Page 44 of Brutal Enforcer

Omar grinned at me, and for a moment, I saw what he might have looked like as a boy, carefree and joyous, before his father had trained him to be a killing machine. “I never intend to stop,conejita,” he countered, looking so supremely smug that I could do nothing but kiss him again.

It was wrong to be enjoying this with him. There were so many things that we needed to discuss and figure out, but here, now, the world had narrowed to just the two of us. “It’s strange,” I mused.

“What?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy before,” I admitted, “and it should feel wrong.Youshould feel wrong.”

The easy smile on his face shifted into something much more serious. His eyes became even more intense. “Does it feel wrong?”

I shook my head, wanting nothing more than to bury my head in his chest, but I knew that I couldn’t. That this conversation was important. “No, it doesn’t feel wrong.”

He reached out and touched my arm. The pads of his fingers felt rough against my skin, and I shivered. “You sound upset.”

“I’m not,” I insisted. “I feel like Ishouldbe upset. I should be fuming that you haven’t taken me home yet, but I’m more afraid that you’ll be forced to, and this will all come to an end.”

Omar dragged me down into his arms, like he couldn’t stand that I was three inches away from him. “It won’t end.”

I shook my head. “You can’t promise that. Eventually—”

“Eventually, what?” he snapped. The first strains of anger entered his voice. “Your family has given you up for dead, remember? You can’t go back there.”

“Your family wants me dead, remember?” I parroted, pushing away so that I could sit up again. That perfect, shining bubble had popped, and I wished I hadn’t said anything at all…but I wasn’t wrong. Omar and I were dreaming if we thought we could maintain whatever this was for longer than the next few days. “You can’t take me to the Castillo compound and just expect them to accept me. What about this won’t end, exactly?Tenemos que despertarnos.”

Omar glared at me; his jaw was set into a stubborn sneer. I wanted to be in his arms, comfort him and let him comfort me, but myBestiawasn’t the only one who could be stubborn. When I didn’t fold under the weight of his stare like he probably thought I would, Omar gripped my arms, just this side of too-tight, and reeled me in again. His mouth was on mine before I could say anything.

His lips and tongue were insistent, and my resolve to not kiss him back broke relatively quickly. I gave in with a sigh and met his tongue with my own, more confident about kissing now than I was a few days ago.

“We will figure this out,” Omar said with so much determination that it was hard not to believe him. “I’m not letting you go.”

“Because I belong to you?”

He smiled, brilliant. “Exactly.”

CHAPTER24

Omar

“If you are not on a boat home intwenty minutes, I am going to send someone to collect you,” Angel snarled. “It will not end well for you.”

Mierda. I was completely out of excuses as to why I couldn’t come home. I told him about being attacked on my return to the island and the crash, leaving out anything to do with Lyse, but my bruises were already fading, and we both knew that there was another speedboat in the dry dock.

“Angel, trust me,por favor. I need more time.”

My brother let out a sound that could only be of frustration. “Explain why you aren’t here,” he said, “and I’ll consider it.”

But what was there to say? I have Luis Rojas’s daughter here, and I’m pretty sure that I’ve fallen in love with her? Pretty please don’t have her murdered? It was laughable at best, a death sentence for us both at worst.

I sighed. “I just need time,hermano. I promise I’ll explain as soon as I can.” I hung up before Angel could say anything else. It didn’t ring again.The chances of him actually sending someone to get me are a good…eighty percent, I thought.What a fucking mess.

When I stepped out of the office, I heard music coming from the kitchen. It wasn’t totally unusual for Helena to put on something that she could move around to, but today, something about the happy beat soured my mood even more.

I stormed into the kitchen and shut off the radio that she’d set on the counter. She and Lyse turned on me: it seemed I caught them mid-cooking lesson. Helena was teaching Lyse to make cachitos. The dough for the pastry was resting, and they were currently shredding the cheese that would be baked into it.

“Omar?” Lyse asked, and I ground my teeth together. She looked beautiful, covered in flour, and it wasimpossibleto be upset by the sight of her doing anything remotely domestic. It gave me too many ideas about the future. “Are you okay?”

“I have a headache,” I lied. “Could you two make breakfastwithoutthe concert going on?”

Helena’s frown told me that she didn’t believe me for a second, but it didn’t matter. I didn’t need her to believe me. I just needed her to keep the damn radio off until I didn’t want to punt it through the wall. “Do you need to go lie down?” Lyse asked. “I can bring you—”

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