Page 110 of Beautiful Dangerous

Olivia

“The plane will be ready on Saturday evening. I thought we might as well head over there sooner rather than later, it makes sense, after all. There’s nothing keeping us here anymore, everything’s in order. And I’m sure Lucca is on top of it all.”

I lay down my fork and look at Javier, the warm glow of the candles in the center of the table lighting up his handsome face, but all I’m seeing now is a tyrant. A man who wants to possess and control me and that isn’t what I signed up for.

You married a cartel boss. What did youthinkyou were signing up for…?

“Saturday?”

That’s too soon. I still need more time.

For what? Your dream’s are dying, Olivia. Let them go…

“Yes. Why waste any more time? The house is almost ready for our arrival, and Celine is going on ahead of us to oversee the final arrangements and meet the staff, she’s leaving tomorrow.”

“And why are we taking the plane? We can drive there, it’s just across the border.”

“I want the plane to remain in Mexico for now. It’ll stay at the airfield, but I expect to be doing more business overseas, especially in Europe, so I need it close by.” He swallows a mouthful of food – Celine’s delicious chicken and pepper rice – and when he looks at me he smiles, but his eyes remain cold. Hard. “I trust you’re all packed and ready to go?”

I drop my gaze, start poking at a piece of chicken, my appetite has all but gone these days, and despite Celine’s beautiful food everything I eat tastes like cardboard.

“I don’t see why we need to rush. I could do with a little more time to check things at The Garden are going to be okay once I’ve gone, and construction work on the new hotel has only just begun…”

“Those are excuses, Olivia. The Garden is one of our most lucrative and well run businesses, it will fair absolutely fine without you here, and as for the new hotel, Lucca has a team of people here to help him oversee things, a team you put together yourself. The very best people we have. They’ll be able to tackle any emergency, should there be one.”

I frown slightly, because like so many things he says these days that sounded like another veiled threat. And I’m not sure how safe Lucca is going to be, and that tears at my chest with a pain so brutal I have to clench my teeth and swallow hard until the wave passes.

“Come.” Javier wipes the corners of his mouth with a napkin and lays it down beside his empty plate. I look down at my almost untouched one. Celine will be disappointed – possibly offended, even – to see so much wasted food still there on my plate, but I’m just not hungry. “Let’s go inside.”

I push my chair back and stand up, falling into step alongside Javier as we walk in silence from the terrace back into the house.

“I think maybe it’s time you cut down on alcohol,” Javier remarks as he pours himself a whiskey and fills another tumbler with soda water, adding a wedge of lemon before he hands it to me. “Actually, cutting it out altogether would probably be more preferable. After all, at your age, the likelihood of you falling pregnant quickly may be reduced, so any little nudge we can give has got to be a help.” He takes a sip of his whiskey, his eyes meeting mine above the rim of his glass. “Do you agree?”

“Do I have a choice?”

I hadn’t meant to say that out loud, and his eyes widen, but he’s smiling. “I think cutting it out altogether is the best idea. That way we might be able to get things moving a little quicker.”

“You didn’t listen to a word I said this morning, did you?”

He sits down, sits back, crosses one leg over the other, and takes another sip of his drink. “I listened, Olivia. But what you said – what you asked for, it’s just not practical. You can’t look after a small child and run a cartel, and what’s more, I don’t want that for my son or daughter. I don’t want that for their mother. Not anymore.”

“I don’t want children, Javier. Did I not make that clear?”

“You may not want children, but I need an heir. We’re married, Olivia, and that means making sacrifices. Compromising. We don’t always get everything we want.”

“And what compromises areyoumaking?”

He sets his drink down, gets up, and comes over to me, his eyes now so dark they’re sending out an unsettling warning signal, his jaw clenched so tight as he steps into my space.

“Taking back a woman who fucked my lieutenant; who carried on seeing him even after I came back to her; a woman who plotted with the man who betrayed me to leave the lifeIgave the ungrateful bitch, that’s a big enough compromise, Olivia.”

I stare at him, and I know my eyes are carrying just as much anger as his are; my jaw is clenched just as tight, my teeth grinding together, and I could cry for the lost years I spent with this man, because I just don’t know how many of them were real.

“Fuck you, Javier. Fuck. You.”

He grabs my arm before I have a chance to realize what’s happening, but the second I do I reach for the glass of soda water by my side and bring it crashing against the side of his head, soaking his neck and shoulders, lemon segments and water mixing with the bloody cut on his temple.

“Maldita perra!”He spits, my head slamming back against the wall as the palm of his hand connects with my cheek. “You think I don’t know you and he were alone today? Huh? Do you take me for a fucking fool?”

---