Carrera Cartel: The Collection

by Kenborn, Cora

  “People blow up when I’m around.” He smirked, his eyes swimming in the half bottle of tequila he’d consumed.

  “Yeah, but why? We had to leave the first safe house in the middle of the night because we were being shot at, right?”

  “Right.”

  “Why?”

  “Because they didn’t get a thank you note for a housewarming gift? I don’t know, Eden!” Messing up his midnight black hair, he threw himself back into his chair as it protested with a loud creak. “Maybe because our families have tried to wipe each other off the face of the earth for decades.”

  “Yeah, but how did they know we were at that safe house? You have a lot of them, right?” Moving again, I stood in between his legs, and braced my hands on the armrests of his chair. “Then, you go to a stash house in Corpus Christi, and minutes before you leave, it blows up.”

  He eyed me curiously, a wrinkle embedded in his forehead. “Go on.”

  “Today, we leave a second safe house minutes before; it too, blows the hell up. RVC explodes, and after we stop for gas, it’s lit up not long after we leave. How are they doing this, Val? It’s not like they could put a GPS on your car without you or your men knowing about it. Besides, you’ve been in different cars each time.”

  Val waved a hand, effectively dismissing the notion. “No, our cars are checked daily for foreign devices. That’d be impossible.”

  I couldn’t help but snort. “I don’t know, then. Maybe your illustrious vet confused you for one of his usual patients and embedded a canine tracking chip under your skin.” Shaking my head, I pushed off the chair arms to move when his jaw tightened and he grabbed my wrist.

  “What did you just say?”

  “Val, I was kidding.”

  With his free hand, his fingers skimmed down his neck and pulled out the long chain attached to my St. Michael medallion. Holding the porcelain face up, he gripped it with a fierce hold. “Where did you get this?’

  I blinked, not understanding his tone. “My father gave it to me.”

  “When?”

  “I went to see him after Nash…after I left the cantina. He seemed flustered and in a hurry. I was upset and ranted about finding Nash’s killers and making them pay with or without his help. Before I left, he gave it to me for protection.”

  Val’s eyes closed as if fighting to control his anger. “His exact words, Eden. What did he say?”

  Thinking back, I struggled to recall our heated conversation.

  “Here. Take this.”

  “What is that?”

  “Take it.”

  “St. Michael?”

  “The Archangel. The guardian of souls who triumphed over hell. He was a spiritual warrior and the conflict against evil.”

  “It’s a little late for a triumph over hell, Dad. I’m in it.”

  “Never take this off, Edie. You’re a warrior, and so much stronger than your old man. You can win this war, but you have to be smart and vigilant at all times. Save yourself, Eden. Don’t get involved with that man. They’re watching you.”

  “What man? Who are you talking about? Stop talking in riddles!”

  “What did he mean, Val? Who’s watching me?” The conversation that didn’t make sense eleven days ago rang in my ears with the same confusion.

  I’d barely gotten the words out when Val shot up from his reclined position, and knocked me backward against his desk. With my elbows braced against the wood, and my breath lodged in my throat, I looked into chocolate eyes, glazed over with the blackest shade of fury I’d ever seen.

  Ripping the medallion off his neck, he held it up between us like a dagger, his chest bent over mine in a position that scared the hell out of me. “Your father warned you not to get involved with me, Eden. He warned you my cartel would watch you.”

  “What are you saying?” I whispered, my voice thick with refusal to believe his words.

  Raising his arm high, he let out a primal growl as he slammed his hand onto the desk’s glass covering. The porcelain face of the medallion shattered, bits of it scattering across the desk and carpet. Scouring through the shards, his fingers picked up a small, circular, metal piece no bigger than half of my pinkie nail. Sliding his opposite hand up the side of my neck, he grasped a handful of my hair and forcefully turned my head toward the destruction.

  “This is what I’m saying, Cereza.” Holding up the small metal piece, he shoved it in front of my face, leaning his mouth against my ear, his words ground through clenched teeth. “This is a tracking device. A GPS microchip has been transmitting my location to Manuel Muñoz’s intel.” Pulling my hair back, my chin tilted upward to meet his icy stare. “Your father sold you out.”

  I tried to pull away from him, the first few seconds of his outburst not registering in my head. “No, you don’t know my father.”

  “Neither do you.”

  “He’s made bad decisions, Val, but he wouldn’t feed me to the wolves. He may be a drug addict, but he just tried to protect me. I’m sure he’d be as confused as me.”

  “Yeah?” Val raised an eyebrow. Releasing his hold on my hair, he pulled his phone from his pocket and handed it to me. “Prove it.”

  “What?”

  “Prove it. Call him. See what he has to say.”

  “You know I can’t do that. I’ve already told you he left.”

  Crashing his phone next to the shattered medallion, he pushed off me, and I exhaled the breath I’d been holding “My point exactly. Either your father sold you out, or you’re both pawns in someone else’s sick ass game.”

  Quiet filled the room. “My family wouldn’t turn on me.”

  Cold eyes shot my way, and his voice deepened to a low unexpected tone. “Now, see, that’s the gaping difference in our worlds, Cereza. Mine would.” Grabbing the back of my thighs, Val lifted me onto the desk and reached between my legs. I started to protest when his fingers closed around the metal hook of his desk drawer and opened it. Pulling out a pistol, he released the clip, examining the magazine before slamming it with the heel of his palm back into place. “Do you have some place you can go?”

  “Why?” My tone flowed cautious, but inside, my heart pumped a furious pace. My hands gripped the desk again, still reeling over the knowledge I’d willingly given Val a wearable crosshair.

  “I’m going to Mexico for a few days.” He tried to keep the statement void of emotion, but his eyes tightened with every word.

  An unexpected brick sank low and hard in the pit of my stomach. “You’re going to take over the cartel, aren’t you?”

  Anger replaced the apprehension lacing his face as he tucked the gun into his waistband and slammed the drawer shut. “My father is dead. This is what’s expected of me. It’s my legacy.”

  Feeling overtook judgment. “What about us?”

  No longer interested in pacifying me, his lips curled with a deadly smirk. “This was planned long before I tasted you, Cereza.”

  “Is that what you really want? Is that what your mother would’ve wanted?”

  Bristling at my words, he turned his back to me. “You know nothing of my mother. This is all I’ve ever known. It’s all I have left.” Refusing to look me in the eye, he cast a glance outside of the darkened window. “I can’t stop now.

  Pushing away from me, Val stalked across the office and swung open the door while calling for Mateo. With my heart beating wildly in my chest, I listened to them make plans to cross the border into Mexico the following morning. Val instructed Mateo to arrange for them to stay at his father’s estate before they met with the cartel in Mexico City. Vaguely, I heard plans for Emilio to stay in Houston and handle the day-to-day stateside operations.

  With a final nod, Val reiterated his determination to settle his father’s affairs and make his presence known to the cartel family.

  As Mateo nodded in understanding, he left us alone once more to put the travel plans in motion. Disoriented by the gravity of what I was about to do, I slid off the table and took slow, p
urposeful steps until I stood behind him.

  Gripping the wooden molding, I leveled a stare to the back of his head. “I’m going with you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Valentin

  A low sigh exited my chest, knowing the fight ahead of me. “No, you’re not.”

  Releasing the doorframe, she barreled past me into the room, arms flailing. “What do I have left here? Nothing. I have a dead brother and a father that may or may not have betrayed me to save his own ass.” Standing in front of me, she placed both palms flat against the edge of my desk, the dark blue of her shirt accentuating her ample curves. “I have my own score to settle with the Muñoz cartel, Val. I’m coming with you. If you leave me here, I’m dead and you know it. Are you going to let that happen?”

  I knew this was coming. In the past week, Eden and I had gotten too close. I’d disclosed information I would have never divulged to someone outside of the cartel. Women had never tempted me beyond the occasional fuck. Eden Lachey’s pussy cast out snake charming voodoo magic that hypnotized secrets straight out of my cock.

  Only one phrase could shatter the bond we’d forged.

  “I ordered the hit on Nash.”

  The look on her face bordered on a slap as she stumbled back. “Are you trying to make me hate you?”

  I shrugged, hating myself more with every lie. “It’s a fact.”

  Eden’s arms drew around her chest in a protective stance. “You didn’t kill him”

  “Does it matter? I’ve killed lots of people, and I’ll kill many more.”

  Her features hardened, an invisible wall building between us. “I need to see the man who killed my brother, dead. Who is that, Val? Is that this Manuel guy?”

  I remained silent, refusing to confirm her suspicion.

  Rushing my desk, she bent her forearm, swiping everything to the floor that was left from my earlier tirade with a primal scream. “Answer me, goddamn it!”

  “And then what, Cereza? Another one? And another? There are men who will always take his place and come after you. It’ll never end.”

  She shook her head defiantly. “You won’t let that happen.”

  “Won’t I? I’m just like them.”

  “No, you aren’t.”

  Having had enough, I charged into the room and shoved the chair out of my way, satisfied as it crashed into the wall. Rounding the desk, I grabbed her hands, holding both in her face. “Yes, I am! I’m a killer. I sold the drugs that got your father hooked on cocaine, and my family began the war that got your brother murdered. Do you think we care about casualties like him? It happens every day in our world. In America, murder is just bad for business. In Mexico, it is business, Cereza. I can’t be responsible for your life and mine.”

  Stubbornly, she held her ground, steeling her chin against my hold. “Val, if you won’t bring me into this cartel, I’m sure I can find someone who will.”

  I flinched so quickly, if she hadn’t been staring right at me, I’d have covered it. Facing her, she held in a gasp as my laugh echoed around the empty room. “I’m sure the minute you walked out of this door, the Muñoz men would whisk you off your bound feet into the back of a van and ride away to parts unknown.”

  “Good.” She egged me on, apparently tired of being on the outskirts of conversations. The rhythmic tick in my jaw told her she’d succeeded in pissing me off.

  Convinced she’d won the argument, she allowed a small smile to slip across her lips. In seconds, I stood over her—the familiar scent of citrus and vanilla igniting and calming me in a twisted way. My hand found its way inside her hair and wound strong fingers around a bunch of candy colored strands until my knuckles hit the base of her skull.

  “Would you like to know what they’d do next, Cereza?”

  She bowed her chin and violently shook it side to side. She had an idea what they’d do, and I’m sure she didn’t need to hear me speak the words out loud—especially after what happened last night. I’d explored every inch of her body with determined, but careful intent. Right now, the electricity vibrating off me was an exposed fuse, waiting to be lit with sparks of fury dancing around it.

  She let out a pained yelp as I jerked her hair backward to force her eyes on me. “They’d rip your clothes off before you even got out of the van. They’d take turns fucking you until you passed out. Then, they’d torture you until you died a horribly painful death.”

  The corners of her eyes pooled both from the horror of my words and the extreme angle of her head. The images I fed her detonated, shattering everything safe she had left in the world.

  “Why?”

  My eyebrows rose in question. “Why? You ask, why?” She nodded as much as she could with her head immobilized. “Because they’re immoral sons of bitches who think women are nothing but available holes for them to fuck on command.” Sweat rolled down my temple as it pulsed wildly beneath it. “And knowing you’d witnessed their hit, and you’d been here with me…well that’d make destroying you a hundred times sweeter.”

  My fingers tightened again, and she lightly touched my arm with her free hand. “Val, you’re hurting me.”

  I lowered us both to our knees and pulled her hair back again until she’d completed a full backbend. With her shoulders and head resting on my forearm, I brushed my lips against hers without kissing her. “And none of that will happen, Eden. Do you know why?”

  She barely listened. Her instincts feared me and the vulnerable position I had her in, but our basic animalistic connection had her breathless with anticipation.

  Eden opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off by palming the back of her head. “Because,” I growled, my voice full of unreleased fury. “Nobody touches what’s mine.”

  “What do you care?”

  I dropped lower, our lips barely skimming. “I care, because they’ve wiped out my entire family, Eden. I care, because I’m tired of losing. I care, because once a man has had you, he doesn’t share.”

  “Val…” Her body twisted at an unnatural angle, but her breathing had become so erratic, she seemed to hardly notice. Every inhale molded our chests perfectly and every exhale pushed logic further from our minds.

  I moved a knee in between hers as my eyes roamed her body. The moment they locked with her half-lidded stare, I watched the blue in her eyes darken to the blackest night of a soulless sky. “I won’t share, Cereza. Not until I get my fill.” Skimming her throat, I licked skin at the base of her neck. “And getting my fill might take a while.”

  “Fuck you. Just fuck you, Danger.” With receding strength, she attempted to push me away. “Fuck you.”

  “I don’t think we have time for three, but I’ll see what I can do.” Picking her up, I fused my mouth against hers and dropped her on top of my cleared desk.

  With an open hand that I didn’t see coming, Eden slapped me hard across the face. Reacting quickly, I captured her wrists in a strong hold.

  “I’m not your fuck toy, Carrera,” she seethed between clenched teeth. “You don’t command me and take what you want.”

  “No?”

  Shoving her fists into my chest, she climbed off the desk, offering one last punch to the center. “No. The only thing you’ll get your fill of tonight is your own hand, asshole.”

  Stunned, I watched as she flipped me off on her way out.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Eden

  I’d barely slept. Not that the paper-thin mattress and jail-cell sized bedroom enticed any form of restful sleep anyway, but somewhere in the past few days, I’d grown accustomed to sleeping next to an asshole.

  Rolling over for the hundredth time, I threw my arms above me, wincing as the healing skin on my wrist pulled with the sudden move. From an outsider’s point of view, I’d lost my mind. Hell, from my own point of view, what I’d been doing was not only counterproductive, it was damn near suicide.

  I’d been kidnapped by the most feared drug cartel in the United States. Once I’d come to terms with my capt
ivity, I’d vowed to use it to my advantage, promising to an empty room to take every one of them down who’d had a hand in my brother’s death.

  Then Val barreled into my room and my world, screwing up everything.

  What have I gotten myself into?

  My behavior wasn’t normal. Normal women didn’t consider crossing the border with a known murderer just because of some stupid crush.

  It was just a crush…wasn’t it?

  Logic told me no future existed for Val and me. There couldn’t be. Morality couldn’t allow me to stand by the side of a man who remotely had a hand in what happened to Nash. The idea of doing so would be beyond disrespectful to his memory. It’d be unforgivable.

  A hollow burn spread through my chest as my mind catalogued the failed relationships in my life. Every man I’d ever trusted or loved had hurt me or deserted me. Davis left me, my father turned his back on all of us long before this mess ever started, and Nash was literally ripped out of my arms.

  Maybe Mateo and Emilio were right. Maybe I was a black widow. For all Val’s faults and reprehensible acts, the thought of harm coming to him tore a hole in my heart. Everything inside me warned me to back out now and save both of us mutual destruction. But as I asked myself the silent questions, one answer rang louder in my head than any doubt.

  I’d fallen hard for Valentin Carrera, and I was more conflicted now than ever. My conscience knew he’d given the order to torture Nash, even though it wasn’t my brother he’d targeted; he admitted it himself. However, there had to be some humanity in a man who held a part of me so strongly tied to him that I couldn’t walk away. Surely, I hadn’t fallen so far off the line between right and wrong that I couldn’t recognize an irredeemable person from one whose soul seeped with evil?

  Weaving my fingers through the metal bars in the headboard, I tilted my chin toward the ceiling, letting out a frustrated breath. “Damn you, Danger.”

  “If you’re going to damn me before I get to hell, at least break down the list.”