Delgano: A Dark Contemporary Interracial Romance

“And the lesson I have to learn from all this?”

“No lesson. Like I said, I’m the leader of this here outfit. I’m just trying to get to know who I’m working with. You, Hannah, and Lee? I can see us working together for a long time. Barnes, I’m not sure about, and Spettro, it’ll be a miracle if I don’t wind up killing him. God forbid they ever decide to add someone else, and they’re worse than Spettro.”

“Don’t think that’s possible.”

“Mate, I’m pretty sure you just jinxed us.”

Adrían geared up for another round of answering questions to give Trevor information that couldn’t be obtained from a file. As much as he’d wanted to be left alone, he didn’t hate Trevor’s style of getting to know the people around him. Talking was as old as time, but today, it seemed novel.

“Hey,” Trevor called, filtering sand between his thumb and index finger, “bet you didn’t know the Sahara used to be green.”

CHAPTER

SEVENTEEN

“Go with him.”

Sayeda turned away from the counter, knife in hand. “Go with who? Adrían?”

“No, Novi,” Mora said, frowning.

“No.”

“Come on, Sayeda. I’m your mother. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“Mora, here’s the thing. You told me that all of this,” she motioned around, “was for my safety. I accepted that. You told me that my old life was no more, and I accepted that too…eventually. But you’re asking me to put myself in a situation neither of us understands—unless you know something I don’t.”

Mora went silent.

The only reason she and her mother were breathing the same air was because she’d called her mother to the villa, and she had to keep reminding herself of that before she snapped and ruined everything.

She turned back to the counter and brought the knife down, cutting a sea bass filet down the middle. She’d never made this particular stew before, so she wanted to make sure she tried it at least twice to work out any kinks that might arise.

Her mother’s frame warmed her side. “It’s just to push Adrían. He likes you. He likes you quite a bit. In my professional opinion, he might even be falling for you. If you go with Novi?—”

“I’m not your guinea pig, and neither is he.” She’d thought so too, that Adrían was falling for her, especially after he brought the bear and the roses and then left her that ridiculous amount of money. But what good would it do if Adrían didn’t even see it? Couldn’t see it? Couldn’t feel it?

“Sayeda, who exactly are you raising your voice with?”

“There are only two people in this kitchen.”

In none of her twenty-two years had she posed much of a challenge to her mother, as distant as the woman had been. These days, she didn’t know whether it meant she’d been a good child, a child so starved for attention that she’d become a perfectionist, or her mother had hypnotized her before handing her off to her aunt.

But this was going to stop.

Asking her to give up her life, hopes, and dreams was one thing, but asking her to give up who she was? If she did, what would she have left? Once she left all of this behind, who would she have left? No one, especially if she couldn’t take Adrían with her.

“Sayeda, this is my area of expertise,” Mora explained. “This is about saving lives, not your ego or your feelings.”

Fewer egos existed in the United States smaller than her mother’s. Weaker personalities would have to fight for their lives to try to convince her she was wrong about something, even with proof.

“You slept with him, didn’t you?”

She chopped the filet into thick chunks.

“Sayeda, did you sleep with Adrían? Didn’t you hear a word that I said? Men like that are incapable of love.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not.”