Page 80 of Vicious Temptation

“Remi, this isn’t a joke, and you’re not bulletproof.”

I slip gently from her grasp and lean against the hood of my car. “I know I’m not, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop living.”

“I’m not asking you to do that.” The anger in her voice gives way to something closer to fear. “I’m asking you to be careful and keep us informed. I can’t protect you if⁠—”

“I don’t need you to do that for me anymore.”

Regret hits me the second I see her face. Her lips twitch, and something shifts in her eyes. The last thing I ever want to do is hurt my mother. But they raised me to survive without them, trained me to fight back and protect myself when no one else could.

Isn’t that what all of it was for?

“I can handle myself. And I did. He’s dead, and I’m not.”

“Who was with you that night?”

“A friend.”

The word leaves my mouth so naturally that it takes me a second to register what I just called him. I guess Thiago got his way after all.

“A friend?” Her eyebrows lift, disbelief written all over her face. “And he helped you gun down those men?”

Fair question. Outside our family, there aren’t many people in our lives who could walk into a shootout and know exactly what to do.

“Yeah...he’s a cop.”

She blinks rapidly, as if she’s waiting for the punchline.

I push off the hood and start pacing, suddenly wishing Papá’s ring weren’t sitting on the workbench, out of reach.

“I know what you’re thinking, but he’s not like that.”

I almost want to take it back. Not because I don’t believe it, but because I might be starting to.

Mamá exhales slowly, as if the weight of the entire city were on her shoulders. I hate being the source of that look, even though I’ve probably spent most of my life causing it.

“I-I don’t even know what to say.” She shakes her head. “I don’t know if I have it in me to dissect that right now.”

“Aunt Eva was a homicide detective,” I point out. “What’s the difference?”

Why the hell am I defending him this hard?

“Because that was a one-in-a-million chance.”

“Well, I happen to live a one-in-a-million kind of life, don’t I?”

She keeps talking, and I hear the concern in every word, but my mind is already drifting from the conversation. Between her fear, everything that happened at the tattoo shop, and whatever the hell I’m doing with Thiago, I need to get out of this garage and clear my head.

“I gotta run, Mami.” I grab my bag and Papá’s ring.

“Remi—”

I cut her off with a quick kiss to her forehead.

“Lock up for me!” I call over my shoulder as I slide into my newly working GT-R.

The garage door groans open overhead, and I back out without looking at her again. I don’t need to see her face to know what’s there. She loves me more than anything in this world, and I terrify her because of it.

Twenty-Three