“Well, you lasted longer than most of them.” The words were meant to hurt her enough to make her forget this fantasy we’d created between us.
Halting her struggle, she stared horrified into my eyes and whispered, “I hate you.”
We lay there shooting daggers into each other’s eyes as Mateo rounded the corner, emerging from my office, his face pale and dampened with beads of sweat.
“Mateo?”
“Boss, I need you to come with me.”
The monotony in his voice unnerved me. “What is it? Tell me.”
Glancing from me to Eden, then to Emilio standing off to the corner, Mateo ran the pads of his fingers across his mouth and nodded. “Sir, it’s your father.”
A buzzing filled my head with warning. “What about him?”
“Alejandro is dead, sir.”
Chapter Twenty-One
EDEN
Together the words made sense, but with one glance in Val’s face, I knew he hadn’t begun to comprehend them.
“What do you mean he’s dead?”
“Gerardo found him this morning, sir.” Mateo shook his head, the perspiration on his lips beading faster. “In his office. They cut his throat.”
I knew the name. Alejandro Carrera was infamous. Countless documentaries and true crime shows had been made about him and his ruthless reign of terror across the border. He was a monster and a coldhearted killer.
He also fathered the man I’d been sleeping with for the past eleven days.
Releasing his hold on me, Val staggered backward against the base of the sofa, looking as if someone slapped him across the face. “Do they know…I mean…who…”
“Sir, you know the answer to that question.”
No one spoke. The mood in the room teetered in between shock and lethal reaction. Not daring to move, I watched Val for a reaction—any reaction.
Instead, he swallowed hard and nodded once. “Well, then. That’ll be all, Mateo.”
“Sir—”
“I said, that’ll be all!” Spitting fire at his second in command, we all watched dumbfounded as Val climbed to his feet and turned down the hallway. “I’ll be in my office. No one disturbs me unless we’re under attack. That’s a direct order.”
Tracking his every movement, I followed him until he disappeared into a room off to the left and slammed the door. Biting my top lip in frustration, I made a move to follow him when Mateo stopped me.
“Let him go, Eden. He needs to do this his own way.”
Dejected, I sat down amidst his pitying stare and Emilio’s scowl, realizing the same truth that took form in the back of my head when we were in the SUV.
I couldn’t claim something that didn’t want me.
* * *
By midnight, I’d had enough.
Mateo and Emilio took turns keeping watch while the other slept. Apparently neither had gotten much of the latter in the last few days, the evidence rimming their dark eyes.
But sleep had no place on my agenda. Val had been locked in his office for over six hours. One of the lower-ranking men had brought sandwiches and drinks to the house, and no one bothered to knock on his door to offer any.
When Val said to leave him alone, apparently his word served as gospel.
I’d given it as long as I could. I’d watched television, paced the floor, picked at a turkey sub while my stomach did flips. In the end, I couldn’t stand the silence any longer.
While Mateo watched the front door and Emilio snored on the couch, I grabbed a ham sandwich and bag of chips. Pressing my back against the wall, I moved quietly down the hallway toward Val’s office. Out of habit, I first tried the doorknob, not surprised when it didn’t budge.
Raising my knuckles, I gave a soft knock. “Val? It’s me.” Before he had a chance to reject me, I added, “I know you’re in there and you haven’t eaten all day. Fine, don’t talk, but at least take some food.”
After a few moments, a slight commotion ensued from within, and I took a step back as the door cracked. Val’s tired, frowning face emerged, his eyes cast down toward the plate in my hand. “I hate ham.” He moved to close the door. Reacting on pure adrenaline, I shoved my foot in between the door and the frame, catching it mid-slam.
“Oooof.” Wincing as pain shot up my shin, I shoved the plate into his chest. “Okay, then eat the damn bread.”
“Eden, I’m not in the mood to talk. Go away.”
I’d been so focused on getting him to open the door, I didn’t think beyond it. Flustered, I said the first thing that came to mind. “Emilio pulled a gun on me.”
Technically, it wasn’t a lie. He had.
When Val had been standing there.
Val’s eyes flared, and he swung the door open wide with a growl. “I’ll kill him.”
With catlike precision, I slipped under his arm and into the middle of his office. Turning to face him, I offered an apologetic smile. “Don’t bother. I handled it hours ago.”
“Eden, I don’t have time for this.” Swearing under his breath, he stomped back to his desk, flopping back into his oversized mahogany chair as it creaked with his weight. His desk stood littered with papers and a bottle of half-empty tequila.
“Val, you can’t just keep all this inside and not deal with it. Your father was murdered, for Christ’s sake!”
“Shit happens.”
“Shit happens? Excuse me, did you just say ‘shit happens?’” I tried to control my reaction, to no avail. “This is your father.”
“He was an evil son of a bitch.”
“He was your dad, Val.”
Curling his lip into a sneer, he cocked his chin toward me. “He was my father. The man was no dad. No dad would’ve brought a young boy into this life.”
“But, still—”
Swiping a stack of papers off his desk and onto the floor with a flick of his wrist, his eyes flashed with anger. “Still, nothing, Eden. You want me to say it? Fine, let’s just put on the table how much of my father’s blood runs through my veins.” Propping his feet up on the edge of his desk, he spread his arms wide. “I’m glad the bastard is dead. Okay? There, I said it. He terrorized my mother, he destroyed my family, and he…” Trailing off, he shifted a glance away.
“He what?”
“He ordered your execution.”
I swallowed the boulder in my throat. “By who?”
A sadistic grin crept along the seams of his mouth. “Me.”
I staggered backward at his confession. As twisted as mine and Val’s relationship was, something inside refused to let me believe he’d hurt me.
“Val…”
“Would I have done it?” His eyebrows shifted upward. “That’s what you want to ask, isn’t it?”
I nodded, my fingernails digging into my palms.
“I’d like to tell you no, Cereza, but I’ve got Carrera blood inside me. I don’t know what I’m capable of.”
“I don’t believe that.”
We stared at each other, our two opposing forces colliding with a ferocity neither of us could understand or rationalize. On paper and in conversation, Valentin Carrera and I made no sense. We were a Hollywood script, destined for an Oscar night win. In real life, we were two people, incapable of walking away, regardless of the mutual destruction we caused.
Val’s low laugh caught me off guard. “It doesn’t matter anyway. Somehow, the damn Muñoz bastards know where we are every minute of every day. We go somewhere,”—he threw his arms up—“boom, shit goes up in flames.”
Risking rejection, I sat on the edge of his desk. “Could you have a traitor in your organization?”
“No. Mateo’s cleared everyone.”
I crossed my feet at the ankles, hunching my shoulders in a protective move. “What about Mateo?”
He pointed a finger at me. “Don’t go there. Mateo is a good man, and I’ll not have you wrecking his name within my ranks.”
“You never know, Val. People aren’t always what they seem.”
> “I never get it wrong.”
My fingers curled under the edge of the wooden desk. “You got it wrong with my brother.” Seconds ticked by before either of us spoke again. “Okay.” I changed tactics by sliding off the desk. “Let’s break down what we know.” Walking around the edge, I moved his feet off the corner and leaned in, my palms flat on the surface.
“People blow up when I’m around.” He smirked, his eyes swimming in the half bottle of tequila he’d consumed.
“Yeah, but why? We had to leave the first safe house in the middle of the night because we were being shot at, right?”
“Right.”
“Why?”
“Because they didn’t get a thank you note for a housewarming gift? I don’t know, Eden!” Messing up his midnight black hair, he threw himself back into his chair as it protested with a loud creak. “Maybe because our families have tried to wipe each other off the face of the earth for decades.”
“Yeah, but how did they know we were at that safe house? You have a lot of them, right?” Moving again, I stood in between his legs, and braced my hands on the armrests of his chair. “Then, you go to a stash house in Corpus Christi, and minutes before you leave, it blows up.”
He eyed me curiously, a wrinkle embedded in his forehead. “Go on.”
“Today, we leave a second safe house minutes before; it too, blows the hell up. RVC explodes, and after we stop for gas, it’s lit up not long after we leave. How are they doing this, Val? It’s not like they could put a GPS on your car without you or your men knowing about it. Besides, you’ve been in different cars each time.”
Val waved a hand, effectively dismissing the notion. “No, our cars are checked daily for foreign devices. That’d be impossible.”
I couldn’t help but snort. “I don’t know, then. Maybe your illustrious vet confused you for one of his usual patients and embedded a canine tracking chip under your skin.” Shaking my head, I pushed off the chair arms to move when his jaw tightened and he grabbed my wrist.
“What did you just say?”
“Val, I was kidding.”
With his free hand, his fingers skimmed down his neck and pulled out the long chain attached to my St. Michael medallion. Holding the porcelain face up, he gripped it with a fierce hold. “Where did you get this?’
I blinked, not understanding his tone. “My father gave it to me.”
“When?”
“I went to see him after Nash…after I left the cantina. He seemed flustered and in a hurry. I was upset and ranted about finding Nash’s killers and making them pay with or without his help. Before I left, he gave it to me for protection.”
Val’s eyes closed as if fighting to control his anger. “His exact words, Eden. What did he say?”
Thinking back, I struggled to recall our heated conversation.
“Here. Take this.”
“What is that?”
“Take it.”
“St. Michael?”
“The Archangel. The guardian of souls who triumphed over hell. He was a spiritual warrior and the conflict against evil.”
“It’s a little late for a triumph over hell, Dad. I’m in it.”
“Never take this off, Edie. You’re a warrior, and so much stronger than your old man. You can win this war, but you have to be smart and vigilant at all times. Save yourself, Eden. Don’t get involved with that man. They’re watching you.”
“What man? Who are you talking about? Stop talking in riddles!”
“What did he mean, Val? Who’s watching me?” The conversation that didn’t make sense eleven days ago rang in my ears with the same confusion.
I’d barely gotten the words out when Val shot up from his reclined position, and knocked me backward against his desk. With my elbows braced against the wood, and my breath lodged in my throat, I looked into chocolate eyes, glazed over with the blackest shade of fury I’d ever seen.
Ripping the medallion off his neck, he held it up between us like a dagger, his chest bent over mine in a position that scared the hell out of me. “Your father warned you not to get involved with me, Eden. He warned you my cartel would watch you.”
“What are you saying?” I whispered, my voice thick with refusal to believe his words.
Raising his arm high, he let out a primal growl as he slammed his hand onto the desk’s glass covering. The porcelain face of the medallion shattered, bits of it scattering across the desk and carpet. Scouring through the shards, his fingers picked up a small, circular, metal piece no bigger than half of my pinkie nail. Sliding his opposite hand up the side of my neck, he grasped a handful of my hair and forcefully turned my head toward the destruction.
“This is what I’m saying, Cereza.” Holding up the small metal piece, he shoved it in front of my face, leaning his mouth against my ear, his words ground through clenched teeth. “This is a tracking device. A GPS microchip has been transmitting my location to Manuel Muñoz’s intel.” Pulling my hair back, my chin tilted upward to meet his icy stare. “Your father sold you out.”
I tried to pull away from him, the first few seconds of his outburst not registering in my head. “No, you don’t know my father.”
“Neither do you.”
“He’s made bad decisions, Val, but he wouldn’t feed me to the wolves. He may be a drug addict, but he just tried to protect me. I’m sure he’d be as confused as me.”
“Yeah?” Val raised an eyebrow. Releasing his hold on my hair, he pulled his phone from his pocket and handed it to me. “Prove it.”
“What?”
“Prove it. Call him. See what he has to say.”
“You know I can’t do that. I’ve already told you he left.”
Crashing his phone next to the shattered medallion, he pushed off me, and I exhaled the breath I’d been holding “My point exactly. Either your father sold you out, or you’re both pawns in someone else’s sick ass game.”
Quiet filled the room. “My family wouldn’t turn on me.”
Cold eyes shot my way, and his voice deepened to a low unexpected tone. “Now, see, that’s the gaping difference in our worlds, Cereza. Mine would.” Grabbing the back of my thighs, Val lifted me onto the desk and reached between my legs. I started to protest when his fingers closed around the metal hook of his desk drawer and opened it. Pulling out a pistol, he released the clip, examining the magazine before slamming it with the heel of his palm back into place. “Do you have some place you can go?”
“Why?” My tone flowed cautious, but inside, my heart pumped a furious pace. My hands gripped the desk again, still reeling over the knowledge I’d willingly given Val a wearable crosshair.
“I’m going to Mexico for a few days.” He tried to keep the statement void of emotion, but his eyes tightened with every word.
An unexpected brick sank low and hard in the pit of my stomach. “You’re going to take over the cartel, aren’t you?”
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 t
he 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
VAL
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. 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?”
Blurred Red Lines: A Carrera Cartel Novel Page 17