Page 69 of Velvet Deception

I wet his hair with my happy tears. Holding him close soothed my heart. I couldn’t understand how this was possible, but thebroken pieces of my soul were patched back together. Stroking his hair and rubbing his back, I kept him in my tight embrace and let him cry in response. He held on to me just as tightly, catching his breath and calming now that he was home again.

“Ramon,” Juan said, wonder in his voice. “What did you do?”

Ramon leaned back a little, and the shift in his weight put more pressure on my arm.

“Mama? What’s wrong?” He frowned, looking me over. “Diego said you were okay.”

I gaped at him. I’d heard him. I heard my son correctly. He saidDiego. And I’d heard my lover tell me that he’d retrieve my boy. I’d heard him promise with my own ears.

Yet, I doubted him.The gravity of my worst nightmare coming true had shielded me from having faith and trusting in what that man vowed. It simply seemed too impossible of a feat, but I would let myself deal with the guilt at doubting him later.

“Diego?” I framed his face.

“Are you, Mama? Are you okay?” He looked me over, searching for a wound.

I nodded. “Of course, I am okay. You are home. You are here, and unharmed!”

“But how?” Juan asked. “Abuela said that you were taken by the Cartel. She saw their cars.”

Ramon pointed to the moped. “I… I didn’t know how to stop it,” he admitted sheepishly. “The men drove me to the compound and?—”

“Shh. Shh.” Señora Vasquez wagged her finger to hush him. Wisely, she pointed for us to go into the house. “You don’t talk about the Cartel when anyone can hear…”

We all moved inside. Ramon held my hand, and Juan cleared off a spot on the couch for his abuela to sit next to me.

“The men took me to the compound, and that fat old leader who hit your arm”—Ramon looked down at it as I cradled it—“put me in a cell.”

Señora Vasquez snapped her fingers at Juan. “Get the ice. In the kitchen.”

He ran over to get it and handed it to me.

“Did anyone… hurt you?” I dared to ask. He looked unharmed, save for the braking crash in the bush.

“One man slapped me for crying. That told me enough. I didn’t make a peep after that.”

I gritted my teeth.

“But they just put me in the dark cell. I wasn’t in there for long before Diego found me.”

“He just… found you?” I asked.

He nodded. “He got me out and snuck me over to get that bike. Then he showed me a way out of there. He told me to come home to you, Mama.”

“But…” I swallowed hard. “Where is he now?”

Diego knew his way around the Cartel’s compound. He’d found Ramon in a cell, broke him out, and was familiar with an escape route. All those facts led to the proof that his memories had tobe returning to him. There was no other explanation. He had experience with being in the compound before whatever he’d done before he was knocked out.

“At the compound,” Ramon replied. “He said he would come back soon. Men were talking on the ride, saying they wanted to kill Diego, too, but I was so scared, I wondered if I heard them right.”

I blinked, slotting this information away.

“He…” I could not relax with the thought of someone trying to kill him. Someone had already tried, and I’d nursed him back to health. But this time… how could I do it again?

“He’s still at the compound?”Where someone wants to end his life?

“I think he wanted to kill the big, bad man who took me,” he said.

“Oh, God.” I covered my mouth, ill at the thought of his being so foolish. I didn’t want to believe that he was a Cartel soldier. That was not a scenario I could accept, that I’d fallen in love with the enemy. That he’d… duped me.

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