Savage Secrets (Titan #6) (27 page)

“Too bad you don’t.” She shrugged, trying to fake courage and strength. “You should know the reason I’m going to kill you.”

Genuine shock crossed his face. His mouth dropped open, and his head tilted. “Tell me, Caterina Cruz Locke. Tell me why I will die.”

She’d waited her whole life to throw what he’d done in his face. “You killed my family, and I will kill you.”

He dropped his head back and coughed a doubting cackle. It crackled across her skin, washing away all of her wooziness and pain. She was a woman on a mission.

El Mateperros checked the time on his Rolex. “What you know of me may be incorrect. Rarely do I kill anyone. That’s what I have people for.” He stretched in his seat. “I was born poor and grew up realizing how I could escape the crappy streets in Algeria. I made a name for myself—”

“My family was murdered on the beaches of Dehesa de Campoamor by your hand, or your order. I do not care.”

The sarcastic laughter stopped. He paused then strained a gaze at her. “You don’t say.”

“I do.”

He dabbed a spread on a cracker and slowly ate it. After finishing the cracker, he finished the rest of his drink then raised the empty glass. “Allah’s not what drives me. Maybe in the beginning. But your family’s death—”

“Massacre.”

He inclined his head. “
Massacre
. Their demise turned me into a household name in some circles. They were how I earned my nickname.”

“You ruined my life.”

He studied her while snacking. “Interesting. If that’s what people need to keep my name on their tongues, let them have it. They’re still talking about me, and that’s what matters.”

“Excuse me?”

His cold eyes fired, excited. “Do you know my favorite Lady Gaga quote?”

“Wh-what?” Her eyes pinched shut. She couldn’t tell if she’d lost her mind or if this was some insane reality. “No. I can’t begin to imagine your favorite quote by anyone.”

“I’ve always been famous. It’s just that nobody knew it yet.” He looked out a window, stroking his cheek. “Soon they will know.”

Her jaw unhinged. “This is all for…some sick kind of fame?”

“This? What I do?” He shrugged. “Yes.”

She shook her head. “There’s something wrong with you.”

“Yet, I’m flying in a Lear Jet. Eating caviar. I’ve got a beautiful woman at my disposal. So it seems as if there is something right with me.” He smeared another cracker. Ate it. Stared at her.

On the surface, he was a very pretty person. Some might even go as far to say a beautiful person. In a purely physical review, all the parts worked. But something evil and rotten festered in him, ruined his mind. He was a psychopath or a sociopath. Something.

And that something refilled his glass from a crystal decanter. “I had plans for you, but now they’ve changed.”

“
Por que
?”

“Good question. You will make an excellent addition to my team.”

If she thought her stomach had bottomed out before, she was wrong. Now it had. “Excuse me?”

“Fool me once, shame on you. But fool me twice.” He clucked. “I thought there was something special about you. After our visit earlier—”

“When you
raped me
.”

He smiled, and it was magazine model perfect. “After our visit, and when I saw your
husband
in action, he seemed less of a meat-head and more trained operative than I gave him credit for.”

Visit
? “Rape.”

“A little more nosing around, and my researcher turned up a fascinating theory based on an interesting rumor. Have you heard of the Titan Group?”

“
Vete al infierno
.” Go to hell. He could rot there for all she cared.

“Titan, we believe, was responsible for kidnapping one of my lieutenants. And even more interesting are the rumors of a very attractive intelligence gatherer who worked my lieutenant over before his demise.”

Oh fuck.

“The look on your face might as well be a confirmation. I don’t believe you are a Locke, but I do believe you will come work for me.”

CHAPTER THIRTY

Sitting on a park bench in London with his head hanging between his knees, Rocco crossed his arms over his head and wanted to puke. Twenty-four straight hours of searching and no sign of Caterina. No sign of El Mateperros. Titan had searched-and-destroyed El Mateperros’s country house after finding nothing at the hotel or Cat’s studio apartment. The ACG hotspot had been empty except for minions, and despite Titan’s best efforts, the minion-fucks didn’t have anything intelligent to share. The bench creaked. He looked up enough to identify Jared then hung his head back down.

Rocco had never failed. Ever. This was the most important job he’d ever had, and he couldn’t have done a worse job.

“Keep your head in the game, Roc. Parker will figure out a location. Give him a little time.”

Rocco shook his head. “You have no idea what the sick fuck did to her. Now he has her. Alone.”

“She’s tough. She’s a master manipulator and trained to dole out pain. She can out talk, outwit, and out think anyone.”

“Including me.”

Jared’s head shook. “I doubt that.”

“I never saw this coming. She just walked out. Exactly what she wanted when she wanted.”

“Nah.” Jared shook his head again. “If she wanted to work you over, she would have, then said goodbye and used the front door. You would’ve waved and said, ‘see ya.’ Wasn’t the case.”

“Might well—”

“Shut down the pity party ’cause we don’t have time for that bullshit.” Jared’s phone rang, and he looked at it. “Parker.”

Rocco’s head hung down, but he still looked over. “So answer it.”

“I will if you get your head out of your ass.”

“Christ, Jared. Done. Head out of ass. Answer the phone.”

“Your head’s messed up about a girl, and you need to right it. Now. Or this ain’t gonna fly.”

“Right it? Nothing to right. She walked out. What does that say to you? Because, to me, it says fuck you very much.”

Jared leaned back. “Happily ever after doesn’t come with a red bow. Doesn’t mean perfectly ever after. It means shit sucks sometimes, and you muddle through it. Especially with that girl. She’s tough, but she’s a product of her life. Help her change that, help her accomplish what she needs to, then you’re set. Love. Happily ever after. Whatever bullshit comes with that.”

Rocco watched him, letting his words resonate, then shook his head. “Not her style.”

“Give her a chance.”

“Tried.” He’d tried so hard.

“I would bet Sugar’s sweet ass that you tried to fix Caterina’s problems
for
her. Women like Caterina…” Boss Man shook his head. “It takes a bigger set of balls to say ‘what the hell do you need me to do to? How can I help you?’”

Help her
? Hell, Rocco hadn’t tried to help, like
actually
help her. He had tried to take care of it by calling in his boys. That was real help. In his mind anyway.

Jared continued. “’Cause you gotta know Caterina’s just like Sugar in a few ways. One of those is an independent streak as wide as this damn ocean we just crossed. When they need help, they
need help
. Not a fix.”

“Not a fix.” A fix was what he’d wanted. It seemed simple enough. Titan fixed shit. He was an expert shit-fixer. Easy.

“Fix their problem for them, and they’ll fuck it up worse than before just to prove they could do it on their own. And they will
fix
it on their own, probably better than you did in the first place, but life’s a lot better if you just give the lady what she needs the first time.” Jared cracked his knuckles. “A little help.”

Rocco sat back and rubbed his temples.

Jared cracked his knuckles again. “So that’s lessons in love by me, volume one. You want the rest of that, you can buy the book.”

His phone rang again.

Rocco stood up. “Answer your phone.”

“Not so fast.” Jared stood.

What the hell? Rocco glared, annoyed and confused. “What?”

“We gotta talk.”

This again?

This was the
talk
from Jared, and the timing sucked. “Look, I know what you’re going to say, so let’s have this ass-reaming later.”

The phone kept ringing. Jared shook his head. “We’re having it now.”

“Answer your phone, Boss Man.” Lips flat, he pressed them tighter, trying to keep his cool and failing in a humungo way.

“Not until I know what’s going on, and if you’re with the team moving forward.”

Rocco puffed out his chest. His elbows angled, arms pulling from his sides. A fighter’s stance. “You’d better believe my ass is with the team. Say that again, and we’ll have problems.”

“Roc, man, we have problems now. And hell if I’m going to let you get yourself killed trying to save your woman because you’re too stupid to stand down.” He took a breath. “Funny thing about Titan: we don’t run from shit, and I’ve seen enough of it. Hell, I’ve experienced it myself. We don’t run from a fight, and we don’t run from the right woman. Those are the breaks for taking it like a man. The right one comes along and we man up. No pussyfooting around. No ‘I’m too cool, I won’t be tied down, it won’t happen to me.’ None of that.”

Rocco tilted his head. “Roman. Beth.”

Jared shook his head. “Roman’s not in love. Yet. That asshole’s gonna hit it hard though. One day. Wait and see. But I’m talking about you.”

He shrugged, trying to play it down. Trying to hide his clenched fists and teeth. “So talk.”

“What’s the deal? Are you sick? Having flashbacks? What is it, and how often is it still happening?”

Anxiety crushed his chest. “I’m not sick.”

“Fine. Whatever you want to call it. How are you affected?”

He paced the length of the bench. “We need to get to Caterina.”

“And I need an assessment of my team leader.”

“Goddamn it, Jared. Fuck. I’m fine. My girl’s in trouble. That’s my problem. You mind if we move all this to some other time? Fuck, man.”

“Status update or you’re done.”

He ground his fist into his hair, knotting it up until the roots burned. “I’m going more crazy now than ever before. It hits me out of nowhere. I trip balls. I don’t see it coming. I’m just fucked. But nothing compares to right now.” Rocco choked down a breath. He was more angry and more sure of his moves than ever before. Getting in Jared’s face until mere inches separated them, he growled. “Bench me, and I’ll still find her. Take me with you, and I won’t have to shove my fist in your goddamn face.”

Jared got right back in his face. “Are you going to be a liability?”

“The fuck if I know, but you aren’t going without me.” His head felt ready to pop, his muscles tensing, his voice bellowing with all the anxiety trapped in his chest.

Stop. Regroup
.

He took a deep breath. “Now answer that phone.”

Boss Man remained squared off. The phone rang nonstop. Finally, he nodded, stepped back, and touched the screen, pressing it to his ear. “Speak.”

Rocco took a deep breath. Sweat tickled the back of his neck. His blood pounded, and he could taste the need to fight, to stake a claim to Cat and make sure that woman knew exactly how he felt.

Talking on the phone, Jared gave a few nods and a groan that did zilch to make Rocco feel better. After a few eternities, the call ended and Boss Man looked ill at ease. “We’re going wheels up. Pull the team, and let’s go.”

They needed to fly somewhere? How had this spiraled from her wandering off to them needing a Titan jet to go
help
? “Where is she?”

Shifting in his boots, Jared hesitated. “Parker’s best guess: Africa.”

“Best freakin’ guess?
Africa
?”

“You doubting our boy?”

For the first time, maybe. He wanted coordinates, her heat signature pinpointed on a map or an outline of her safe and sound and ready for pick up. “Africa’s a big fucking place—”

“Somalia.”

Rocco’s jaw dropped, and his heart stuttered. Of all the places in the world, could it be any worse than that devil’s armpit of a place? No. No it could not. American history in Somalia was painful. Bloody. And God love the Special Forces that had gone in, come out—or didn’t—and the hell they’d been through along the way. Somali’s record of operations-gone-wrong wouldn’t be far from anyone’s mind.

Rocco focused on his left hand. On his ring finger. The Locke job was over, but the ring was still there. It was simple. White gold. Maybe platinum. It wasn’t something he’d have picked out to wear, but damn if he would take it off. Not now. Maybe not…

He shook his head. Scrubbed his face.

A silly metal band made him feel closer to her as if it symbolized everything they had gone through so far. The thing didn’t have a start or an end. It just ran in perpetuity, very similar to his commitment to her and this job and taking out El Mateperros.