through my anxious body, my soul was peeking out, searching for what would end us.
“Silvia Cardenas sent me out to get you. She says she doesn’t intend to kill me, but I think she wants me clinging to false hope. She also says she needs to talk with me. It appears she’s not going to make her next move until we have that talk.”
He drew me back into the hug, but the loud clearing of a throat broke up our loving embrace. It was Silvia, standing fearlessly on the porch, although Arjen had men in the tree line that could have taken her out.
“I don’t like to be kept waiting. Will you two come inside?”
In the moment that he held me, Arjen had managed to make me forget that I had landed myself in the middle of Death Valley and had lured him there with me.
I clung to the hand that he wrapped around mine, and we faced our unknown path together. All that mattered at this moment, was that we were together. We took the steps and entered the house together.
“Khane, they didn’t take my weapons. Play this by ear,” Arjen said under his breath, talking to his brother through his earpiece. They were breaking so many syndicate rules that their actions could lead to even more chaos.
Silvia had already taken a seat in the big oversized white chair near the large couch that Corvel had been sitting on. She ushered her hand towards the couch, instructing us to come and sit.
As soon as we sat, the notion that something was sucking the air from the room hit me. The tension grew thick and heavy, causing me to squint my eyes and deepen the wrinkle in my forehead to concentrate.
A deep breath followed my moment of meditation. Arjen’s hand clamped around mine was the pulse in my lifeline. Although I sat at the mouth of death, my mind was determined, and with a strong mind, my mouth would not be silenced.
“Ma’am, I know what they call you. You don’t show up unless someone needs to die.”
“You’re not going to die, Mecca, not by my hands or anyone else’s if I can help it.”
“I don’t understand. I’m confused as fuck right now. Your men have been attacking and trying to kill me. I beat a man to death to find out that this cartel had hired him to kill me.”
“I don’t know who you’ve been fighting or killing, but it hasn’t been any of my men.”
Her words had a genuine edge to them. Corvel walked back in and sat beside her, nodding in my direction. I couldn’t tell if he was agreeing with her or urging me to accept her words as the truth.
I raked my fingers quickly through my hair, highlighting my confusion as Arjen sat in place, his eyes searching Silvia’s face for the same truth I was struggling to decipher. We didn’t have enough parts to this puzzle to connect the dots.
“I know things are confusing, and I’m well aware that you’re not going to stop until you’re standing face-to-face with the person responsible for putting this hit out on you.”
Silvia was talking like she truly didn’t intend us any harm. I sat fixed in my raging mind, but eagerness for her to shed light on the situation was biting on my nerve endings.
“I’m proud of the job you’ve been doing with the Black Saints.”
My head twisted in each direction, wondering who the hell she was talking to. Arjen’s fixed gaze made him appear as surprised by her compliment as I was.
“It’s not the career path I would have chosen for you, but knowing that you wanted to be like me gave me a sick sense of pride.”
How the fuck did she know I was patterning myself after her? Was it that obvious? Had Raymond told her that?
Her stare was pinned to my face, reading the confusion in my pinched expression.
“Yes, I have recently sent a few men to keep an eye on you. When I found out you were becoming a Vallin, it painted you as a bigger target, so I put eyes on you for protection, not for harm. And I can assure you, the men I sent didn’t get caught. The others I have deployed on your behalf have also been put in place to protect you.”
“What? How long have you been watching me?” The question was barely audible. Silvia’s words were out there now, they resonated, but I didn’t understand them.