Cora
My body came alive in the next second, adrenaline surging through my veins like a tsunami.
“Stay here,” Penn growled, sprinting away and leaving me alone in the hallway, Catalina’s voice still echoing in my ears.
It was the kind of scream that made people act first and think second because there was no mistaking it for anything except terror. And, because of that, I did not heed Penn’s instructions, but rather took off after him.
As I ran, I scanned my head for memories of where the girls were. Last I’d seen of them, they were heading out to the theater room above the garage. I had no idea what was happening, but I felt a morsel of relief knowing they weren’t in the main house.
When I rounded the corner into the living room, I nearly plowed into Penn. He was frozen at the mouth of the hall, his chest heaving, but it had nothing to do with the short run.
It had been years since I’d seen his face, but it still sent a chill down my spine.
Marcos’s dark hair.
Dante’s malevolent stare.
Nic’s strong jaw.
Manuel Guerrero. The patriarch of the Guerrero clan. The man who had taken my child, manipulated me, and imprisoned me in his world for over a decade. And he was currently standing in Penn’s living room, his arm around his daughter’s throat, with the tip of a gun digging into her temple.
“You son of a bitch,” Penn growled, lunging forward.
He scrambled back with clumsy movements, the gun shaking in his hand as he dragged Catalina with him. “Back the fuck up. I will put a fucking bullet in her head right this fucking second.”
“You better know how to run. Anything happens to her and you are three seconds behind her on the way to the other side.”
Manuel laughed, gruff and throaty, and it tangibly slithered over my skin. “I’m a dead man already, you fucking fool!”
I held my breath as his finger teetered entirely too close to the trigger.
Grabbing Penn’s arm, I tried to pull him back while pleading, “Please, stop. You’re making it worse.”
He shook me off, snarling without ever tearing his gaze off Manuel. “Get the fuck out of here, Cor.”
With my heart in my throat, I looked at Catalina.
Her eyes were wide, aimed right back at me. “Go,” she mouthed.
I shook my head, panic building in my chest. There had to be a way out.
There had to be a solution where this finally ended once and for all.
I was so damn done with the constant pendulum of emotions.
One minute, I was kissing in the clouds with Penn.
The next, the king of demons had arrived.
Something had to give.
I just had no clue what that was going to be, and I was hoping that it wasn’t Catalina’s life.
I folded my hands together in prayer. “Manny, please. Don’t do this. She’s the only family you have left.”
His face got hard, and his thick, furry eyebrows pinched together. “And whose fucking fault is that? It wasn’t enough you took Nic from me. You had to come after Marcos and Dante too?”
I stiffened, praying to any and every god that would listen that he didn’t know that Penn was responsible for that. There was no arguing with him about Nic. I’d been guilty in his eyes since day one. But if I could keep him talking, his anger focused on me, maybe Catalina could make a move. He was older and overweight. If it weren’t for the gun at her head, she could have easily gotten away from him. And then Penn, who was fuming at my side, could have subdued him—and more than likely killed him.
But we needed that window, a moment of distraction.
Keeping my voice even and calm so as not to match his intensity, I half lied, “I had nothing to do with the fire. Neither did Cat. So just let her go.”
“You’ve been a curse on everyone you have touched your entire life. My sons, his brother, and now, you’ve sunk your teeth into his brother-in-law. No wonder Drew was so fast to tell me where you were.”
The air in the room stilled.
The proverbial record stopping.
What. The. Fuck.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Penn jerk.
But I stared at Manuel, trying to make heads or tails.
Drew?
Drew had told him where we were?
Where the hell was Drew?
Manuel continued his rant. “You’re a fucking black widow. Medusa in disguise.” Suddenly, his gun swung my way. “I should have fucking gutted you the day you killed Nic.”
My pulse soared as chaos broke out. Penn jumped in front of me, tucking me into his back, yelling at Manuel.
But before I lost sight of Catalina, I noticed something.
She wasn’t fighting.
Her eyes were big, tears were streaming down her face, but she didn’t try to get away.
That should have been her moment. His arm around her neck loosened as the gun came away from her head. And she just stood there.
“Cora,” Penn growled. “Get the fuck out of here. Now.”
My life had never been great. Not until recently, anyway, and even then, it had decidedly not been easy.
But with Penn back, talking about Seattle, babies, and wedding rings, it was getting there.
However, right then, as Drew came walking around the corner, his hands in the air, Thomas’s gun at his back, I started thinking that Manuel was right.
Maybe I was a curse.
Penn
“No. No. Please stay, Cora,” Thomas crooned, strolling into the living room with a gun at Drew’s back.
Molten lava replaced the blood in my veins.
What the fucking fuck was going on?
No goddamn way Drew told Manuel where we were. Yes, they’d been buddies in prison, but none of that had been real. He was my brother despite our birth certificates listing different parents. From day one, he and I had been in this together. Every step. Every breath. Every minute of every day, we’d shared the same ravenous thirst for revenge.
The Earth being flat was more believable than him flipping on me.
But what the fuck was he playing at, and why had he kept me in the dark?
Catalina struggled in her father’s arms when she saw her ex-husband.
“Honey, I’m home,” he singsonged with a wide smile.
Backing up, I forced Cora closer behind me and attempted to catch my brother’s gaze.
His eyes were locked on Catalina’s though.
“Now, would you look at this,” Thomas said cheerfully. “It’s a family reunion. Well, minus our dear friend Lisa.” He tipped his head my way. “My sincerest condolences. She was a lovely woman. But, as she learned, I am not a man to be challenged. I gave her every opportunity to get out of my city, Shane. I swear I did. Personally, I admired her tenacity, right up until the moment I ordered them to slit her throat.” He grinned.
My vision flashed red, and I ground my teeth. It would have been all too easy to allow that pent-up rage bubbling to the surface to overtake me. But it would have left Cora exposed, and that was not a risk I could afford to take with her, not even if it finally gave me the satisfaction of ripping Thomas Lyons’s head from his shoulders.
It was a true testament to my self-control when I didn’t move a muscle.
He leaned to the side, attempting to catch a glance at Cora, but I shifted so he couldn’t see her.
I didn’t even want his gaze to touch her.
He arrogantly cocked his head. “Did your wife know you have a taste for whores, or is this a new predilection of yours?”
My entire body strained, swelling until I feared that it would rip free of my skin. My hands ached, and the same burning Cora had tamed within me was back and thrumming with need to—
“Enough,” Drew growled, joining the conversation.
My gaze jumped to him, searching for a clue—any fucking clue—to what was truly going on, but his face was an empty and emotionless pit.
He shoved at Thomas’s arm. “Get that fucking gun out of my face. I did it, okay? You want Catalina? There she is. But this is done—do you understand me? You forget about me. Both of you. I want no fucking part of this anymore.” He planted his hands on his hips and stared at the floor. “I’m sorry, Shane. But I can’t live like this. It’s not worth this shit. I gotta get out of this life. The running, the hiding. The constant looking over my shoulder. I might as well go back to prison if that’s how I’ve gotta live my life. I just want it over. I need it over.”
And then he finally looked up at me, his dark gaze hitting mine with all the gentleness of a sledgehammer.
Oh, yes. I knew Drew Walker.
We’d met in college at MIT. He was two years younger than I was, studying mechanical engineering. The kid was so fucking smart that, in the five years it took me to graduate, he’d caught up and we’d walked across that stage together. He was livid when he’d found me in bed with his sister and refused to speak to me for a whopping six days. But when we graduated and I moved her back to Florida, he bought a house two blocks away. And on the day I slid a ring on her finger, vowing until death do us part, he’d been not only my best man but also her man of honor.
Drew Walker was sewn into the fabric of my life.
I would never for the rest of my life forget the look on his face the night we shook on our commitment to find and kill the man responsible for Lisa’s death.
As I held his gaze from across the room now, it was that same ruthless determination staring back at me—and this time, he really was done.
The hairs on my arms stood on end and my chest caved in on me, but before I could utter a single syllable, Drew spun, pulled a knife from the back of his pants, and, in one fluid movement, carved a horseshoe across Thomas’s neck.
Blood exploded from his skin. Shock registered on his face, and his hands went up to his throat as though he could stop it.
I wanted to gawk as he fell to his knees, relishing in his pain.
I wanted to watch the crimson blood seep from his throat as he coughed and gurgled, unsure if he would drown or bleed to death first.
I wanted to squat in front of him and stare into his eyes as the life slipped from his eyes.
I wanted twenty-nine minutes to make him suffer.
But I was willing to settle for twenty-nine seconds of watching him die.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t have either.
Cora was there, her sweet, soft body trembling at my back. And I was more concerned with Manuel’s reaction and the bullets that were about to soar through the air than I was basking in revenge.
I swung my gaze to Manuel. Waiting and ready for my window to take him down.
Manuel was smiling wide though. “Jesus Christ, Walker, could that have possibly taken you any longer?”
Drew replied, “Do not fucking start with me, old man. I have no patience with your bullshit. You showed up fifteen fucking minutes early. I barely got back from dropping the kids off at the movies in time. I told your ass last night to be here at eight.” Cool, casual Drew turned his eyes my way. “Oh, hey, Shane. FYI, I took the kids to the movies. I know you said you didn’t want them out of sight, but I didn’t want them here for this.”
I blinked and then rumbled, “And what the fuck is this, exactly?”
Catalina caught my attention as she stepped away from her father. “Cora, you okay?”
“Um…no. No, like no…nothing. I have no idea,” she rambled, remaining tight at my back.
Wiping the handle of the knife on his shirt, Drew walked over to Manuel and then traded him weapons.
“Perhaps, next time, you can get me a fucking gun that actually has bullets,” Manuel grumbled.
“Never trust a felon, Manny. I believe you were the one who taught me that.” Drew winked, curling Catalina into his front.
I just stood there blinking, my head pounding as I tried to figure out what the hell was happening.
“What is going on?” Cora whispered.
I had no fucking idea.
Blood was everywhere.
Thomas was keeled over to the side, facedown in a puddle.
Manuel groaned with pain as he walked to the couch and sat down, breathing like he’d run a marathon, not walked six steps.
And Drew—well, he was peppering kisses on the top of Catalina’s head like they were long-lost loves and not standing next to the body of her husband.
“Catalina, honey,” Manuel called. “I don’t want to see that shit. I spent the last twenty-four hours with that prick. I’m tired. Get on the phone and call the police and let them know that your father just killed your husband.”
What the damn shit fucking hell was going on!