Javier’s hands chilled the back of Cora’s neck as he guided her ahead of him. Her crutches click-clacked against asphalt; they’d driven in a golf cart what felt like close on thirty minutes, winding through Javier’s compound as they headed further and further away from the villa, before reaching their destination.

Here, a small parking bay had been laid out in front of a pair of wide gates that blocked whatever was behind them. Natural rock formations created a rough wall that spread out to both sides. Those gates rattled slightly; a wind had picked up on the last few minutes of the drive, as if the lack of any human structures teased Mother Nature into a playful mood.

When Javier’s sicarios unlocked the gates using an electronic keypad, a dry wave of heat slammed into Cora.

There were a pair of cameras on poles beside the gates. They turned a little when Javier led her forward.

A chain link fence lay straight ahead, with another gate and more cameras. Again, Javier’s men opened the gate for them, but this time they didn’t follow Javier when he herded her inside. There was a short flight of concrete steps leading to a platform. But Cora couldn’t look away from what lay beyond. The size alone was too staggering to comprehend.

Row upon row of white flowers in an endless sea of sage-green.

She’d never seen poppies before, but that was all they could have been. Nothing else made sense. There were metallic structures built along the rows, as if screens could be pulled over the rows of plants to protect them from the sun, the rain…or DEA agents flying by in helicopters.

A railing spanned the length of the platform and both sides of the stairs. When she felt cool steel beneath her hands, she realized she’d grabbed hold of the railing for balance.

“Your father was never fully upfront with you.” Javier released the back of her neck and came to stand beside her. He gripped the railing too, but his face was carved with a pride so deep it made his eyes sparkle when he turned to her.

The air out here was so warm, but so dry.

She couldn’t speak, could only watch as Javier turned back to his crop. In the far distance, she could see figures moving about, but they were mere specks in a sea of white and green.

“He was always too old fashioned, your father. When we were starting out, we smuggled weed and coke over the border, like everyone else.”

Javier glanced at her, then at the crutches. He took them away from her, resting them against the railing and drawing her closer with an arm around her shoulders.

Like a proud father displaying to his daughter the expanse of their kingdom.

His voice dropped low. “But these days, you don’t need a drug dealer to buy weed. You just go to a dispensary. And cocaine?” He shook his head, jarring her slightly. “Coke has to come all the way from Columbia or Peru. You can’t grow it in Mexico’s climate, or this.”

He waved a hand to the poppies. A wind swept over the crop as if he’d beckoned it into motion, the flowers dancing like a Mexican wave. A few petals began falling, shed from the seed pods they were obscuring, and these fluttered in the wind like snow.

“But heroin…everyone wants heroin.” Javier’s voice was a low murmur now.

Cora could feel excitement coming off him like pheromones. It made goosebumps break out over her skin.

It was so quiet here. No sounds except the wind. So quiet, she could hear him breathing. Would anyone hear if she screamed? Would the two sicarios waiting outside the chain link fence hear it if she did? Or had Javier instructed them to stay outside no matter what?

Javier’s arm became heavier as he lifted his fingers and began stroking her shoulder. She swallowed, glanced at him under her lashes. But he was staring down at the poppies, perhaps not even realizing what he was doing.

“They’ll be ready for harvesting in a few days. Our first shipment soon thereafter.”

He looked down at her then, catching her staring at him. Taking her other shoulder in his hands, he turned her to face him and drew her close until there was no more room between them. His body was warm, firm, richly scented with cedarwood.

Her heart began pounding.

Javier slid his hands into the crook of her neck, and stroked her jaw with his thumbs. “So young. So beautiful. Birthed into a power you can’t begin to imagine.”

He must have seen the question in her eyes. He smiled beatifically as he smoothed her hair over her scalp.

“You just became the queen of a drug empire so vast, Pablo Escobar would be kneeling at your feet.”

What the hell was she supposed to say to that? The best she could come up with was a mumbled, “But…I…I don’t want—”

Javier released her, and lifted a finger in the air to silence her. Strange—he was only wearing one of his rings today. His hands looked surprisingly slim without them. He put a hand in the breast pocket of his linen suit and drew out her Taurus.

“A queen should never go unprotected,” Javier murmured, twisting the gun so the light caught on its inscription.

Then he reached around her waist. His fingers skimmed her skin as he lifted the back of her shirt.

She shuddered involuntarily as the cold steel of her pistol slid down her spine and nestled in the small of her back. Javier’s face was so close, she could taste the sweetness of his breath.

He turned his head to her. She closed her eyes, fully expecting that full mouth to brush her cheek, her lips, her throat.

Instead, he whispered into her ear. “But if you ever try to kill me with this, I will flay your lovers alive.” He drew back, a twinkle in his dark eyes. “Which will seem a pleasure compared with what I’d do to you.”