Page 61 of Cryptic Curse

“You must have misheard,” I say.

“Fuck off, Hawk.”Eagle rises, letting his controller drop to the floor.“Do you really think I would mishearthatname?Of all names in the damned universe?That name sends chills down my spine every time I think it.So when I actually heard itspoken, I nearly shit myself.”

My mind races, and I rise as well.“Vega is a common Spanish surname.Diego is a common first name.They could have been talking about someone completely different.”I rub my hand over my face.“And why is he talking to our sister about men being dead?What the hell is going on?”

Eagle paces around the man cave.“You don’t know what that motherfucker was like, man.He was evil.He was one of those men who never had to raise his voice or his fists to get what he wanted.He could make you want to jump off a cliff just by looking at you.”

The memory of Vega’s face—those cold, calculating eyes and the venomous smile—still haunts me sometimes, even after all these years.

“But he’s dead, Eagle.We saw it with our own eyes,” I remind him.

“Yeah, we saw it.But did anyone else?Was there a body?A funeral?”Eagle runs a hand through his hair.“This is the kind of shit that keeps me up at night, Hawk.”

His words hang heavy in the room.I can’t ignore the fear in his eyes or the weight in his voice.The past has a way of catching up with us, no matter how fast or far we run.

My mind is a whirlwind of thoughts and questions, but one stands out among the rest—if Diego Vega is alive—orwasalive recently—then who the fuck is buried underneath our barn?

Eagle shot a man.

A man he knew as Diego Vega.

Falcon and I buried him and his stash below the floorboard of the old barn.

“We need to talk to Vinnie,” I say finally, my voice steady despite the turmoil inside me.“We need to know exactly what he knows.”

“Right, that’s another thing,” Eagle says.“Raven asked if he’d recognize the photo evidence when it came through.Vinnie said, yeah, that he first met Vega when he was about to turn eighteen, and he recognized him when he was in Colombia.He said he’d never forget those cold and calculating eyes.Man, he was talking about the same guy.He had to be.Vega had the meanest eyes.”

Fuck.

Fuck, fuck,fuck.

I didn’t make a to-do list today, but if I had?

Digging up a dead body wouldnothave been on it.

20

DANIELA

No cooking yet, but I did get asked out to a water park by a handsome man who does absolutely nothing for me.

I made three new friends.

But oh, how I missed Belinda.

As I drive home, I can’t wait to see her.It’s so wonderful to finally have a child.

She’s not my child, of course.She’s nearly twelve, which means I would have had to have her when I was six years old.

I’ve always wanted a child.

And Belinda is the closest I’ll ever get to a child of my own.

On a whim, I stop for ice cream.Belinda loves ice cream.

I sit down and have a scoop of Pink Cadillac—strawberry with Oreo cookies.I usually eat my ice cream plain, but Pink Cadillac is Bee’s favorite.It’s actually pretty delicious.I splurge for a waffle cone and eat it at the venue.Then I buy a pint to take home to Belinda.

Like me, she wasn’t allowed to have ice cream often as a child.