Slamming the door of the Tahoe, I stalked across the parking lot, barely registering anything around me. As a high-ranking cartel member, it was a stupid move. We were trained to keep our eyes forward, to the side, and a spare set in the back of our heads. Enemies came in all forms and waited for our weakest moment to attack.

I’d just found out firsthand.

However, no man’s hand or weapon would be a match for the rage thrumming through my body right now. I had four years of vengeance boiling in my blood, and if it was going to spill, there was only one man I wanted bathed in it.

I tried the door at first, knowing it would be locked. Emilio wasn’t stupid. He’d proven that. Giving it a swift kick, I beat on it with my fist. “Open this fucking door, Reyes. I know you’re in there. Open up or I swear to fuck, I’ll shoot it.”

I paused, giving him a ten second reprieve.

Nothing.

“Reyes!” I roared, kicking the door again. “Open this fucking door or I’m calling your wife and giving her a list of all the whores you’ve fucked along with a loaded Smith & Wesson.”

I’d just pulled my fist back to bang on the door again when the latch clicked, and it swung open. Emilio stood there, his smug face staring up at me, almost as if he’d been expecting me. Jerking my gun from behind my jacket, I grabbed him by the throat and pushed him inside, crashing both of us into the freezer door.

“Hola, Mateo. I—”

Lifting a knee, I drove it into his gut, cutting him off. “You’ll speak when spoken to, you piece of shit.” While he was bent over, I slammed my arm over his chest and shoved the barrel of my gun under his chin, forcing him upright. “Yes or no, did you send me into a trap four years ago?”

He held my eye, the smug smirk finally fading. Having a gun ready to blow your head off sobered any man, I supposed. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“When I got arrested. Did you set that up?” I shoved the gun deeper into his throat. “Don’t fucking lie to me.”

I didn’t know why I gave the warning. Emilio’s best skill was lying. It was how he still drew breath in his lungs. It was how he had the balls to look surprised while raising his thick black eyebrows.

“Why the hell would I get my best sicario locked up? Have you gone loco?”

Maybe I had. But he hadn’t seen loco yet. None of them had.

Releasing my arm from across his chest, I drove my fist into his gut. “Did you know I had a daughter?” I yelled. “You had my phone, asshole! You knew she tried to tell me.”

“Mateo,” he coughed, “what’s this all—”

I heard his collar rip as I pulled him to his feet, so I grabbed onto his throat instead, moving the gun to his temple. “Yes or no.”

“Did your little thief tell you that?” he rasped, his words abrasive from the pressure of my hold. “She’s broken into my office twice now. Did you know that? I’ve also caught a fed sitting across the parking lot ever since she started. You think that bullshit is a coincidence? I fired her ass tonight.”

He kept digging himself into a deeper hole and didn’t know it. He just assumed Leighton hadn’t confided in me about the DEA and I was ignorant to everything. It proved he had no idea what we shared and never did. It also proved he was a threat to her—and always had been. He also had much more to answer for than denying me my family.

Something just as unforgiveable and way more damning.

“You knew about her stepfather,” I growled, tightening my grip. “You sounded happy to tell me what he did to her. How could you know something like that unless you had dealings with him years ago? You’ve also been talking to the feds. What the hell have you been doing behind Val’s back, Emilio? How deep does your betrayal go?”

Emilio’s nostrils flared right before he spat in my face. “Fuck you.”

It wasn’t the verbal or actual disrespect that set me off. As a haze of sheer black faded my vision, all I could see was Finn Donovan. I slammed my gun across his temple, giving myself enough time to shove it back into my waistband before he righted himself. As soon as I saw his face, I pounded my fist into his ribs, smiling at the cracking sound it made. Emilio buckled forward, but managed to retaliate with a backhand I caught under my chin. Driving full force into him, I landed a hard hit into his gut again followed by an upper cut under his chin that smacked his head against the freezer door. His unfocused eyes stared at me before he slid to the floor leaving behind a huge dent in the metal.

Too bad it wasn’t in his head.

Wiping a trail of blood from my lip, I pulled my gun out again and pressed it against his head. “I should pull the trigger for the shit you just pulled, but that’s against Carrera code. Only Val can make that call.”

Emilio leaned against the freezer, coughing through a laugh. “You’d kill me over pussy? You’re no better than he is.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Grabbing him by the hair, I leaned down and knocked out his silver tooth with the butt of my gun. “You cost me everything,” I hissed, jerking his face against mine. “I trusted you, and you stole my life away from me. For what, Emilio? Your own pussy? Don’t lie to me because I saw the tape of you and the mayor.”

He managed a bloody smile. “You think you know everything, don’t you? Val’s little protégé. Boy, I don’t give a shit about you, your whore, or your kid. It’s only because of me that little bitch has lived as long as she has.”

My blood ran cold, my grip on his hair loosening. “What the hell do you mean?”

“Insurance, Cortes. You think her identity has been a secret for three years by accident? If I had my way, you still wouldn’t know about her. I wasn’t the one who put her in danger.” Blood poured from his face, coating his shirt. “You want to be mad? You need to look one step below me.”

No. He was lying.

“Brody would never do anything to hurt his own family.”

“Think so? Your boy Harcourt let the cat out of the bag about your kid, Cortes. He’s the one who put a target on that little girl’s back. Not me.”

Fucking liar.

I stumbled back, slipping in the trail of blood. “But Luis was after Leighton.”

Emilio slowly lifted his chin and delivered the blow he’d waited for. “Was he?”

I struggled to breathe as he laughed, one word searing through my soul.

Leighton.

Seeing her car parked outside the townhouse calmed the beast inside me. I’d needed to find her first because if I got to Brody, I was afraid I’d do something I couldn’t take back. There couldn’t be any more secrets between us when I confronted the man I’d convinced Val to break tradition for and bring into our family.

Racing up the stairs, I barely managed to get the key in and unlock the door before shoving it open. The last thing I wanted to do was scare her, but even I didn’t understand the overwhelming need in me to control her. It wasn’t about making her feel weak—far from it. I never wanted Leighton vulnerable again. My need for control stemmed from the ignorance I felt, and that word sickened me.

I’d been ignorant to the horror she’d suffered at the hands of her stepfather. I’d been ignorant to the loneliness she endured raising our child by herself, and I’d been ignorant to the conspiracy going on behind both our backs involving people on every side of the triangle in this fucked up equation. We’d wasted so much time blaming each other for the shape we were in, we ignored the fragile shape we’d become .

I found her sitting on the couch, still dressed in her Caliente uniform, mascara streaked down her cheeks as if she’d been crying. She had her knees drawn up toward her chest and her arms wrapped around them.

This wasn’t my Leighton.

This wasn’t my Star.

This was a lost little lamb.

Dropping to my knees before her, I took her face gently in my hands, wiping the dampness from under her eye with my thumb. The movement seemed to knock her out of the hypnotic trance, and her brows knotted together.

“Your lip is bleeding.”

“I went to see Emilio,” I admitted.

I waited for her to ask me why, but she held my gaze, her walls crumbling piece by piece.

“Me too.” Pulling away, she released her knees, collapsing against the back of the couch.

That was when I noticed it.

A purple bruise forming at the base of her throat—just the size of a thumbprint.

Emilio’s heated words came rushing back as that purple print made the black haze cloud my vision again. I touched it with a gentle hand. “Did he do this to you?”

Although she flinched, she didn’t pull away while nodding.

Fuck the code. He’s a dead man.

“I’m not the enemy, mi amor,” I promised her, doing everything I could to keep my voice even. “But I know who is.” Just as I promised myself, there had to be a clean slate between us before any more blood spilled. Taking her small hands in mine, I held them tightly, preparing both of us. “Remember those messages you said you sent me when you left?”

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t get them, but someone else did.”

All the blood drained from Leighton’s face. “Who?”

“Emilio.”

Immediately, she tried to pull away, but I anticipated her fear, and held on, refusing her.

“How do you know this?” she whispered, her voice shaking.

“Don’t worry about that right now. Just know I finally heard them.” As the last word left my lips, I looked up at her. The wide-eyed panic in her beautiful brown eyes faded, the corners turning down in understanding.

“You didn’t know,” she said, matter-of-factly.

“No. But now that I do, I want to hear it from you.”

She stuttered, starting and stopping at least three times before tilting her head back and letting out a gasping cry. My heart bled for her. My arms ached to hold her, but I didn’t move. This moment belonged to her, and she needed to be left alone to exorcize the demons on her own.

“I left almost four years ago, Matty, but I didn’t leave alone,” she finally said, her hands trembling even harder. “When I said I came back to look for you, I wasn’t lying. I wanted to find you, even though you never answered my messages. I thought you deserved to know that...”

“Say it, Leighton.”

She swallowed hard, and the trembling stopped. “I was pregnant.”

Releasing her hands, I sat back on my heels. “Show me.”

Reaching behind her, she pulled a worn photo from her back pocket. She stared at it lovingly before turning it around. The moment my eyes landed on the little girl in the picture, I grabbed my chest. If I’d been standing, the image would’ve brought me to my knees.

She wore a pink tank top and held a bunch of wildflowers in her little hands. Her long dark hair was swept over one bronzed shoulder, and her expressive dark brown eyes crinkled at the corner with obvious love for her mother. It felt like the breath had been knocked out of me. Staring at this picture was like staring into a mirror.

All except for her wide dimpled grin. The one that lit up her whole face. The one that screamed innocence and light. That was all Leighton.

“She’s beautiful,” I choked out.

“She has your eyes. You have no idea how confusing it is to love something so much who looks exactly like someone who destroyed you.”

I traced her face, still mesmerized. “How old is she?”

“She turned three in January.”

“What’s her name?”

“Stella,” she said, tilting her head to stare along with me. “Actually, her name is Estella. It’s a Spanish name. I picked it because it means—”

“Little star,” I finished for her.

She nodded, but she didn’t have to. Even through our separation, she’d found a way to keep our love alive.

“Estella...” I hesitated, not daring to hope.

“James. Estella James.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Not Harcourt?”

She shook her head, her expression darkening. “You weren’t the only reason I left Houston, Mateo. I’ve already told you, I’ll do anything it takes to protect my family. I wasn’t about to let Finn get anywhere near another young girl. My grandparents helped me through everything. They supported me, so I couldn’t think of a better way to honor them and protect Stella than using my father’s name.”

“And she’s why you came back to Houston without a fight?”

Leighton nodded again. It was as if unloading the secret she’d harbored alone freed her. “Alex promised to keep Stella and my grandparents in protective custody as long as I cooperated. After what happened with Luis, I couldn’t risk it, Mateo. We’d be on the streets if it weren’t for my grandparents. They saved us. I’d give up my life for Stella, but I won’t risk hers.”

Tucking the picture inside my jacket pocket, I rose to my feet, pulling Leighton with me. Running my fingers through her hair, I tilted her chin up. “You don’t have to give up your life for her. I’ll lay down mine for both of you.”

“You don’t even know her,” she said, glancing down.

“I don’t have to. She’s my daughter, and I’ll kill anyone who comes near her.” I’d never fail either of them again. “This isn’t over, Leighton. She’s in danger.” Taking a breath, I said the words I knew would devastate her. “You weren’t Luis’s target. She was.”

“I know,” she said without a trace of shock.

It was the last thing I expected to hear.

“You do?”

She nodded. A shadow clouded her eyes, and in them, I saw the wheels turning inside a changed woman. “I saw Emilio too, remember? He knows Alex is hiding her, but now I can’t get in touch with Alex. I’m tired of reacting, Mateo.”

“This is going to end,” I promised her. “When all this is over, no one’s going to take either of you away from me again.”

“Show me.”

“What do you need?” I asked, wanting to hear her say the words.

“Make love to me.” Pressing a hand against my chest, she turned her cheek into my palm and closed her eyes. “Make it okay—just for tonight.”

Picking her up, I carried her into the bedroom, tasting her lips the whole way. After what we’d just shared, it felt wrong to touch her any other way but reverently.

She was the mother of my child.

My everything.

After laying her on the bed, I divested both of us of our clothes as she watched me through half-lidded eyes. The hunger was still there—still violent to the point of having to take a few moments to calm myself so I wouldn’t drag her hips up and drive into her with the punishing force of the anger boiling inside me. My emotions were too tangled for that. I refused to allow her body to take the brunt of someone else’s sins.

“Mateo?” I opened my eyes to her sweet voice questioning my hesitation. “Are you okay?”

Hovering my lips over hers, I fed myself inch by agonizing inch into her warmth until her tight walls squeezed me like a glove. Leighton dug her nails into my sides, arching her back and moaning my name.

“Now I am, mi amor,” I whispered, kissing her slowly. “Now I am.”