Page 174 of Sins of the Orchid

I twirled a silky piece of her red strands around my index finger. “Your red hair is something,” I murmured softly.

She frowned. “You realize there are a lot of redheads out there.”

There were no other redheads for me, no other women but this one. She checked all the boxes for me and then some.

I stopped and took her face between my palms, lowering my head so we were inches apart.

“I held your hair wrapped around my fist as you sucked my cock, as I fucked you from every position imaginable, buried my face into it, and you think I’d ever want any other redhead?” I shook my head and even in the dark, I could see her blushing. “Or any woman, for that matter.”

I pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose, then let go of her and we resumed walking. “Now tell me what makes you believe George is alive.”

Her brow furrowed at my abrupt subject change. I wanted her to think about those words. For now, we’d focus on the immediate threat.

“A tree. Remember I told you George and I went to search for the orchids.” I nodded. “There was a tree where we found them, and George carved my initials on it. We hiked by that tree on our last trip to Venezuela. My initials were still there.”

I frowned. “So?”

“They were A.R.B.” I watched her and the meaning slowly sunk in. “I didn’t know that I was a Bennetti then. All my legal documents showed me as Anderson back then.” She chewed on her bottom lip again. “The man in Venezuela,” her lip quivered lightly. “The one I killed, Ulrich Anderson.” I had never regretted killing anyone. They all deserved it. But it bothered Amore. Despite what the Andersons did to her, killing wasn’t in her.

“He told me the Andersons wanted me dead because Grandfather promised to hand over the Perèz empire and then reneged on it.” I waited for her to continue, her internal struggle evident. “I asked him about George and whether he was alive. He denied it but…. I don’t know. Maybe it’s all crazy.”

She didn’t finish it. It didn’t sound so crazy, nor farfetched. With the death of Ulrich Anderson, all threats should have ceased, yet the Perèz Cartel didn’t retreat. It meant someone was still leading them. George Anderson wasn’t such a far-fetched concept.

“Maybe it’s not so crazy.”

“Remember I told you Mom ordered me not to go into the jungle,” she asked in a soft, quivering voice. I nodded. I could never forget anything Amore told me. She was never a chatty girl, but I always listened to everything that came out of her mouth.

“Yeah, I remember.”

“George knew,” she rasped, her voice full of anguish and emotions. She blamed herself. “He knew Mom forbade it. But he encouraged me, said we should go, the two of us. She left for her business trip to the city, and he said she’d never know. We’d see the orchids and be back before her.”

“George had a lot to gain,” I added. “He led you into a trap.”

“I think so too,” she murmured. It was heart wrenching to see the pain on her face. She had loved him, believed him to be her father, and then he betrayed her in the worst way possible.

“What made you believe he was dead in the first place?” I questioned her.

“It was only recently I started to question it,” she admitted. “Maybe I’m stupid or naive.”

“You’re not,” I protested. “He’s just a conniving, greedy bastard that targets innocent kids.”

She sighed deeply. “They tortured Mom in front of me.” Her voice was full of anguish at the memories, and I squeezed her hand. “Asking her about Grandpa’s cartel business. Where did it go, who got it? Mom didn’t know. I had no idea what they were talking about.” A tiny hiccup escaped through her lips.

“Amore, if it hurts to talk—”

She shook her head. “No, I think it's better if I get it all out.” It clawed at my chest to see her pain. “They hurt Mom in front of my eyes, but George… they took him somewhere, and I never saw him again. In the first days, I could hear his screams, but I never saw him. Why would they torture Mom in front of me but not the man I believed to be my dad?”

My eyes snapped her way. “You didn’t see him tortured? Are you sure?”

She swallowed. “Positive. Only his screams. Ulrich said he and his brother wanted me dead to pay for what George did to their mother, but she was dead way before Mom met George.”

“Does your grandmother know that the Perèz Cartel were the ones to kill your mom?”

“It wasn’t really Perèz. It was the Anderson Cartel that kept working with the Perèz Cartel members who refused to work for Grandma. Both she and Dad knew,” she admitted. It fit Regina’s explanation. “But Dad didn’t know that Grandma was blackmailed. To name the Andersons, a rival Venezuelan cartel, owners of the Perèz empire. She refused because it would have meant instant death for Mom and me. When we were held captive in the jungle, she reached out to the Carrera Cartel and made a deal. To save us in exchange for the drug business.”

Regina Regalè might have gotten one over on me, I thought wryly. She led me to believe her granddaughter didn’t know she was leading the Perèz Cartel. Yet, Amore has known it all along. My lips tugged up. Maybe that was the reason the dragon woman survived running a cartel for so long!

“The Carrera Cartel found you,” I told her. Suddenly, it made sense. The Carrera’s interest in her, how they came to save her, why they guarded her so fiercely. They hated the Anderson Cartel, and it was in their best interest to keep Amore and her grandmother alive.