damn rope that was coiling around my organs, tearing them apart. “Your old lady gonna forgive you for that?”
Truth was, I didn’t fucking know. But she’d already forgiven me for worse . . .
Hush flicked his smoke to the ground, standing on it to put it out. With one last silent look, he walked back toward the clubhouse. The minute he was out of sight, I slumped to the ground. Back against the tree that was now stained with my blood, I closed my eyes and let the sun that was slicing through the trees warm my face.
I thought of Adelita sitting, waiting for her cousin to marry. Having her not show. Panicking when she realized she’d been taken by the Hangmen, Valdez, or whoever the fuck else her old man had pissed off. I blew out a breath. I didn’t fucking know what to do. I didn’t know how to be in this club with all this shit hanging over me. The woman who owned my heart, now the enemy. I had to protect her, but I had to protect my club too. And then there was my brother, my fucking little brother . . .
Needing something to think of that wasn’t this shit, I let the sun heat my face and thought back to Adelita. To the days when she made me lose my mind. The days when she started knocking down walls I thought would never be destroyed . . . especially by someone like her . . .
I sipped at my water. I needed whiskey like I was a damn alcoholic, but I hadn’t touched liquor since we’d arrived here a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t trust anyone here. Not fucking one of them. I was keeping my head straight, my eyes clear.
I glanced up at the sun. It was hot as fuck. And another day had come when my old man had kept me out of whatever he was planning with Quintana. Another fucking day where I had to sit around and count down the days when we got to go back to our Texan lands.
Beau: How is it?
Me: Shitty. How’s back home?
Beau: Same old same. Landry taking care of business. Be good to get you back.
Beau kept checking in while I was here. He didn’t trust Quintana; that was obvious. I’d give anything to be home. Instead I was here. In this hell.
Looking at the jokes that were Quintana’s guards, I barely heard the click of a door opening to my left. I froze when Adelita walked through, holding a book, dressed in a short see-through robe of some sort, showing off her tight body. Her black hair hung down her back in loose curls. Her eyes were covered with massive black sunglasses. She came toward me, her red high heels clicking on the path. I’d sat around the ridiculous-sized pool this morning hoping the bitch wouldn’t find me to drag me around with her. I was fucking done with being around her. Her husky voice grated on my nerves. I was twenty-seven. She was quite a bit younger than me. I’d guess late teens or early twenties. But somehow had every fucker here wrapped around her finger. She clearly thought she could do the same with me too.
Bitch was sorely mistaken.
The empty bottle of water crackled. I hadn’t realized my fists had clenched around it, cracking the plastic, until the noise echoed around the pool. And I didn’t realize my eyes had never left Adelita until she lifted her sunglasses and smiled at me. “Enjoying the view, Se?or Ayers?”
My lip curled as she waited for my response. “Don’t flatter yourself.” I turned my head, trying to ignore her. I had no idea why the fuck she even wanted to be around me. No, that wasn’t true—I’d guessed pretty quickly. She knew I didn’t like her. And she was just trying to piss me off.
And, despite myself, it was working.
Seeing her move in my peripheral, I turned, only to see her shedding her robe, revealing a red bikini underneath. If it could be called a fucking bikini. Adelita sat down beside me, on the lounger right next to mine.
I could smell that fucking perfume again. “I know what you’re doing,” I said, seeing that asswipe Vincente eyeing me from across the pool.
“Yes?” she said. “Care to enlighten me? To make me aware of my master plan?”
I turned my head to find her amused dark eyes already on me. “Yeah,” I hissed. “You’re trying