Blood Ties (Dinero de Sangre #2) - Lana Sky Page 0,46
a sound that might pass for a laugh were he anyone else. “In addition to a wealth of cutthroat allies and ‘associates,’ Carlos Domingas had two sons that he started training to replace him before they were even out of diapers.”
His tone prompts me to take another guess.
“Jaguar?” I ask.
He nods. “Julian and a younger brother named Juan. Under the alias, Jaguar, Julian has been amassing his own realm of influence over the ashes of what his father left behind.”
“And his brother? What about him?”
His eyes cut away from me, darker than ever. “Dead. Jaguar runs his little kingdom alone.”
“But what about you?” I recall a fragment of their conversation I overheard. “He called you little brother—”
“A sick attempt at a joke on his part,” Domino says, swatting away the insinuation. “He meant nothing by it.”
“So why me?”
He smiles, but there’s no warmth in it. With his teeth bared, the expression resembles a snarl. “You, Ada-Maria, are here only by the grace of God. That ‘car crash’ hit on your father was never intended to kill him, merely distract. It seems, however, that even Roy Pavalos can’t walk away from such serious trauma without a scratch. When it seemed like he might die after all, Jaguar had no use for you.”
It sounds so cold to hear him state it so bluntly, reducing my worth to my mere designation as the daughter of Roy Pavalos.
“He was tempted, you see, to let Tristan Lucas put his little plan in action to hog the glory of your apparent abduction and claim the vacuum left by the impending death of Roy Pavalos. He would have been a very useful pawn to have under Julian’s thumb. However, I managed to convince him to sever such sloppy loose ends.”
His tone deepens, devoid of all emotion. It’s how he sounded while conversing with my father, accepting any and every task he would hand down. I used to marvel at how one man could seem so detached from the world. From emotions. From everything.
And yet, I hoarded over every brief glimpse I managed to catch of the real creature lurking beneath that mask. Perhaps I fantasized so much about that hypothetical Domino that I lost sight of the stark reality of who he was. Who he’s always been.
A soldier following orders, with no moral compass of his own.
“He’s let me keep you merely to placate me for the time being,” Domino adds, bringing his mouth near my ear again.
We’re still floating through the water, my thighs resting against his hips, his hands still on my waist to hold me steady. I think this is the longest we’ve been so close.
Apart from during sex.
“Why?” I ask him hoarsely.
His brows furrow as he returns his gaze to mine. “Your father’s condition, though critical, is rapidly improving,” he says, ignoring that I’ve spoken. “Which means that your usefulness to Jaguar has just skyrocketed. He’s let me keep you for now because I’m shouldering the logistics of keeping you hidden from the manhunt searching for you, and he doesn’t have to take the risk. Yet. But trust me, Ada, he’ll come for you, and he won’t be your knight in shining armor.”
“And you are?”
He frowns at the slight, but seems to let it slide without comment. Instead, he shifts so that my back is to the outcroppings of rock. I can feel stray droplets of moisture speckle me from above, and the gentle hum of the water is even louder here.
“I have my own uses for you,” he admits.
Suddenly, he lifts me from the water, and I scramble for purchase, gripping a firm surface in return. With a start, I realize that he’s set me down on a rocky ledge while remaining in the water, in between my legs.
Through his lashes, his eyes seem even more intense than usual. He’s like some fucked up, masculine version of a merman, his damp hair clinging to his shoulders, body bare.
Without warning, he grabs my chin, balancing it against the palm of his hand.
When seconds tick by without him expounding on his statement, I once again get the feeling that he’s waiting for me to prod him for more. In this instance, he wants me to.
“What do you want?”
A dangerous smirk flits across his lips before a sterner expression replaces it. He’s scrutinizing me carefully, sizing me up by the time he’s done. And yet he’s not nice enough to voice his impression of me, out loud.
I have to guess from the way his fingers