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I nodded, feeling a little awkward as I thanked him again.
Seriously, had the guy undergone a personality change after we had sex?
I looked out at the surrounding land and got lost in my head for a bit.
The lethal, stunning man beside me had saved my life and watched over me for years. I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t grateful, not when he was the sole reason I was sitting where I was, alive and breathing. His scent had stuck with me all this time, but I could never place it.
I didn’t trust him to disclose everything to me, but I trusted him with my life. If someone fucked with me, he’d make sure it was the last thing they ever did.
“Do you know where my father is?” I asked, staring at a brown colt happily frolicking in one of the paddocks we were passing.
“He’s not alive, Elena,” he responded slowly. It sounded like he wanted to add more, but stopped himself.
“But I thought…” Huffing out a breath, I scrubbed a hand over my face. I couldn’t say I’d been overjoyed with the idea of my father being back from the dead, not if he really had concocted a plan that had destroyed my sister and killed my mother, but I still missed him.
Keeping my mouth closed, I decided to watch how things played out for a while. If I needed to make a move, I’d make a move. Intuition was telling me I would have all my answers much sooner than later. I knew I couldn’t fall apart when I was this close.
Mateo steered the UTV around to the back of the massive stable and parked. The same two guards I’d seen the last time we’d been here stood by the large metal door.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
“As I’ll ever be,” I replied, getting out of the tram.
From the first experience, I knew this place was more than just a building that housed pretty thoroughbreds.
I was prepared for what I could possibly see inside. My stomach fluttered with nerves and a jolt of excitement.
One of the guards greeted Mateo, acknowledging me with a nod before making a move to open the large steel door.
We stepped inside, and the first thing I saw was my Uncle Samuel in the center of the room. His lips were bloodied and his face was swollen on the entire right side.
One cheek sat slightly higher than the other, mashing his eye shut. He was secured with a thick chain wrapped around his legs and torso, still in the clothes from the night he’d been dragged out of an art gala Mateo and I had attended together.
“Ugh, he smells.” I cuffed my nose and swallowed the urge to dry heave.
“He’s sitting in days old shit and piss,” Mateo pointed out with an amused expression.
“I was wondering when you two would come down.” Elias’ voice carried from the back portion of the room.
He exited through the metal gate that was in pace to secure their yayo, marijuana, and drug packers behind it. He was pushing a trolley loaded with name brand shoes.
“These are ready to go,” he said to Mateo, parking his merchandise by the entrance to the hallway before coming to stand by me with a boyish smile painted on his face.
“Good,” Mateo replied, lazily circling my uncle. He stopped right behind him and looked across the room, spouting something off in Portuguese. Whatever it was had two guards moving towards one of the large oil drums.
His golden eyes flashed to mine as he removed my uncle’s gag. “Samuel, why don’t you tell Elena what happened to her father?”
Everyone inside the room knew it was more a demand than a question.
I moved closer, stopping when the tip of my foot bumped a toolbox I hadn’t noticed before.
“If I talk, you kill me,” Samuel rasped.
“If you don’t talk, he kills you,” I replied before Mateo could. The statement earned me a bright dimpled smile from him.
“Actually, she’s going to make you talk, and if you don’t, she’ll kill you,” he corrected. “Grab the pliers, anjo.”
Not questioning what he intended to do with them, I knelt down and opened the toolbox, grabbing the pair of red handled pliers that were resting right on top. Elias followed behind me, going to Samuel’s left side when I went right.
