Page 64 of Heart of a Villain

“It’s like, ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?’ Your murderer.”

He laughed.

“Did Ayesha do that?” He pointed to her face. “Return my smile and laugh?”

“Your smile and laugh?”

“Who else would they belong to?”

She shook her head, smiling herself. “Yes, Eesh did.”

“Remind me to thank her. Perhaps she might need a lobe of my liver one day.”

“Are you two close? You and Eesh?”

Again, she felt a similar shift to what she’d experienced earlier. “You could say that,” he said. “I’m closer with her and Joel than I am with the rest of the guys.”

“Are you closer to Eesh or Joel?”

He paused. “Ayesha.”

“Does Joel actually hate you?”

“No, it’s for show. When I got shot last year, he almost lost his mind. I mean, how would you act if your brother was shot?”

She grabbed his arm. “Hold on, you got shot? Where?” She scanned his clothing. “Are you okay? Was it bad?”

“I’m all right now,” he reassured her, tapping his chest. “It was a long and painful recovery, but Joel was also shot at the same time. A former Omega teammate. He took Ayesha. We went to retrieve her.”

“May I have the Adrían version of this story?” she requested.

“With pleasure.” He cleared his throat. “So, it was the night of Eesh and Joel’s wedding. The reception was in full swing when, all of a sudden, Ayesha went missing. Now, prior to this, we had been looking for Lavigne—that’s the asshole’s name—but we didn’t anticipate him being able to infiltrate the property. As an elite mercenary, we might have underestimated him.”

It made her wonder whether Lorenzo could. Lorenzo wasn’t an elite mercenary, but he had Chamas resources.

“He took Ayesha and kept her in the woods inside an old house. After everything was over, Joel returned and burned it to the ground. Mike went with him to make sure Joel didn’t go inside to see exactly where Ayesha was kept.”

“So, how did you two get shot?”

“That’s the plot twist, querida. In Omega, we had two filthy, one dirty, and then me, Lee, and Trevor. Joel handled Lavigne, and we thought Pozza handled Nick and Barnes, but Barnes was still alive. He fired the shots. I tried to take them for Joel, but Joel ended up faring worse and had to be placed in a coma.”

“You jumped in front of bullets, plural, for Joel?”

“For Ayesha.”

Realization didn’t take long to arrive. “Because of Curtis.”

“Yes. I didn’t want her to experience that again.”

“That’s…wow. That’s incredible. But what about Joel? Did he almost not make it, or was he pretty stable early on, and the coma was just a precaution?”

“Oh, he would have made it regardless. There was no way he would leave Ayesha behind with me…” He scratched the side of his head. “Let’s just say, Joel will fight to the last cell in his body if it means staying by Ayesha’s side.”

“Wow.”

“Impressed?”

“That kind of devotion? That kind of love? I’m very impressed. Then you add that face and those eyes.”

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