“I can’t do this anymore,” Cora said, pushing away the stack of papers.

“What, read or sign?” Lars asked, pushing the pages back to her.

Finn allowed himself a small smile. Lars had been egging her on for close to an hour now.

“I have a headache,” she whined, pushing it away again.

“Those assets aren’t going to unfreeze themselves, young lady.” Lars pushed the pages back.

“I don’t think they’re frozen—” Finn began, but Lars cut him off with an irritated wave.

“Look, La Sombra,” Lars said. “I get it. You’re overwhelmed, and simply feel incapable of fulfilling your filthy rich duties.”

She’d collapsed onto her arms, but tipped her head up to scowl at him. “Do you have a problem or something?”

“Who, me?” Lars touched his chest. “Never. No. I love rich people. Think of me as your personal gold digger.” Lars shoved the pen between her fingers.

“Lars,” Finn said quietly.

Lars rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “Fine.” He threw his hands up as he left the library, but at least the door didn’t slam behind him.

There was too much of that going around these days.

“Take a break,” Finn said, trailing his fingers along her arm.

“At least someone’s on my side,” Cora mumbled as she got up. Bailey came around the table, collecting up the papers as Finn guided her to the door.

“Seriously, though, what’s his problem?” Cora asked.

When she looked in his direction, Finn shook his head. “He has issues with rich people.”

“Why?”

“He had wealthy parents.”

“I don’t see how—”

“They neglected him. He developed a drinking problem. Then they kept throwing money at it, hoping it would go away.”

“And it didn’t?” Cora asked, staring up at him with big eyes.

“No, it did. He was just doing it to get to them. Problem is, they were too rich to pay attention.”

“Wow,” she murmured, leading the way out of the library. Finn followed her, scanning the gardens as they made their way toward the stairs heading to the villa’s second floor. Opposite them, one of the staff was busy trimming an unruly rose bush, but that was the only movement around.

So, Javier had been broke. Was he still? Finn had a few questions he’d like to ask that lawyer, if the guy would speak to him. Cora’d made it pretty damn clear the three of them could be trusted, but lawyers had a way of twisting things.

Fuck it, he was sounding like Lars.

Cora led them into her bedroom, but instead of going to slump on the bed like he’d expected, she went into the en-suite and began running a bath.

He came up behind her, rubbing his hands over the top of her arms. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she murmured. She turned to him, giving him a warm—if faded—smile, and laid her hands on his chest. “Do me a favor, would you?”

“Anything,” he said, lifting her hand and kissing her knuckles.

“Take Bailey. Go have a drink or something.”

He frowned at her, taking a step back so he could study her. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” she said, but in a voice that weighed a thousand pounds. “Just…ask him to tell you what he told me.”

“Cora—?”

She stripped. “I’m okay, Finn. Just…let me have a soak. I’ve got a lot to think about.”

He caught himself giving her bare back a nod, as if he’d just accepted an order from a queen.

But we have, haven’t we?

He pushed away the voice, and forced himself to head out the bathroom.

“Oh, and Finn? Can I have my underwear back?”

“Nope,” he said, pushing the door closed behind him.

He heard her frustrated growl, but it didn’t make him smile as wide as it should have. Bailey was stacking the half-signed papers on Cora’s table, not even looking as if he’d been reading them.

Because he was a good guy, or just fucking good at pretending?

“Let’s give her a bit,” he said, grabbing Bailey’s shoulder in a hand.

“You sure? Shouldn’t we be—?”

“I’ll send Lars up to keep guard.” He clapped his hand on Bailey’s back and then strode ahead.

The sun hung low and sullen in the sky when they arrived on the roof. Finn made himself a cup of coffee at the bar while Bailey cracked open a can of beer. They stared at each for a few seconds before Bailey pointed out his radio. “You gonna call Lars?”

Finn shrugged. “You do it.” Then he turned and walked out onto the roof.

It wasn’t that he was letting his guard down—anything but. If Bailey was coming on board, then he’d have to step up.

Finn heard Bailey talking over the radio, and smiled faintly as he sipped his coffee. Bailey still didn’t know how call signs worked, and Lars was a fucking stickler for them. He took almost five minutes to get Lars to head up to Cora’s room, and when he came outside his face was blotchy with the effort.

“Sorted?” Finn asked, trying to hide his smile behind his cup as he leaned forward and rested his arms on the banister circling the roof.

“Yeah, sure,” Bailey replied briskly, before downing half his beer. “Said he’ll be up as soon as he’s done with the lion.”

“Whoa, easy there,” Finn said, straightening.

Bailey frowned at him as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “You got something to say?”

“No,” Finn said, ignoring the man’s prompt. It had been a strange day for everyone—this wasn’t the time to piss over each other territory.

Not that Bailey had any.

“I got something to ask,” Finn said.

“So ask.” Bailey turned to the view and took another long swallow of his beer.

“What were you talking to Cora about today?”

Bailey shifted his weight, but didn’t turn to Finn. “That’s her business.”

“Which makes it ours.”

“Ours?” Bailey cocked an eyebrow at him.

“You still don’t get it, do you?” Finn turned his hand in a circle. “We’re all in this together. You know something, we all have to know it.”

“I fuck her, you all have to fuck her?” Bailey murmured, but just loud enough for him to hear.

“Now you’re getting it,” Finn said, taking a step closer. “And I wasn’t going to bring it up, but what you did back there, that’s something you won’t ever do again.”

Bailey gave him an uneasy glance before taking another swallow of beer. “Look, man, this is all kinda—” Bailey waggled a hand “—this is all kinda fucked up, okay? Give me a break.”

“If you don’t like it, then leave.”

Bailey opened his mouth, but then looked as if he changed what he’d been going to say. “Sofia wasn’t Cora’s sister. She was Javier’s daughter.”

Finn turned his head a little, studying Bailey over the rim of his cup as the man drained the last of his beer. Then he crumpled the can in a hand, turned to Finn, and said, “He’s also the one that set up the Rivera family’s kidnapping.”

“Javier had an affair with Cora’s mother?”

Bailey gave him a grim nod.

“But why kidnap his own daughter? Did he want her back?”

But before Bailey could answer, Finn stabbed an index finger in Bailey’s chest. “No, wait…Sofia died, didn’t she? She didn’t make it out.”

Bailey nodded.

“Why would he kill his own daughter?”

Bailey stared at him with surprisingly intent gray eyes. “Maybe he’d only ever wanted one daughter, and she wasn’t Sofia.”

As soon as Cora heard her bedroom door close, she climbed out of the tub again. She padded, naked and wet, across her room to the dressing table.

Pointedly ignoring the stack of papers she still had to sign, she drew out the drawer as far as it would go. Her fingers fumbled along the underside until they touched a folded piece of paper. She tugged it free from the tape sticking it there and ambled back to the bathroom.

She didn’t sigh when she slid back into the warm water; every ounce of pleasure the bath could give her was suddenly void.

Cora held the folded note in her hand, staring at it as the bubbles around her hissed out of existence.

When her fingers trembled, she opened the note.

Mi corazón.

My heart.

Her eyesight blurred. She blinked hard, cleared her throat, and forced her eyes back to the page.

More than anything in the world, I wish I didn’t have to write this letter. But, sadly, there are things in this world that were never in my control.

I wish I could have seen you one last time. To explain, or at least attempt to explain, why I acted as I did.

I raised you the only way I knew how. I realize now that it wasn’t good enough, and I apologize for that.

I love you, mi corazón. I have always loved you. If you doubt that, even for a second, then remember this…

Even though you abandoned your mother and sister to a fate worse than death, I forgave you.

Likewise, I trust you will find it in your heart to forgive me for what I’ve done to you.

Love,

Papa.

Cora’s lips parted. Her breath hitched once, hard, and then her eyes flew to the top of the letter again.

She read it again. Slower. Pausing at the end of each sentence.

But it read the same.

Even though you abandoned your mother and sister…

Forgive me for what I’ve done to you.