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But just because she understood and accepted it, didn’t mean it was fair she did all the heavy lifting. The satellite is happening, whatever the cost.
CHAPTER20
Manuel
Arriving home from the hospital, I find my father had arrived earlier in the day and is with the girls. Elias is settled in the nursery and I get Nicolette down for a nap of her own in our room. I’m told my father is waiting for me in my office.
The office in my home is the same as the offices in every house and condo we own, it belongs to all of us. We all have the same revolving passwords. Since time is actually money in the million-dollar range, there’s no such thing as waiting for one or the other to respond to get into the information we need to know.
Still, my father is in front of my desk, not behind it. If the positions were switched, he would want to find me in the chair behind the desk. “Why didn’t you tell me Elias was in the hospital?”
“Because it wasn’t what was important to me. I came home for Nicolette, not the child. It’s also why we need to figure out how to get a satellite in the air. We shrugged off the loss too easily. NASA sends them up for citizens at a lower cost than who the fuck would even send one up. Apparently, anyone can get one with enough money.”
My father pulls his phone, hits speaker and send.
The call is answered on the fifth ring. “What?” Valdez demands.
I shake my head at the smile on my father’s face. “We need a satellite. How do we make it happen? What would it cost us?”
Silence for a beat. “I’ll call you back.”
Ending the call, my father slides his phone back into his inner pocket. “A forty-two-million-dollar yacht two weeks ago. And now who knows how much on a satellite. Your wife is an expensive little thing.”
“It’s going to be less expensive than replacing me. If she were to ask me to walk away, I wouldn’t hesitate,” I warn him.
One corner of his mouth slides up. “Good.”
I don’t hide my surprise.
“The whole Blanca episode…” He shakes his head. “She believed she loved you. Yet I never saw her light up at the sight or mention of you the way Nicolette does. A love that deep is priceless.”
His phone rings. He puts it on speaker. “We have access to a satellite. The cost is you losing my number.”
My father and I laugh.
Another voice comes through. “I fucking told you, James.” Ah, they’re conferenced in together. Diego is the face of the company. James was injured in a mission, leaving him scarred and hiding in the dark. “One twenty-five and it’s yours. It’s only been up for a little over three years. The former owner is a guest at Guantanamo Bay.”
I meet my father’s eyes. He nods. Aloud. “We’ll take it.”
The call ends without another word. We laugh again. “That’s cheaper than I thought it would be.” My father sighs as he stops laughing. “I think it’s time I dropped in on James.”
“Right. Because you dead will help the situation.” I roll my eyes. “If he’s going to be a little bitch, let him. Him mad at you for saving his life is stupid.”
A shrug. “I don’t care what he or Diego says, it wasn’t about me saving his life. It’s about the confirmation they aren’t my sons. He might have said he was glad he wasn’t. Except it’s once again I let down their mother leaving it to the bastard to be the one to knock her up and beat the shit out of her. They also want to pretend they would never help with drug trafficking if they hadn’t already done it for me. Which they swear they only did because they thought they owed me something for the money I gave them to start their company.”
I consider his explanation. “They really hate their father.”
I’m sure there’s more to the soap opera of the love triangle between him, their father, and their mother than I’ve been told. I’m not going to ask. He never speaks easily of the woman he loved as a child only to lose as a teenager when he thought with his dick over his heart and knocked up my mother.
He nods. “He might not have beat her to death with his fists the way I feared he would, but he killed her—he might as well have.”
“Still. It’s been almost two damn years since you saved his ass. He needs to grow the fuck up.”
“The love and loss of a good woman does things to a man.”
I don’t disagree. I sure as hell never thought I would be so completely whipped by one small woman. Even if I could feel shame, I wouldn’t be of how completely she owns me. And I gave up on resenting it the moment I felt her love for me in her touch.
Two hours later, my phone alerts to movement in our room. I check to confirm in time to watch Nicolette roll out of bed to go into our bathroom. A quick call to the kitchen promises her favorite snacks will be delivered to our room, since it’s been hours since she barely nibbled at lunch before Elias was discharged from the hospital.
