Page 4 of Carnal

I took the ring box and threw it across the room.

Fuck that bitch. I was about to propose. She’d been with me every night for the past month taking care of me, making love to me. Why now? Had I really become that much of a burden?

I vowed at that moment to never let her, or anyone else, in again.

I would never be that pathetic boy again, consumed by his girlfriend. I was a man now, and I refused to rely on any woman, especially Mia.

I did believe that she had been raped, and I could sort of understand why she ran away. She was right—the knowledge that some motherfucker violated her would’ve driven me mad.

The cruel irony of being a Navy SEAL was that while we were out on missions protecting America, our loved ones were back at home completely vulnerable. She said it wasn’t my fault and that it could have happened anywhere or anyone. But it happened to her while I wasn’t home.

I took a deep breath and loosened my fingers, which had been balled into fists. What happened was years ago. She made the choice not to tell me, she took that away. I didn’t know her anymore and couldn’t trust her. For all I knew, she was probably still lying to me about something.

As nuts as I thought she was, I didn’t think she was lying that she believed her son had died. There was no way even the Mia I thought I knew back then would give her son to a stripper to raise and then lie about. No. In my heart of hearts, I couldn’t believe that, and I never would. If she went this far for Joaquín, I was sure she would do anything for her own child.

I only had one goal: figure out if Julián was my son, our son. She had given me two more clues tonight. The child she had was a boy, and she believed he had died.

She had told me her truth—that she believed her son was dead. If she was telling the truth, what did that mean? Was he kidnapped? Switched at birth? What the fuck was going on?

I wouldn’t rest until I figured out what happened to her son.

I emerged from the shower. Time to lay out some rules.

Mia was sitting on my bed with her shoulders slumped as she bit her nails.

“I’m not done with the questions. What happened to you the other night when I picked you up in El Cajon?”

She hesitated. “Well, actually I was kidnapped by Daniel Reed, Joaquín’s lawyer. That’s my own dumb-ass fault. I was the one who showed Joaquín my bracelet when you took me to jail the first time, and then he told Daniel that I was Mia. Daniel decided to have his buddy run me off the road so he and I could have a little chat.”

I had been right about the bracelet. I put on my boxer briefs and shook my head.

“A chat about what? What the fuck did he want from you?”

“Oh. Just to confirm Joaquín’s suspicions.”

I narrowed my eyes. “He could’ve just asked you. Why did he run you off the road?”

“To get me alone. Probably didn’t want to raise suspicion with you or any of the other SEALs at The Pickled Frog. But either way, I think Daniel is shady.”

So did I. But I kept my suspicions to myself. “How could you have been so careless? You went through thousands of dollars of plastic surgery and then you go around waving your wrist? Who else knows?”

She crinkled her lip. “No one.”

“Dammit, Mia!” I took a step toward her. “I told you to stop lying.”

Her gaze focused distantly above my head. “Just Mitch.”

I clenched my fist. Why the fuck would she tell him and not me? “Mitch? You fucking told Mitch?”

“Well not just straight out. I drugged him first.”

“Jesus. He could’ve killed you.” The hits kept coming. “I’d almost give you a high-five for pulling that off, though. Why did you drug him? When?”

Her lip curled, but she stopped herself from biting it. She was about to lie to me. Again.

“I thought he killed Tiffany.”

I never once thought Mitch killed Tiffany, and I didn’t really care about her thoughts on the subject. “And you don’t now?”