Page 70 of Velvet Deception

But if he’s familiar with the Cartel compound like that, is he working with them?It made no sense why he’d let Ramon go. Sure, he was living out a fantasy of playing house with me, but that was before his memories returned about knowing the Cartel’s compound layout. If he were a Cartel man, he wouldn’t have released Ramon.

I rubbed my brow, unable to understand. I was stressed. I was wounded. I had faced a terrible fear. I suspected I was struggling with a fogginess I recalled having when I was pregnant with Ramon, a stubborn pregnancy brain.

But this simply didn’t add up.

Just whowasDiego?

“Why would he let you go? If he… if he is a Cartel man himself, if he is a soldier for them, why would he let you go?”

Ramon held my hand. “Because he loves me. And he loves you. He told me so.”

My heart swelled with hope, chasing out the confusion littering my brain. Hugging him close again, I prayed that this was possible, that if Diego’s past included being in the Cartel, love would overrule it all.

He could still choose us. If his love was that strong, then maybe there was hope.

But when?

How?

He told Ramon he would come back, but after Sebastian barged in here the way he did, I wasn’t comfortable sitting here, vulnerable and waiting.

We could relocate until he’d return. Hiding felt safest. Hiding was what I knew to do in order to survive. But in doing so, I risked Diego not being able to find us. I would forsake the one man I’d opened my heart to. The one man I’d ever love.

28

DIEGO

Iwalked back toward the center of the compound, eyeing the grand mansion. I’d been in there before, but I didn’t know why.

It was time to find out.

Tense but excited about the prospect of this all being over, I walked up the steps and entered. A man positioned inside gave me clearance, and I frowned at him.

Heknew who I was. But I didn’t.

“Diego!”

Oh, my God.

I knew that voice. I did.

I turned, watching the man who’d served as the only fatherly figure I’d ever had walk toward me.

The boss.My God.It was him. “Stefan!”

He smiled, holding his arms out as he approached. The sight of his easygoing smile triggered a flood of flashbacks andmemories. One after one, like I’d been plugged and could reboot with an upgrade, my brain worked. I could recall it all.

The day I’d saved his life as a young teen. His offer to let me come live and work for him. The years of training I received and the years of servitude I’d given him.

I worked for the Cartel, and I did so to serve and protect this boss, this older man who wrapped me into a hug. He took me in as an orphan and showed me how to be a man.

“I knew you couldn’t be dead.” He held me tight, hugging me, then patted my back. “I knew that report had to be wrong.”

“I…” I laughed once, stunned and amazed that my identity was back. I was back. I was… more whole with the missing part of my past restored. I couldn’t be fully whole until I had my future with Sofia and Ramon, but now I had the freedom to go for that.

“Where have you been, my son?”

I smiled, hearing the endearment he gave me, only me, among all the men. I felt like a prodigal son returning, but without the intention to stay. “I was in the holding cells. Sebastian captured a boy he shouldn’t have, and I released him.” I looked at the guard, rattling off the number of the cell I’d dragged him into. “That’s where you’ll find him.”

---