Alejandro
As the words fall from her lips, the truth slaps me in the face and my heart.
A pulsing knot gathers in my throat, and I can’t breathe past it.
This is exactly what I feared when Eric dropped the bomb on me about her.
I stayed calm by going out on the hunt for Lorenzo with Marcus, then purposely staying away from everybody this morning.
I set myself a deadline of when to speak to her because I still needed to calm down, but she beat me to it.
Most times, it’s better to get the confession before you find out the truth, but on this occasion, I don’t know about that.
“I’m so sorry, Alejandro. They were going to kill my father. They still have him. They just beat him up and stabbed him.” She brings her hands to her cheeks and stares back at me with those bright green eyes I always get lost in.
When I thought it was just the money her father needed, I couldn’t have been more wrong. This was part of some plot to screw me, and it’s my father. It’s him.
Jesus.
My father and Thiago. Is Thiago my half-brother?
Or maybe it’s fucking Lorenzo? Or someone else.
I need to snap out of this funk and push past the betrayal I feel working through me.
She’s the answer. The missing piece of the puzzle, so I need to know what she knows.
“Tell me everything. Everything, Lucia.” I keep my gaze trained on her.
She nods, shaking. Her whole body is shaking. Instinct wants me to comfort her, but I pull up the wall I always have up to seal off my heart.
“My father is a tech genius. He does freelance jobs for the government. It was mainly the Department of Defense.”
I look at Eric. There’s our answer to who’s been pulling the technical strings.
“I thought he was just doing government work, but he wasn’t. El Diablo said he hired my father to make something for him, so I guess he’d done various jobs and took money from him to pay for… my stay in rehab.” Embarrassment flushes her cheeks. “He also tried to save my mother, but he couldn’t. My father just got himself in debt. They have him doing all kinds of things for them.”
“Was it just Thiago and my father?”
“The man the other night was with them, too. I recognized him. He was one of the men who kidnapped me. I don’t know anyone else.” She blinks back tears. “Alejandro, I didn’t know who Thiago was until I saw him at the restaurant. It wasn’t until you introduced him that I knew his name. I was to call him Red. And as for your father, it was the same thing. I only realized El Diablo is your father when I saw the picture.”
“Tell me something useful, Lucia. That means nothing to me.”
“It’s important you know. I know there’s nothing about me you trust anymore, but if I’m telling you everything, I need to tell you those parts, too.”
I seethe and glance at Eric, who gives me an understanding look. Honestly, it’s his presence that’s stopping me from snapping right now.
“Go on,” I say to Lucia when I look back at her.
Tears roll down her cheeks, and she catches her breath.
“They want you alive for the moment.”
“For the moment?” This is news to me because I thought I was next after Eduardo. I’ve lived with that hanging over my head.
“Yes.”
“And they don’t have a date of my expiry?” The sarcasm is rippling through my voice.