“Why didn’t he?” It was like pulling teeth. She revealed something and then fell silent. The trauma ran deep and it would never go away. He knew her life couldn’t have gotten much better in the intervening years, not with a million-dollar price on her head.

Rio lifted her, slid into the chair and cradled her on his lap. Rachael snuggled into him, wanting the comfort and safety of his arms. She turned her face into his throat. “Elijah came in. He wanted Elijah alive mor e than he wanted me dead. Armando had no family, no one to run his empire, no one to carry on his work. He had taken Elijah with him on small things, let him see what a big deal he was. He stood ther e in that room with my parents’ blood pooling around his feet, holding a knife to my throat, and he told Elijah to make up his mind. To swear loyalty to him and be his son or he would kill me right there.”

“And Elijah chose to keep you alive.”

She couldn’t look at him. “Our lives were hell, especially Elijah’s life. Armando wanted Elijah to be mir ed in so deep, with so much blood on his hands neither of us could ever go the police.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I knew Elijah did it for me, to keep me alive, but it wasn’t right. It was never right.

He should have let me go. I should have had the courage to save him.”

“By doing what? Killing yourself?” He turned her arms over to run the pad of his thumb over the scars on her wrists, scars he’d never mentioned. “He couldn’t let you do that. So he joined the man who murder ed your parents.”

“And he learned from him. And he grew stronger and more powerful and more cold and distant every day.”

Rio felt tears, rain-wet, against his skin. Her body trembled. “It was always us against everyone else, but suddenly we began to have terrible fights. Elijah became very secretive. He wouldn’t let me leave the compound. He had someone with me all the time and drove away every friend I had.”

“He was splitting with your uncle. Starting a war.”

“I had a friend, Tony, the brother of my girlfriend. We hardly knew each other. I met Tony at her house.

He’d recently moved back to town. I had dated a couple of times and it always ended in disaster. Once it turned out to be an undercover cop, and another time I found out the man I was dating had been paid by Elijah to take me out.” Utter humiliation clogged her throat. “I don’t think I can remember a man having an interest in me as a woman. The police wanted information to convict Elijah, and I guess they thought they could send in an undercover man to romance me. Armando wanted a way to get close to Elijah again to be able to kill him. He was so furious, so absolutely furious with Elijah. He’s done ever ything he can to try to kill him.”

“Tell me about this man.” She was avoiding it. Rio knew her now, knew her every little sign of agitation and distress. She was burrowing deeper into his body, trembling, her breath coming in hard gasps of despair.

“I didn’t tell Elijah about Tony because I knew he would never allow me to go out alone with him. I couldn’t go anywhere alone. He seemed a nice man. Marcia, his sister, and I were good friends. He moved in with her and when I went to visit, he was there. At first we just talked, played Scrabble, that sort of thing. I just wanted a few ordinary hours, a place I could go where I wasn’t Elijah Lospostos’s sister. Where no one carried a gun and plotted to kill each other.”

She dragged her hands through her hair. “I wasn’t in love with Tony. I wasn’t sleeping with him and telling secrets. I would never sell Elijah out. I’d never give him up. I saw all those years when he was forced to do terr ible things. I can’t tell you how often Armando threatened me. How many times he would shove a gun in my mouth and scream at Elijah, how often I wanted him to pull the trigger just to take the pain and rage off Elijah’s face. It was a hellish existence until Elijah was strong enough to move against him. But Armando got away. And then the war started, and it was hell all over again.”

“Why would Elijah object to your friend’s brother?”

“I don’t know, but I didn’t want Tony to know about that part of my life. Marcia didn’t know. We met at the library one day, ended up having coffee and became good friends. She didn’t know who I was and I didn’t want to tell her. She was a nice woman from a nice family.”

“What does she do?”

“She teaches school, for heaven’s sake. She teaches sixth-grade science. I went to see her as often as I could. Her home was like a sanctuary to me. Elijah always sent someone with me but they waited outside, in the car. Marcia thought they were my chauffeurs. She joked about it a couple of times. And then her brother moved back home. I got to know him and he was just as nice. One day he asked if I wanted to go to see an opening at an art museum. He was really into art.” She hung her head. “I said yes.”

A chill went through Rio’s body. He knew what was coming. Death had a feeling to it, a presence. It was in the room. It was in her eyes. That stricken look she carried that never quite went away. He tightened his hold on her and rocked her back and forth gently, trying to give her a sense of peace, of comfort. There was neither in betrayal. “And your brother found you.”

Sixteen

Rachael took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “I went to Marcia’shouse and had the guards stay outside. Tony and I got into Marcia’s car and drove away. I bent down as if I were looking for something when we drove out so the guards wouldn’t see me. For a few miles I thought it was safe.