Page 7 of Cartel Viper (The Cartel Brotherhood #2)

I’d need to live in a state that doesn’t require a blood test to marry and do a shit ton of other things to cover my tracks so well that I could marry under an alias. Not that doing all that shit would matter because to do that means my family wouldn’t be at my wedding.

Maks invites Laura to dance. They make a stunning couple, and they move together like a couple who know everything about each other down to their souls.

They do. I shift my gaze to the other bratva couples as they join Maks and Laura.

They’ve all met their soulmates too. My attention moves to the Mancinelli and O’Rourke families.

All the couples in those families are as in love as the ones in mine.

The Diazes have been the final holdout, and now Enrique’s broken the seal.

A lump rises in my throat. My eyes burn with threatening tears. My chest tightens.

None of this is fair. I’m not always a good person, but neither am I a horrible one. But none of this seems attainable anymore.

My parents are the last to join them since my dad went to the restroom.

They look at me, knowing I’m the only one left behind.

Sergei and Anton, the two unmarried bratva men, are ostensibly here as guests, but they’re the family’s bodyguards.

The men all guard their wives, but it doesn’t hurt to have two extras.

I know they probably assigned one of them to me.

I’ll know in a moment as I stand. I’m escaping to the restroom.

“Madeline, I’ll go with you.”

Anton.

“How’re you?”

“Well. How about you?”

He has the same sexy accent as the other men in the family, and he’s technically single, but I know we’ll never be interested in each other.

“Same. It’s nice to be back around family for a few days.”

He glances down at me before going back to surveilling the area. Does he know something? Does the family?

I don’t know all the ins and outs of the bratva, but I know my sister married into the ruling family.

She’s Elodie’s equivalent. Anton is super senior but not quite the same as Maks and his brothers.

He’s like a big toe’s length below them.

Same with Sergei. I know both Sergei and Anton are talented hackers, so it makes me think at least one of them gathers the family’s intel.

Have they been watching me? Digging into my life?

Paranoid much?

We reach the women’s restroom, and Anton knocks. We hear no one, so he pushes the door open. All the stall doors are ajar, and there are no visible feet within. Anton nods and backs up, letting the door close behind him. The moment it shuts, the first stall door opens wider.

I glance over my shoulder at where Anton must be on the other side of the door.

“Javier.” My voice comes out a hiss.

“Madeline—sorry, Caitlyn—it’s good to see you again.”

I refuse to flinch. My gaze locks with his, and I’m as defiant as ever. I’m unprepared for him to step forward and grab my forearm. His hold is surprisingly gentle, but he tows me behind him into the disabled stall.

“I’ll scream.”

“No, you won’t. You would have already. You didn’t want the attention at the hotel, and you hate having it here. What the hell, Maddy?”

“Madeline.”

“Caity.”

I practically snarl at him. He knows I hate having my name shortened. Nobody does it.

“I don’t care what name you go by. You will tell me what the hell is going on.”

He snags my other arm and lifts them both between us.

He turns them over as he looks at my wrists.

He spins me around—and frisks me! Except I know he’s not patting me down for weapons.

He keeps the pressure light, and he’s respectful in how he touches me.

But I shy away from his hand when it glides over my kidney.

He takes a step closer to me, and I feel the heat from his body across my back. He doesn’t exactly cage me. I could slip out from between the wall and him—if he let me.

“Who hurt you, Maddy?” His tone’s softer—gentler.

If I lie, he’ll know, so I remain silent.

“I’m not a cop.”

I snort.

“So, I won’t Miranda you. You don’t have the right to remain silent. You will answer me.”

I twist to see him. Our gazes meet yet again, and I see the arrogance I’ve always known.

But there’s genuine concern there. He’s worried about me.

There’s certainly an ulterior motive, but some of it really is about me.

When I shift to face him, he leans back enough to let me.

We’re still standing so close, we’re practically touching.

Nothing about him scares me like it would with any other man his size or Drew’s.

“Tell me who. Let me help you.”

“Why?”

His eyes narrow.

“I am not my cousin. I’ve done things worse than you can imagine, but I’ve never laid hands on a woman out of anger or violence. I have never hurt you. Just the opposite, and you know it.”

“And you promised never, ever to bring that up.”

“You promised to come to me if you were ever in danger again. We both lie.”

“That was a long time ago.”

“So? These bruises were fresh.”

“I release you from that promise.”

“Fantastic. I don’t release you from yours.

If you don’t tell me what the hell is going on, I will dig until I find out.

I will be your shadow like I was for nearly a year, but you won’t appreciate it.

I will find out. I will hold it against you for keeping it from me.

And I will retaliate against whoever this was tenfold for whatever I find out they did to you. ”

“You’re threatening me into confessing, so I won’t feel guilty about someone else’s blood on my hands. That worked when we were in high school, but it doesn’t work now.”

“Am I too late?”

Simmering anger on the cusp of rage darkens his already perpetually tan cheeks.

He and his high school girlfriend went to make out in the same park I did with a guy I’d just started dating.

The guy wanted more than I was willing to give.

Javier heard me banging against the window as I tried to get the guy off me.

Javier left his girlfriend and ran over to the car.

He didn’t know it was me at the time. He just knew it was a woman screaming.

The guy locked the doors with his key fob once we climbed into the backseat.

I thought we were going to make out a little, but the guy wanted full-on sex.

I was a virgin and planned to stay that way.

When Javier tried to open the door, he discovered it was locked.

He ran back to his car, got the tire iron, and shattered the driver’s window.

He got the doors open, then dragged the douchebag out of the car. I thought he was going to kill the guy. Instead, he broke a couple ribs with the tire iron. He wanted to call the cops—risk having them see him since he insisted on being my witness.

I refused. I didn’t want anyone to know.

I didn’t want my parents involved. Stupid teenager that I was.

The compromise was Javier appointed himself as my bodyguard.

We didn’t go to high school together since I lived in New Jersey, and he lived in Queens.

But every day, he’d make sure I got to school safely before booking it to his school.

I think he was tardy almost every morning for a semester.

As soon as he finished practice for whatever sport he was playing, he’d go to my house to make sure I got home safely.

On weekends, he’d be my shadow when I went out with friends.

He kept an eye on me when I went out with other guys.

He was a ghost, but I always knew he was there.

I wished countless times when Drew first started abusing me that Javier was around, that I could count on him. Then that fantasy fizzled.

“Maddy, answer me. Am I too late?”

I shake my head.

“Say it. I told you, you don’t have the right to remain silent.”

“I have to go. Anton’s going to wonder what’s keeping me.”

“Let him. Tell him your stomach rebelled. I don’t give a shit what lie you tell that asshat. You will answer me.”

“No. You aren’t too late. Nothing like that happened.”

“But someone hurt you.”

“I take a martial arts bootca?—”

“Lie to me, and I’ll spin you around and spank you just like I did that night.”

He sent his girlfriend home in a rideshare and hid me in the bathroom while Joaquin and Jorge came to get rid of the guy.

He told them the girl he was with took off.

Once his brothers left, he stalked into the bathroom and demanded answers like he is tonight.

He warned me if I didn’t answer and insisted upon acting like a guilty child trying to stay out of trouble, he’d treat me like one.

I crossed my arms and tried to look down my nose at him.

He pulled me out of the restroom like he pulled me into this bathroom stall. Took me to the closest bench, sat down, yanked me over his lap, and spanked me.

Hard.

I confessed everything, and he comforted me.

When I stopped crying, I apologized for being awkward when he went to so much trouble to help me.

I thanked him, and he helped me to my feet.

That was when we exchanged our promises.

We got in his car, and he took me home. We never discussed it again, but I knew what he did to keep me feeling safe. I never got to thank him for that.

“Javi, please don’t make me.”

I thought I could sound strong, but my voice is a tremulous whisper. I feel weak, which makes me feel defensive. He pulls me into his arms, and I remain rigid.

“Maddy, it’s me. Let me help you.”

“There’s nothing to do. You know I have a fake identity. What was happening is over now. Let it go, just like I did.”

“If you want the spanking, then tell me.”

It tempts me. I’ve heard he’s into kink, and the idea appeals to me, even if it would hurt.

It’s not just that he’s hotter than any man I’ve ever met—seen.

It’s that someone else would be in control of the shitshow for even a minute.

All I’d be able to concentrate on is him.

Not even. It would be the pain in my ass—the kind I’d enjoy rather than how he’s being by not letting up on this.

His left hand eases down to my lower back, his pinky at the top of my ass. He does nothing more; just lets it rest there.

“Is that what you want, chiquita ?”

Little girl.

It’s not patronizing or condescending like it is when Drew would sometimes call me that in English. It’s endearing. I feel safe again like I did that night fifteen years ago. I can’t help how my body melts against him now. I tell it not to, but it does.

“Javi, I have to go. Anton will come in soon. He’ll get worried. Or worse, he’ll call for Laura.”

“But you don’t want to go, do you?”

I shake my head.

What the fuck is wrong with me?

I’m that fucking damaged.