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CHAPTERONE
CORBETT
Brownsville, Texas
Saturday Morning
The old manstood watching the dragon. It was easily ten feet long and had to be pushing at least 100 years old. It stared at him through the cage, and he knew that if it had half a chance, it would grab him by his feet and tear him to pieces. That made him smile. The Komodo dragon exhibit had always been a favorite of his. He identified with the beast. They were a lot alike—practically invincible.
The only two animals that a Komodo dragon had to fear were humans and other dragons. Humans weren’t that bothersome. The dragon could tear one apart with his teeth while at the same time poisoning them with the bacteria that lived inside its mouth. If he was crossed by anyone, the old man wouldn’t use his teeth, but the end result would be the same. No, humans weren’t the problem. It was the other dragons that you never wanted to turn your back on.
Summoned from his hometown of Matamoros, Mexico, the old man was here at the zoo today to meet with another type of dragon. Vincent. He had wanted to say no. In his heyday, no man would have ever had the nerve to summon him anywhere, not even Vincent. Once dubbed “The Cocaine King,” the old man had been a formidable foe to anyone who dared cross him. He had demanded loyalty and respect, and if people liked the idea of taking their next breath, they gave both to him.
Like the Komodo dragon, he had very little to fear. Neither the Mexican Federal Police nor the authorities in the U.S. had ever been able to touch him. He was seventy years old and had no criminal record. He had paid people good money to make sure of it. At a very young age, he had found out that if you had enough money, you could buy anything. The problem with youngsters like Vincent, however, was that they quickly got greedy and wanted to buy everything. He had done his best to teach Vincent better than that when the boy had been younger, but to no avail.
Gilberto Fidel Sanchez was not a greedy man. He had earned several billion dollars in the past fifty years, yet he was content with the home that he and his wife had bought two years after they had married in Matamoros. New cars were not on his list of priorities; he only purchased one every two years. He had a small boat for fishing, and he liked to dress nice, but a lavish spender he was not. He hadn’t even given his boy much to start his own business with, just enough to buy his first shipment. The boy had taken it from there.
The only weakness that Gilberto would have to admit to when he met his maker was his fetish for blowjobs given by young red-haired women. Gilberto, or Gil as his friends and family referred to him, loved his wife. Unfortunately, she had decided around the age of sixty that she was too old to suck cock. Gil had never heard of such a thing, especially because he too had been sixty, and he still had the need to feel a soft pair of lips wrapped around his shaft every so often. His wife had been sympathetic, but she had also stood her ground.
“If you want a blowjob, you’ve got plenty of money. Pay for it.”
Gil had been shocked. He’d never cheated on his wife. They had been married for forty years by that time, and although he’d had plenty of opportunity, he had never even considered it. He had even suggested to his son that he never marry because he had known that the boy would not have been monogamous. Funny how a man could take a life without batting an eyelash, yet the thought of infidelity made him cringe. He’d told his wife that he wasn’t the kind of man that paid for sex, and he’d stood firm with that until…
One day he had gone into a massage parlor in downtown Brownsville. The middle-aged, overly made-up woman behind the counter had asked him if he wanted to pay a little extra for an “upgrade.” Gil had been having some trouble with his right shoulder at the time. It was an old gunshot wound that had healed but turned into arthritis or bursitis or some kind of “itis.” Whatever it was, it was fucking killing him, so he had agreed.
He found out later, as he watched with wide eyes while the red-haired girl giving him the massage wrapped her hand around his dick and stroked him until he was hard enough for her to take his aging cock in her mouth and suck it, that “upgrade” meant blowjob. He returned to the parlor to re-visit the girl, “Julia,” whenever he was in town. Redheads weren’t that easy to come by in Mexico, unless you paid a whore, and the idea of that disgusted him.
He pulled himself out of his thoughts and back to the present. Looking at his watch, he counted the minutes that Vincent had kept him waiting. He was pissed. It showed a lack of respect, and if there was one thing that Gil demanded, it was respect from everyone he did business with, no matter to whom they may be related.
Gil had a mind to leave and let the greedy little bastard come to his front door and grovel for what it was he needed. If it weren’t for the urging of his wife, he would have never come today. He moved away from the Komodo dragon exhibit. Just as he reached the exit door for the herpetarium and aquatic wing, he heard a familiar voice behind him call out:
“Papa!”
He turned to see his son, Vincent, coming towards him. Gil wondered how the boy was going to take it when he turned down the request that he already knew his son was here to make.
CHAPTERTWO
NEW BEGINNINGS
Pendale, Texas
Later Saturday Morning
Ridge came homefrom the gym that morning pumped up with adrenaline and motivated by a new idea. The first person he wanted to tell was Raven, his love. Wandering out to the garden, he found her kneeling on her gardening pad and working the fresh soil with her hands. Knowing she hadn’t noticed him arrive, he stopped a few feet away. He loved watching her when she was unaware.
She had her silky auburn hair pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of her neck. A stray piece had fallen across her eyes. She looked strangely sexy to him as she tucked it behind her ear, smearing a small patch of soil across the side of her face as she did. It wasn’t too surprising, however, that it turned him on. Ridge found practically everything she did sexy. Since he’d met her, he felt like he was constantly walking around with a divining rod in his pants.
Raven looked up and saw him watching her. “Hey, you,” she said with a smile. “How was the gym?”
He grinned at her and said, “How about I make us a late breakfast, and I’ll tell you about it while we eat.”
She raised an eyebrow, wondering what had gotten him so enthusiastic. However, he knew she wasn’t going to turn down him cooking a meal for her. Wiping her hands on her jeans, she accepted. “Okay, I’ll get cleaned up.”
He went over to help her up, pulling her not only to her feet but into his arms. He locked his lips on hers and kissed her breath away. When he finally let her go, she murmured, “Wow. What was that for?”
“Just because I love you,” he said with another grin.
She put a dirty hand on the side of his face and said, “I love you too, Ridge. Oh, now you’re going to need to wash your face, though.”
