was unconscious? Without my consent?”
I wait for her to process because yes, of course I did. Who wouldn’t have done that?
“In what world do you think that’s okay to do?” she asks.
“My world.” I answer simply and honestly.
“Of course. You would. Why am I surprised?” She shakes her head, grits her teeth. “Why didn’t you just ask me if he touched me? Did that even occur to you?”
“I wanted to be sure.”
“What did you think? I’d lie to you?”
“You might. You might feel embarrassed.”
“You should have asked me. You violated me by doing such a thing without my permission.” She spins to walk away but I catch her by the arm.
“You’re my wife. I have a right to know.”
“I’m your wife in name only.”
I feel my eyebrows arch. “I don’t think so. I thought I made that clear this morning, Little Kitten.”
“Back to that again?”
“You prefer Fury?”
“I prefer my name. Scarlett. Just Scarlett.”
I smile, wrap my hand around the back of her neck and pull her to me. Leaning closer, I bring my face to hers and inhale her scent. My soap. My shampoo. I like it on her.
“I can still taste you on my tongue, Scarlett,” I say, my voice low and deep in the quiet night.
Her eyes go wide, and I can’t help but laugh. She shoves at my chest, but I don’t let her go.
“You’re my wife. Period.”
She stops pushing. “You said you’d let me go when this is done. You’d let Noah go.”
I did. I remember. “It’s not over yet, is it? To bring it up is premature.”
“Does that mean you still will?”
I study her. Cerberus barks once, coming toward us with a stick he’s found washed up on the shore. Grateful for the interruption, I bend to take it from him and toss it for him to retrieve before turning back to Scarlett.
She looks pretty in the moonlight. I like that she doesn’t wear makeup. She’s just herself.
When she turns to find me watching her, she folds her arms across her chest and opens her mouth. I speak before she can.
“I haven’t asked you my question yet,” I say.
She shakes her head. “I’m all ears.”
“Why didn’t he touch you? He had the opportunity. I saw his face on the boat, not that I’d need proof to know, he hates you as much as he hates me. Maybe more. It makes no sense that he didn’t touch you.”
Her forehead wrinkles and she rubs it, then meets my eyes. “He wasn’t allowed to.”
“Ah.”
She raises her eyebrows.
“I spoke with Felix Pérez today.”
“Felix?”
I nod.
“Do you really think he’s taken over the cartel? I’m telling you, Cristiano, he wasn’t capable.”
She’s wrong on that.
“What did he say?” she asks.
“He claimed not to know about Jacob’s death. Although he didn’t seem all that bothered by it. And he swore he had nothing to do with your kidnapping.”
“But you don’t believe him?”
“No. And I still don’t have one piece of the puzzle.”
“Who gave up the location of the house.”
I nod.
Scarlett’s forehead wrinkles. “From what I remember, Felix was never that clever.”
I give her a one-sided grin, wrap my arm around her waist and turn her. “The ones you don’t think twice about, who fly under the radar, they’re usually the most clever, Little Kitten.”
The wind picks up as if eavesdropping on our conversation. Scarlett shudders.
I shift my arm to wrap it around her shoulders and whistle for Cerberus.
“Let’s go to bed, Scarlett. I want to feel you beneath me again.”
12
Scarlett
I’m trying to wrap my brain around Felix Pérez taking over the cartel. Maybe I don’t remember him correctly. I was pretty young, I guess. I just can’t imagine it. He was more like an annoying bug that keeps buzzing by your ear. I remember neither of my parents liked him. But I’m not sure they liked Jacob either. I know my mom didn’t. She didn’t trust him, and my dad didn’t trust anyone who wasn’t blood. Even though Jacob took on the De La Cruz name, he was and always would be an outsider. And Felix marrying Jacob’s daughter, his niece, meant nothing to my father.
I think about that. About only trusting your own blood. That got my father killed. Blood is overrated.
“Cristiano,” I start once we’re upstairs. “Are you sure about Felix?”
He closes the door behind us. “I’m sure of one thing at the moment,” he says, unbuttoning my coat and slipping it off. He does the same with his and tosses them over the back of a chair. He spins me