Page 68 of Reckless Woman
I watch her plant a kiss on top of Thalia’s head, who is predictably gorgeous with a gazillion dark curls already.
I want that, I think.I want that more than I ever thought I did.
“Her birth was all kinds of dramatic.” Eve’s smile wavers. “I caught Viviana standing in the doorway staring at Ella right before. It really freaked me out.”
My stomach drops. “Did she try anything?”
She shakes her head. “Dante says he was having her watched the entire time, but of courseIdidn’t know that. It was a weird moment. She looked like she was part threat, part curious.”
“Joseph says she only made friends with me in Colombia to get to Santiago.”
“Perhaps…” Eve falls silent for a moment. “But even best laid plans get blown off course by other breezes. I imagine she didn’tplanto get raped by Fernandez’s men in that bar, or for you to save her the way you did. I doubt she intended to find any sort of a friendship with you at all.”
I think about a table in Colombia, two guns and a decision. Then I remember the sound it made as her men fired bullets into our motel bathroom door.
“Are you making up excuses for her?”
“No, not at all. Dante will find her and make her pay for what she did to you and Joseph, and I won’t be standing in his way. I’m just saying that someone else was tweaking her puppet strings, and you cut a couple in South America. You confused her. The fact that she even has the ability to feel that kind of emotion makes me feel sorry for her.”
“When did you get so goddamnwise?” I say in awe.
She laughs again, and switches Thalia to her other breast. “Not a lot else to do on this island except think…I had this weird dream, though.” She scrunches her face up at the memory. “I haven’t even told Dante about it yet.”
“What dream?”
“Emilio Santiago was in it...I heard his voice.”
“A voice can’t hurt us, Eve,” I reassure her. “Not when it’s coming from a dead man’s mouth.”
“It was coming from my father’s mouth.”
“Are youserious?” I’m shocked. I haven’t heard her mention him since his death. “Can you remember what he said?”
“Not really. I remember how he made me feel, though.” Thalia’s milk-drunk and comatose as she switches her to her shoulder and gently pats her back. “Scared for the future. Nervous…” Her gaze drifts toward the window. “What do you think it meant?”
“That your crazy pregnancy hormones were on the rampage again,” I say, rearranging the soft toys on the couch next to me into size order, feeling a little uneasy myself.
“I killed him, Anna,” she says quietly. “I killed Emilio Santiago, and I don’t regret it, either.” She nuzzles into Thalia’s little body. “It’s a shitty, awful thing to admit to when you’re holding pure innocence in your hands.”
“Sometimes we make choices we never thought we’d consider,” I say, thinking of the men I’ve killed myself. “Fate conspires like a wicked domino queen and we all fall down.”
“Now who’s the wise one,” she teases, buttoning up her dress.
There are heavy footsteps on the stairs. Joseph appears in the doorway, filling the space with six-foot-two of tan Texas granite. There’s a bleeding gash across one eyebrow and his top lip is split, but his gray-blues are calmer seas than before.
“I came to say ‘hi’ to the new arrival.” He leans against the frame and crosses his arms, and I find I can’t drag my eyes away from him.
“Does she still have a father?” says Eve lightly.
The corners of his mouth quirk. “He’s downstairs fixing what’s left of his face.”
“You know why he kept the truth from us, don’t you?”
There’s a pause. “Yeah, I know.”
But I don’t.
I swing my gaze between them, but no one wants to enlighten me.