“And then our dreams grew. You helped me when I needed it a long time ago. You backed me when no one wanted a woman to step into my father’s shoes. You helped put me where I am today.”
“So?”
“So, I figure I owe you.”
Shock spilled through my core as I stared down at this powerful, brutal woman before me, the reputation of ruthlessness and sin which was wrapped so tightly around her cracking open just a little so that I could see the roughened edges of the girl I’d once played with beneath the baking sun.
“What do you want from me?” I asked and she shrugged.
“Tell me the truth of everything that happened. Right back to the night when you disappeared. Was the monastery burning linked to your disappearance?”
“I locked those devils inside the hell they had created for me within that holy place, and listened to their screams while they burned,” I replied with my chin high and no regrets in me over the act. “They were demons far worse than any being which they claimed lived within me.”
Carmen nodded like she’d expected that.
“And the money?”
“Hidden,” I grunted, unsurprised to find that she was seeking that.
“There are many rumours surrounding your disappearance, primo,” Carmen said slowly. “Of course, a lot of people believe you stole that money and ran from us, our boss included. But there have been whispers about the monastery burning, people denying your involvement because it made no sense to them for you to attack a place of God. Of course, you and I know that no god ever lived within the walls of that monastery, but to most, they have no idea about the truth of those women and what they did to you.”
“I hadn’t realised that you knew,” I gritted out, my skin prickling at the thought of her having known what I’d suffered with those women all those years ago.
“Your mother might have thought herself a pious woman, but she was no saint,” Carmen sneered. “She used to come begging at my father’s table for scraps often enough after your father was killed, using the fact that she was the mother to his nephew to plead for money and favours. She often complained of the demon in you and mentioned the work the nuns were doing to try and rid you of it. She never spoke of the details while in my presence, but between her words and my paying enough attention to you whenever I saw you in that church, I managed to figure it out. I tried to get my father to take you in once, begged him to claim you from her, and them, and all of it.”
“You did?” I asked in surprised because I knew well enough that her father had been far crueller than mine.
Her smile deepened, though something in her eyes hardened to steel. “He accused me of being your whore,” she replied. “Gave me ten lashes with his belt too. I bled for you, primo, but he refused to take you in all the same. I’m sorry for that.”
A frown carved its way across my brow as I realised that even back then when we had been hardly more than children, she had seen the suffering I endured and had understood that the brutality of her own household would have been preferable to it.
“I didn’t know,” I said uselessly.
“He’s long since dead now.” She shrugged and we shared a look which spoke of her secret surrounding her father’s demise and I held my tongue on any further comment. “And like I said, you helped me when I needed it, so I figured I could offer you my help in return now that I am in a position to do so.”
“How?”
“By telling my boss that I found you, locked up and tortured half to death, instead of running free and spending his money. We claim you were taken while trying to fight for him. I’ll say I lost the Alonsos and Raul Castillo while fighting to get you back. All we need is someone to blame.”
I blinked at her in surprise, wondering why on earth she would offer me this lie, this protection.
“If he ever found out that you lied-”
“It wouldn’t be the first lie we have shared,” she said dismissively, though we both knew the weight of that risk.
“What is it you’ll be wanting from him in exchange for this?” Niall demanded, and Carmen flashed him a knowing look, because of course this favour wouldn’t come without a cost.
“I’ll claim you as one of my men,” she said to me. “The ace up my sleeve whenever I have something to deal with which I can’t do myself. You won’t even have to leave this place if it’s where you prefer to be,” she added, seeing the way I tensed at the suggestion. “I am based in the states now, most of the time anyway. All I want is to have you on the end of the phone whenever I need someone with your skill set.”
I nodded slowly, understanding what she was asking of me and finding myself agreeing to it easily enough. I’d always enjoyed the hunt anyway. If she called me up from time to time with the name of someone who needed to disappear, then I could help with that easily.
“So, who is it that you plan to blame for taking me?” I asked, because that was the real sticking point in her plan. I could tell her the truth of my captivity with Niall, but I knew how Brooklyn felt about him, and I wasn’t fool enough to believe that she wouldn’t follow through on her threat to kill herself if something happened to him. He was hers, which meant I wouldn’t touch him, but that didn’t exactly leave me with another option.
“Oooh, we should blame Anastasia and her tits of doom,” Brooklyn suggested enthusiastically.
“That’s actually not a bad idea,” Niall agreed. “Not Anastasia specifically, but the Russians. Vlad is out for my blood at the moment anyway, and my pa keeps leaving me all these angry voicemails demanding I return to the family to help clear up the mess I’ve made. I think he still wants to forge a deal with them, but from what I’ve heard, it’s marriage or death for me when it comes to our Russian friends. Seeing as I have no intention to divorce my beautiful new wife, I’ve offered them up the challenge of delivering me my death. Sure would make my life easier if the cartel swooped in and killed them all for me though.”
I scoffed at his casual suggestion that we set the Castillo Cartel on the Russian mafia, but Carmen didn’t look so sceptical.
“The Russians have been causing problems for a while now,” she said thoughtfully. “They bicker over the price of their cut from our imports and blow smoke out of their asses, while trying to claim their own superiority all the time. I wouldn’t object to cutting them down a size or two.”
“Really? I had the idea that saves us all?” Brooklyn whispered excitedly and Carmen flashed her a look which wasn’t even hostile.
“I take it this is your true captor, primo? The way you stand before her tells me you would die a thousand deaths to keep her safe.”
I nodded stiffly, unsure if I should be trying to shield Brooklyn from her attention or not, but of course mi sol didn’t give me that option. She bounded forward excitedly, offering out a hand with blood still lodged beneath her fingernails and grinning widely.
“I’m Brooklyn with a B, nice to meet you.”
Carmen took her hand and shook it without so much as flinching at the blood, despite her own pristine appearance.
“You’ll have to return the money,” Carmen added, looking to me. “Assuming you still have it?”