The Viper (Untamed Hearts #1)(41)

She eyed her phone, unsure how she felt about Marcos talking for her. “How come you’re so bossy?”

“You know you like it, chica.” Marcos sounded completely unapologetic as he buried his face against her neck. “Do you still want him? You miss sex on a towel with that little prick?”

“No,” she said without hesitation as she sat there wrapped up in Marcos’s arms and glaring at her phone. “But I can handle my own issues.”

“Obviously not.”

She just yawned in defeat rather than argue, knowing she wasn’t going to change him. She didn’t really want to, even though she thought she had enough of controlling men to last her a lifetime. She supposed the difference was, Marcos was controlling, but he always seemed to have good intentions. Grayson was completely self-serving.

He tugged on a strand of her hair and whispered in her ear, “Sleep.”

And damn if she didn’t listen to him.



Katie had a real quiet way of sleeping. Peaceful. No snoring. No nightmares. Just soft little puffs of breath that hit Marcos’s arm while he held her and looked at his phone, trying to will away the storm of adrenaline the fight with Chuito had caused.

If he was going to be here a whole week, he was going to have to work out. There wasn’t enough sex in the world to shake off this much furious energy.

Maybe they should just take Jules Wellings’s suggestion and beat the shit out of each other in the cage at the Cellar. Marcos still fought in the underground circuit at home under the name Viper. He wasn’t a UFC champion, but it had also been a very long time since Chuito had fought underground. The rules weren’t there to protect you in the matches Marcos fought in, as he’d proved today when Chuito tried to make the drop on him.

Of course, Marcos still had his ass handed to him.

As if he didn’t have enough problems, Angel had been texting him. A lot of Los Corredores had been trying to get ahold of him. Everyone wanted to know where he was, considering he’d showed up at the warehouse and then disappeared off the face of the earth. He’d been ignoring them until the last text popped up as he held a sleeping Katie.

Stopped by your tía’s today. She said you’re visiting Chuito. Why didn’t you just tell us, bro?

Marcos stiffened, reading the text again as his pulse pounded in his ears. Angel went to his Aunt Sofia’s house. He read that as a thinly veiled threat, and it made him more than a little apprehensive.

He should have never agreed to a week with Katie.

Hell, he shouldn’t have left Miami to begin with.

He got the impression that he was being sent a message. He grew up with Angel. It was hard to imagine Angel actually taking out a hit on Marcos’s aunt, but he also didn’t trust him anymore. The possibility was there, and Marcos was a very long drive away. He was tempted to call Chuito despite the fight, because his pull in Los Corredores had always been much stronger than Marcos’s, who never had any inclination to be a leader. His cousin, on the other hand, had been running Los Corredores before he took off to Garnet and turned the job over to Angel. Most of the OGs, original gangsters, still had loyalty to Chuito first, especially now that he was killing it in the UFC.

His cousin was practically a god to Los Corredores, and Marcos was starting to suspect Angel hated that. That was why he was always buying out tickets to the fights, putting himself in Chuito’s face and reminding him that he still had power over him. Making it seem as if Chuito was somehow in that cage for his entertainment.

Marcos was starting to feel like a pawn too—another way for Angel to remind Chuito he was in charge now. He could put up with a lot of shit, but being a pawn against his cousin wasn’t one of them. He’d take himself out before he let that happen.

He slipped his arm out from under Katie, watching as she rolled toward him, as if unconsciously seeking him out when he pulled away. He waited until she settled on her back, and studied her for a second before he let himself out of the bedroom. He found his jeans by the couch and pulled them on.

He needed to get outside. To see the stars and clear his head. He grabbed Katie’s keys off the table and put on his shoes. He walked out the door shirtless, and the cold night air smacked him in the face.

“?Me cago en ná!” he cursed as he locked her front door. “Spring break, my ass.”

He had parked his truck in the garage, because he didn’t want Katie’s neighbors to see it in her driveway. The garage was off from the main house and had a back door that Katie left open.

Of course she did.

He rolled his eyes as he got into the cab of his truck and grabbed his jacket that he’d tossed back there. He slipped it on and then walked down the street. There weren’t many houses on the block, but he decided to keep his voice low when he called Angel. People here would probably call the cops on his ass just for walking and talking on the phone.

Angel answered on the second ring. “?Hola?”

“Who told you it was okay to go to my aunt’s house?” Marcos growled in Spanish.

“Hey, bro, take it easy. Paranoid much? Sofia was happy to see me. It’d been too long. I need to visit her more often.”

Marcos stopped walking. He hadn’t been wrong.

It was a threat.

“You don’t get to say her name,” Marcos warned him.

“Always so confrontational, Marc.” Angel sighed. “It’s getting old.”