“Nothing.”
“Eden…”
Pushing my plate away, I rubbed my temples as a headache brewed between them. “All right, there’s…something. I just don’t know what to call it, or label it, or…fuck, I don’t know. Val doesn’t want anyone to know, okay? He thinks it makes him vulnerable.”
“He’s absolutely right.”
The gravity in his voice didn’t lessen the ball of dread sitting in the pit of my stomach. “I don’t want to hurt him, Mateo.”
Crumbling his own napkin, he threw it in his plate. “Look, I’m not going to tell you what to do. Whatever you and Val do is between you two. That’s none of my business.”
“Thank—”
“But when it jeopardizes his life,” he interrupted, folding his arms across the table, “That’s when it becomes my business. I like you, Eden. I think you’ve been given a shitty deal in life just like him. Maybe in another time, you could’ve been good for each other.”
My heart sank. “But now?”
“You’re in Mexico City, waiting on a man who’s identifying the body of his father, one of the most notorious drug lords in the world, then he’ll meet with that man’s cartel to follow in his footsteps. You’re not going to change him.” He tilted his chin to hold my stare. “I want you to understand that. This isn’t a game. You won’t live happily ever after. If you step into this ring, be prepared to fight.”
I heard every word of his literal and double meanings. The words he spoke hurt to hear, but I’d come to respect Mateo as a straight shooter when it came to the truth. This was no different. Whether I wanted to hear it or not, the truth he spoke couldn’t be refuted.
Luckily, I’d reconciled myself to the fact that happily ever after was a lie fabricated by Disney and jewelry stores.
Standing, I glanced out of the window as Val exited the heavy glass door of the morgue.
“Come on Mateo, it’s time to find your ringside seat.”
* * *
My ringside seatturned into a backseat. As in the backseat of the charcoal colored Tahoe that Val and Mateo put me in before getting in their own car and heading to the meeting with Alejandro’s top men.
I’d argued and pleaded until almost making a scene. In the end, I knew it was useless.
“Val, you promised to take me. Don’t end up lying to me, too.”
“That’s not fair,Cereza. I promised to bring you to Mexico. I promised to let you come with me to Mexico City. Not once did I agree to let you walk into a room of rapists and killers looking like an all-you-can-eat buffet.”
As Mateo conveniently found something extraordinarily interesting on the side of a nearby building, Val leaned into the Tahoe, shrouded by the blessing of darkness and kissed me quickly, but purposely. Resting my hands on his chest, I felt his heart beat wildly against my palm.
“How am I supposed to get closure for Nash if Manuel Muñoz is still walking around, Val?”
“We’ll get him. Tonight, isn’t the night, though.”
“When?”
“Don’t fear the enemy that hates you, Eden, but the fake friend that hugs you.”
I raised an eyebrow, still pissed off at being left behind. “Have you been reading fortune cookies, Danger?”
A low laugh rumbled in his chest. “It’s a famous quote. It means Manuel will be expecting me to retaliate right now. He’ll be waiting for it—prepared for it, even. The risk of failure would be huge. Lulling him into a false sense of security, even convincing him I’d blurred the battle lines a little, is the key.”
Then it hit me what he planned on doing. “Oh, my God. You’re going to make them think you’re burying the hatchet, aren’t you?”
Another kiss, and he backed away from the Tahoe. “Interesting choice of words,Cereza. After Esteban Muñoz had my mother shot, his men carved out her heart and delivered it to him.”
The one chip I’d eaten with Mateo threatened to come up as I slapped my hand across my mouth and mumbled through my fingers. “Val, don’t go. Please, I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
Leaning against the doorframe, he nodded to Mateo. “I have to go.”
