Burned Hearts (Burned 3)

“So Kyle is leaving, too?”

“No. Kyle is staying.”

“Then I stay.” She crossed her arms over her chest. Pinned me with a look. Really dug in her heels.

“Rosa.”

“I grew up in Juárez, Mexico. Drug wars, shoot-outs, border attacks. I’ve seen it all. I can handle this.”

“You shouldn’t have to handle this, Rosa,” I insisted. “It’s not normal. It’s not right. And if anything were to happen to you, we—”

“Ari,” she said, finality in her tone. “I stay.”

The backs of my eyes burned once again. How could Dane and I be so unfortunate when it came to external forces threatening our lives and yet so damn blessed by the circle we’d built around us?

Still, as much as Rosa’s determination and commitment to our family touched me, it worried me incessantly. The fewer heads on the chopping block, the better. But at the moment, I didn’t have the heart or the wherewithal to argue with her.

So I said, “I appreciate your honor.” I hugged her. “But Dane will want to speak with you as well.”

“My decision will still be the same,” she said with her steely resolve.

I swiped at a wayward tear. “You could give my mother a few lessons in loyalty. But I wouldn’t subject you to her any more than I want you subjected to the rest of this.”

“I agree that it’s not right that this isn’t finally over,” she concurred. “Eventually, though, it will be. Dane will see to it.”

I was grateful for her faith in my husband. “Just stick close to Kyle, okay? He’s on baby detail.”

“We’ll be fine,” she assured me.

I left her room, somewhat tormented. As I chewed on our latest precarious situation, I came across Amano in the great room. He had two iPads and his phone spread out on the table of the Parisian bistro set Dane had picked up at auction in Paris. Apparently, Marie Antoinette had sipped tea at that table.

I would have laughed at Dane’s eccentricity, but I didn’t have it in me. I had one more tense conversation to have. I didn’t look forward to it.

Joining Amano, I asked, “Mind if I take a seat?”

He made a vague gesture toward the chair opposite him.

“Monitoring the property?”

“That and downloading the programs for each of the GoPros Kyle mounted in all of the vehicles.”

“What are GoPros?”

“Video cameras. We can live-stream them on our wireless devices and the TV. There’s audio, too.”

“Clever.”

“Just keep in mind that sneaking off is no longer plausible, since I control the on/off switches. You and Kyle can’t take your joyrides without me knowing about them.”

Our gazes locked across the table. I didn’t have to ask him to elaborate. He’d be alerted the second Kyle and I took off if we did anything crazy again, as we’d done when going after a confession from Wayne Horton. Or taking Dane’s Mercedes McLaren up the treacherous switchbacks in hopes of evading Wayne when he’d baited and trapped us.

Swallowing my pride, I said, “Point taken.”

“Are you sure?”

I accepted Amano’s anger over what he obviously considered our carelessness. I knew he was furious because we’d gone behind his back too many times and opened ourselves up to even more danger, well out of his reach.

Not to mention, the fact that he’d used the term joyride told me he was additionally upset with our actions because Dane had once done the same. To Mikaela’s detriment.