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My objective here today is to get Vicenta and her brother, but I wouldn’t mind making an example of these bastards by taking a few of their heads back with me.
As we move through the restaurant, headed toward the stairs that will take us to our table on the terrace overlooking Vinceta, I note the unusual amount of Banderas guards patrolling.
“Trouble in your territory?” I ask as we take our seats.
Alvaro looks at me, his jaw grinding, before calling a waiter over and ordering for them to leave the area.
Once they’re gone, Alvaro leans forward snarling. “You fuckingtoldher? Didn’t you learn from the first time you opened your fucking mouth?”
I narrow my eyes. “I am not the keeper of your secrets anymore.” I cock a brow in Vicenta’s direction. “I found someone else who can accept me and mine without shame.”
He breathes roughly. “But hold on, didn’tyoulearn from the first time you ruined something good with someone?”
I shake my head and stare at him. “Thanks to you royally fucking upagain, she and I have something in common.”
He slams his hand on the table. I hope he wasn’t expecting that to scare me. I smile as he speaks through gritted teeth. “I didn’t fuck anything up with her.” He points his finger in my face. “Yousent your bitch sister to marry me just so you could getmyVicenta.”
I scoff, rolling my eyes. “You and your fucking speculations. I didn’t send Katalina to somehow steal yourfather’sbetrothal. I didn’t even know about her until I saw you protecting her at the mall. Very bad mistake on your part; I was intrigued when you showed your weakness so easily.”
He sits back, adjusting his suit, staring at me for a long moment. I don’t break eye contact and I don’t burn under his gaze either, but when he speaks, his voice comes out broken.
“How could you tell her about us, Romero?”
TWENTY
ALVARO
“Turning Me Red” by Ramsey
“How could you tell her about us, Romero?” I ask him quietly as my anger burns through me to the point of shaking. I can feel the earthquake of my rage rolling through me as my mind wanders back to the day that he foolishly opened up to his parents. To this day, I still have no clue what made him think that was a wise idea. Was he drunk, high, completely fucking blind?
His choice fucked us both. He ruined a good thing we had, but not only that, our families turned on one another. Our fathers blamed each other’s parenting and leadership to the point of dividing Acapulco before more blood was shed on our streets. We took the north and they took the south.
I didn’t care about that though. I took my ass beatings, the public humiliations I was subjected to…I took it all because I knew that if I could make my father believe I wascured, I would once again have my freedom. Freedom to see Romero once more, keeping him a secret while playing pretend with the familia.
I tried to. God, how hard I tried to get back to him…until my mother killed herself because of my shameful acts.
“How could you show her brother the picture?!” he snaps back, making guilt burn through me.
Still, I shrug as if I don’t care. “I played dirty,güey, but you’re not so innocent either. You used what we had as a dirty tool too.”
Romero leans forward. “Oyé, I’m going to say this once, then we’re moving on from it because we didn’t sit down to talk about me and you.” He sighs, lowering his voice. “I didn’t tell her shit about you. I only told her about mypastfeelings for you and how you ended things between us.”
He drops back in his seat, his jaw set tightly as he looks out toward Vicenta. I follow his gaze, my eyes on the girl I've been drowning myself in liquor over. The woman I’ve begun to turn my back on my father for.
“Yes,” I answer his earlier question, “Marío and I are unsettled at the moment.”
“So the whispers were right,” he says as we turn back to one another. “Then I have some information for you that will help you, but I have conditions.”
“I gave you your week, Romero,” I growl.
“It wasn’t enough, but should you agree, I won’t keep her from you either. As I said, I want her to choose me willingly. I’ve told her as much.”
He cocks his brow, his blue eyes dropping down from my face to my chest, before rolling back up. “I’m taking a month with her.”
I chuckle tiredly. “Playing pretend again, ‘Mero?”
He shrugs, looking back atBrujaas he answers. “I was in the beginning, but unlike you,” he turns back, “I’m not afraid of showing how I feel and taking what I want, no matter who tries to stand in my way.”
