Chapter 21
N avarro
I’d never considered myself a monster, although I’d been called that dozens of times.
Of course I knew I could be. The darkness deep inside had almost spiraled out of control a few times over the years. Through Rafael’s tutelage, I’d learned to control almost all my emotions.
Yet being around Fallon had tested every personal rule I’d learned, challenging every dark nuance in my mind. Let alone my patience.
Right now, I was uncontrollable as I’d ever been since losing everything that mattered to me. Sadness had been replaced with anger. Desperation with determination. Uncertainty with thoughts of revenge.
The shift in my mental state had done me well over the years, creating a perfect monster for the world to fear. I’d been able to take off the armor with ease to become the brother as wanted, the friend as needed, and the soldier as required.
Up to this point my life had been perfectly organized, laid out in such a way I could easily direct different aspects of my ruthless world, commanding soldiers without breaking a sweat.
Now here I was, staring at the face of the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on and wondering what the fuck I was going to do with her.
Sighing, I brought the glass of whiskey to my lips, holding the rim close before taking a swallow.
The scent of her sweet pussy lingered in my nostrils, the taste of her soft lips in my mouth.
I was incapable of being as angry with her as I should be.
Whether or not she had known about her past before her sister was kidnapped shouldn’t matter.
Yet it did.
Even in my world, timing was everything.
She sat with her legs crossed in one of the plush leather chairs, staring at the fire while rarely blinking.
We were both deep in thought and had been since she’d returned from taking a shower.
We’d confessed our knowledge, or maybe our sins.
We’d exposed a darkness we’d both been carrying like anchors of steel.
The silence and uncertainty between us had returned. Now it was completely unbearable. So much of me wanted to turn her over my knee again for keeping the truth from me. However, there was a part of me that understood why she had.
The truth should set us free, but I felt more lost than I had before.
I closed my eyes, hating the immediate images that derailed my ability to shove aside the burning questions and intense anger.
Visions and memories of my brother had been infrequent over the years, maybe a defense mechanism.
We’d been close, not just siblings, but best friends.
The age difference hadn’t mattered. He’d taught me more about being a kid than my father had.
Dad had always been working, slaving away so his family could share in the finer things in life.
Lucian had taught me how to play football, soccer to certain parts of the world. I’d shared in his love of fast cars and motorcycles. We’d even shared the same taste in women. I chuckled from the thought. He’d find Fallon a spitfire. I rubbed the glass across my lips, musing over the good times.
There were bad ones too, including his acts of overindulgence that had led to several brutal barroom brawls.
One had almost cost my brother his freedom. If it hadn’t been for Rafael Torres being friends with a high-ranking member of the police, Lucian would have spent time in prison. After that, my brother had become devoted to the man.
The memory of finding Lucian’s bloodied and broken body after Valentino Aldero’s betrayal of the Torres family would forever haunt me.
There would always be crime syndicates or cartels warring against each other.
There were always betrayals, but no one had suspected the Alderos would suddenly break a lucrative alliance.
They’d been friends, attending weddings and birthdays, and funerals.
That’s how I’d met Fallon when she was a little girl, a birthday party that had turned into a burial ground. She looked so different, but her eyes were the same, much like she’d said mine were. Now I could see traces of the girl in the woman.
The realization the past was being relived had taken a prominent place in my mind.
When I’d heard about her mother’s death, I’d been ecstatic. A stupid kid with nothing but vengeance on his mind. Only later had I hated the events that had spiraled out of control, the needless violence and deaths. So many murders. So much blood.
There was no longer any doubt Fassi had set the trap over a year before.
Maybe he’d never expected Jago to become even more ruthless than his father.
Or maybe he’d simply enjoyed the fucking game.
It didn’t matter. If I was right in my assumptions, Rafael had decided against disclosing a past experience with Fassi.
What I couldn’t do was accuse the man without proof.
In my mind, Fallon’s father held the key that would expose the lies.
If he’d run, he’d done so because he’d known the walls were closing in.
“I’m so sorry about your brother,” she whispered. Her voice held such sadness. “And your mom and dad.”
“Yeah, me too. My brother was a good guy, even though he’d chosen a life of crime.
Dad knew the risks and my mom was in love with my dad.
” I’d told Fallon as much as I’d been able to stomach about the past at her insistence.
Now I was angry I’d sullied the good memories of her father with ones that would forever haunt her.
The man called the Brain had been responsible for several deaths, something I’d learned much later after the carnage had settled.
A brilliant chemist who’d been brought into his brother’s cartel for several purposes, some of which weren’t unlike what he’d been hired to do by Eduardo. But her father had left the world behind. Or had he?
Salvatore Aldero met every criterion for being a true monster. The thought almost brought another laugh. Now there were criteria. Only a quarter monster. Another guy was three quarters. What did that make me?
An ache had formed behind my eyes. I could even still hear the anguish in Lucian’s voice as I’d held him in the minutes leading up to his death.
“I remember your sister now,” she said without looking at me.
“You do?”
“She was at the party I was at. Wasn’t she?”
I had to think about the timing. “You’re right, Maya was there.
I’d forgotten about that myself. She was so excited.
Rafael Torres had invited the kids of a few high-ranking soldiers to the birthday party.
” Since touching the scar, so many memories had surfaced, most of which I had never wanted to think about again.
“What angers me the most is that a fucking party had changed everything. It had been an alliance meeting of the two most powerful men in Spain. They’d been friends with plans of expanding into other countries, basking in their wealth and political status.
Yet it had been nothing but a lie. A fucking game being played by two savages who’d been playing each other, discovering their weaknesses. ”
“That’s terrible.”
Four fucking days after that party the nightmare had begun.
“It was tragic. So is what’s happening with your sister.”
“I remember Maya as being so pretty. I remember thinking that I loved her hair. She also had a great laugh. Just like you do.” Fallon pulled her glass into her hand, staring at the liquid. “Do you know what she said to me?”
“I didn’t know you two spoke.”
“You were busy,” she said, laughing in a stilted way. “I guess that’s when you were bashing in the brain of the man who hurt me.”
The asshole hadn’t just hurt her. She’d been too young to understand, but I’d seen what the fucker had done and had tried to do. A goddamn soldier working with Valentino Aldero, a vicious mafia Don who’d ordered my brother’s abduction.
And later his death.
Her uncle. Her father’s brother. The soldier had been assigned to protect the family, but had wandered off, finding Fallon, then a nine-year-old named Gabriella who’d wandered off after a fucking rabbit.
He’d stalked her, and after she’d tripped while running away, he’d attempted to rape her.
If I hadn’t heard her screams and found them, I couldn’t imagine what she’d have been forced to do.
At that point, the little girl had been half conscious.
You bet I’d fucking bashed his head in, pulverizing his skull with a rock.
Hit after hit, blood fucking everywhere.
I’d carried her like a baby in my arms to Rafael’s office through the back door. I’d dressed her wounds, ensuring she was alright before disappearing so she could be brought to her mother without questions being asked.
I’d done the right thing, but what if my actions of killing one of Aldero’s personal guards had set the stage for several massacres?
I rubbed my eyes as myriad thoughts clouded not only my memory, but my ability to make any decent goddamn decisions.
“What did your father tell you about what happened to your mother?” I asked, trying to broach the difficult, life-altering subject as gently as I was capable of doing.
“Only that she’d gone to heaven to be with the angels.
I didn’t find out until later she’d died in a car accident.
It took me several additional years to ask questions about her and why we’d suddenly moved from our home and to another country.
Up to that point, he’d pretended nothing had happened.
With Brooke being so young, I didn’t know what to do so I went along with it. ”
I slowly turned my head in her direction. “What did he say when you finally confronted him?”
“Trust me, my father was well versed in hundreds of subjects yet refused to talk about our family. I learned not to ask if I wanted to keep the peace in the house.”
“But you suspected something wasn’t right even while living an entirely different life in California.”