“What do you think your father did to the guard?” Caden asked Tony in a sleepy voice as she snuggled closer. She felt safe in his arms. Even though the Ramirez family was capable of unspeakable cruelty, she knew she was safer here, in his arms, than anywhere else in the world.

“I thought you were asleep, sweetheart.” He rubbed his fingertips lightly up and down the curve of her back as he held her close. “I don’t have to think about it. I know exactly what my father did. He had Uncle Antonio take the guard down to the interrogation room. He probably used a horse whip on him; that’s his favorite.”

She flinched when he said it so easily, like it was no big deal.

“You’re not like them.”

He chuckled then, as if a memory was being brought to the forefront of his mind.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Because my mother says the same thing. My brother, Victor, is more like my father and my uncle.” He let out a deep breath as if readying himself to be the bearer of bad news. “In some ways, I think you know me better than anyone, Caden. But if I’m honest with myself, the truth is that you don’t know me, not really. Sometimes I wonder if I know myself, or if I even want to. There’s blood on my hands, and it isn’t just cartel blood. It’s the blood that drove me to come back home and go to work for my father.”

He leaned up on an elbow to say more, but his gaze was caught by the shards of porcelain scattered across the carpet by the closet door, all that remained of that fucking china cup Santiago had given her; the one with the sunflower on it. Caden must have thrown it against the wall after they found Alicia’s body in the barn. The maid would clean up the mess in the morning, but for now, the sight of it reassured him and reminded him of all that had changed in such a brief amount of time, and all that remained undone.

Tony slid over Caden until his body blanketed hers and they were eye to eye. The look he gave her was strangely detached and cold. “I’m going to kill Santiago. Not because he killed those women, but because he manipulated you, made you bond with him, and I can’t stand that. I want to cut his heart out and squeeze every memory of you out of it. I hate him—I hate him for loving you. Because in his own twisted way, he does -- at least, as much as that psycho’s capable of loving anyone. But he’ll never have you. Never. I’ve never been more consumed with a woman. You cast a spell on me when I first laid eyes on you. He hurt you, Caden, but I never will. I love you, beautiful.”

“You’ve got to stop talking like that, Tony. He’s not worth it and I don’t want you to go to prison…because I love you too.”

He pulled her closer and rested his forehead against hers. “Baby…” He pressed a kiss to her lips and continued solemnly. “You say I’m not like my uncle and my father, but I am, in my own way. I’m a plotter, a planner. I think through my revenge strategically. I find out what a person’s fear is and use it against them. Take Santiago, for example. He loves snakes, prides himself on his collection of rare ones, but do you know what he’s terrified of?”

She shook her head, reluctant to speak for fear it would break the mood. She finally had him confiding in her again.

“Spiders. Can you believe it?”

She started to laugh at the absurdity of a cartel boss being afraid of spiders, but then her face paled as she connected the dots. “So, that’s how you’ll kill him.”

Tony nodded, confirming her theory. “I want to hear him scream like a terrified little bitch when he has spiders crawling all over his body and knows there’s nothing he can do to save himself.”

A chill ran down her spine when she considered that Tony could be just as sadistic and dangerous as the other Ramirez men. “Wow, that may be the single most horrifying thing I’ve ever heard. Remind me not to get on your bad side.”

“No worries, beautiful. Before I’m through with Santiago, I’ll know more about your fears than you do.”

The back of her neck tingled uncomfortably as she recognized the threat in his words. There was only one reason he would want to know something like that, and that was to use it if he ever needed to have an advantage over her.

“You’ll try to keep it from me, of course, but you won’t be able to,” he continued slowly. “I’ll slowly discover all the secrets you’ve kept hidden, and I won’t hesitate to use them against you if you ever dare to cross me.”

The words came out of his mouth, winding their way around her own mind. They were her new truth, no matter how much his words frightened her.

“You’re part of the cartel now, Caden. You’re under my protection. There’s no getting out—well, that’s not quite true. There are two ways to leave the cartel: death and prison. But even behind bars, the cartel rules.”

“I’ll die before I ever go to prison,” she whispered.

“Then there’s only one way out.”