Chapter 3
Lili
“Walk me through this plan of yours again,” I said as we climbed into Matteo's blacked-out SUV. It was so similar to Omar’s that I froze when I saw it.
“I’m going to tell Felix that I found you outside of Elíseo after the explosion; we can use you as leverage against your brothers. That allows us to remain on the offensive instead of waiting for your brothers to strike back for the bomb.”
Right. Yeah. I loved being leverage. It worked out so well for Lyse, Matteo’s sister who was now my sister-in-law.
It didn’t go horribly for her either, I reminded myself.
Lyse was so in love with Omar that it was actually nauseating…
and being this close to Matteo reminded me of when I used to be exactly the same way.
“You’re sure that he won’t just kill me? ”
Matteo glanced at me, and those pale blue eyes of his sent a shiver through my limbs.
When Matteo began his life as the Rojas enforcer, it was something of a joke to my brothers, but his years under Felix had turned him into a formidable man.
He was as tall as Angel and nearly as broad as Omar, but his face was more delicate than either.
Though I had heard enough stories to know that having a pretty face didn’t stop someone from breaking a man’s neck with his bare hands.
“I won’t let that happen.”
I hated how much I ached to believe him. Matteo had never been anything but incredibly honest with me; it was the thing I loved the most about him. But I couldn’t trust that time and his particular tutelage hadn’t ripped that honesty out of him.
“You hate him, don’t you.” It came out as a statement rather than a question and I half-expected him not to answer me.
“I hated both of them. Felix for what he did to my father, and my father for what he did to Lyse.”
“So, why stay?”
He scoffed, and I saw his hands tighten on the steering wheel. His knuckles were blanched white. “Why do any of us do anything?” he countered. “I was born to take over for my father. You were born to be a pawn to achieve more power for yours.”
I ground my teeth together for a moment. “Gustavo is dead,” I said. “Angel would never do that to me.”
Matteo outright laughed; it was a cruel, mocking sound. “Dame pan y dime tonto,” he said. “No one who has that much power is above anything.”
“I think I know my brother better than you, pendejo.”
Matteo gripped the steering wheel again. “I think there’s a lot you don’t know about your brothers, mi cielito.”
Rage exploded in my belly. “Call me that again, and I’ll—”
“You’ll what? Slap me again? I told you what would happen if you did.” He switched lanes, weaving through traffic. “You got in my car, Lili. I could do anything to you, and your brothers would call you a fucking moron for it. You and I both know that.”
He was right. I’d gotten rid of my phone so that my brothers couldn’t track me.
I’d willingly gotten into the car of a Rojas in the belief that our past connection was enough for me to trust him.
My hands trembled, and I clasped them, trying to hide it.
“So, you’d hurt the mother of your child? ” I asked. “You really have changed.”
Matteo made a sound in his throat that was somewhere between a laugh and a growl. “I’m Felix Suarez’s right-hand man. I earned that position, make no mistake about that.”
I pushed myself as much against the door as I could and looked out the window.
At one point in my life, I had imagined running away with Matteo to raise our baby together.
Now, I wanted to be as far from him as I could get, which didn’t make a lot of sense to me.
I’d seen the amount of devastation my brother, Omar, could create, so why was hearing this from Matteo bothering me?
Far too soon, Matteo was turning into a parking garage of one of the downtown high rises.
As soon as we parked, a shift came over him.
His face became harder; his expression difficult to read.
When we got out of the car and started for the elevator, he took me by the arm, his fingers digging in painfully, reminding me of the scratches and bruises I’d gotten from being thrown by the shock wave.
He’s just playing the part, I told myself. I’m supposed to be a captive. But Matteo wasn’t talking, and as he dragged me onto the elevator and jabbed the button for one of the top floors, real fear sparked in my belly.
We got off the elevator, and men were nodding to Matteo. “Jefe,” one greeted him as we passed. His eyes went round when he got a look at me. “Is that—?”
“Felix is in, right? He didn’t have anything major scheduled today?”
The man nodded. “Ivy just took him lunch.”
Matteo dipped his head in acknowledgment and then pulled me along after him.
“Speak only when spoken to,” he muttered to me as we approached the office suite at the end of the hall.
A woman with white-blonde hair was seated at a desk beside the door; her eyes flickered to Matteo, and she smiled brilliantly.
“I didn’t know you were coming in today,” she all but cooed. Something ugly balled up in my stomach, and I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from saying something flippant in return.
“Gotta talk to the boss man,” Matteo replied in a smarmy voice. The idea of him flirting with this woman made me feel ill, which was absolutely irrational given that I hadn’t laid eyes on the man in nearly a decade. “I’ve got a special delivery.”
Her eyes slid to me, and if I thought I’d see sympathy or anything of the kind, I was dead wrong. Her whole face shuttered. “Matteo, is the office really the place to be bringing people like her? He’s running for mayor, for fu—goodness’ sake.”
She thought I was a prostitute. I was standing in front of her in a torn dress, bruised to hell and back, and she thought I was some kind of sex worker. What a fucking moron. Despite myself, a flush spread across my face; I could feel the heat in my cheeks. “Go fu—”
Matteo’s fingers dug into my arm, five points of deep, aching pain, and I winced.
There was no way he wasn’t going to leave even more bruises on my already sore skin.
“Shut up, puta,” he all but growled at me.
“I need to see Felix, Ivy,” he said, dropping his “nice guy” voice now, and I could feel goose bumps break out on my skin.
She nodded. Color was forming in the apples of her cheeks: I couldn’t tell if she was frightened or somehow turned on watching him brutalize me. “Go on in,” she said. “Do you need anything?” I noticed she didn’t include me in that question.
“We’re fine,” he grunted, and then we were going through the wooden door that bore Felix Suarez’s name.