AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Just like one-year-old Adriana Carrera had been.
But I said none of that. Instead, I shrug like the asshole I’d become. “It wasn’t personal. I’m a lawyer. It was my job to pick out the pieces of a puzzle that don’t fit. It made no sense why your body was never found. Esteban Muñoz threw your birth mother and aunt away like trash. He would’ve done the same to Val if he hadn’t gotten away. But you? Not a trace of your blood or DNA was found at the crime scene. It didn’t add up.”
“It wasn’t personal?” She threw her head back and laughed so loudly the few patrons left in the bar turned a curious eye our way.
Gritting her teeth, she leaned in close enough that a sweet and spicy scent drifted past my nose, leaving a hint of licorice in its wake. A scent so complex and unique, I involuntarily tilted my head to chase it before it faded.
“Let me tell you how personal this is, Brody.” Ripping the button off the cuff of her blouse, she jerked her sleeve up her arm and held it up between us, instantly breaking the spell I was under.
I blinked twice before the jagged and distorted light pink line came into focus. It ran across her wrist, marring what was otherwise perfectly flawless bronze skin. My heart seized as flashes of my sister ran through my head.
“This is where I almost bled to death from the cut of a knife,” she hissed. “This?” Moving her finger from her arm, she trailed it just above the dip in her collarbone. “This is where they tried to slit my throat and missed. So, don’t you sit there and tell me it wasn’t personal.”
“They?”
A cold smile crawled across her lips. “Muñoz sicarios. My soldiers. My own familia. It seems upon hearing that the man who I believed to be my father was actually a sadistic fuck who murdered my birth mother and raised me to hate the Carreras as some sort of demented vendetta didn’t sit well with them.” She gave her free arm a dismissive wave. “Something about the only good Carrera blood is spilled Carrera blood.”
“So, is that what you want? Blood for blood? You want to see me suffer to make your pain lessen?”
“You’d deserve it. However, for now, we have more pressing matters to discuss.”
I lifted my mug again, trying hard to ignore her labored breaths and the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest. “We have nothing to discuss. You don’t have a throne anymore, princesa.”
“You’re right,” she admitted, rolling her sleeve back down. The cuff flapped at her wrist, and judging by her disinterest, she was either unaware that she’d destroyed the button or didn’t give a shit. “But thanks to you, I do have a name, and you’re going to help me claim it.”
I damn near choked on my beer. “What?”
“I know the name of the man reorganizing the Muñoz Cartel.”
“Right,” I mocked, drawing out the word. “Because the cartel trying to kill you also gives you insider info. Nice try.”
She tossed me a look somewhere between annoyance and disappointment. “Brody, you know as well as I do that true power lies in the hand that holds the truth, and effective strategy lies in knowing when to keep your trump card close and when to tip your hand.”
“Then why tip to me?”
“We have a mutual enemy and tearing the Muñoz Cartel down before it rises makes more sense than wasting time doing this.” She waved a hand between us. “Don’t you think?”
“Give me the name, and I’ll warn Val.”
“No. Take me to Mexico City. I’ll talk to Val myself, or I don’t talk at all.”
That was it. This bitch had lost her goddamn mind. Even if my damn dick didn’t know the difference between a blow job and a whack job.
“Are you insane?”
She squared her chin, unbothered by my insult. “Because of you, I have nothing. Nowhere to go. No one who gives a shit if I live or die, and now another asshole is trying to take me down. You owe me this chance.”
Shit.
Anyone else would throw her out on her ass. Regardless of what that birth certificate said that Leo dug up, she was raised Muñoz. She might have Carrera in her blood, but the woman had Muñoz in her soul. But as much as I tried to numb that sliver of my conscience that stubbornly refused to die, I couldn’t. And right now, it stood on my shoulder yelling in my ear that she was right. I owed her. Not revealing her true identity; whether she wanted to see it or not—that was for the best.
But I owed her for the torture she obviously endured.
A familiar ache seared across my chest, and I pressed my palm against my shirt, willing it to subside. Of course, it didn’t. It never did. That was penance for you.
Moving my hand up, I scrubbed it over my face and sighed. “Look, Val knows about you. He’s been looking for you. He wants to know you.”
I didn’t know what I expected. Shock? Gratitude? A blush, maybe? I sure as hell didn’t anticipate the loud snort she gave me. “I highly doubt the same goes for his blushing bride. Let’s not forget I was responsible for arranging the hit on her brother.”
