The Vargas Cartel Trilogy (Vargas Cartel #1-3)(58)

Stunned, I didn’t respond immediately, but then I saw the sincerity in his face, and I believed him. “I haven’t decided. I don’t know if she’s worth the hassle. My life is complicated.” My stomach revolted, hating my answer, and I clenched my jaw, biting back the emotion. She was worth that and more, but the layers upon layers of lies and an impenetrable wall of complications stood between her and me.

“So that’s what you’re telling yourself.” Ignacio shook his head, his eyes distant. “I didn’t go after your mother. I regretted it.” He combed his hands through his salt and pepper hair. My dad looked old and tired, no longer the larger than life man I remembered from my youth. I had been so caught up in my attraction to Hattie, I barely noticed. “I still do, every day. She was the love of my life. Time and distance can’t alter true love.”

Ignacio had closed the door before I formed a response, as though he hadn’t turned my world upside down. My mom never found someone to love after she walked away from my dad. She lived in the past rather than the present, constantly reliving memories rather than creating new ones. All the while, Ignacio had a family, abundant wealth, and an army of servants.

She never complained, though. In fact, she always said she’d rather live alone than be a mistress or spend her life with someone she didn’t love. I shook my head to clear the emotional turmoil bubbling under the surface.

“Good evening, Mr. Vargas.”

“Thanks for changing your plans, Javier. I hate dragging you away from your wife and kids so early in the morning, but I have a flight to catch.”

“No problem, sir. I understand.”

I opened my laptop and scanned through my email. Fuck. I forgot about my afternoon meeting with Rever. “When you drop me off at the airport, call my brother and tell him my plans have changed. Ignacio wanted me to debrief him today, but I need to be in D.C. by this evening. He’ll have to do it himself.”

“Of course.”





Chapter One




Hattie



“Hattie, baby.” Evan’s arms circled my waist. “You’re safe.”

“I’m safe,” I answered weakly, my hands hooking like talons into the hem of my dress. The idea of reciprocating his embrace twisted my stomach into knots. I didn’t feel safe. I felt alone, adrift. Ryker had severed every last rope tethering me to reality.

Evan’s fingers tangled in my hair and he lifted my face, forcing me to look him in the eye. Guilt heated my cheeks like a scarlet letter. Shuttering my thoughts, I grudgingly held his soul-searching gaze. One of his hands trailed down the side of my face, along my jaw, and pausing over the mark Ryker left on my neck last night.

“What’s this?”

A mixture of guilt, shame, and anger pumped through my veins. I bit the inside of my cheek and inhaled through my nose, pushing away the kaleidoscope of emotions. “I don’t know. I’ve been drugged, tied to a chair, choked, cut by a knife, shot at, locked in a room, and that’s just naming a few of the things that happened over the last few weeks. Do you plan to inventory all my injuries on the side of the highway, or can it wait?”

He withdrew his hands and backtracked a few steps. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m just glad I have you back. The rest will sort itself out.”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “Can you get my suitcase out of the trunk?”

“Sure.” He grabbed my small, blue hard-shelled bag and transferred it to his car.

“What are we going to do with that car?”

“Leave it on the side of the road.”

He opened the back door of the car, and I slipped into the seat, pressing my body as snugly as possible to the opposing door.

“Hattie, I missed you,” he said after ten minutes of painful silence.

He draped his arm over my shoulder and his leg pressed against the length of mine. We’d sat like this at least a hundred times in the past as some faceless driver chauffeured us to and from an event for his father or some charity function. This time, however, our proximity felt stilted and uncomfortable. Evan felt it too. His body was stiff against mine, and lines bracketed his thinned lips.

“I’m sorry I snapped at you. What happened to me wasn’t your fault.”

He didn’t abduct me. He didn’t reject me. He didn’t kick me out of his life and tell me to be with someone else. Ryker did. Yet somehow, I couldn’t summon any hatred. He sent me away because he cared about me. It was the only ending possible, but the knowledge didn’t stop my heart from dying a little with every growing mile between Ryker and me.

“You can lash out at me. I can take it. Whatever you need me to be, I’ll do it.”

He squeezed my hand. “If you need someone to be your punching bag, then I’m your man.”

Sobs split through my lips, and hot tears burned like lava down my cheeks. My chest felt hollow. My head throbbed. I couldn’t take this. Any of it. I didn’t want Evan to be nice to me. He should hate me. I hated myself. He would hate me too if he found out what I did with Ryker.

“Shh,” Evan whispered, pulling my head against his shoulder. “Don’t cry. Remember what I said when you called me?”

“About wanting to be together again?”

“Yes.” He stroked the back of my head. “I don’t care what happened in the past, and by the past, I mean everything before we got in this car together.”