“Jacobo complained about you sometimes...”she trailed off, averting her gaze.“You weren’t born with cartel blood in your veins.He looked down on you for that.”
Enrique snorted.“The asshole hated me.He didn’t think I was good enough to be friends with his brother or welcomed into the Lozano family.After my own died, I lived on the streets with other kids.Slept behind dumpsters or in abandoned buildings.Ate whatever I could steal.Pickpocketed day in, day out.Two years of that.”He shuttered his eyes, the memories far too vivid for his peace of mind.“Then I picked the wrong pocket.”
“What happened?”she asked gently and stroked figure eights on his chest.
“A cartel recruiter caught me.A lieutenant, in fact—Jesús Lozano.”
“Jacobo’s uncle?”
“That’s right.I thought I was going to die right there in the alley.Instead, Jesús offered me a choice: continue to live on the streets, or join the ranks.Who knows how much longer I would’ve lasted before some child trafficking scum grabbed me.”He blew out a harsh breath.“Jesús dumped me at a training camp.Of all the things that could’ve happened, I was lucky to have met him.If I died now, I have friends to mourn me.Back then, no one would’ve noticed or cared.The proudest day of my life was when I got this.”He shifted out from under her and drew his right arm from his shirtsleeve to reveal his spiderweb tattoo—the symbol of his loyalty to the Lozanos.“I was twenty.”
“Wow.It’s so big.”Lourdes lifted the sleeve of his T-shirt and traced her fingertip across the detailed webbing that stretched from his shoulder blade to his wrist.
On his twitching biceps, the wordsLozano Cartelwere intricately woven into the web while the spider beneath it crawled in permanent stasis near his elbow.
“May I see your other tattoos?It was too dark last night for me to tell what they were.”
He yanked off his overshirt and T-shirt.The sensual heat of her gaze caressed the tribal bands and swirls of black smoke that masked the faded scars on his torso and left arm.Her succulent bottom lip disappeared between her teeth again.
“How did you get this?”She rubbed a short, rigid scar just below his tatted pec.
“Camp 47,” he replied, deadpanned.
Her eyebrows furrowed.“Are there really forty-seven training camps?More?”
He laughed, the guttural sound tearing from his throat.“No.The numbers are random.Keeps the federales guessing.”
Lourdes traced the scar again, gentler this time.“What was it like being there?”
“Brutal.”He pulled his shirts back on and picked his words carefully.“I met Rubén there.He was only two years older than me, but already so hard.Tough.The camp trainers broke us down to rebuild us.Starvation, beatings, intense exercise.Long days and longer nights.The idea was to destroy any softness so the soldier could rise.”
“That’s heartbreaking.”She blinked rapidly, fighting a sheen of tears.
“It’s how things are.”Enrique fingered another length of her satiny hair.The sympathy in her pinched eyes scorched him.“After a few years, I left the camp and worked different jobs.Rubén and I found our niche in the outbound shipping network.We handled inventory, logistics, and transportation.He later moved into the gambling racket; I chose enforcement and trained others at my old camp.I wanted to change things.Make the training less brutal.”
She smiled and rested her hands in her lap.“You succeeded.No question about that.”
“Sí.”He grinned and shifted to his side.“I moved up.Became a lieutenant, then lead lieutenant.There’s only one lead per camp, so the promotion was an honor.”
“I’m sure it was.How did you get to where you are now—the top boss?”
“That’s a long, bloody story.The short of it, the senior capo in charge of the recruitment and enforcement wing was Rubén’s father’s second-in-command.He died last year when Rubén seized control of the cartel after the jefe’s death, so Rubén promoted me to take the man’s place, and I picked my own replacement for Camp 47.”
Lourdes huffed and tossed her arms up in frustration.“It doesn’t make sense.Not only are you a senior capo, you’re also second-in-command of one of the oldest cartels in the country.You built your own place within it, climbing from nothing.You’re the exact kind of man my father wants to ally himself with when it comes to his son-in-law.”Deflating, she picked at a loose string on her pants.“Beyond breaking his word, I do not see why he refused to cancel the arrangement with Diego when you offered yourself for the marriage contract.Unless heknewI would rather marry you, so he acted out of spite.”
“Spite very well could’ve been the issue.”He leaned up and clasped her fidgeting fingers.“Gerardo Villegas has his pride.That’s what it boils down to.”
“Enrique, I’m scared.How are we going to get through this?How are we going to get Papá to back down?”
“Leave it to me.”
“No.”Lourdes pulled back.“We’re partners.We do it together, or not at all.”
“I like this fierce side of you.”
She blushed, her cheeks reddening.“It’s new.”
“Keep it up.”
