22. Vinnie
22
VINNIE
R aven’s beautiful face goes still, like she’s frozen mid-breath. For a second, she doesn’t say anything, just blinks, and I can see her processing the words. The light in her eyes dims.
I see shock, hurt, betrayal.
Her lips part slightly, like she’s about to say something, but nothing comes out. She just stares at me, her jaw tightening as if she’s trying to hold back a wave of emotions. A flicker of anger, too, a flash that she tries to hide, but it’s there, raw and sharp.
And then, just like that, she pulls back, as if I’m a stranger she’s never met, her face becoming a mask—closed off and unreadable. The silence between us is heavy, suffocating.
“It means nothing, Raven,” I tell her.
She shakes her head. “I thought you were supposed to marry Belinda.”
“Plans have changed. And not everyone is happy about them.”
“Myself included,” she says.
I grab her hands. “Raven, I love only you. I’ll never love anyone but you.”
“Yet how easy it was for you to marry another.” She snaps her hands out of mine and smooths them down her dress. “I should really get back to the gala. God knows what I must look like. I’m going to go to the ladies’ room.”
“You look beautiful.”
She grabs her clutch and takes out a compact mirror, examining her reflection. “I’m sure you kissed all of my lipstick off.”
“You don’t need lipstick, Raven. You’re perfect just as God made you.”
She throws the compact onto the floor, scattering tiny shards of glass around her. “God made me with hair, Vinnie! Then He saw fit to take it away.” She shakes her head vehemently. “No! I won’t let you make me go there. I made it through the storm, Vinnie. I won’t go back there. Not for anything. Not even for you.”
“Don’t you see?” I say. “You and I want the same thing then. I want you to live your life. Have a long happy healthy life that you deserve. I’d rather you have that, even if it’s not with me.”
“Well, you’ve made your point. It’s not with you. You’ve married someone else.”
“I told you it means nothing,” I say for the third time. “It’s business. Simply a business arrangement. Just like it was supposed to be with Belinda.”
She pushes my shoulders with more strength than I knew she had. “You’ve made your choice, Vinnie.”
“Yes. I’ve chosen you, Raven. I’ve chosen your life. You’re in danger if you’re anywhere near me. I shouldn’t have come in here with you. I should’ve been able to control myself.”
She sears her gaze into me with so much fire that I actually take a step back. “Why didn’t you? You’ve got a beautiful wife—younger and with more hair—who you could’ve satiated yourself with. You don’t need me.”
Christ. If only I didn’t need her.
Both of our lives would be so much easier. Less dangerous.
She has no idea what her father is up to. And I don’t know enough about it yet either, since I left Colombia in secret in the dark.
Perhaps Bellamy is being blackmailed. Forced into doing the cartel’s bidding.
His land is right on the border, a perfect place for mules.
Then again, he’s the heir to the Cooper Steel fortune. He has billions. He could stop the cartel if he wanted to.
Or maybe he couldn’t.
There is one thing money can’t buy.
It can’t buy life.
It can’t replace the person you love.
Which is the reason I’ve chosen to stay away from Raven.
And clearly I’m terrible at it.
“So how was she?” Raven asks.
“What?”
“Your hot little wife. What kind of a fuck is she, Vinnie? How does it feel to grab her long hair in your hands and yank on it as you sink yourself inside her?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “I told you it’s business only. I haven’t slept with her.”
She rolls her eyes. “Right. Because I’m just that gullible.”
“I don’t believe you’re gullible at all. I believe you have an incredible zest for life that most people don’t.” I run my hand up and down her arm. “You see things that most people don’t. That’s the opposite of gullible, Raven.”
She slaps my hand away. “You really expect me to believe you didn’t take that beautiful woman to bed?”
“I don’t expect you to believe anything.” I run my hands through my hair. “I can only tell you the truth. The truth is that I have not slept with Daniela, and I have no plans to. I’ve told you that it’s a business arrangement. She understands it as well as I do.”
She sighs. “I wish I could believe you.”
I cup her cheeks, stare into her beautiful brown eyes. “You can believe me, Raven. I haven’t slept with her, and I won’t. But that changes nothing between us.”
“Then what was this about then?” She gestures around the room. “You dragging me into this dark conference room? Fucking me? Kissing me?”
I let out a humorless chuckle. “I don’t seem to have any self-control when you’re around.”
“I suppose I don’t either.” Her lips twitch.
I close in on her. “Do you regret it?”
She presses her lips together. “Of course not,” she mutters. “I’ll never regret any of it, Vinnie.”
I want to tell her that I won’t either. Because in most ways I won’t, except for one.
I just hope this little tryst didn’t put her in any further danger.
I grab her by the shoulders and lean in, my voice lowered. “I need you to listen to me, Raven. Listen good. There’s a man at the gala tonight. A man who wants you dead.”
She gasps, darting her gaze around the room. “My father is here. Jared is here. My three brothers are here. Do you really think anyone will get near me? He’d have to go through all of them.”
“Those people can’t protect you if they don’t know who the threat is.”
“Then tell me who it is,” she says.
“I wish I could.” I frown. “The truth of the matter is that I don’t know for sure. I only know that a very bad man who I met in Colombia made a huge donation to your charity and a subsequent smaller payment to someone who I think might try to hurt you.”
She widens her eyes. “How much was the donation? I’ve been taking checks all night.”
“He didn’t make the donation tonight. He made it the day I left for Colombia. Fifty million.”
She slaps her hand over her mouth. “Oh, my God.”
I narrow my eyes at her. “So you’re aware.”
“That fifty million was sent to my attorney, Emily,” she says. “It was made anonymously, but then I got a call a week or so later from someone claiming to be the person who sent it. But I had no idea he might be in Colombia, or that he would have anything to do with you. He didn’t have an accent or anything.” She eyes me uneasily. “What was his name? The man who made the donation?”
“Daniela’s father. Jacinto Agudelo.”
She lets out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank God. The call was from a Mr. Smith.”
I grit my teeth. “A Mr. J. Smith?”
She bites her lip. “Jack Smith, yes.”
“And he’s here tonight?”
“He requested an invite. I couldn’t turn down the guy who made a fifty-million-dollar donation, Vinnie.”
I rub at my forehead. “And you just… believed him when he said he made the donation?”
“He knew about the donation. He knew it had been made directly to my attorney.” She crosses her arms. “I’m not a dumbass, Vinnie.”
“Has he checked in?” I ask.
“I have no idea. I haven’t met him yet.” She pulls out her phone and pulls up a file. “But I have the seating chart. I can tell you where he had dinner. I’ll send it to you.” She scrolls through her phone a second more. “Is he the one who’s been sending me texts?”
I raise my eyebrows. “You’ve been getting texts?”
“Yes. On my regular phone. I got a threatening text. But on that burner phone—the one the fake Uber driver gave me—I’ve been getting texts warning me. Warning me that I’m in danger.”
Damn. Austin Bellamy. He’s the one who was behind the Uber driver hijacking Raven. But Raven doesn’t know that.
Which means… Raven’s own father knows she’s in danger. He’s trying to warn her.
But of course he can’t let on how much he knows. Then she—and the rest of her family—will know of his involvement. Or at least suspect it.
I still have a lot of questions about Austin Bellamy. About his involvement with Diego Vega. About why Falcon went to prison. About who is buried underneath that old barn on their property. About his involvement with the cartels and “Operation Falcon.”
“Do you know who’s been sending the threatening texts, Vinnie? Because if you do, you have to tell me.”
It could be anyone. It could be Smith. Or Vega himself. It could be Agudelo. It could be McAllister. Hell, it could be Mario.
After tomorrow, though, Mario will be in my debt.
I have what he wants more than anything. And the cost will be his empire.