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Then I heard Joy crying.
I tossed the blanket off and moved to her side, sitting on the edge of the bed and looking down at my woman as she sobbed. “Hey, hey, Joy, it’s okay.”
“It’s not okay,” she cried in a raw voice. “You’re a criminal.”
That was one of the last things I expected her to say. “What?”
“I remember. Devonlin said the Cordova cartel.” The rest came out garbled as she turned her face into her pillow.
“Joy, I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“I’m in love with a monster!”
That hurt, but I’d been preparing for this moment since I decided to make Joy my own. Too bad all my pretty speeches and explanations seemed weak as shit. Still, I had to try, because losing Joy was unacceptable.
“I’m not a monster.”
She peeked at me through swollen eyes. “Is it true? Is there a Cordova cartel?”
I met her gaze, even though it pained me. “Yes.”
Her lower lip trembled. “And you…you do bad things?”
“I guess that depends on who you ask.”
“Do you…do you hurt people?”
“We don’t hurt innocent people.”
I took her uninjured hand in my own, grateful when she didn’t jerk away. “But you’re criminals.”
“We are. The things we do aren’t always legal, but we don’t just randomly go out destroying people.”
“Wh-what do you do?” Tears filled her eyes again. “Are you like the Santiagos? Do you sell women?”
“No!” I lowered my voice, hating that I made her jump. “No, sweetheart, we’re nothing like those sick fucks.”
“So, you don’t sell women?”
We had a thriving prostitution business, but I don’t think that’s what she meant. “No, we don’t kidnap and sell women. We don’t do human trafficking of any kind. We specialize in drugs.” She tried to pull her hand away, but I wouldn’t let her. “Yeah, we sell recreational drugs, but that’s not where our money comes from. We also sell cutting edge cures, things the FDA hasn’t approved, medicines that are desperately needed, but people can’t get their hands on for various reasons. Cancer drugs, infertility drugs, experimental treatments and therapies that save people’s lives.”
For a long moment she stared at me, searching my face. “But you also sell recreational drugs.”
“I’m not going to lie to you Joy, we do, but I swear to you, we don’t hurt innocents.”
“Your mom…your dad. They’re the head of the cartel?”
“They are.”
I waited, my muscles tense with the need to keep her, to make her love me, to never let me go, but at this moment I was powerless.
“Were you ever going to tell me?”
“Yes. I had planned on telling you after we got married.”
Her gaze flicked to mine. “After?”
“I didn’t want to give you a chance to run. I love you, Joy, with everything I have. I’d walk away from it all. Today, if that’s what it took to keep you.”
She frowned. “You would?”
“I would, but I’m afraid it would put us in grave danger to be without the protection of my family, so I beg you not to ask that of me.”
“Hannah…does she know?”
“Yes.”
“But she didn’t tell me?”
“She couldn’t. Leo made her promise not to until I had a chance to talk to you first. She didn’t like it, but she understood the need to keep you unaware, to protect you as much as we could from the truth.”
Joy closed her eyes and turned her head away from me, but didn’t let go of my hand. “I don’t know what to do. I should hate you, be disgusted by all of this…but I can’t. I love you. Does that make me a terrible person?”
“No, sweetheart, not at all. You’re the best person I know, the absolute best. You are everything good in this world, everything we’re trying to protect. If it wasn’t for the Cordova cartel, people like the Santiago’s would have free rein to spread the evil. We keep them in check, we fight where the government can’t, do what the police won’t. They come to us when they have a problem they can’t handle.”
“The police come to you?”
“Yeah. Cops, politicians, lawyers, priests. They all know they can come to us for help they can’t get anywhere else.”
“For a price.”
“For a price,” I agreed, waiting to see how Joy would react.
Letting out a big sigh, she whispered, “Can you please hold me? I’m so tired, and the only time I feel safe is in your arms. How messed up is that?”
Moving as quickly as I could, I slid into the bed next to her, careful of her IV and broken leg. Once I was lying on my side looking down at her, she burrowed into my chest and got as close to me as she physically could. I held her against me, thanking God, the Blessed Mother, and all the saints, that Joy hadn’t rejected me, at least not yet.
“I’m so sorry you got hurt today,” I whispered against the top of her head. “When I found out you’d been taken…when I thought I’d never get to see you again, I thought my heart was going to stop.”
