him?”
“Your father’s eyelids and every orifice are glued shut. Except the mouth, which he has failed to make good use of,” Durand patiently answered. “Maybe we glue your eyelids open so you can watch yourself change if you no tell us the truth.”
Ferdinand hung like a silent slab.
His son screamed and jerked against his bindings.
Julio walked over to the table and brought back a syringe he jabbed into the boy’s hip. When he withdrew it, he turned to Durand. “This will last about a half hour. Long enough to prepare his body for interrogation.”
“Take photos. I want my men to know what it means to betray me.”
“Si.”
Durand walked out of the building, where dark clouds swarmed from the north. Wind stirred leaves on the trees lining the walkway to the hacienda.
Maria headed toward him pushing her useless son through the gardens. She stopped when they met.
“How is my favorite nephew today?” Durand asked, hiding his revulsion. His sister should have let the boy go when he was in the hospital after being injured years ago.
No man wants to live his life as a cripple.
Unfortunate collateral damage from the bombing attempt on Salavatore’s life. Another debt owed by Alejandro when Durand found him.
“Bien, Uncle.” Eduardo kept his eyes on the book in his lap. Always reading. Always the same answer.
The boy never looked him in the eye. Probably too hard to look up at men all the time.
“All is ready for tomorrow?” Durand asked Maria.
“Si. Thank you for use of your jet.” His sister’s eyes didn’t meet Durand’s either.
She made him feel guilty for her son’s problems. This was no his fault. The fault lay at Alejandro’s feet.
She knew that.
“You don’t have to thank me for everything, Sister. Blood always takes care of blood.” Durand sighed. She asked for so little and only for Eduardo. Just one of many reasons he could deny her no request.
She nodded. “We still thank you for the roof over our heads and the medical treatments.”
“Si, gracias, Uncle,” Eduardo mumbled on cue as he always did right after his mother.
Durand clamped down on the guilt creeping up his spine. He had provided well for them, been a loving brother to her and loving uncle to his broken nephew.
He had no reason to feel shame.
“I pray this surgery will be the last one for you, Eduardo,” Durand said, changing the subject.
“Gracias.” Her son’s gaze remained on the book in his lap. What could be that interesting?
“Thank you for finding a new doctor,” Maria added.
Dios. Durand wanted to yell at her to stop thanking him. But he reached over and hugged her instead.
“I will see you tonight.” Durand walked off, deciding it was time for Julio to find a place to care for Eduardo around the clock. Maybe leave him in the States, then his sister would have to get on with her life. Maria might fight him on it, but in the end he controlled the checkbook for Eduardo’s care, and this was the last surgery.
Just as soon as he found and dealt with Mirage.
That would happen as soon as Julio broke Ferdinand’s son.
HIS ARMS WERE a safe zone where nothing could touch her.
Gabrielle sighed, happy even if she was living a fool’s dream. She snuggled her back closer against Carlos’s warm chest. After all the years alone and unloved, she refused to face the possibility that she and Carlos might not be able to stay together. What would Joe do after this was all over?
What would he do if he knew that she and Carlos had been intimate? Would Rae or Korbin say anything? She didn’t think so after seeing this team work together.
There were so many more things she didn’t know.
Such as whom Carlos, Joe, and all these people worked for. Who was this Fratelli group they were trying to stop, and what exactly were they trying to stop? Where was Linette and how did her friend fit into all of this? And one big question.
Had Durand learned the true identity of Mirage?
She didn’t know a lot of things, but deep in her heart she believed one thing. Carlos might not be the kind of man who would get seriously involved with a woman, but she believed he cared for her. That didn’t change that he had orders to bring her back.
Carlos kissed the top of her head. A hand brushed over her hair, stroke after stroke.
She smiled. He was so affectionate she could fall hard for a man like him. As if she hadn’t already?
Mon Dieu. Her mind could deny it, but her heart wouldn’t.
“Why aren’t you asleep?” he asked in a voice thick with exhaustion.
“I don’t know. Just thinking.”
“How can you have any energy after the last three hours?”
“The Tynte women are made of stronger stuff than other women,” she teased.
“Yes, they are, and if you’re the signature design, they’re all beautiful, sweet, and intelligent.”
Her whole body sighed with pleasure.
“What’s bothering you?” he asked.
“Nothing really. I haven’t even worried about Durand Anguis catching me for a while.”
His breathing slowed, then his chest moved with one deep breath. “Why are you so focused on the Anguis?”
She’d sidestepped some of his questions earlier.
That was before he’d saved her life yet again. Carlos and his people fought dangerous groups such as the Anguis, so they’d have no reason to share her story or expose her. She’d wanted to tell someone for the longest time, but couldn’t. Carlos knew exactly who she was, so where would be the harm in telling him?
“I’ve targeted the Anguis for a long time,” she started. “My mother believed in being more than a figurehead for a dynasty. She was a bit of a rebel for her era. Her parents didn’t understand the depth of Mama’s humanitarian commitment. Neither did Papa. Against his orders, she slipped away and traveled to South America incognito with a group of teachers who were going to open a new school in Venezuela, but her real plan was to help a very dear friend escape a dangerous man her friend unknowingly married.”
Carlos stopped brushing his hand over her hair and seemed intensely focused on her story. She appreciated his interest and that he didn’t give her a standard “Just leave this to the authorities,” as so many others had said years ago.
“Mama’s friend lived in the Venezuelan town where the teachers were going to set up a school,” Gabrielle continued. “On the way there, the bus passed through a small town near Caracas. Reports said a big black sedan ahead of them was stopped by goats in the road. Just as the bus caught up to the car, bystanders said grenades were launched at the vehicle from a rooftop. The explosion lifted the car into the air and ripped the bus apart.” She’d kept this inside for so long she could hardly share it now without strangling on the pain.
“All the teachers were killed,” she continued, reciting the events she’d played over and over in her mind from memory. “Mama had left a letter for the maid to give Papa two days after she left so he wouldn’t panic when he returned home from a trip and found her missing. Papa sent a highly skilled tracker immediately to find Mama and bring her home. This man did catch up to her, but not until just after the bombing. Papa was devastated when he got the news.” Gabrielle hesitated. “We all were. The man Papa sent to Venezuela was much like your people, with many resources. He arranged for documents that proved the body was his wife, which wasn’t hard to do since Mama was…unrecognizable.”
Carlos rubbed her arm, but remained silent.
Now that she’d started she wanted to get it all out.
“Papa wouldn’t let me tell anyone what really happened since Mama had entered the country illegally. He said the media would focus on that and not the fact that Durand had killed innocent women when he attacked a competitor trying to move into his territory. Papa said Durand would be punished for killing Mama and the teachers. We told everyone Mama had been in a bad car crash while traveling and buried her along with the secret.”
That had been a lifetime ago. Gabrielle still remembered standing in the rain at the cemetery, soaked to the
