasy Romance Series)

  Beth’s Acceptance

  Mia’s Return

  Sera’s Gift

  Short Paranormals

  Solstice Surrender

  Eva’s Last Dance

  Guns ‘n’ Lovers Series (Romantic Suspense)

  Red Leopard

  Black Heart

  Blue Knight

  White Dawn (Upcoming)

  Silver Noon (Upcoming)

  Golden Day (Upcoming)

  Go-get-‘em Women (Short Romantic Suspense Series)

  The Royal Talisman

  Delly’s Last Night

  Vivian’s Return

  Ningaloo Nights

  Sian’s Run (Upcoming)

  Jewells of the Morrow series (Historical Romantic Suspense)

  Diana By The Moon

  Heart of Vengeance

  The Perilous Maiden (Upcoming)

  To Soothe a Savage Heart (Upcoming)

  The Heart of the Enemy (Upcoming)

  The Cherlebury Rose (Upcoming)

  The Duchess of Winter (Upcoming)

  Despite The Sands Of Time (Upcoming)

  Scandalous Sirens (Historical Romance Series)

  Forbidden

  Dangerous Beauty

  Rhys Davies’ untitled story (Upcoming)

  Romantic Thrillers Series

  Fatal Wild Child

  Dead Again

  Dead Double

  Terror Stash

  Thrilling Affair

  Contemporary Romances

  Lucifer’s Lover

  An Inconvenient Lover

  The Sherlock Holme
s Series

  Chronicles of the Lost Years

  The Case of the Reluctant Agent

  For reviews, excerpts, and more about each title, visit Tracy’s site and click on each title in turn: http://tracycooperposey.com/books/tracys-trilogies-series/

  About the Author

  Tracy Cooper-Posey is a #1 Best Selling Author. She writes erotic vampire romances, hot romantic suspense, paranormal and urban fantasy romances. She has published over 70 novels since 1999, been nominated for five CAPAs including Favourite Author, and won the Emma Darcy Award.

  She turned to indie publishing in 2011. Her indie titles have been nominated four times for Book Of The Year and Byzantine Heartbreak was a 2012 winner. She has been a national magazine editor and for a decade she taught romance writing at MacEwan University.

  She is addicted to Irish Breakfast tea and chocolate, sometimes taken together. In her spare time she enjoys history, Sherlock Holmes, science fiction and ignoring her treadmill. An Australian, she lives in Edmonton, Canada with her husband, a former professional wrestler, where she moved in 1996 after meeting him on-line.

  Her website can be found at http://TracyCooperPosey.com

  Copyright Information

  This is an original publication of Tracy Cooper-Posey

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.