Page 220 of Vicious Temptation

I brush my thumb across his cheek. “How crazy is it that you and I are connected like this?”

Before he can answer, my phone vibrates on the coffee table, Aunt Athena’s name flashing across the screen. I answer quickly.

“Remi, is Thiago still with you?”

“He is.”

“Put me on speaker. There’s something I need to tell both of you.” She pauses. “I couldn’t stop thinking about seeing him, and on the drive home, I started replaying that day in my head. I realized there’s something I completely forgot.”

Thiago turns toward me, his brow furrowing.

“Okay,” I say, setting the phone on the coffee table between us. “We’re listening.”

“The day your father died, I was supposed to meet Amalia at a café. She was running late, and by the time she got there, I had already been taken and Raymond had been shot.”

The mention of my mother has me sitting a little straighter.

“When Amalia arrived, she found him.”

I turn to Thiago, but his attention remains fixed on the phone as he waits for her to continue.

“Thiago, I need you to know something.” Aunt Athena’s voice trembles through the speaker. “Your father didn’t die alone. Amalia stayed with him. She held his hand and comforted him through his final moments.”

Tears fill my eyes as the truth registers on his face. His eyes glisten, and after a few seconds, they meet mine.

“Thiago?” Aunt Athena says gently.

He drags a hand over his face, then turns toward the phone. “It was her?” he asks, his voice breaking. “Amalia was the woman who stayed with him?”

“Yes,” Aunt Athena says softly. “She stayed with him until the end.”

Thiago closes his eyes and bows his head. “Thank you,” he says.

We say goodbye, and I end the call.

Thiago stays where he is for a moment, taking it in. Then he rises from the floor and settles beside me on the couch, pulling me onto his lap and holding me against him.

“Your mother,” he says, shaking his head as a soft, disbelieving laugh leaves him. “All this time, it was your mother.”

I smile through my tears and brush my lips over the damp trail on his cheek.

“My mother,” I whisper. “This is crazy, Thiago.”

His thumb moves slowly across the back of my hand. “I never imagined it would be the mother of the woman I…”

He stops.

His eyes lift to mine, and the words he doesn’t say hang between us as we hold each other’s gaze. “Fuck, Remi.” Pulling me closer, he buries his face against my neck. I cradle the back of his head and hold him while his breathing turns uneven against my skin.

“I know,” I murmur. “I know.”

All those years ago, my mother held his father when Thiago couldn’t be there, and now I’m holding his son.

Fifty-Four

thiago

The wind cuts through the summer heat as we cling to the side of the BearCat while it barrels through the busy city streets. Three more blocks and we’ll be at Los Blancos Warehouse and Parts, the body shop Rafe and several members of his crew operated.