The doctor finished examining the healing injuries on my face then muttered something, her expression intense as she concentrated on her work. They’d stitched me up as best they could, but even the most outlawed, cutting edge science in the world couldn’t disguise the deep lacerations that stretched from the back of my head to my jaw. When the helicopter I was in was shot down over the jungle, the thick canopy of trees below us had cushioned our fall enough that some of us survived, but a branch had broken through the window near me as we went down and tore my right side up. I was lucky—of the seven men who’d accompanied me on the rescue mission, only three, including myself, had returned.
My other men, guys I’ve known for years, had given their lives so we could rescue the girl from the hands of a group of South American slave traders.
Dr. Stein leaned back, her aged face set in her usual no bullshit expression. “Looks good, Ramón. How does it feel?”
I opened and closed my jaw, the stitches stretching from my lower lip and up to my temple pulling tight. They’d dissolve soon, but the scars would remain. Not for the first time. I wondered how Joy would react when she saw my battered face, shaved head, and weight loss. With no food, we’d had to scavenge whatever we could from the jungle, I’d lost a lot of mass. While we didn’t starve, my body had used up pretty much all my fat reserves to give me enough energy to get to safety. There had been points I was ready to give up, ready to put a bullet in my head so I’d at least have a quick death, but my love for Joy kept me going. I kept a lock of her hair with me like a talisman, and used it to give me focus when all I’d wanted to do was curl up and die to escape the relentless pain.
When we’d finally reached civilization, I’d been in bad shape, incoherent, unable to speak due to my injuries. I’d slept pretty much a week straight. I’d only been deemed strong enough to travel back to the States on a private plane two days ago. Even though I was dying to see Joy again, I needed more time to heal first.
Remembering her overblown reaction to a few bruises, I didn’t want her to have a complete meltdown when she saw me really hurt. I could still barely stay awake, and I wasn’t strong enough to be there for her like she would need. No, as much as I wanted to see her, to touch her, and feel the life warming her body, I couldn’t be selfish and drag her to my bedside to watch me sleep and heal.
Tracing the scar, I flexed my jaw again and looked up at my doctor from my bed. “Good, a lot better than it should. Is this the new healing compound?”
“Yes,” she gave me a rare semi-smile. “Considering the right side of your jaw was attached by heavily damaged ligaments and muscles, and you’re now able to talk, I’d say the accelerated stem-cell healing is a success.”
With a sigh I slowly stretched out, a low ache breaking through the painkillers. “How long until I’m well enough to function?”
“Function how?”
“Let me rephrase that. How long until I can stand up for more than five minutes without passing out?”
“Four days, minimum. But I’d say that in a week, you should be able to do more…energetic activities.”
The thought of waiting another week to see Joy was unacceptable. “That’s too long. Isn’t there something you can do to cut the time?”
“Mr. Cordova, we’re already pushing your body to the limits, healing you as fast as we can. While I understand that you did what you had to do in order to get out, you destroyed your already damaged body in the process. Do you have any idea what a miracle it is that you survived? That you aren’t maimed or in constant agony? There is a price for accelerated healing, and if you don’t pay that price, the healing will stop and you will never be able to have a normal life again.” Her lips thinned and she lowered her head slightly to look me in the eyes. “When you stumbled out of that jungle, your heart was maybe a dozen beats away from giving up. If it hadn’t been for your men dragging you the last five miles, you would have never made it. You’re lucky you’re even alive.”
I looked away, my chest aching at the thought of my men, the ones who would never make it home. “How long will my jaw be numb like this?”
“For the next few days,” Dr. Stein returned as she briskly stripped off her gloves and tossed them in a wastebasket next to my bed. “As long as you take it easy. You must rest, Ramón. If I’m not being clear enough, let me put it into terms that you can understand. If you don’t rest, if you reinjure yourself, you will lose your jaw. How pretty do you think Joy will find you then? Not to mention the fact you’re as weak as a kitten. You know how dangerous that is in our line of work.”
Before I could respond, a knock came from the door of the room. A second later, Leo and Mark came in, the tension rolling off Leo in waves. “Ramón, I need to speak with you for a moment.”
I waved him into my bedroom on the top floor of the Cordovas’ headquarters. “Of course.”
Dr. Stein, after grabbing her laptop, left without a word, used to the way our world worked. She should be, she’d been in the cartel’s employ for longer than I’d been alive and ran our private hospital located at our headquarters a few floors below me. Luckily, I had a penthouse suite in the building, so it made the perfect place for me to recover in secrecy and safety. My enemies would be pissing themselves with happiness at the anticipation of my death if they learned of my weakened state.
Sitting up, I rolled my stiff shoulders as I took Leo in, the healing wounds on my back itching. “What’s wrong?”
With a sigh Leo said, “It’s Joy. She’s not doing very well.”
Fear flowed through me, and I clenched my hands into tight fists as I fought to remain calm. “What do you mean, not well? Everyone told me she’s fine. I thought you were keeping an eye on her? What’s wrong with her?”
“She’s not sleeping, not taking care of herself, chewing her nails, no longer laughing, not well,” Mark snapped. “Because of your stupid order that we leave her alone in your absence and not tell her where you are, I’ve been unable to help her like she needs. She thinks you abandoned her.”
“Abandoned her? Why the fuck would she think that?”
Mark glared at me. “Because you haven’t contacted her in weeks, and the excuses we give her about your absence are fucking flimsy as hell. Joy’s too smart to fall for our bullshit, and because you’re a selfish fuck who forbid anyone from giving her any kind of real answers, or truth about where you really are, she just assumes that you were playing some kind of game with her, you stupid asshole.”
“Watch your mouth,” Leo said with a low growl.
“No,” I closed my eyes as his words hit me in the gut and my chest felt too tight. “No, he’s right. I shouldn’t have forbidden everyone from talking to her. In my defense, I never thought I’d be ambushed and have to fight my way back to civilization.”
Mark shook his head, his lips tight. “You have to start putting her first.”
“I fucking do put her first.”
I fiercely wished I was strong enough to get in a fight, because I wanted to kick Mark’s smirking ass.
“No, you don’t. If you’d been thinking about Joy you would have done everything to cover all your bases before you left. You would have really thought about how she would react to seeing you gone, and realized when you gave that asinine order that everyone was to leave her alone and keep her in the dark, you were hurting more than helping Joy. She has a support system around her unique in its ability to help her through the transition from her world and into ours. You took that away from her because you didn’t want to share.”
“Bullshit,” I seethed while pointing a shaking hand at Mark and a silent Leo. “I was trying to protect her. My mother was ready to brainwash Joy the first night she was beneath our roof, but I held her off.”
Mark’s hard gaze softened, and his shoulders lowered a touch. “I didn’t know that.”
Leo stepped away from his second-in-command. “It’s true. I’ve been helping Ramón put Judith off, but you know how she is. When she learned about Ramón’s obsession with Joy, she was beside herself with happiness and had all kinds of fantasies about Ramón having a big happy family.”
I snorted in contempt, my healing jaw itching something fierce. “That doesn’t give my mother the right to play with people’s lives at will. Joy is hands off to her, in every way. I’m still fucking pissed she gave my girl D128 without my permission.”
“I’m afraid,” Leo said in a dark voice, “that your mother’s patience has just about run out. Seeing you injured has her more determined than ever to bring Joy into the family. You know Judith will do anything to protect you, Ramón. For Joy’s sake, you need do her programming, and soon, or I fear your mother will step in. Not out of malice, but in a screwed-up effort to make you happy.”
Pressure built in my head as I tried to sit upright on the bed, but my arms shook like I’d just done a hundred bench presses. I’d delayed Joy’s programming as long as I could, but if my mom was ready to step in and break her promise to me, Joy was in trouble and she needed me. Fuck, I might have to be brought to her side in a wheelchair, but I had to move, now. The thought of my crazy mother fucking around with Joy’s sweet, beautiful mind and soul made me ill.
“Where is she? Get Dr. Stein back in here. I need her to give me something to keep me awake.”
Leo held up his hands as I struggled to move, the pain around my ribs dulled to almost to an almost manageable level now. “At Mark’s house, but hold on. We need to go over how the truth serum works, how the programming works, and what you plan on saying.”
Exhaustion tugged at me, my head throbbing with every beat of my heart, but I tried to remain awake and focused. “We don’t have time. I have to help her.”
“Yes, we do,” Mark muttered as he did something on his phone. “I’ll call Diego and Jose and get them to buy some time with Judith. You and I both know that while you’re on the accelerated healing drugs, you’re basically narcoleptic. Can’t have you falling asleep during the programming or screwing it up in some way. If we give Joy more than one heavy dose of the truth serum, you run the risk of messing with large chunks of her memory. She could lose months, even years, if we dose her twice, so you have one shot to do it right. Don’t rush it now and do something you’ll spend the rest of your life regretting.”
Closing my eyes, I tried to think past the pounding in my head. I’d been up for more than two hours now. While that doesn’t sound like a lot, when your body is basically speed healing exhaustion is always nipping at your heels. All the adrenaline coursing through my system began to ebb, and I had to force myself to focus on Leo.
He returned my gaze and said, “You need to remember to work with her personality, making suggestions that she’s naturally open to works far better than commands that her subconscious doesn’t like. You can’t order her to love you. The human mind just don’t work that way.”
I sneered at him. “I’d never do that anyway. And I know I can’t turn her into a sex robot or any crazy shit like that. I don’t want to do any of that. I love her, and I want to make her happy. I want to heal her, to make her laugh again. If programming can do that, I need you to tell me how.”
Mark gave me an approving look, and Leo tilted his head in thought, then nodded. “I think we can do that. I’ll go home and talk to Hannah, get her input, and we can meet again tomorrow evening.”
“No, tonight.”
“No,” Leo said in a way that I knew he was going to be a pain in the fucking ass about it. “You need to sleep.”
I gritted my teeth, but didn’t argue. I couldn’t, he was right and there was no way in hell I wanted Joy to forget a moment we’d had together. All those sweet fucking memories of being in her presence soothed me. My racing heart slowed, like the very thought of her was a balm to my soul. I centered myself with the memory of her peaches and strawberry perfume, the sweet tang of her cunt, the way her body felt draped over mine.
“You’re right. Fuck, I hate it, but you’re right.” I leaned back into the pillows and fought to stay awake.
Leo exchanged a glance with Mark then said, “We have a plan. Our best chance to do this is going to be tomorrow evening. Hannah’s going to take Joy to the spa, and we can drug her before her massage so she’s nice and relaxed. As soon as she’s under, you come in and everyone leaves. You’ll only have roughly fifteen minutes to say what you need to say, and you must repeat your instructions more than once. I have a file made on Joy with my observations and suggestions for how to word some of the commands.”
“Understood.”
Mark added from behind me, “We think touch is an important part of the process, as is taste and smell. You’ll need to hold her, kiss her, and cuddle her tight while you give her instructions. The physical reassurance seems to be key to getting her mind to accept the commands.”
“We’ll be there to help you,” Leo added.
Despite my best efforts, sleep was pulling me under and my words came out slurred, “No, I do it alone.”
“But—”
“Alone,” I said with all the strength I had left. “She’s mine, mine to love, mine to protect, mine.”
I didn’t catch whatever their response was, the drugs stronger than my will as they pulled me under, but it didn’t matter. No one was going to be in the room with us because I didn’t plan on following whatever script Leo and my mother had come up with. I was going to do what was best for Joy, no matter what, and no one was going to stop me.