Chapter 4
Matteo
“You thought bringing a Castillo into my office would be a good idea.” Felix had listened to my reasons and had Lili taken to the boardroom that he had meetings in, but now, he’d let his professional mask drop.
“We need the leverage. All Apá managed to accomplish was blowing up a near-empty building that belonged to the Castillos. Angel will send Omar to retaliate, and I don’t want to see any more of our territory fall to the likes of them.”
Felix’s face twisted in a snarl. The Castillos were a thorn in his side, regardless, but he truly hated Omar Castillo for taking my sister Lyse away from him.
Not that he was in love with my sister or any such romantic nonsense.
He’d wanted her when she was untouched, pure; the moment he’d discovered that Omar had gotten there first, he’d wanted Lyse dead.
It was sick. “I’ll put a bullet in that beast’s head.
” Felix’s eyes cut to me. “Or, rather, you will.”
I had become Felix’s personal assassin. More than just an enforcer, he dispatched me to mete out any sort of violence he deemed necessary.
Who knew local politics could get so goddamn bloody?
He had my balls in a goddamn vice, which kept me loyal because we both knew that he could turn me over to the police at any given time for any number of the things I’d been tasked to do.
And it kept the future mayor of Miami-Dade’s hands clean, the asshole. “Sí, jefe,” I said.
Felix sighed. “You say the right things, Matteo, but I can see the resentment in your face. I thought I’d trained that out of you.”
“Forgive me,” I said. “I didn’t think my father’s death would hit me so hard.
I’m…processing.” It wasn’t even a total lie.
It was impossible to think that I would never see my father again; I would never get the opportunity to tell him just how much of a piece of shit I thought he was or how much I wanted to be the one to put a bullet in his head.
“Process faster,” Felix commanded, as if it were that easy for me to shove away my emotions. “I can’t have you pouting at me like that.”
Fuck you. “Sí,” I said. “What would you have me do with Lili?”
Felix was quiet for a moment, thinking. “You’re right that we’ll need some leverage over her brothers.
Send them a video of her and arrange for a meeting.
I know Angel. He won’t be able to resist rescuing his precious baby sister.
He might even be willing to trade to get her back.
” Felix smiled, and it was cold. “Do you think he’ll give me Omar?
If I promise to send him back with most of his pieces intact? ”
Angel wouldn’t do that, and we both knew it.
Even when Omar had been sent into exile, the eldest Castillo wouldn’t let any harm come to him.
Not that Omar needed much in the way of protection.
When Jesus went to finish off La Bestia, Omar made sure that we had to have a closed-coffin funeral. “I’ll let you know what he says, jefe.”
“See that you do.” Before I could leave, he added, “Oh, and Matteo? Make sure that you impress a sense of…urgency in the Castillos.”
I didn’t have to ask his meaning: he wanted me to make Lili suffer so that Angel and Omar would come running. “Of course, jefe.”
I left Felix’s office as fast as I could, nearly tripping over one of his boxes of campaign shit as I went.
I fucking hated election seasons; there was a never-ending supply of signs and posters and leaflets sitting around.
They had boxes of it at the compound too: my mother had become something of a mascot for him, and he’d gone so far as to parade her around at one of his rallies as if she was some goddamn pony.
It gave me yet another reason to want the man dead.
The second I hit the hallway, my focus was on getting to Lili. The boardroom wasn’t too far from the office, but watching her being led away had made my stomach clench. It wouldn’t relax until I laid eyes on her again, I was sure of it.
But when I opened the door to the boardroom, Lili wasn’t there.
I clenched my jaw to keep from swearing out loud.
Felix liked to maintain an air of professionalism at all times.
He didn’t like swearing, even when he was having me break someone’s fingers with a hammer.
It had become a habit to tone down the language around him, and especially in his office space.
Despite the pulse pounding in my ears, I calmly started opening each door as I walked in the direction that Lili had been taken. I found her in an office a half dozen doors down from where she had been taken.
Lili was seated behind the desk, tapping away at a computer. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I muttered and shut the door behind me.
She glanced up at me. “Watching porn,” she said flatly. “What do you think I’m doing, pendejo?”
I had officially reached the end of my patience.
I crossed the room in three strides and dragged her out of the chair.
She yelped as I dug in my fingers. “Do you have any idea what would happen to you if anyone had seen you?” Lili tried to say something, but I didn’t want to hear it.
“Do you have some kind of death wish? Do? You?”
I expected Lili to get mad; I was ready for her to slap me or push me away. What I wasn’t ready for were the tears that welled up in her eyes. “I have thought about him every day for ten years,” she said almost inaudibly. “If there’s any chance that he’s alive, I need to know.”
My anger drained away, and I wrapped my arms around her, drawing her against me.
The last time I’d held her was the day we were told our son was dead, and my arms still remembered the shape of her perfectly.
“If he’s out there, we’ll find him,” I told her.
“But until then, I have to be able to keep you safe.”
Lili looked up at me. Her expression was cloudy, but she didn’t try to push me away.
“Why would you do that?” she asked. “We haven’t been anything to each other for a long time. Why would you bother?”
I brought my hand up to her face, cupping her jaw gently. “You know the answer to that, Lili.”
“I don't,” she insisted.
I couldn't tell if she was being deliberately obtuse or not. “Let me remind you.” I dipped my head and pressed my mouth to hers. Lili froze for a moment, and then she sighed, opening her lips for me.
Kissing Lili Castillo had always been an intoxicating experience. Time hadn’t changed that at all. I cupped the back of her neck and licked into her mouth; nothing else mattered but getting as much of her taste on my tongue as I could.