Unveiled (Vargas Cartel #2) (3 page)

Chapter Five

Ryker

Everything I led myself to believe over the last few weeks disintegrated into dust the moment I came face to face with Hattie Covington again. How could I keep my bearings around her when my feelings for her crippled my judgment?

I planned to slip into the party and leave before she saw me. But the minute my eyes landed on her standing in front of the room, smiling prettily at Evan, their hands intertwined the slow burn of something resembling jealousy churned in my gut. At that instant, I knew I couldn’t walk away without talking to her, touching her, kissing her, claiming her. I wanted to beat my chest and scream she was mine, not Evan’s. That she’d never belong to him the way she belonged to me.

I wasn’t accustomed to these messy emotions. The turmoil of a human psyche didn’t have a place in my life. In the short time I’d known her, Hattie had succeeded in messing with my head until right and wrong had flipped on its axis. She made me feel something I had no right to feel.

“Hattie,” I groaned when her hands slipped beneath my suit jacket, roaming impatiently over the starched fabric of my shirt. Fucking hell. We didn’t have enough time to do everything I needed to do. The memory of the feel of her beneath me haunted me since I released her. I wanted to sling her over my shoulder and carry her out the front door. I had to be inside of her again. I needed to kiss, taste, and stroke every inch of her skin. The engagement party and the deal I made with Senator Deveron be damned.

For some reason, I got it in my head that if I put enough time and distance between us, my need for her would disappear. It didn’t work. Far from it. Now that I held her in my arms again, I didn’t want to let her go.

My hand traced the outline of her body until I reached the hem of her dress. Slowly, inch-by-inch, I slid the ivory, silky dress up her long legs. What I wouldn’t give to have her legs wrapped around me again.

“Wait.” She jerked back, dropping her hands to her sides. “This is crazy.”

“I know. We should stop.” Even as the words tumbled from my mouth, I slid my hand inside her panties barely an inch. There was something about claiming her right here and thumbing my nose in Senator Deveron’s face that made me want to ignore common sense. Ignore reality. Ignore consequences.

She clamped her hand around my wrist. “No. I can’t do this. Not here. Evan will come back any second. You need to leave. I don’t know how I would explain this…you.” Her voice trailed off and her face paled, as if the reality of the moment just clicked into place.

I snatched my hand away from her and inhaled a shuddering breath. My chest heaving, I spun around and shoved my hands into my pockets. She was right. This wasn’t the time or the place for this, but I hated Evan believing he had a claim on her. I facilitated that claim, but it didn’t make things any easier to stomach.

“Are you okay?” Hattie rested her head against my back. “Are you mad?” Her small fingers toyed with the back of my hair.

One simple touch and pleasure whistled down my spine. I wanted to be near her. I wanted her to care about me. I wanted her to love me even though I participated in the destruction of her life. I temporarily stole her freedom. I couldn’t delude myself. Hattie should hate me. I abducted her. I tricked her. I was still lying to her. She could never know the real reason she was selected as a pawn in the deadly game between Senator Deveron and the Vargas Cartel.

As much as I wanted to believe otherwise, nothing had changed. Hattie and I could never be together. We were a house of cards. One soft breeze and we’d fall apart.

“I’m fine,” I said, purposely not answering the second question because I was mad, but not at her. I was mad at myself for coming here, for participating in her abduction, for sending her home to Evan.

“Do you love him?” I asked, even though I had no right to an answer.

She sighed. “I don’t know how to answer that. It’s complicated.”

I turned to face her and held my hand over her heart. “I want the real truth, not the truth you think I want to hear.”

“I don’t—”

Evan opened the door, pausing at the threshold. “Hattie?”

I brushed my knuckles against hers, back and forth. Evan’s eyes locked on the transitory contact, and Hattie wrapped her arms around her torso, snatching her hand out of my reach.

“Do you know Ry Fallon?” Evan asked, his brows scrunched together. Most likely, he couldn’t make sense of the current situation.

As far as he and Senator Deveron knew, I was an acquaintance who had expressed interest in bundling campaign funds for the Senator. A bundler pooled contributions from several donors with the same goals to fund a campaign. This loophole in the campaign finance reform laws gave corporations and lobbyists the ability to buy political influence.

Offering to bundle funds for the Senator was the perfect way to infiltrate his inner circle as Ry Fallon while doing my less than honest work as Ryker Vargas. My separate identities remained intact.

“Ry Fallon?” Hattie uttered. Her eyes flickered to mine briefly, then returned to Evan. “No. Not really. We just met actually.” Her voice wavered. Did Evan know she had lied?

Evan rubbed his hand along his jaw line. “Ry’s done some work for my dad.”

Hattie paled. “What kind of work?”

“We’ve talked about fundraising, but I haven’t agreed to do anything,” I clarified. I didn’t want anyone to unravel the full extent of my duplicity. I led a double life—part of it in the light, and the other part in the shadows.

“You’re right. Now that you mention it, my dad said nothing was final.” He smiled, and then he focused his attention on her. “Are you feeling better?”

Hattie twisted her fingers in the silky folds of her dress. “Not really. Would it be a big deal if I left? I thought I could do this, but I’m not ready to make small talk with all these people.” She closed her eyes briefly. “It’s too hard,” she said, her voice barely a whisper.

Evan’s lips twisted into something resembling to a sneer as he transferred his weight from one foot to the other. “Hattie, this is our engagement party. We haven’t been here for an hour. It’d look bad. People would ask questions.”

She bit her lower lip. “Just tell them I have the stomach flu.”

His hands curled into fists. “My mom worked really hard on this party. She’ll be disappointed if you leave this early. I’ll be disappointed.” His eyes hardened. “You promised to try harder,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Excuse me,” I said, barely containing the anger pulsing through my veins. I couldn’t believe Evan had the nerve to guilt her into staying after everything he’d done to her. He handed her to the Vargas Cartel on a silver platter. He was complicit in the destruction of her life. “I think I should go. I don’t want to interfere.”

“Evan,” Senator Deveron called from the hall. “Can you come here for a minute? I want you to meet someone.”

“Sure.” Evan tipped his head toward the ceiling. “Hattie, I have to talk to him. Join me in the entryway in a few minutes.” He didn’t wait for her to respond.

“Can you meet me this week?” I asked the minute Evan disappeared around the corner.

“I’m sorry, Ryker, but I can’t.” She shook her head. “It’s not a good idea.”

“You said you missed me. Was that a lie?” My voice was intentionally soft, but it didn’t mask the anger burning beneath the surface. Rationally, I understood why she didn’t want to meet me. I knew what I did to her. If she stopped to think about it for a second and pushed all of her emotions aside, she’d run from Evan and me.

“No,” she snapped. “But I need some space. I’m confused. I don’t understand why you’re here—”

“Because I was invited,” I retorted, curling my hands into fists at my sides.

“Exactly. Why the hell were you invited to my engagement party? Why the hell do you have two names? Why the hell are you in the United States? None of this makes sense.”

“I’ll explain all of it later.” I kept my voice perfectly smooth and controlled. I didn’t know what I’d tell her. It couldn’t be the whole truth. I wanted to keep her sheltered from the reality of the way my world worked.

“Later?” She scoffed. “Just like you explained everything that happened in Mexico.”

I winced inwardly. “No. I’ll tell you everything I can.” I always added a qualifier to my answers. In my line of work, it was a necessary evil. I envied people who inhabited the world of black and white. I lived in a world colored with a thousand shades of gray. A world where black was white, and white was black. Hattie would never understand.

“I’ve heard that before.” Her golden eyes narrowed briefly. “I know what that means. You won’t tell me a damn thing.”

I couldn’t force this right now. She needed time to process everything. I plucked my wallet from my back pocket and handed her a business card. “Call me when you’re ready to talk.”

She glared at the card, and for a minute, I didn’t think she’d take it. “I’ll think about,” she said, ripping the card out of my hand and crumbling it inside of her fist.

“You do that.” I crossed the study, my leather loafers echoing on the herringbone wood floor. Everything about Senator Deveron’s house screamed of pretentious elegance. Crystals dripped from oversized chandeliers. Pristine white wood paneling covered the walls. A spiral staircase with a sweeping gilded railing greeted guests in the entry. It was all very Vegas, which was fitting. That’s where he got his start. He owned a casino in Las Vegas before the people of Nevada elected him to be their Senator. Too bad the tentacles of the criminal underworld were firmly embedded in Senator Deveron. He voted in accordance with their interests rather than those of his constituents. “But if you take too long, I’ll come find you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

I winked. “You know exactly what it means. We’ve been down this road many times before.”

Chapter Six

Hattie

“Vera,” I sighed as I stood up from the table and I wrapped my arms around her.

I invited her to lunch this afternoon. After weeks of avoiding her, I finally decided enough was enough.

I expected to see her at my engagement party two days ago, but she was noticeably absent. Clearly, my mom had a firm hand in the invitation process and neglected to invite her. She never liked my best friend.

At first, I was pissed at my mom, but then I realized it was my fault Vera didn’t receive an invitation to the party. I’d spent the last few weeks wallowing in my personal pity party, which gave my mom the opening she needed to sink her claws into my life again. I’d worked hard over the last six years to forge my own path. I couldn’t stand the thought of everything I’d done crumbling because I’d lost the will to fight for myself.

The meddling in my life had to stop, which meant I had to take control and stop being a victim. This morning, I exercised for the first time since I had returned from Mexico, and now was going to eat lunch with my best friend. Just those simple steps made me feel more like myself than I had in weeks. I had a plan. I had a schedule. I would be okay. I could do this.

“I’m so mad at you,” she declared as she returned my hug.

“I know. I’m a shitty friend. I don’t have a good excuse for avoiding you.” I released her and took a step back, a faint smile on my face.

She waved her hand at me, dismissing my comment. “I can’t hold it against you. I can’t even imagine what you’ve been through over the last two months. One minute you were talking to that guy, and thirty minutes later, I couldn’t find you. I scoured that bar and every bar within walking distance until three in the morning. Eventually, I went back to the hotel.”

“I know. I’m sure you were losing your mind. I’m sorry I put you through that.” I settled into my chair at the table.

Vera slipped into the seat across from me. She eyed me warily for a few prolonged seconds. I focused on anything and nothing to avoid the intensity of her stare. With trembling hands, I lifted my napkin and placed it on my lap, taking far too long to arrange it.

She cleared her throat and planted her elbows on the edge of the table. “Do you want to talk about what happened?” She sucked her raspberry-stained lower lip into her mouth. “I’m fine either way. You can tell me everything, nothing, or a little bit in between.”

My stomach twisted. I missed Vera. She accepted me without judgment. I shouldn’t have waited so long to talk to her. I needed her, and I needed our friendship, particularly now. “How much do you know?”

“Not a lot. I called your dad the next afternoon when I realized you weren’t coming back.”

My eyes flared. “I can’t imagine that conversation went over very well.”

She shook her head. “No, it didn’t. He freaked. After that day, your dad called me twice. The first time he told me you’d been abducted, and the second time he told me they had successfully negotiated your release. He didn’t give me any details. Nobody knows anything. Evan hasn’t breathed a word to his friends either.”

“You asked them?”

She twisted a strand of her long red hair around her finger. “Of course.”

“I thought you hated them.”

“I did. I still do.” She took a sip of ice water. “They didn’t know anything except that you and Evan are back together.” Her eyes narrowed. “Is that true?”

I shifted in my seat. Then, I exhaled and held out my hand. Sunlight bounced off my engagement ring. “Actually, we’re engaged.”

Her eyes flickered to the two-carat square diamond ring glittering on my finger. “Oh, I didn’t realize. Nobody told me.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t mention it earlier. I should have told you immediately.”

She shrugged her shoulders, but it looked robotic…forced. “This is the first time we’ve talked other than by text. I understand.” Her eyes darted around the restaurant as she fiddled with the prongs of her fork. “Can I help with the engagement party?”

“Evan’s parents hosted the engagement party two days ago. My mom handled the invitations.”

Carefully avoiding my eyes, she nodded, accepting my excuse without complaint. She knew my mom wouldn’t invite her, but it didn’t nullify my behavior. I’d been a bad friend, and I wanted to make it up to her.

“Tell me about it. Was it nice?” she asked, but I could tell she didn’t care about the answer. My inability to get my shit together hurt her. I’d alienated my only true friend.

I swallowed over the lump growing in my throat with alarming efficiency. “No,” I admitted. “I hated it. I hated the flowers. I hated the food. I don’t want to marry him.”

Her eyes snapped to mine. “Why? What are you saying?”

“Evan was waiting for me when they released me—”

“Wait,” she interrupted. “When who released you?”

I sucked in a weighted breath. “The Vargas Cartel. From what I pieced together, they abducted me as leverage to secure the release of Ignacio’s son from a U.S. prison.”

“Ignacio?”

“Ignacio is the head of the Vargas Cartel,” I clarified. “I guess they’d been watching me for a while. As the attorney general, my dad can influence the pardon process. That’s why they took me. They wanted to force the U.S. government to release Ignacio’s son.”

Vera’s mouth opened and closed at least three times before she spoke. “Did they hurt you?”

I didn’t know how to answer that question. People asked me that same question so many times in so many ways I’d lost count. She scanned my face looking for clues, or scars, or whatever people thought they could see.

My eyes dropped to my lap, and I brushed my hand over the faint pink scar on my neck. Ignacio had nicked my neck with a knife during a live video conference with Evan and his dad. Ignacio’s assault scared me, but my relationship with Ryker damaged me deep down where Ignacio never could. He made me want him. Crave him. Need him.

I smirked, but the action felt forced and unnatural. “I’m still alive. That’s all that matters.”

“Have you told anyone what happened?”

I shook my head, trying to erase the conflicting emotions, rising like a tidal wave from my gut. “No.”

“Do you want to tell me what happened?” She placed her hand on the base of her throat, her green eyes suspiciously glossy. “I won’t judge you or think differently of you. No matter what happened or what you did to survive, you’ll always be my best friend. I promise.”

“I know you wouldn’t judge me, but I’m not ready to talk about it.” I waved away the waitress as she approached our table. I needed to ask Vera something before I lost my nerve. “Right now I need something else from you.”

“What’s that?”

I cast a glance around the restaurant, making sure I didn’t know any of the other patrons. I selected a little-known restaurant, but my family and Evan’s family had a large circle of acquaintances. I needed to be careful. I didn’t want any of this to get back to Evan before I had a chance to talk to him. “Can I move into your apartment?”

“Of course,” she responded without hesitation. “You’re always welcome to stay with me. You’re my best friend.”

Smiling, I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “It’s only temporary until I find an alternative, but I need to get out of Evan’s apartment, and I can’t go home. My mom is determined to see me marry Evan. She won’t stop.”

She scooted to the edge of her chair. “Are you going to break off your engagement?”

“Yes. I can’t marry him. I think I’m in love with someone else.” I cringed inwardly, and I lowered my gaze, afraid to see her reaction. In all honesty, I didn’t know what I felt for Ryker. Part of me suspected I could love Ryker. He made my blood sing and my body hum. The other part of me believed our connection revolved around sex, and not even sex wrapped in a nice, neat bow with the façade of romance and sweet murmurings.

“Hold on.” She waved her hand, and the corners of her eyes crinkled as she scrunched her face in surprise. “I think I missed something. Who do you
think
you’re in love with?”

“This is the part I don’t want to talk about.” My eyes flickered to the side, avoiding eye contact as my insides flamed with shame and more than a little uncertainty. I took a bite of the crusty bread, but it stuck in my throat. “I can’t talk about it. Not yet.” I looked at her, silently pleading with her to understand. “Okay?”

Her lips puckered like she sucked a lemon. “I don’t like this, Hattie. I don’t like this at all.”

My throat convulsed as I swallowed. “You don’t have to like it. I don’t like it either, but I need your support.”

“What kind of support?”

“A two-week date with your air mattress, maybe less. That’s it. I can’t live with Evan while I sort out what’s going on inside my head. He keeps pushing me for more, and I can’t give him anything right now or ever.”

She rubbed her temples, studying me without comment. Then, she reached across the table and gently squeezed my hand. It felt like the vice grip had loosened around my heart. I made another step in the right direction. I was taking control of my future…my life.

“Okay,” she whispered. “But I’m only doing this because I don’t want you to end up miserable and married to Evan or his clone.”

“Neither do I.” Unfortunately, I didn’t know if choosing Ryker would make me happy either, but I knew Evan wouldn’t. “Somebody once warned me not to settle for mediocrity while I still had the ability to chase my dreams.”

Vera raised her eyebrows, her face lit up with interest. “Who told you that?”

I tapped my fingers on the table, debating what to tell her. I went with the truth. “Ignacio Vargas.”