Page 15 of Fast Justice

But try as they might, they’d never been able to have a child. And after he’d fathered Oceane, the possibility of adopting a child with Elena hadn’t appealed to him in the least, so he’d quashed the idea and they’d made peace with the reality that they would never have children. Elena had let it go as well and now filled her time with travel, volunteer work, and her social circle.

“And that’s why I admire you so much,” she said, her hips swaying as she walked over and wound her slender arms around his neck with a sigh.

It gave him a measure of relief to know things were back to normal between them again.

Lifting one hand, she trailed the backs of her fingers down the side of his face, still as beautiful as the day he’d married her. “Such a handsome man you are, even with this new addition of silver,” she added, stroking the streak of gray at his temple.

He squeezed her waist, leaned in to kiss her gently. “You spoil me with your compliments.”

“I only say the truth,” she whispered, sliding her fingers into his hair as she deepened the kiss. His cock reacted instantly, his blood heating when she pressed that lush, female body to his. Almost thirty years together, and she could still make his body hum with a single touch.

She pulled away, a sultry smile on her lips. “I bought you something.”

“Did you? What?”

Dropping her hands to her sides, she turned away and went over to dig something out of one of the bags. A small black bag, just big enough to hold something the size of an apple. “It’s outside,” she said, a smug gleam in her dark eyes as she held the bag out to him.

He raised an eyebrow and took the offering from her. Opening it, he found a key. He grinned when he saw the logo on it. “A Jaguar?” He’d been eyeing a particular model over the last few months, to add to his collection of sports cars.

“Mmm, you’ll have to see.”

Hooking an arm around her waist, he walked to the front door with her. She paused there a moment, gave him a smile and threw the door wide open. A sleek, silver Jaguar sports car sat parked under the porte-cochere, a huge red bow on the hood.

He couldn’t help but chuckle. “It’s not even close to my birthday.”

“I know.” She squeezed him once then gave him a push toward the car. “You’ve been working so hard recently, I thought you deserved a present.”

She thought it had to do with business deals or cartel business, not because his daughter and former mistress had been attacked and he’d been frantically trying to find them. Even with all his money and contacts, he hadn’t found them yet.

He gave a sideways nod at the Jag, watching Elena. “You wanna come for its inaugural spin?”

“Already did when I drove it here.” Tossing him a grin, she sauntered back toward the front door. “Have fun.”

Manny took the bow off and climbed into the driver’s seat, the heady scent of rich, new leather filling his nose. He pressed the start button, and the powerful V12 engine roared to life.

A sense of exhilaration pumped through him as he shot down the long, private driveway. The frustration and uncertainty gnawing at him eased somewhat beneath the flood of adrenaline. But even the thrill of racing down the road in his new Jag couldn’t take away the lingering weight of worry in his chest.

Oceane didn’t know much about his business, but Anya did. What had she told the Americans? He’d have to start emergency procedures immediately to limit the damage. Liquidate some of his larger holdings, create new shell companies just to be safe, change locations of his most important operations and switch up the people in his organization.

A call came in as he turned onto the main road a mile from his place. He set it on speaker, both hands busy, one on the wheel and the other on the stick shift. “Yes?”

“It’s Hector. I…I have bad news.”

One of his most trusted business advisers. Manny braced himself. “Tell me.”

“Our main lab outside Guadalajara was just destroyed.”

Manny gripped the wheel tighter.God dammit.The fourth one hit in the past week. “Federales?”

“No.”

He clenched his jaw. “Ruiz,” he growled, rage surging through him. First that bastard had dared to attack Anya and Oceane, force them into running. Manny would see he went to hell for that alone. But this guerilla turf battle Ruiz continued to wage would not go unanswered, either. Manny would hit back hard, obliterate all remaining traces of Ruiz’s organization.

“Si. We think so.”

“Can any of it be saved?”

“No. It’s a write-off.”

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