"No, sir. I have not. I would not. I, more than perhaps anyone, understand that one's past is one's own. You gave me a life, a future, a career, a home…and, I am coming to discover, a kind of family in the Arrows. I would not betray that favor by trying to discover your secrets. If you wished for me to know, you would have told me.”
"Your loyalty is priceless to me, Inez." A soft breath. "Get to Vegas. We will speak again soon."
"Sir."
The line goes dead, and I pocket the phone. When I return to the car, the pump has stopped and Lorenzo is awake, sitting in the passenger seat, gnawing on a stick of beef jerky. I slide behind the wheel and start the motor, but do not put it into gear, yet.
I look at him. Sigh. "Pugli murdered Beatriz. Little Ren is safe, and with some security contractor my boss knows, a man named Nicholas Harris."
Lorenzo nods. "I knowofhim—any operator, mercenary, or security operative knows of Harris. Alpha One Security is the topname in kidnap recovery, elite security operations, and off-book, white hat black ops."
"White-hat black ops?" I echo.
He nods, shrugs. "He's very particular about the work he accepts. Think of them as…paladins, of a kind, if you know what I mean.” He eyes me, shrugs again. "I am not surprised you haven’t heard of him. You have not worked in the black ops field, not really. It's a very small, very insular world unto itself."
"The Boss trusts him, and that's good enough for me."
Lorenzo eyes me. "Beatriz is dead?"
I nod. "Yes. Little Ren watched Pugli blow her brains out, apparently."
"Fuck," he growls. "I am sick of that man. Beatriz was no threat to anyone."
"I know."
"So…have our plans changed in light of this information?" he asks.
"No," I answer. "We go to Vegas as planned. We secure my girls. Boss says he'll have some kind of intel on Pugli, Rafael, or both once that's done."
“Yourgirls?" he says, eyebrow arched at me.
"Yes," I snap, silently daring him to push the point. "Mygirls. Myka, Annika, Anjalee, Naomi, Terra, Tatiana, and Scarlett." I swallow hard, thinking of them. Of all they've been through. Their attempts to draw me into the social fold. How much they've improved the lives of my guys—my Arrows. "Anyone seeking to harm them will have to go through me."
Lorenzo nods, resting a big, strong hand on my thigh and squeezing. "Both of us,meu amor. You will never face anything alone again.Eu prometo."
This makes my eyes burn. His hand on my thigh scorches my skin through the fabric of my black denim jeans.
"Lorenzo, I…" I shake my head, clear my throat with a hoarse, scratchy cough.
He runs his hand along my thigh from knee to hip crease. "You don't need to say anything."
I grasp his wrist as his hand passes up to my hip crease once more—where his pinky presses against the seam of my core. I squeeze hard, fighting for breath, for calm; his touch, there, allows neither. "Ren," I whisper. "It is hard for me to endure being touched. By anyone. At all. Ever."
He moves to remove his hand. "I'm sorry, Sophia…Inez.Deus, meu amor, I don't know which name to use."
I grip his wrist with all the strength I possess, eyes closed against the army of biting ants crawling under my skin at his innocent, affectionate touch. "Iamtrying, Ren. I know—I know what you want. What you need. I do not know if I can ever give it to you, but I swear, I'm trying."
"What I want and need is only you. Just you." He peels my fingers away from his wrist and mates our hands, fingers intertwined. "We can start here.Sím?"
I look at our joined hands. His is large, hard, and scarred across the knuckles. A faded green-blue ink tattoo, long faded into unintelligibility, is smeared across the web of skin between thumb and forefinger. It was once an insignia of his particular branch of the Brazilian Army Special Forces. Now, it's little more than smeared, faded lines on brown, weathered skin.
I rub my thumb over the tattoo. "This, I can do."
I put the car in gear and continue north. I hold his hand, resting on my knee, for the next few hours.
For some reason, it comforts me.
I waketo oppressive heat layered with cool-ish air from a struggling A/C system.
