Page 359 of The Black Trilogy

Jane burst into tears, big racking sobs that shook her whole body. Black pulled her into his lap and wrapped his arms around her, stroking her hair while she cried her heart out.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he murmured, holding her tightly.

Why was she so upset? What had I said? Then I realised.

Shoot.

When she stopped crying quite so hard, I reached over and took her hand. She tried to pull it away then went limp.

“He meant something to you, didn’t he?”

“All this time I hoped Carlos was alive somewhere, that he would come back. He promised he’d take care of us. And now he’ll never see his baby.”

Her face crumpled as she dissolved into tears again.

CHAPTER 22

MY EYES SAUCERED and met Black’s. He shrugged, a tiny movement that told me he didn’t have a clue the baby belonged to Carlos either. And I’d just told Jane he’d exploded. Tactful, Emmy, real tactful. She must have been devastated. I knew this because I’d gone through the same thing nearly nine months ago, except for Carlos there would be no miracle comeback.

And Black had just found out he’d lost his brother. He may never have known him, but in some ways, I guessed that made it worse because now he never would. And the part of me I hated was pleased Carlos had died, and pleased Carlos was the father of Jane’s child, because that meant it wasn’t Black.

Jane recovered slightly and spoke again. “Carlos was kind. Not like the others at the compound.”

“Can you tell us more about him?” I asked gently.

She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue again, but nodded. “He saved me. Evil filled that family, pure evil, and he was the only good thing in it. At first, he didn’t speak much, but then he learned. We talked for hours when nobody was watching, about our lives and what we wished they could be. For years, we both dreamed of escaping from that terrible place.”

“Hang on, hold up a minute. Carlos was a prisoner too?”

“Not behind bars maybe, but Hector and Diego controlled him. They were cruel men. I’m glad they’re dead.”

“Do you know why Hector favoured Diego?”

“Because Diego was his biological son and Carlos wasn’t; that’s what Carlos told me. Every time he did something wrong, they would throw it back in his face.”

That fitted with Diego’s “stepbrother” comment. “So if Carlos wasn’t Hector’s son, why did he tell people he was?”

“Hector and his first wife adopted him. She’d always wanted a baby, and they tried for years and couldn’t have one. So one day, Hector came home with Carlos as a surprise for her. She adored him. Carlos said his early years were wonderful, but Hector changed when she died.”

I’d read about that in research notes Mack and Luke put together. “She got shot in a drive-by, didn’t she?”

“Yes. Shot. And without her there, Hector pushed Carlos away and left him to the servants to raise. Things only got worse when Hector remarried and had another son.”

“Diego.”

“Yes. He doted on Diego. They did the whole father/son bonding thing. Hector took him out shooting and fishing while Carlos got left at home. If he asked to go too, Hector would tell him it was a family outing, and he didn’t consider him family.”

“What a cruel thing to tell a child.”

“Hector was a monster.” Jane shuddered as she remembered. “But as Carlos got older, Hector put him to work doing the accounts. He’d spend all day with the spreadsheets, and then in the evenings he would come to me.”

“So he wasn’t allowed to leave the compound either?”

“Occasionally he left. He had meetings with lawyers, accountants, suppliers, people like that. Usually, one of Hector’s henchmen would fly or drive him wherever he needed to go.”

“Any idea why Carlos went to America?”

“I think so. He wanted to leave Colombia, and for the last few years, he kept telling me he had a plan to get us both out of there but it would take time.”

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