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How did a broken society function? If they were as devout to Cristiano as reported, what would they make of me? I didn’t know much about his business, either, except he moved weapons and women. Virgins, everyone in this world knew, were valuable. If he hadn’t married me, I’d be agonizing over the possibility of being sold. Maybe I did need to be worried about that.
I shivered and caught him staring at me. In an afternoon, Cristiano had already gotten what he’d wanted from me—the power two families and cartels afforded him. But at the end of a kingpin’s long day of destruction, he was still a man, and he looked at me with a man’s eyes. His gaze wouldn’t release me, nor his large hands.
He would have me tonight.
It was all there in the way his eyes devoured me. I had to face the truth. I’d given myself to Diego on the promise that he’d be the only man to ever have me. Now, I was facing a lifetime of servitude to his ruthless brother.
I could not cower or run. Cristiano would get what he wanted. And one day, he’d tire of me.
A man like him was not made for one woman.
Having a wife would be more of an inconvenience to him than anything. I hoped, out of respect for our history, he’d keep me somewhere tolerable. That I’d be housed and fed decently as my father had done for him. That I’d be called to his bed when needed, and otherwise left alone. But I didn’t dare expect anything.
Not after the things I’d heard.
What was it Diego and Tepic had told me? Rumors about Calavera’s mistreatment of whores, and satanic practices that involved eating snails, sacrificing virgins, and chanting in tongues. Nobody could confirm nor deny what went down on the devil’s playground, because apparently, no trespasser had ever lived to tell the tale.
Diego had promised to come for me. My father would try, too. But I couldn’t depend on them against the all-powerful Cristiano. If I wanted out, I’d have to find a way from within—and until then, I just needed to hold on.
In the literal sense, too, it seemed. I latched onto the door as the SUV jostled when we pulled off the main highway. Lush, green mountains rose from the barren desert, vibrant against the clouds. I knew the Pacific spread behind mountain range. It was a trifecta of natural beauty, and it didn’t surprise me he’d taken this particular town so he could erect his man-made hell.
He liked beautiful things, so he made them his.
“Do you get carsick?” he asked.
“Not usually.”
“Good. It gets rough here. The roads leading up to the gates aren’t paved.”
“We’re here already?” I asked.
“The distance from your father’s house isn’t great. It’s the terrain that slows people down.”
I gripped the side panel as we made our way down a rocky dirt road. “Why don’t you fix the roads?”
“That would make it too easy to get in.”
Or out.
My stomach dropped. Up ahead, stone walls rose from the desert like a fortress, sectioning off acres of land that abutted the mountainside.
The Badlands. The designation made sense now. It was hard to get to, and anyone who made it in wouldn’t be able to make a hasty escape.
A smirk ghosted over his features. “By the look on your face, you’ve heard the rumors. I ruined this town—defiled, disgraced, and ran out its people. That I rule it with an iron fist.” He slid his hand under the hem of my long dress, up my calf. “Maybe you can open that fist, Natalia. Turn it from iron to liquid mercury and sculpt it to your liking. As your mother once did with your father.”
I ground my teeth together. “If I’m forbidden from mentioning Diego, then you should be forbidden from speaking about my mother.”
I tried to pull my leg back, but he seized it. After a brief hesitation, he let go. “I knew Bianca well,” he said. “She had influence—and a spine of steel to stand by Costa’s side. You’re not there yet, but you have it in you.”
“She’d be horrified by what you’ve become. Of how you treat women. And by whatever you have planned for me.”
Color crept up his neck until he looked away. I slid my legs from his lap and bent my knees to my chest, hugging them as we bounced toward iron gates several times taller than the men guarding them.
Silence settled between us as tires crunched dirt and rocks hit the bottom of the car. That was as much as he was willing to acknowledge my mother, it seemed. Or the brutal conditions that lay ahead. I’d find out soon enough what was true and what wasn’t, but where there was smoke, there was fire. I could see the walls and gates for myself. They hid secrets, and people, and in this world, that could mean nothing good.
