by Cora Kenborn
Leighton shot one of our own men because she claimed he was going to kill her. That was what brought me here. That was what prompted Brody to involve us all. Yet, at every turn, more and more people were added to the puzzle, turning it from a cartel problem into one that reached beyond our borders and into so many political and judicial backdoors my head spun.
Nobody was who they claimed to be. Truths were coming out that had nothing to do with the blood on our hands, and I didn’t know how either of us were going to handle them.
Even now as it neared midnight, neither of us had spoken for the last hour. As Leighton lay draped across my chest, I knew she felt the tide turning too. It was like the less we talked, the less of a chance we had of destroying the bubble we’d created.
Unfortunately, bubbles didn’t exist in my world.
And I had a soldier tailing her.
“What happened at your mother’s office yesterday?” I asked, stroking her hair.
“What...” Leighton lifted her head, her chin digging into my chest. In the few seconds it took for the question to hover in her eyes, it cleared just as fast. “You had me followed.”
“I told you I’m going to protect you, Leighton. Even if it’s from yourself.”
“I wanted to ask her why Alex was at her party. It didn’t make sense to me. It still doesn’t.”
“Did she explain?”
She shook her head. “Not really. She said he’s an associate of Finn’s and a campaign investor. I don’t think she knows anything. My mother is a skilled actress, but even she can’t play dumb that well. Something’s off with Finn and Alex.”
I stopped stroking her hair and grabbed a handful, tilting her head back. “When were you planning on telling me this? Or were you?”
“Do you want me to tell you what you want to hear, or do you want the truth?”
“The truth, mi amor. Always the truth.”
“I was going to tell you. I just didn’t know when.”
Hearing her speak with such sincerity filled me with hope. I pulled her toward me, but she pushed her hand against my chest.
“There’s more,” she sighed. “My mother’s campaign manager said some strange things to me. She asked me to look over the old clippings of my father’s career.”
“Did you?”
She nodded. “I found a picture of Alex at my father’s funeral. Why would he have been there, Mateo?”
I should’ve been surprised, but I wasn’t. Her admission was just another string in what had become a multi-layered web of deceit. “I have no idea, but we can look into it. Seems like our friend Atwood has more on his agenda than the law. Did you ask your mother about it?”
“No.” Sighing, she melted against my chest again. “She left to make some phone calls. I tried to call her on my break, but I guess she was out picking up Finn’s clubs.”
“His what?”
Leighton brushed her lips against my skin and raked her nails down my ribcage. “She ordered him a new golf club. I guess he lost his six iron. She was pretty pissed off about it.”
Something harsh stirred in my chest. “Did you say a six iron?”
“Yeah, country club life is no joke with the Donovan duo.” She let out a sarcastic laugh, but I fought to remain still.
Hector’s head was bashed in with a six iron.
Shit, I have to call Val.
Shifting to the side, I simultaneously reached for my phone while attempting to slide out from under her. Oblivious to my revelation, Leighton had other ideas, wrapping her small fingers around my wrist.
“Mateo, there was one other thing I talked about with my mother.” Her brown eyes glistened, darting around the room as if afraid to look at me. “I’m not sure if you care to know, but you keep saying you want to be with me, so—”
I cupped her cheek. “I do.”
“If you want to be with me, you’re going to have to accept all of me. You can’t ignore it anymore.”
My throat constricted. “What are you talking about?”
Tilting her face inward, she brushed her lips against my palm. “Matty, I told my mother about—”
My phone rang, cutting her off. “Jesucristo, what is it with this fucking phone?” Still holding her face, I reached across with my other arm and swiped it off the nightstand. “Yes?”
“You have a reprieve, Cortes.” Val’s clipped voice crackled through the line. “Eden is having some kind of pregnancy pain. She keeps telling me she’s fine, but I won’t leave her until I’m positive my son is all right.”
I have more time. Thank God.
“Understandable. Give Eden my best.”
He spoke to someone in the background before returning to our conversation. “It’ll be at least two or three more days until I can I arrive in Houston. Consider it a gift,” he added before hanging up.
Leighton tucked a piece of blonde hair behind her ear. “Everything okay?”
I nodded, letting her go and scrubbing both hands down my face. “Eden is having some sort of pain. She’s okay, but for once, a kid came in handy instead of being a pain in the ass, huh?” Laughing, I leaned back against the pillow, pulling her with me. “What were you saying?”
Swallowing, she rolled over and pulled the blanket up to her chin. “It’s not important.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Mateo
“Has it started yet?” Handing Leighton a cup of coffee, I sat down beside her on the couch.
Her ponytail swayed as she shook her head. “Nope. Jackie just said a whole lot of nothing.” Tucking her bare legs underneath her, she played with the hem on the black T-shirt of mine she’d worn to bed.
I tilted my mug toward the screen. “What do you think she’s going to say?”
“I have no idea.” She shrugged, her eyes never leaving the screen. “I tried to call her all day yesterday, but she wouldn’t answer her phone.”
My question was somewhat rhetorical. I had a good idea what her impromptu Saturday morning press gathering was about. Forty-eight hours after kidnapping Finn Donovan, I still hadn’t decided what to do with him.
“Leighton, I should probably tell you something.”
“Shhh, it’s starting,” she said, dismissing me with a wave of her hand.
Laying a hand on her thigh, I watched as Lilith took the podium and adjusted the microphone. She wore a black dress and a somber expression as she gazed out at the crowd.
Almost as if she were already in mourning.
“Thank you all for coming,” she said, her voice uncharacteristically soft. “I’ll keep this brief. My husband, Finley Donovan, CEO of Donovan-Ross left for work at his corporate office Thursday morning and never returned.” She paused, balling her fist and pressing it under her nose. “Finn’s always been a workaholic, so I didn’t panic until Friday morning when I woke to find he’d never came home. It’s now Saturday, and my husband is still missing. I’ve filed a missing person’s report with the Houston Police Department and together, we’re offering a two-hundred and fifty-thousand-dollar reward to anyone providing information leading to the safe return of my husband.”
As Lilith deadpanned a hard stare into the camera, Leighton shuddered beside me. Part of me wanted to assure her I had this under control, but I didn’t. I’d enjoy every second of what was to come. Keeping Finn locked in that basement gave me control in a situation that didn’t know the meaning of the word. I wasn’t there to stop her pain four years ago, and I wasn’t there to prevent it a week ago, but I sure as hell would draw blood for it now.
Unable to hold back any longer, I reached for her, pressing her face against my chest. “Hey, it’s okay.”
“What do you think happened to him?” she whispered, her words muffled.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure he’s fine.”
He wasn’t, but she didn’t need the details.
A question rested on Leighton’s lips I wasn’t sure she was ready to hear the answer to. I braced for it, prepared to drag he
r into the dark, when she lifted her head and shoved her hands against my chest. “You don’t understand!” she screamed. “I don’t want him to be fine!”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m glad he’s missing,” she said, loathing in her eyes. “I don’t want him to come back. I hope he’s dead.”
Taking her face in my hands, I opened the gate to hell and pushed her through. “You cried out in your sleep all last night, Leighton. I asked you after the party why you were so afraid of Finn, and now I want a straight answer.”
She settled a blank stare on me. “Are you sure, Matty? Once you open that door, you can’t close it.”
“I already know,” I said quietly. “I need to hear you say the words.”
“If you already know, then why have you blamed me for walking away? You think I don’t belong in your world, but you’re wrong. I’ve made choices and sacrifices you could never imagine. If anyone understands that money is thicker than blood, it’s me.”
May – Four Years Ago
Dragging myself through the door, I dropped my purse and made it up two stairs when the light flickered at the top of the landing.
“It’s well past midnight, Leighton. Where have you been? In fact, where have you been every night?”
I sighed, climbing the rest of the way and brushing past her. “You’re just now realizing I haven’t been here?”
I wasn’t shocked. No one ever asked where I was or who I was with. Not that it was an issue anyway. I was where I’d been for the past three weeks—sitting on the grass next to the train tracks waiting for Matty to show up. He never did, of course. Hope was a powerful gift and the greatest curse.
She grabbed my arm. “Are you still seeing that barrio boy?”
I froze, turning slowly to face her. “How do you know about him?”
“Please, you’re the mayor’s daughter,” she chastised, smoothing a hand over her bleached blonde hair. “You don’t think people recognize when a Donovan is in a questionable part of town?”
“I’m a Harcourt,” I hissed, jerking my arm out of her hold.
“Regardless, you’re not to see him anymore. He’s a low-class thug, Leighton. Think of our reputation.”
Stunned, I gaped at her, the air in the hallway thinning. The fact that she knew about my secret was bad enough but acting like a concerned mother took it over the edge. “You have a lot of nerve talking about reputations and character after turning your back on me. You think you don’t associate with low-class thugs? Take a good look in your own backyard, Mother.”
“I told you to stop making things up.”
“There you go again!” I jabbed a finger in her chest. “You just can’t stop sticking your head in the sand, can you? You want to know why I leave every night? It’s because I know he’ll be here, and the minute I hear that door open I feel like I’m choking.”
“Stop!” Covering her ears with both hands, she shook her head. “I don’t want to hear this again.”
Of course she didn’t. The truth was ugly and shit all over her perfect snow globe world. However, I didn’t care anymore, and after three weeks, I knew no one else cared either.
Wrapping a hand around each of her wrists, I jerked them away from her ears. “You don’t want to hear what? The truth? I told you what he did to me. I begged you for help, and what did you do? You called me a liar. You believed a monster over your own daughter.”
“He’s a good man!”
“He raped me!” I screamed.
The slap didn’t come as a shock. The strike of her hand stung, but not as much as the realization that my whole life had been a lie.
Lowering her hand, she fisted it by her side. “I’ll not have you ruin everything I’ve worked for.”
“I’m your daughter!”
“And he’s my husband.” She lifted her chin, finality washing over her face. “If you’re going to spread vicious rumors and ruin my campaign, you aren’t welcome in my home.”
Her ultimatum didn’t matter. After leaving the train tracks tonight, I’d already made my decision. Leaving Houston was the only way for me to survive.
“This isn’t my home,” I said, turning down the hallway for the final time.
Present Day
Leighton finished her confession, and I didn’t respond. Fuck, I had to concentrate just to breathe. My hands ached from clenching my fists so I didn’t put them through the wall. I wanted to explode—destroy everything in the room and break anything in my path.
“I left you so many messages, Matty.”
A moment of clarity broke through the blind rage. “When I got arrested, Emilio took my phone. When a member gets pinched, it’s standard policy to destroy their burner phones. When I got out a year later, I just got a new one. I never heard them.”
She seemed to contemplate my confession for a minute, her forehead wrinkling in confusion. Then it was as if a wave of understanding passed over her, and she closed her eyes. “Things could’ve been so different for all of us.”
“What do you mean, all of us?”
“I called you so many times,” she repeated, her voice barely above a whisper. “Even after I’d lost hope for me, I still called because—”
Both of us tensed, on edge and grasping at unraveling threads when, right on cue, my phone rang.
Leighton opened her eyes and glared at the coffee table. “I’m really beginning to hate that thing.”
“Forget it.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Answer it. You know they’ll just keep calling back until you do.”
As much as I hated to admit it, she was right.
Grabbing my phone from the table, I stared at the incoming number and growled into the mouthpiece, “Not now, Bright.”
“I finally decrypted a couple other things on that flash drive,” he said, ignoring me.
“It can wait.”
“I don’t think it can.” A hint of pity crept into his voice. “Mateo, you really need to hear this.” That got my attention. In all the years I’d known him, Professor Bright had never called me by my first name.
“Give me half an hour.” Immediately disconnecting the call, I turned toward Leighton, her face already shutting down. “Leighton, I’m sorry, I—”
“Go.” Standing, she picked up her coffee mug and turned toward the kitchen. “It’s waited this long. A few more hours won’t matter.”
“You have five minutes,” I said as he slid into the passenger’s seat.
“Trust me, that’s all I need.” Powering up his laptop, Bright punched in keys until a small black box appeared. His fingers stalled on the keyboard. “Before I play this, I want my door unlocked.”
I didn’t give a shit. Unlocking the door, I pointed toward the computer. “Play the tape.”
Nodding slowly, he swept his fingers across a few more keys and my heart stopped as Leighton’s voice filled the Tahoe.
“Matty, it’s Star. Where are you? You didn’t show up, and...God, Matty, please call me when you get this.”
“Matty, it’s me again. It’s been two weeks. Whatever I’ve done, I’m sorry. Please call me. I went to our place again tonight. Stupid, huh? Just call me and let me know you’re okay.”
“It’s me again. I don’t know if you care, but I’ve left town. I’m in San Marcos with my grandparents. I really need to talk to you, Matty. It’s important.”
“Matty, I get it, you don’t want to be with me, but you have to call me back. This doesn’t have anything to do with you and me anymore.”
“Fine, I wanted to do this in person, but you’ve given me no choice. Matty, you have to call me back. I’m pregnant. I just thought you deserved to know.”
“I just wanted to say congratulations, Matty. You have a daughter. If you care to be a father, you know where we are.”
No. This couldn’t be true. As intimate as we’d been over the past week, Leighton wouldn’t have hidden something like that. It wasn’t in her nature. She was too hon
est. Too uncorrupted. Too protective.
Shit.
Pieces of conversations flew through my head, finally making sense.
“There’s no threat because I can’t get pregnant. I had some complications a few years ago and lost my ovaries.”
“I didn’t say anything before because you have to understand, Mateo, I’ll do anything to protect my family.”
“You ask me to make a choice to blindly follow you, but you won’t even own up to your own choices.”
“If you want to be with me, you’re going to have to learn to accept all of me. You can’t ignore it anymore.”
“Things could’ve been so different for all of us.”
I was wrong. Her anger had been completely justified. She thought I knew and didn’t care. She thought I’d turned my back on my own child.
My child.
My hands clenched into fists. “Where did these originate?”
“That’s the thing. I can’t trace the original file.”
It didn’t matter. The truth had been lying to my face for years. Only one person had my phone. If these messages existed, only one person could’ve kept them from me this whole time. The same person who’d already lied to me about talking with the DEA.
I took a breath, trying to control the vicious anger roiling inside me. “Get out.”
Bright loosened the tie knotted around his neck. “There’s more.” Clicking a few more keys, he turned the screen around as another black box popped up. “This one isn’t so pleasant.”
