by Cora Kenborn
“The powers associated with Santa Muerte aren’t all negative, Eden. All men must answer to death. The greatest power in life is death. If we believe in that philosophy, then Santa Muerte has the power to turn the will of man in favor of one or the other.”
Tracing the scythe, I tasted the name on a whisper. “Santa Muerte.”
“Protection,” he reiterated, kissing my temple. When I glanced up to thank him, he’d already reassembled his bags on his shoulder and walked out the front door toward the waiting SUV.
Closing my fist around the symbol, I stared after him, a feeling of inherent dread washing over me. “Protection,” I repeated.
Living in Houston my entire life, I’d never legally crossed the border into Mexico.
I sure as hell hadn’t done it at one-hundred-fifty miles per hour in rough gulf waters.
After almost losing my breakfast in a speed boat, hitting wave after wave with a choppy resistance that had me dry heaving in Val’s lap, we docked off South Padre Island and took a waiting car down to Brownsville. I had no idea how Mateo and Emilio had arranged all the intricacies of the trip so quickly, but I knew not to question it.
In this instance, the less I knew the better.
Once in Brownsville, we easily walked across the border to another waiting car on the Mexico side in Matamoros. The entire trip took a little less than six hours, all said and done, but it felt like twelve. By the time the car pulled into a circular driveway, I could barely keep my eyes open.
“What time is it?” I whispered, dragging my head off Val’s shoulder.
Turning his wrist, he squinted at his watch. “Six o’clock.”
“Feels later.” I yawned, stretching as I studied the modest house in front of us. “Where are we? This doesn’t look like a drug lord’s mansion.”
Val chuckled and opened the door to the back of the SUV. “It’s not, Cereza. Do you actually think I’d bring you to the middle of a battlefield?”
“What? You promised!”
Leaning in, he hooked his fingers under my chin and pressed his thumb against my lips. “I promised I’d take you to Mexico. I never said anything about throwing you to the wolves. Did I?” Pouting, I shook my head. “This is my house in Monterrey. We’ll stay here tonight. Tomorrow morning, I have to claim my father’s body, and tomorrow afternoon, I’ll fly to Mexico City to his estate to handle business…alone.”
“But, Val…” I dove for the door handle, sprawled across his lap, effectively stopping his exit.
“But, nothing, Eden. These are my terms. Accept them, or I’ll put your ass on a plane back to Houston faster than you can shove it in my face again.”
Deciding not to push the issue, I shot him a look and crawled back to my side of the car. Throwing the door open, I hoisted my backpack onto my shoulder and stomped to the front door, Mateo hot on my heels. “Well? Are you going to open it, or do I kick it in?”
Mateo’s eyes rounded as he bounced a look back to Val.
Hiding a smirk, Val tucked a semi-automatic in the waistband of his pants and twirled a set of keys on his finger. “That mouth of yours, Cereza…I’m telling you…one of these days.”
“Rise and shine, Danger.”
Val twitched once then fell back asleep, his bare ass uncovered by the blanket I’d just ripped off. Irritated at his lack of response, I climbed onto the bed and straddled his back. Extending my arms, I curled my finger around the trigger and repeated myself.
“Val, wake up before I pop a cap in your ass.”
Like a lightning bolt shot down from the ceiling, his eyes flew open and he twisted his body until he lay on his back, facing the barrel end of his own gun. Slowly raising his palms, his throat bobbed with a heavy swallow.
“Eden,” he said, drawing out my name slowly. “What are you doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?”
“It looks like you’re aiming a gun in my face. Why don’t you put it down, and we can talk about whatever’s wrong?”
Pretending to think for a moment, I quickly shrugged. “Nah. I like this more.”
His fingers wiggled, itching to grab the gun out of my hands. “I’m not fucking around, Eden. Give me the gun.”
“I’m not either, and no.”
“What is it that you want?” His eyes hammered into me as his nostrils flared.
Good. I’d been waiting for those words.
Slackening my elbows, I leaned into his chest, enunciating every word. “I want you to take me to Mexico City.”
Taking advantage of my position, Val grabbed my elbows, flipping me onto my back and somehow wrangling the gun out of my hands at the same time. Unloading the ammo, he tossed the gun to the side of the bed and held my hands above my head.
Well, that ended up the exact opposite as I intended.
“What the fuck was that about?” he roared. “You think that shit’s funny?”
No. I didn’t think it was funny, but for some reason a chorus of laughter fell from my chest. As I fought for air, I shook my head in protest. “No, I don’t. But how else was I supposed to get your attention?”
“Well you’ve got it now, speak.”
“Teach me to shoot.”
“What?” He pulled back, his eyebrows raising to his hairline.
“You heard me. Teach me to shoot. I know a little, but not enough to protect either of us if things get crazy in Mexico City.”
Releasing me, Val sat up, collecting the discarded pieces of his gun. “You didn’t seem to have an issue when you almost blew Emilio’s dick off.” Cursing, he rubbed his thickening beard. “Stop it with this shit. You’re not going. Besides, waking me up with a gun in my face doesn’t exactly make me want to do anything for you, Eden.”
Changing tactics, I moved behind him, sliding my palms up his back and down the front of his chest. “Emilio brings out the violent side in me.” A deep throated rumble let me know I was on the right track to getting what I wanted. “Oh, come on, Val, admit it. You got turned on seeing me hold it, didn’t you?”
“No.”
Pressing my lips against his neck, I drew circles against his skin with the tip of my tongue. “No? Not even a little?”
“Maybe.”
“Just think what it’d feel like to see me shoot one, to stand behind me and feel me pull the trigger, Val. All that power. All that force squeezed in the palm of my hand.”
Another groan and a shudder, and I knew I had him.
Grabbing his pants at the foot of the bed, he shoved one leg in before moving out of my hold. “Get dressed.”
“Take a strong stance and a firm grasp.” Val stood behind me, and kicked my feet apart wedging his knee between my legs. “Hold the gun on your target. You want to let your finger barely touch the trigger and let it go limp.”
Snickering, I rolled my chin over my shoulder. “You, um, want it to go limp?”
“Very funny.” Smirking, he pointed to the cans he’d set up on wooden posts in a field outside his house. “Now, turn back around and focus.” Obeying, I extended my arms again like he’d shown me. “Now, I’m going to cover your hold and pull the trigger with you.”
With experienced precision, he held us both steady and shot accurately, blowing the can off the post in one shot.
“Wow,” I breathed, genuinely impressed. “You’re good.”
“You have no idea.” He grinned.
Through two more rounds, he shadowed me, instructing me on stance and follow-through. Finally, through enough whining on my part, he stood back and let me try it on my own. The first time, I was crushed to realize I’d shot a migrating bird. Val laughed at my devastation, asking how I planned to shoot a man if I broke down over random fowl. Pissed off, I shot again, effectively deflating his tire.
“Eden, let’s just call it a day. I’d like to keep my windows while I still have them.”
I’d failed at most everything I’d ever tried. I’d be damned if I was going to fail at this. That can was a dead
man.
“Don’t be a smartass, Val. Smartasses sleep alone.”
“Always with the dick threats.”
“Use what you know.” Sighing, I gave him a pleading look. “One more time, okay?”
“Fine,” he agreed, palming his neck. “One more, and then I have to get ready to leave.”
If I couldn’t show him I could hold my own, no way would he let me leave with him. I had to make this work. “I can do this.”
“Sure, you can.”
The condescension in his voice boiled my blood to a level of wanting to turn his nuts into fertilizer. It didn’t help that he stalked behind me like a hungry lion, just waiting to go in for the kill. My hand shook as I tried to focus on the target, his pacing form distracting me out of my peripheral vision.
“Can you stop doing that?”
“As you wish.” Sidling up behind me, he molded into my back, his chin settling into the crook of my shoulder. “Better?”
Rolling my eyes, I aimed the gun. “Much.”
“Do I make you nervous?”
“No.”
“If you go with me, there’ll be distractions all around you, Cereza. Bullets could be flying from all angles, men shouting, and chaos erupting like you’ve never experienced.”
As his whispers broke into hoarse rasps, I bit my lip to keep from laughing. “Do I make you nervous, Danger?”
“No, you make me want to hold you against the fence and bend you over.”
My body temperature rose with the morning sun, and my palms became sticky against the grip. Squinting, I focused all my attention on the silver can sitting on the post.
“Shoot,” he whispered in my ear.
With calm composure, I squeezed the trigger, hitting the center of the can and knocking it off the post and across the lawn. Shocked, I lowered the gun and turned my chin excitedly over my shoulder. “Did you see—”
The rest of my words ended up in Val’s mouth as he crushed my lips with a bruising kiss. Grabbing my hips in a strong hold, he shifted our combined weight as he turned us against the fence, taking the gun from my hand.
“Hold on.”
“Val, someone will see us.”
“No one’s here,” he mumbled, his lips in my hair. “They’re all gone into town. I want you—now.”
My heart rate picked up as he ruled my body with an expert touch. I couldn’t hold back a lust-filled moan as his fingers released the button on my shorts, working them down my legs until they pooled at my feet.
A clang of metal and material rustled behind me while he fumbled with his own pants. Fire lit up every inch of my skin as his hand trailed up my spine, urging my head down as he pulled my hips back. “Whatever happens later, I need you to remember one thing,” he whispered hotly against my ear.
“What’s that?” I groaned.
In a surprise move, his fingers dug into my skin as he drove into me, the unexpected invasion tearing through me in a heated possession. Screaming, I threw my head back, at the same time his fingers wrapped around my throat.
“You belong to me.”
With unreserved intensity, Val plunged into me, each thrust claiming more and more of my identity. Intense friction drove me to the brink of insanity, my fingers slipping from my hold on the fence, only to be slammed back onto it by Val’s.
“Yes,” I moaned over and over until the word garbled in my throat, and I splintered apart in his hands.
A layer of sweat glistened between us, as with a roar of my name, he released a lifetime of fear into me, his body jerking with power.
Rolling his forehead onto my shoulder, he lowered us both to the ground, cradling me in his lap. Without hesitating, he enveloped me in a protective hold, his nose disappearing into my hair. “What have you done to me?”
Shifting in his arms, a glaze hovered in his warm chocolate eyes before he focused on the clouding sky. “What do you mean?”
One arm tightened as the other folded underneath his head. “I don’t need anyone, but I can’t breathe if your scent isn’t in my lungs. I can’t focus if your fire hair isn’t in my sight. I can’t enjoy a meal without your taste on my lips. I can’t hear if your voice isn’t fucking yelling what an asshole I am, and I can’t feel unless your skin slides under my fingers. So, yes, Cereza, what have you done to me?”
I fought the smile that threatened my lips. Lifting my chin, I whispered in his ear, “I’ve strengthened you.”
He arched an eyebrow and peered down at me, waiting for more.
“I’ve given you something else to live for other than anger and revenge. Just like you’ve done for me. I should hate you, Valentin Carrera. I should take your gun and put a bullet in you.”
He stroked my cheek. “Then, why don’t you?”
I glanced down at our entwined hands, the gravity of the words on my tongue constricting my chest. “I think I’d sooner stand in front of one for you.”
With my head laying against his chest, I felt the catch in his breath and the rumble in his throat as he admitted the words in the language meaning the most to him. “Te amo, Cereza.”
A tear slipped from the corner of my eye as I nodded. “Damn you, Danger. I love you too.”
Chapter Twenty Six
Valentin
Mexico City, Mexico
The flight from Monterrey to Mexico City took an hour by private jet. Had it not been for the morbid nature of our destination, I would’ve found mild amusement in Eden’s shock at finding my father’s private jet waiting at Del Norte International Airport instead of the commercial airliner she expected. Even half-hearted, crude comments at joining the half-mile high club fell flat as both of us fidgeted with anticipation and anxiousness.
“Do you want me to go in with you?” Eden’s red hair fanned around her face as we stood outside Mexico City’s morgue.
A strike of irony hit me as people milled around the streets of Mexico’s largest city. My father was an arrogant son of a bitch. He lived for notoriety and the thrill of hearing his name whispered in hushed circles. He traveled with an entourage, lived outrageously, and spent money as if every day were his last on this earth.
Yet inside the plain, nondescript building in front of me, that same man lay on a metal slab beside the rest of humanity.
Sometimes, death truly was the great equalizer.
Brushing a stray hair off her cheek, I shifted a glance inside the thick glass door and shook my head. “No. I’d rather you wait with Mateo at the cantina across the street. I need to do this alone.”
I couldn’t explain it, but even in death, I didn’t want her near my father. Some irrational part of me feared Eden walking in that room would stir whatever evil lay dormant in his cold body and damn her to my fate.
“I can be quiet, Val. I’ll just be there if you need me.”
“I want you to listen to me, Eden, and I want you to hear my words, not your ego.” Dropping the hand holding her cheek, I shoved it in my pocket to resist touching her again. “We aren’t in Monterrey anymore. This is Mexico City. This is my father’s seat of power and only six hours from Guadalajara, which is Muñoz territory. Eyes have been on us from the moment we got on that plane at Del Norte. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
A flash of sadness swept across her face before hardened understanding melted it into a mask of cool indifference. “Of course, I do. Your father’s men, as well as Muñoz informers, are watching us. We have to act like you’re the ruthless asshole who kidnapped me, and I’m the petrified damsel in distress who fears for her life. Yeah, yeah. I’ve got it. You can’t touch me, smile at me, or otherwise act like you give a shit. You’re an emotional black hole.”
“Eden—”
“No, I get it, Val.” Attempting a quick smile meant only for me, she stepped backward before I could be tempted to reach for her. “Really, I get it. We’ll do what we have to do.”
“And then?”
Offering her wrist to Mateo, who stood at a respectable distance behi
nd her, she held his eye until he sighed and grabbed it in a mock stronghold. “Ask me again when I’ve gotten justice for Nash.”
Something I couldn’t explain passed between us as her eyes flashed with promise. Then, as quickly as they’d warmed, they drained of all emotion, the corners of her mouth pulling into a frightened frown.
Glancing over her shoulder at Mateo, she pulled against his hold on her wrist, raising her voice. “Where are you taking me? I demand to talk to my father!”
Panic raced through me before Mateo’s hold moved up to her bicep, squeezing it with gentle pressure as he urged her across the street. “I’m not putting up with your shit right now, lady. Either you walk or I drag you. Your choice.”
My eyes shot between them as their stares connected and, with a slight tug from his hand, Eden purposely stumbled behind him, yelling obscenities about him hurting her.
Since I was six years old, I hadn’t been able to form normal relationships like everyone else around me. When a neighbor opened that cellar door and found me hungry, thirsty, and soiled, I swore I’d never put myself in a position to lose another person I cared about. The moment my foot hit the dirt and the sun hit my face, the part of my soul capable of forming lasting emotional attachment died, and a will to protect myself encased it with revenge and hate.
Somehow, the two people muttering obscenities and dragging each other across the street managed to break through the barbed wire and revive what I thought could never be salvaged.
The ability to care again.
Somewhere along the way, Mateo Cortes became my friend, and Eden Lachey stole the heart I didn’t know I still had. She made me want more than the life planned for me by a monster.
Gripping the door, I steeled my nerves for one last confrontation with the man who’d caused it all, before I put the final nail in his reign of terror.
