Chapter Twenty-One
Ayala shuffled through the door, the shackles at his ankles and wrists clattering with every step. The layered rings of filthy water along his expensive dress shirt and his damp hair and pants were evidence of the waterboarding he’d been subjected to. Did they want money, information on his business, or payback for the people that died in the escape? Rio curled his fingers into a tight fist and turned to the Detention Center’s administrator.
“What happened here?” he demanded, the balaclava covering his face adding a guttural note to his voice.
“We lost men when this puto was taken,” the chief spat.
“That’s just it,” Rio said, herding him back until the shorter man flattened his back against the door. “Remind your men Ayala was taken. Kidnapped from under their noses by one of your own.” The men in the hall shifted uncomfortably. Rio addressed the five men. “The man who killed your people is dead.”
“He’s responsible for what his people do,” the administrator said defiantly.
Rio stepped closer, speaking so only he would hear. “If I find out anybody else laid a hand on my prisoner, I will hold you responsible for what your people do.” He stared down, letting him see the intent in his eyes. “We’ll talk again. And I won’t be carrying a badge.”
The chief stiffened, his eyes shifting to Ayala then back. “I’ll have him put into isolation until he’s moved.”
“And kept alive and safe,” Rio stressed.
The chief gave him a choppy nod. “Alive and safe,” he repeated grudgingly. With that, he sidestepped while Rio remained in place, shooting the retreating man a deadly glare. He slammed the door, dragging out his cell to type a message to Parker. He wasn’t about to trust the chief’s people to provide proper medical care.
Ayala waited patiently, watching him with his signature calm facade. Rio pulled his mask off, dropping it on the metal table anchored to the floor between them. He faced Victor Ayala, the man he’d spent countless hours tracking. Studying his every move, analyzing his actions to predict his patterns. Finally the pieces fit. He understood why Ayala didn’t make sense. Why his moves were so erratic at times. And why he’d gone from occasional skirmishes to the bloody massacre of innocent people.
After all this time, they were face to face. And he couldn’t quite come up with the right words to start the conversation he wanted.
“Do you have a death wish, agent? Showing your face in front of me isn’t smart,” Ayala added, somehow managing to look boardroom ready, despite the beating.
“No death wish.” He squared his shoulders. “You know as well as I do that I’m the only man left standing who can protect Celeste. So it’s not in your best interest to kill me.”
Ayala’s features went hard. “I will take care of my own.”
There was no question that Ayala had deep pockets and an extensive network. He wouldn’t be the first man to run his organization from behind bars. “I’ve seen the lengths you’ll go for your family.” His head still echoed with Celeste’s pain-filled wail. “And that’s what we are.” He paused, suddenly short of breath. “I’m your grandchild’s father.”
A heated flush bled through the mash of color along his face. “You fucking bastard.” Spittle formed at the corner of his mouth. “You dared to—”
“I’m in love with your daughter,” Rio forged ahead through the angry rant. While he couldn’t help feeling that, as her father, the man was justified, he was going to make his point.
Ayala went silent, the declaration obviously catching him off guard. His eyes narrowed as he worked through what was happening and waited for Rio to continue.
This was why Celeste thought he’d used her. Why he still saw doubt in her eyes even after he’d denied setting her up to get to her father. “Now I understand her insecurity. And her pain.” Rio nodded thoughtfully, while Ayala…no, while her father processed his words. Perhaps giving him a new perspective on what he’d done to his daughter by making her think a man couldn’t want her. “But you’re wrong. And so is she.”
“I’m supposed to believe you,” Ayala layered the word with disdain, “a government agent, approached my daughter without an agenda?”
Fate was a crazy bitch. If not for this man, for his psychotic son, and Mother Nature, he never would have met Celeste. “What you think is your own business. She’s the one I care about.” He took a second to rein in his temper. “Deep down she knows what you said isn’t true. And I’ll spend the rest of my life proving it to her.” The words carried the conviction in his heart.
A sharp knock interrupted them, agitating his temper. Fucking Parker and her timing. Putting his hand on the knob, he got to the point. “I came here because tradition says a man should ask for a woman’s hand in marriage.” He wasn’t going to give Ayala a chance to deny him. “But know this, Celeste is mine. And I’m not giving her up,” he said with finality.
“Is that so, agent?”
“No more ‘agent’,” he said, feeling lighter than he’d ever felt. “Not after today.”
Ayala’s gaze flicked over him, assessing him in stony silence.
Rio opened the door, staying behind cover. Parker came in, moving around him with her typical efficiency, to set her bag on the table. He pushed the door closed, but gloved fingers came around and held the edge. Rio frowned. Who was coming? He looked at Parker, who gave him a quick nod. He loosened his hold, letting a figure in their standard black uniform slip through the entrance. Behind the goggles, familiar blue eyes looked up at him, wide and vulnerable. He closed the door, a sense of peace settling over him. She was here.
Her gaze ran from him to her father, then back. Relief. Concern. Indecision. “I’m sorry,” she pleaded. “I didn’t mean to betray you, Rio. I was trying to get a lawyer.”
“No.” He shook his head, pulling her close to remove her headgear. “It doesn’t matter.” He wrapped his arms around her, bringing her head to his chest. “I’m sorry I left. I thought you hated me.”
“No.” She pushed back, her brows coming together in concern. “You saved me.” Then with a shy smile she added, “Saved us.” She relaxed against him, her hands pressing into his back to hold him close.
He kissed the top of her head, grateful to have her, and the child that lay growing between them. Ayala watched them, the hard edge gone from his features.
“Say it again,” Celeste said in a near whisper.
He frowned. “What?”
“What you said to my father.”
“You were listening?”
Her back and shoulders tensed. “I was put next door and the speaker was on.”
He shot Parker a look, but she continued working, pretending her assessment was taking all her attention.
“Say it again,” Celeste said in a shaky voice.
“I’m quitting. If you—”
“No.” She shook her head without moving from the circle of his arms. “The other.”
With the doubts lingering in her head, he could understand her need to hear the words. Words he should have said to her first. But he knew Ayala would be moved within the next few hours, and he may never have another opportunity for a private conversation.
He leaned back, cupping the side of her face to tilt it up. “I love you,” he whispered for her ears alone.
…
I love you. The sweetest words she’d ever heard. Because they were for her. Not in a song. Not in a book. Not in a movie. Tears welled up in her eyes, a feeling of belonging washing over her. She tightened her hold, while he fit her against his body.
“There we go,” Kari zipped her bag, moving to one side.
Celeste loosened her hold on Rio. He kissed the top of her head whispering, “Go. You won’t have long, and I don’t know when you’ll see him again.”
She nodded, swallowing the knot of emotion at her throat. Memories flashed in her mind. Moments that made sense now. So many times he was being a dad instead of just a father and she’d never known.
“Victoria,” his red-rimmed eyes softened.
She replayed the horrible moment when he’d been forced to pull the trigger, killing his own son. The shot rang out in her head, and tears stung her eyes. “I’m so-rry.” Her breath caught, breaking the word in two.
He shook his head, drawing up his arms only to have the shackles hold him back. She put her arms around his shoulders, pressing her cheek to his damp temple.
“I couldn’t let him hurt you,” he said with a tender note in his voice.
Tears fell harder, shaking her from the inside. Pain for the brother she lost and for the man who made a decision no father should ever face. “I never knew.”
“Sit down, mija.” He pressed his head against hers then leaned away. “We have a lot to talk about.” His gaze went to the one-way glass then came back to her. “And not very much time.”
She wiped her cheeks, turning to find a chair had been brought around the table for her. Settling in, she tried her best to pretend her heart wasn’t breaking for her father.
His gaze roamed over her face. “I hardly recognize you.” She bit her lip, not knowing how to avoid bringing up her brother. He frowned, staring at Rio, who’d come to stand next to her.
She took a deep breath, knowing she’d just be making things more difficult. “Leonard.” She stared at the back of her hand, blinking back the tears threatening to spill over. “He felt I could use some color.”
He tightened his lips. “How did you end up with your brother?”
“He came to the hotel.” At his blank look, she remembered he didn’t know what happened. In her mind he’d been on the other side of their conversation. “I’d been texting with you. I thought it was you,” she added with an uncomfortable shrug. “I flew to Texas thinking I was coming to meet you but ended up stranded in a small town. He showed up when I got to Houston, saying he’d been sent to get me.”
She straightened, glancing up at Rio. “I didn’t forget you.” No, she’d actually been heartbroken to be forced away without being able to leave word. “I was trying to avoid a confrontation. I didn’t know…” Words filtered through her mind. Who you were, how you’d react to my brother and his men…to my disreputable family. None of that came close to what she should say. How she should explain and apologize. But it would have to wait for another time. When her words wouldn’t hurt her father. He’d already been hurt and lost so much because of his children.
“I’m just glad to have you back.” Rio reached out to touch her face. Through all of this she hadn’t told him how she felt. And he hadn’t pushed. Instead, giving her time to talk to her father.
“Does he?” her father asked. “Have you back?”
She faced her father and studied him for a moment. His life choices had limited hers, and at least one of his decisions had nearly cost her life. But she knew he loved her. Compassion and loss mingled in her face. She hoped he would see and understand it all.
“Yes.” She reached up and took Rio’s hand. “I’m in love with him.”
As his hand tightened imperceptibly on hers, she glanced up. He was looking at her, his lips quirked in that sideways grin she’d come to adore. His gaze offered the promise of countless nights together. She decided to forgive him for telling her father he loved her before telling her.
“Good.” Her father sat back, losing some of the stiffness in his shoulders. “You’re going to need a strong man to keep you safe.” Her spirits dampened. “I won’t see you again after today.”
A cold sheet wrapped around her, and the world fell away. “But—”
“It’s safer this way,” he assured her. “I don’t know where I’ll be, and I don’t want your identity to end up in the wrong hands. Or my grandchild’s.”
Rio squeezed her hand. “Your father’s right.”
The world around her clouded. He was going to spend the rest of his life in jail. And she would never see him again. She’d never thought much about his choices. Never wanted anyone to know who he was or what he did. Yet, at this moment she realized just how much she was losing. A parent. The only one she had left. The one she’d taken for granted.
“Guerrero is the most dangerous,” her father warned.
Celeste snapped back, focusing on their conversation as soon as she heard Pablo Guerrero’s name. During her conversations with Gatlin she learned about Guerrero, her father’s biggest rival. And the deadliest.
“You’re going to have to scale back your feud,” Rio warned. “I don’t want Celeste getting caught up in the problems your son caused.”
Her father scoffed. “I’m not the one causing trouble. Pablo had settled down, then something set him off. I don’t know what happened a few months ago, but he’s back to wanting me dead.”
Rio didn’t offer an explanation. “So this is more than a war for trafficking lanes. Why does he want you dead?”
Her father hesitated, and Celeste held her breath. Did she really want to know what these men may have done to each other?
“We were friends once,” he said with a note of sadness. “Raising hell. Getting in trouble. We grew up. I got married and started a family. He started spending a lot of time with Sonia, the woman he eventually married. A few years later we met up, quite by chance. Things weren’t going well for either one of us. We started talking and discovered we had the potential for a partnership. So we devised a plan.” He took a breath, wetting his lips before he continued. “During that time, I met your mother, and he met Paloma Santana. The love of his life.”
“Neither woman has ever come up in our research.”
“They wouldn’t. Though we were nobody back then, I made sure to destroy any records leading back to our families.” That explained why they’d had such a hard time finding anything. “Paloma worked overnight at a cafe. That’s where they’d see each other. Her grandmother, who raised her, didn’t approve. Even when she turned up pregnant, right alongside his wife.” He winced. “Pablo planned to get out. Just one more trip. One more score. Then he’d have enough to give Paloma the life she deserved.” He went silent, lost in a memory.
Though she didn’t know the story, Celeste felt a sadness born of tragedy. She didn’t need to hear the details to know it would end badly. Yet she still needed him to keep going. “What happened?”
“Paloma was killed in a hit and run. She was in the final weeks of her pregnancy,” he added.
Celeste gasped, her stomach tensing. Her heart went out to the man. Losing both his love and their child to an accident.
“He went crazy, determined to find whoever left her to die on the side of the road. I’d never seen him so out of control.”
Rio released a breath. “So he made enemies for both of you.”
“I’m sure he did.” He paused, and she wondered if there was more he wasn’t sharing.
“Did they ever catch whoever killed her?” Celeste asked, her brows gathered in regret.
“No.” Again her father looked at Rio, and they seemed to communicate without words. “But I suspected his wife.”
Celeste’s eyes went wide.
“I confronted her about it several years later.” He tilted his head, pressing his lips together. “That’s when the trouble started between us.”
Rio raised a brow. “He didn’t like you accusing her.”
“He thought I killed Paloma, likely no thanks to Sonia.”
She, Rio, and Kari exploded with questions of how.
“I can’t tell him the truth, especially after what he’s become. He’d kill Sonia.”
“He knows about Celeste?” Rio demanded.
“Yes. The girls were born weeks apart.”
Rio exhaled sharply, pulling his phone from his pocket to read from the screen. “We’re out of time.”
“No.” Celeste reached for her father’s hand.
“It’s okay. Just know that I love you, and I’m sorry I won’t be there to see more of your life.” He turned to Rio, losing the tender expression. “You’ll look after my little girl.” It wasn’t a question.
“I will.”
While Rio gathered their gear, Celeste wrapped her arms around her father and tried to ignore the clank of chains as he gripped her tightly.
He bowed his head and kissed her cheek. “You are my daughter, my blood. I love you, mija. Be safe.” He paused and cleared his throat. “Do not let them see your tears.”
She blinked away the moisture. He shuffled past her, nodding at Kari before pausing in front of Rio. “I trust you to keep your word.”
Rio nodded. “I will.”
The door opened and without a backward glance, he was gone.