Victor lay on his side with his elbow bent, chin resting in his hand as he watched Valentina sleep. He lightly trailed a fingertip over her forehead to the tip of her nose, then along her lips. She turned her head restlessly and smiled faintly against his touch. He lightly tapped her chin before laying his hand over her bare breast, closing his eyes as her heart beat against his hand. He wasn’t sure how it had happened, but he was a man captivated by his soulmate.

How many other men had fantasized about being alone with her like this. He was the only one who would ever know what it was like to have every inch of her laid out before him for his pleasure. He was the only man who had the balls to capture and keep her. What other men had only fantasized about, he had done.

He knew she was struggling to come to terms with her new life and his role in it. But her struggle was with herself, not with him. He just wondered how long it would take her to see it.

The ringing of his cell phone pulled Victor from his reverie. He rolled onto his back and grabbed the phone off the nightstand, his voice barely audible as he expressed his displeasure. “Are you kidding me? Tony, what the fuck do you want?”

“We’ve got serious problems, bro. Meet me downstairs and I’ll fill you in on the way to the studio.”

“Fuck.” Victor ended the call and reluctantly eased his body from the bed to throw on jeans and a t-shirt. It wasn’t what he typically wore but he could tell by Tony’s voice something important was going on.

“Where you goin’?” Valentina asked sleepily, rolling over onto her stomach but not bothering to open her eyes.

He chuckled and bent down, pressing a kiss to her cheek. “You’re married to a gangster, baby, late nights go with the territory.”

“We’re not married.”

“That’s my girl. You keep telling yourself that.” He patted her ass, gave it a good squeeze, and headed for the door. He had his hand on the doorknob when he had second thoughts that took him back to their bed. With a devilish grin, he leaned down and whispered in her ear, “Keep this warm for me, baby.” He smacked her ass hard enough to earn an indignant squeal as he sauntered to the door.

Seconds later, he was bounding down the stairs like a teenager. Valentina had put a spring in his step he’d never had before. They weren’t married yet but they sure as fuck would be; he’d make sure of it.

Victor and Tony were silent as they left the house and walked toward Tony’s truck where it was parked out front. Neither of them spoke until Tony was preparing to pull out onto the main road. Victor got right to the point.

“What the fuck is going on, Tony?”

Tony checked for traffic as his brother huffed impatiently. “Hey, just because it’s three in the morning doesn’t mean there’s no traffic. Safety first,” Tony muttered.

“If you don’t tell me what the hell is going on and why I’m not still in bed next to a warm, naked woman, I’m going to wring your fucking neck.”

“You never were one for patience, but anyway, speaking of wringed necks, an actress was murdered at the studio tonight.”

“What the fuck?! Who?”

“Estrella. That’s not the worst of it either. There was a message written on the dressing room mirror in blood red lipstick.”

“A message?”

“Well, more like a love note, as weird as that sounds: For you, Valentina. Dad told me that you mentioned she had been worried about someone stalking her back in Guatemala. Looks like her stalker may have followed her here and is killing people now, trying to impress her.”

“We don’t know that, Tony. I’m not assuming anything. There’s a lot of unrest within the Sinaloan cartel. This could be one of their people trying to fuck with us. I’m not assuming anything.”

“Yeah, well, as they say, ‘the writing is on the wall’.”

Victor’s brain went into damage control mode like it always did when it was likely law enforcement was going to start nosing around in matters that didn’t concern them. “We’ve got to get ahead of this. Who found her?”

“The security guard.”

“After she was dead. If he’d been doing his fucking job he would have caught the guy coming in and saved her life. I never had much use for Estrella myself, she seemed like a conniving bitch most of the time, but she didn’t deserve to go like that.”

“Since when did you become Mr. Mercy?”

“Hey, fuck you. I’ve got a soft side.”

That threw Tony into a fit of laughter. When he finally got a grip on the fact that his brother actually had a merciful bone in his body, he got serious. “I’m already ahead of this, we’ve got an FBI agent on payroll--”

“Jericho. The guy who owes Glazov a favor, right? Yeah, I know the story, Glazov took out the trash and saved Jericho’s wife from going to prison after she killed a man.” A wicked smile curved Victor’s lip up in what looked more like a snarl. “I’ve always said women are more treacherous in matters of business.”

“You better keep an eye on yours then.”

“I’ve got more than my eye on her, or at least I did until you fucking called and cockblocked me. But this changes everything; I’m putting a chip in her ass—well, more like her shoulder.”

That elicited another laugh from Tony. “Fuck, man, you have got to be kidding me. Are you sure you’re not Dad? That is so something he would try to do.”

“Does this look like the face of a man who is kidding?” Victor drawled.

“No, actually you look like a biker with the jeans and those shit kicking boots.”

“I’m eclectic. What can say?” Victor shrugged and although it was meant to be funny, both men knew it was true. They were both chameleons and could adapt to any culture or circumstance thrown at them.

They pulled into the parking lot next to the studio and immediately noticed the guard standing sheepishly by the door. Tony turned quickly toward Victor to warn him to keep his cool, but Victor was out of the truck before it had even come to a stop.

“Oh, fuck.” Tony gave a long-suffering sigh as he cut the engine and raced after his brother, who was in the process of beating the shit out of the guard.

In between brutal punches to his face, the guard was choking out agonized apologies. “I’m sorry, sir, I fell asleep.”

Victor stopped abruptly and stepped back. The guy visibly relaxed when Victor said cordially, “Oh, well, why didn’t you just say so?” But a roundhouse kick right in the nuts left reduced the guard to a whimpering heap on the ground, making him an easy target for Victor’s fists.

“Seriously, man, enough,” Tony said as he pulled Victor off. Tony knelt and got an arm underneath the guy. “You mind?” he asked, gesturing for Victor to help him.

The two of them dragged the guard inside the building but within seconds, Victor was on him again. He had the guy by the throat as he shoved him up against the wall until his toes were dangling off the ground.

“You had one job. One.” He let the guard’s legs flail and kick wildly before tossing him aside like a ragdoll.

Tony quietly shut the door and deadbolted it. “You finished? Okay, now I see the real reason you dressed like a biker tonight. You are nothing but badass, my man.”

Victor cut his eyes at him as he rubbed his chafed knuckles. “There’s always a method to my madness.”

Tony crossed his arms over his chest and nodded. “I should know that by now.”

The guard was crouched in the corner in a fetal position warily eyeing the two men.

“Do you realize the position you’ve put us in?” Victor bellowed, not giving him time to answer. “Now I’m going to have fucking police and maybe even FBI agents crawling all over this place. You stupid fucking excuse for a security guard.”

A series of swift kicks from Victor’s boot brought a grunt of pain before the man vomited and passed out. He would be bruised up tomorrow and would forever carry the memory of what happened to guards that fell asleep on duty.

“Damn, Vic, you ‘bout beat him to death.”

“Son of a bitch is lucky I don’t let Antonio Wayne take a whip to his back—I still might. Fucker deserves it.”

“Come on.” Tony pulled his brother down the hall toward Estrella’s dressing room. “I’m just about convinced you’re crazy, Victor.”

“Me too, bro. Me too.”