I groan and turn away from him, heading outside. “Tell me you found something,” I say. It’s early for him to be back at the villa. He’s usually gone until eight at night. Does that mean he has a solid lead?
I glance back at him over my shoulder.
He’s still standing in the kitchen, his chin lifted a little like he’s trying to figure out where the banana smell is coming from.
“Savage!”
He snaps his attention to me, and my stomach flutters. I suppose I shouldn’t yell at him, but he grinds my gears.
“Still nothing,” he says, his jaw bunching. “But we’re—”
“Looking,” I cut in. “Yeah, I know.”
I head outside with Princess. There’s one lonely sicario wandering around, not really patrolling as much as trying to make itlooklike he’s patrolling. Cigarette smoke billows from his lips, and I turn to face Savage as he walks onto the patio.
“Tell him to move. Princess doesn’t need to be dosed with secondhand smoke.”
Savage tilts his head a little. “Since when do you order my sicarios around?”
“I don’t,” I snap. “Youdo.” I point at the man with my chin. “If you still remember how to do it, of course.”
Savage’s eyes narrow. When he whistles, the sicario looks our way. Savage cocks his head, and the man swiftly heads in that direction.
“Good boy.”
Caesar turns slowly back to me, a strange light in his eyes. “You will show me respect, Angel.”
“Or what?” I bounce Princess in my arms. “You’ll force feed me your dick again?”
I kinda almost wish he would.
I’m starting to think I’m as sick a fuck as he is, because I love it when he makes me do things I don’t want to.
His chest rises as he takes in a deep breath, then he holds out his hands for Princess. I hand her over warily. “What?”
“You fed her a banana?”
I roll my eyes at him. “Let me guess. You’d have preferred grapes.”
He shrugs. Considers Princess like we’re at a farmer’s market and she’s some weirdly shaped vegetable he’s never seen before. “I used to eat grapes.”
Used to?
“God, give her back before you break her.” I grab for her, but he lifts her high enough to put her out of reach. “And if there’s one, justonething I can get through your thick skull, it’s that you should never,everfeed grapes to a fucking baby.”
He opens his mouth, and I already know he’s going to say something dumb in his lingering Colombian accent.
“Because she’ll choke, you idiot.”
He sidesteps me when I try and jump up, and Princess lets out the most adorable fucking giggle I’ve ever heard. Savage’s eyes lock onto the baby, a deep frown creasing his brow again.
He gives her a little shake, still holding her high, and she giggles again, making grabby hands at his face.
When he tosses her in the air, my fucking heart crashes to the floor and shatters into a thousand pieces.
“Savage!” I scream, my arms out, my eyes fucking popping out of my head. I’m ready to catch her, already knowing she’s going to fall and break open on the patio tiles like a—
Princess’s giggle cuts off as Savage catches her again. There’s a moment’s hush where the baby’s eyes are big as fucking saucers, her mouth a perfect circle…