Page 54 of Reckless Woman

“Is the whore taking the news well?”

“Not particularly,” I say, adjusting my position. The sandwich is starting to give me indigestion. “Her labor is proceeding quicker than planned.”

“Perhaps we will be celebrating more providence by nightfall?”

“How so?”

“When she dies in childbirth.”

My stomach ache worsens. I can imagine him licking what’s left of his mangled lips as he says it. I have no problem destroying men, but women are a harder limit.

I think of Anna again, and my mind slams shut. Papá doesn’t know she escaped yet. My team are still looking for her in Miami. I pushed my agenda too hard and she ran, but in time she’ll come back to me.

“And Grayson?” he asks, gasping for breath. The more excited he becomes, the less his body allows for it.I guess even fun has an expiration date.

“He’s scattered all over some field in Virginia, Papá.”

Santiago’s wife’s screams are so loud now they’re permeating the steel walls of her husband’s office.

“I want body parts,” he rasps. “I want them in a red box with a bow. A birthday present to my brother is long overdue.”

“As soon as we find something, I’ll let you know.”

A bomb wired to the wings of a jet was too good forEl Asesino.His death would have been too quick. I’d wanted him to taste the bitterness of loss in those last few minutes as he fell from the sky. I’d wanted him to choke on it. I’d imagined him gasping and spluttering like my father does as he hit the ground in a fireball, the skin peeling from his bones. It’s the least I could do after he kept myparceraaway from me.

Resting the receiver in the crook of my neck, I pull out her cell from the pocket of my jeans and start scrolling through the messages to her dead fiancé, deleting each one in turn. I’d hoped to plant a poison between them during our stay in the rehab facility, but myparcera’sdamn stubbornness failed to hear the truth in my words.

I listen to my father wheezing for breath again.

“How soon will you stay on the island?”

“I’ll be leaving around nightfall.”

“To Colombia or Miami?”

“Colombia.”

As much as I’d like to return to Florida, I need to keep up this charade until the time is right.

“You’ve done well,mi vida,”he says thickly.“I’ll notify Vindicta of your excellence. Our Bratva comrades will be pleased. Message me when you’re back in the homelands.”

Home for him, but never for me.Colombia sold me nineteen years ago. She’s nothing but a liar and a disgrace.

“Feel free to leave a parting gift on the island of your choosing.” He sucks in another painful breath. His energy is almost spent. He’ll sleep for the rest of the day.“You have more than exceeded our expectations,mi vida,”he repeats huskily.

I couldn’t give a damn what they think. This is about me and an enemy, and a wrong he can never make right.

I’ve never been under any illusions about the type of man my father is. It just took me a little longer to see myself in his image. From the day he sought me out, I’ve accepted his evil. I’ve even understood it. When you’re betrayed by a blood relative, it changes the shape of your soul, and we recognized that in each other. It turned us both into ambush predators, who destroy their prey with stealth and cunning.

Hanging up, I lean back to inhale the smell of victory amidst the leather and cedarwood. There’s another scent underneath it, though. It’s one I wasn’t expecting—something sour and unpleasant.Hijueputa. What is that smell?

Regret.

I find myself thinking about Santiago and the tender way he comforted his daughter. The devil has many forms, but I never expected him to be a father. A husband. A friend.

He longs for light, even when he can’t escape the dark.

On cue, the sun re-emerges from the clouds above the pacific, flooding the office with dust dances and verity.