Juanita laughed again, “So barefoot and pregnant doesn’t work for you, huh? Oh, Valentina, you just wait until you look in your child’s eyes the first time, you’ll be looking for any excuse to stay home. Then when you’re finally able to even think about work you’ll be taking that baby and a nanny with you to the set.”
“Hell, no, barefoot and pregnant doesn’t work for me. How did you handle it when the twins were born?”
“Well, it was easier for me. It’s not like you can cage fight when you’re pregnant. And I had already let that part of my life go anyway. I was 100% devoted to my husband and the cartel. Children only deepened the connection, made it something sacred. And the pregnancy hormones? You haven’t lived until you’ve been pregnant and horny 24/7 with a Ramirez man at your beck and call.”
“Ha! I bet your husband loved that.”
“Oh, Ricardo was in heaven, believe me. He couldn’t get enough of me. I think he would have spent the entire nine months playing with my tits if I’d let him.” Juanita’s lips curved in a wicked smile. “By the time I gave birth, that man was so used up, he practically needed ice packs for his cock and balls. Poor baby,” Juanita purred, laughing wickedly. She didn’t sound the least bit sorry. “However, you, Valentina, definitely have one thing going for you that will work in your favor.”
“And what’s that?” she asked with a skeptical laugh.
“You challenge him. And that, my dear, is the secret to keeping any man, especially a Ramirez man. It takes a certain kind of woman to marry into the cartel and hold her own. I have no doubt you’ve got what it takes. You’re strong, determined, and fearless, and that will get you a long way in this life. But I wonder, are you loyal? Will you be able to keep your mouth shut when the chips are down and everything is falling apart around you?”
“Absolutely. I’m no fool. I’m still finding my way but there’s no way I would ever turn on the Ramirez family or tolerate anyone who did.”
Juanita stopped at a red light and gave Valentina a long, considering look, eventually nodding her approval. “Good. Then you’ll do fine. You’ll fit right in. Keep your mouth shut and your eyes open. Now, repeat after me: ‘I want to speak to my lawyer’.”
Victor chuckled as he looked down at the smart watch he’d bought for just such occasions as this. If Valentina hadn’t been with his mother he would have been more concerned, but his mother carried a Glock in her purse—one she wouldn’t hesitate to use if circumstances called for it.
His mother Juanita Ramirez had been a cage fighter in her younger days. She had been running a scam with her best friend Roxanne, who was married to his uncle Antonio Wayne. Ricardo had been mesmerized by the sight of the fierce, blonde Amazon in the cage that night. But he knew a fixed fight when he saw one. He had confronted Juanita afterwards – and decided to keep her, and gave Roxanne to his uncle. Luckily, they both eventually decided it was a good idea and the rest was history. Since then, his mother and Roxanne had continued to train. You didn’t mess with either of them.
Having Valentina spend time with his mother wasn’t such a bad thing. She needed to establish connections within his family, and it would do her good to burn off some nervous energy. She hadn’t been anywhere but the studio since he’d had her brought to the States and that couldn’t be easy for a woman as independent as Valentina. Better for his mother to take the opportunity to get to know her and maybe even mentor her a little, than for Valentina to be out alone.
Of course, when they got home he’d enjoy making Valentina pay for running off without telling him where she was going. He yearned to see her eyes sparkle with fear and more than a little defiance when he had her up against a wall and unable to escape.
He couldn’t resist calling her and grinned when she answered on the second ring.
“Yes,” she said cautiously.
“Hello, Valentina. How are you?” he asked in an overly solicitous tone.
Long silence. “Fine. And you?”
“Well, I’m not so good. Care to know why?”
More silence. “Sure. What’s going on?”
“Well, I came back to the bedroom and you weren’t there. So I asked around, even checked with the security guards and you know what? You’re not fucking here. Isn’t that something?”
“Your mother is showing me around. We might do some shopping. I thought you’d be pleased.”
“Oh, I am. I’m pleased because I want you and my mother to get along. Now, I’m most definitely not pleased that you snuck out even though I know you’re in good hands with my mother. And I’ll be right here waiting for you when you get home.” He could have almost sworn he heard her gulp thickly at the implications of his words of warning.
“How did you know?”
“Have you already forgotten you have a tracker in that beautiful shoulder of yours?”
She ignored him, “How did you know I’m with your mother?”
“The years have done nothing to curb my father’s obsession with my mother. He was watching her from the window when she left with you. Oh, and just to be clear, you’re in so much fucking trouble when you get home.”
“Really. Well, bring it, Victor. I’m looking forward to it.”
“Mm-hmm, I just bet you are.”
Juanita laughed as Valentina put her phone back in her purse. “Just what I thought, you two are made for each other. All that bickering back and forth reminds me of Ricardo and me back in the day.”
“Has it changed? You know, has it settled down between the two of you?”
“Oh, eventually you become accustomed to the chaos, but it has never eased up as far as that men’s obsession. If anything, it became more intense. Now, on another note, that car back there – no, stop it, don’t turn around -- has been following us for the last few miles. That’s something you will need to learn, to always be aware of your surroundings.”
“Who do you think it is?”
“I’m not sure but the windows are tinted darker than the law allows, so I’m putting my money on it being FBI.”
“Don’t worry about me not looking over my shoulder. I acquired a stalker a while back and we think he may have followed me here.”
“Why is this the first I’m hearing about this?” Juanita sounded offended that she hadn’t been told what was going on. The women were as involved in cartel business as the men were.
“Ask your son, he said he was handling it.”
“Let’s get one thing straight: when one of us is in danger, we all are. You and I are friends now, okay? So please keep me in the loop from now on.”
“Are you going to try to lose this guy?”
“Nope. Let him follow us so I can get a plate number. Our security team will be able to find out who it is after that. I hope it is the FBI, it’s safer that way.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean stalkers are fine as long as whoever they’re stalking doesn’t piss them off. They believe they’re in a relationship with the object of their obsession. If they’re rejected it almost always ends up in them murdering the object of their obsession. God forbid he ever gets too close, but if your stalker ever gets his hands on you, play along with the fantasy. That will go a long way to keep him calm until you find an opportunity to incapacitate him or the boys put him in the ground.”
“What if it’s not a man? What if it’s some crazed woman?”
“Then we are in danger.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, when it comes to matters of the heart—whether it’s love, war, or revenge, women are much more vicious. If this is some bitch who has decided she wants your life, nothing short of a bullet between her eyes will stop her.” Juanita’s eyes turned hard, conveying ruthless determination that promised retribution. “If that’s the case I’ll kill her myself. I want grandchildren too and you’re the only woman my son has ever shown an interest in settling down with. Nobody is going to take that away from me. Plus, I want my son to be happy.”
Nothing more needed to be said. In matters of love, war, or revenge, Juanita Ramirez would be far more lethal than her opponent. Valentina felt safer than she had in a long time.
Chapter Nineteen
Seeing Valentina up close, even briefly, had only fueled his drive to keep on pursuing her no matter the cost. The view hadn’t been as clear as he would have liked—the car window separating them was an inconvenience, but at least he had seen her. That was all that mattered.
The blonde in the driver’s seat had given him the stink-eye, dismissing him like he was a bug on the windshield. Well, fuck her, she was nobody. She couldn’t see through the tinted windows anyway. And was that really how she looked at people? Talk about ‘resting bitch face’. He’d just as soon bash her face in with a baseball bat than to deal with her.
All that mattered was that he save his beautiful muñeca -- his pretty little doll he could keep for his own once he got her away from the Ramirez family. And that needed to happen sooner rather than later; he needed to act before those Colombian killers got any deeper inside her head and turned her against him.
An unsettlingly visceral rage simmered within him at the knowledge that he couldn’t get his hands on her. If only she knew how much he loved her, she would let him take her away from the prison they’d put her in. He was just glad he had the resources to follow her and make things right.
If he didn’t help her she would surely die and he couldn’t let that happen. Love took effort and sacrifice. If he had to kill everyone around her to save her—to save their love -- then that’s what he would do. It wasn’t her fault she couldn’t see the light of truth yet. Her vision was obscured by Victor Ramirez’s deceit and manipulation.
His conscience was clear. He wasn’t doing this just for him; the world needed her talent, needed her beauty. Yes, he was employing the same underhanded tactics Victor Ramirez had used, but this time the result would be good and not evil.
“Fuck getting license plate numbers. I know exactly who this is,” Juanita hissed. She had realized who it was after pulling up to a light and getting a better look at the two passengers.
After Juanita parked the SUV and got out, Valentina had to run to keep up with her as she powerwalked back to the black SUV that had been following them. “I wasn’t planning on working out today,” she gasped as she caught up to Juanita just in time to see her confronting the driver, who had lowered his window as Juanita approached and started jabbing her finger into the air in front of his face.
“Don’t you have something better to do, Agent Turner, than follow women around? Shouldn’t you be catching criminals or something?”
“Now, Juanita, you know--” Agent Turner gave up, knowing better than to try to get a word in while Ricardo Ramirez’s wife was in a roll.
“And you…” she seethed, her finger now pointed at his passenger.
Rene Murphy watched the exchange impassively, giving nothing away as she idly clicked open and shut the vintage lighter she held in her hand. It was her only ‘tell’, a habit she’d picked up because it helped her handle stress. She was adept at maintaining a poker face and right now she was in top form.
Valentina interrupted Juanita’s indignant rant before she could stop herself. “Mom, come on and let’s go shopping, the sales are waiting.” She had to keep this situation from escalating. Not only would the Ramirez men lose their minds over such a disaster, but a night in jail would mean tabloid headlines that she would never live down. She had learned early on in her career that being in the public eye was a double-edged sword that must be respected.
“Find something else to do with taxpayer money besides following innocent people around, ‘kay?” Juanita huffed, glaring back at Turner as Valentina led her by the elbow to the mall entrance. It wasn’t until they got inside that she turned and smiled broadly at Valentina. “You’re calling me Mom now? Really? You know, if it was anyone else I’d feel old, but coming from you that makes me feel all warm and gooey inside.”
“Holy fuck, do you know who that was?” Rene’s voice shook slightly, betraying a nervous excitement that her partner had never heard before concerning a civilian.
“What’s going on with you? I’ve never seen you act like this over a criminal, Rene. That wasn’t the first time you’ve seen Juanita Ramirez.”
“Not her, the other one. She’s not a criminal, David. That was Valentina Vargas. She’s an actress. And the Ramirez boys are supposedly going straight, you know. That right there, the fact that they have Valentina Vargas working for them adds credence to the rumors. Shit, maybe they’re really serious about going legit.”
Turner’s eyes widened and his shoulders shook with laughter. “What. The. Fuck. I can’t believe it, you’re a fangirl.” He wasn’t used to his partner ever taking the side of any criminal organization and yet here she was, sticking up for the Ramirez family because of her love for a TV show.
“Look,” Rene said, “ever since you started talking about retiring you’ve been on a rampage against Glazov, Bratva and the Colombians. What, do you want one last bust before you ride off into the sunset? If this is some kind of ego trip for you, that’s how people get killed and I don’t want any part of it.”
“I’m not on an ego trip, Rene, I just don’t believe anyone involved in organized crime can ever truly go straight. Corruption hangs onto you like static cling. As far as Valentina Vargas is concerned, I know how the Ramirez men operate and I can promise you that Victor Ramirez probably held her captive and made her go to work for them. One thing’s for sure: she’ll never escape the stranglehold that family has on her—never.”
She was only halfway listening to him, she was utterly distracted by the fact that Valentina Vargas was living in Louisville. Rene was typically the epitome of professional objectivity and decorum, but this encounter had really hit a nerve. No way was she going to let her partner cause Valentina any problems that weren’t absolutely necessary. After all, that would mean not being able to watch her story every day and she was too addicted to it to ever let that shit happen.
She needed to figure out what her partner was up to and that might not be so easy. Agent Turner could be a closed book when he wanted to be.
Chapter Twenty
Victor sat watching the bedroom door, as patiently as a man obsessed with a woman can wait. Even though Valentina had been in good hands with his mother, he couldn’t ignore the fact that she’d snuck out. He had no doubt his mother had been in on it, which was a good thing because it meant she liked his woman. Winning his mother over wasn’t easy. Nevertheless, he needed to nip that shit in the bud.
He felt Valentina’s presence even before he saw the door handle turn. Showtime…
He tossed back a shot of tequila like it was Kool-Aid. The burn felt so fucking good going down and the numbness that followed was a welcome reprieve from the anger that consumed him.
Valentina closed the door and turned to walk toward the bed, freezing in place at the sight of him waiting for her. He never took his eyes off her as he stood and prowled over to her. Uncertainty glowed in her eyes, verging on fear, a combination that fueled the blood already rushing to his cock. He fucking loved this shit.
He ran the pad of his thumb along her jaw line as he studied her face. “You’re so fucking beautiful. You know it’s dangerous for you to be out without a bodyguard. Why would you be so foolish, hmm?”
“I think you’re being a little melodramatic, Victor. I was with your mother, after all.”
“Melodramatic. Really. Hmm, that’s an interesting way to put it.” He twirled a strand of her hair between his fingers, continuing to regard her speculatively. He leaned in and whispered in her ear, “I. Want. To. Fuck. You. I want my cock buried in you. Gonna mark you, to remind both of us that you belong to me. I’m going crazy with need, so be ready for a hard ride.”
He slipped his hand around her neck and took delight in the racing heartbeat beneath his thumb. He slipped his other hand around her lower back, pulli
ng her close and covering her mouth with his. Her breathing quickened when he pushed his body against her and she felt his hardness pressing against her lower stomach.
He unbuttoned her jeans and shoved them down her hips to the floor, silently gesturing for her to lose the shoes and panties too. After she shimmied out of her underwear, he slid his hand over her flat stomach and pressed his forehead to hers as he whispered the question that plagued him. “Is my baby in there yet?”
Her breath hitched in her throat. Every time he touched her it was like a new part of her stirred to life. “No, I-I don’t think so, Victor. Anyway, I’m not ready for that, it’s too much. It’s too soon.”
“Well, I disagree,” he murmured as he stroked a finger through her folds. “You feel more than ready to me. We’ll just have to do something about that.”
“I’m serious, Victor--”
“Sshhh, sshhh…” He undressed and led her over to the bed where he cupped her breasts, testing their weight in his hands. He imagined them heavy with milk for his son, couldn’t help but wonder how it would taste on his tongue while he enjoyed the lush, sexy curves that would come with pregnancy.
The caveman in him roared to life, demanding that he give in to the biological imperative to mate. He pushed her down onto the bed and tried to decide where to begin. He didn’t want to scare her, so he did his best to put her mind at ease as he lay down next to her. “I know, I know, a child would mean surrendering, eh? To me, to this life. And you’re not ready to surrender, are you, baby? Not just yet…”
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