“How can you be sure she ever will be ready, considering…recent events?” He shot a pointed glance at the whore on the ground.
“I know you’re new at this and don’t know better, but as often as we’ve done this, there’s nothing to worry about. In or out of the game she will be everything my brother needs her to be for him and our family.” Elias cut in to save our cousin’s ass.
“It’s just, she tried to––never-mind––I have faith in you completely. I know what you’re capable of. Forgive mePatrónif I’ve offended you.” Sergio bowed his head as a sign of respect.
I waved him off unperturbed. I fully understood his concerns. She had a dark spot in her past that couldn’t be overlooked. This didn’t bother me in the slightest, instead, it prodded my curious nature like a ringmaster draws attention from a beast. Her being the way she was greatly swayed things in my favor.
She thought I was a nice man, yet she fully understood what I did. She spoke to me with both desire and fear, but without a filter.
She was deadly nightshade, beautiful belladonna. Elena was my enigma, and I was a master at solving riddles. It would all be well worth it in the end.
She was my last play, the one card I needed to win. This went much deeper than the usual game.
She was my sole responsibility from this moment on. I’d made a sordid promise to a friend and I intended to keep it.
“Enough of this. Let’s go see my father.”
As I began to stand another gunshot rang through the air, the second whore meeting the same fate as her friend.
Chapter Four
Settling into the back seat of Peyton’s Telsa I closed my eyes, letting the air conditioner vent blow over my face.
“Are you going–––.”
“Nope, you two aren’t allowed to ask me any customary funeral questions, remember?”
I peeled my eyes open to Melody scowling at me from the front seat. “It was about the house.”
“Ugh, not that, either,” I huffed, glancing over at the home in question. It looked like something out of Martha Stewart magazine, white stucco with light grey accents and a tiny rose garden in the very front.
“So, is this plan of yours we recently discussed still a go?” Peyton asked.
I met his gaze in the rearview and nodded. “I can’t just accept my sister is lying in a ditch somewhere, or that she’s terrified right now, running from something, and didn’t ask for help. Eva isn’t dead. I would feel it.” A disparaging sigh slipped out when I saw my grandmother watching us from the front window.
“And what are we going to do about that?” Melody asked, not hiding her dislike for the woman.
“Placate her for now, at least until I know what she really wants.”
“Damn, Eva.” Peyton turned and grinned at me.
“What?”
“Your mama would be proud.”
“Would she? Papa wouldn’t.” I said, feeling the familiar pang in my heart when I thought of them. It had been years and the ache was still there, a slow burning fire that would never go out.
“I think they’d both be proud of you for coming back here when you have every reason to run,” he said softly.
I gave him a small smile in place of the emotion threatening to take hold of me. “This is going to be…dangerous. You two don’t have to help me.”
“If you’re doing anything you won’t be doing it alone,” Peyton scoffed. “You’re going to need a few rich friends and who better than the two you know will always have your back?”
“He’s right. Let’s make a pact here and now. No matter what happens we do this together. We don’t lie to one another, and if we do tell a lie we let each other know so we can back them up,” Melody said.
I looked at them and couldn’t help but feel their love for me. These two were my best-friends through and through. Distance––even practically being worlds apart––couldn’t sever our connection. It felt like we were picking up right where we left off. This was my tribe, even if it was small and missing two other people. I was blessed to have them.
“I can agree to that. Now let me go in here before she comes out,” I opened the door, immediately engulfed in heat. “I’ll text you guys.” Shutting the door, I made my way into the house feeling as if I were on the set of a horror movie.
