Page 70 of Until Retribution Burns (Beauty in Lies 3)

“What do you mean threatening you with them?” I asked, turning to look at him finally. He kept his eyes on the sky, ignoring my presence beside him.

“They trained with me, along with the other children who were raised to be soldiers. They became my friends in some ways even though my father forced me to keep my distance. I was the heir to his empire, and I couldn’t have friends. But I got to know them well enough that watching them be hurt for my disobedience kept me from speaking out. I couldn’t take a stand against my father, not until I knew I could win.”

I turned my body, touching a hand to his shirt-clad chest. He still didn’t give me his eyes, but his hand covered mine. “He used them against you?”

“I think that’s what their purpose was the entire time. He kept them because they were easy to manipulate. They grew up with adoptive families on the island, but they were always his leverage. Until I killed my father, they were secondary to therealfamilies,” he paused, finally turning to level me with his eyes. “Hugo was only a toddler when they were brought to the island along with their mother.”

My lungs emptied of air, the sudden realization of why in my, albeit limited, time onEl Infierno, Hugo had never bothered to introduce me to his parents. Someone had raised him, but it didn’t seem as though they were parents in the way he needed when it came down to it. “Your father killed their mother?” I asked, swallowing past the sudden burning in my throat. That one man could cause so much carnage, destroy so many lives, he’d deserved to die a thousand deaths.

Burning was too merciful for him.

“My father’s men had snatched them off the streets of Ibiza while they were at the market. I don’t know that Hugo and Gabriel have any clear memories of their birth parents, but Joaquin was old enough to know what was going on. He fought the entire time his mother screamed and he vowed vengeance even though he was just a boy. Joaquin was the one who made me realize that my father had given me the army I needed to take control. I just had to wait for them to be old enough to fight. So I made friendships off the island. I acted as my father’s liaison and turned his allies who didn’t agree with his actions against him. I bided my time, and when I was strong enough I put an end to it all.” Rafe’s words washed over me, his eyes intense and blazing with the guilt I knew he must feel for the ones he hadn’t saved.

His life had never been black and white, and he wasn’t a good man.

But he’d done what he could to end the suffering of innocents onEl Infierno.

“Joaquin himself tied my father to the post he died on. And when he went up in flames, he stared at the faces of all the children he’d stripped from their mothers. I hope the ones who weren’t there with us keep Miguel from peace in whatever comes after life,” he sighed, leaning forward to touch his lips to my forehead.

I hoped Miguel Ibarra never found peace in the afterlife, and that whoever or whatever haunted him while he’d been alive had shown him what true pain was after his death.

I’d never be able to forget that I’d been the first, and that the weight of all that followed rested on my shoulders purely because of my survival.

---