“When I met Marisol’s mother, I was young and angry at anyone who looked at me too long. I was just coming up, and the rage kept me alive. I’d gotten married, and my wife was already pregnant and demanding. It was like I was suffocating and needed someplace to go where no one wanted anything from me.” He twirled his demitasse cup in the saucer and smiled. “The place wasn’t cheap, but for a fee I could ask for whatever I wanted, and there were no strings, as you Americans like to say.”

“So it was a brothel?” Tracy asked, but she had a wide smile on her face.

One of the things he appreciated about Tracy was the way she understood him. They were lovers, and she worked for him, but if he needed a change of pace, she wasn’t the jealous type. “It was, and this one particular girl became my regular. She was fun, sexy, and she seemed to like fucking. I know all prostitutes are supposed to pretend if they’re good at their job, but she was either a decent actress or she loved me touching her.” She’d been his exclusive girl for six months when she told him something that made him want to kill her. “After all that time she told me she was pregnant, and it was mine.”

“Did you believe her?” The way Tracy asked was tactful, but he knew what she was trying to say.

“Did I believe a whore who makes her living on her back when she said that she was carrying my baby?” He didn’t like telling this story because it made him sound like a pendejo, but it was part of his history. You could deny plenty in your life, but not your history. “No, but I made her a deal if she wanted to continue to claim the baby was mine.”

“What was it?”

“I told her that if it was mine, I’d let her live and take the baby and raise it. If she lied, I’d kill her and her bastard as soon as it drew its first breath. That was the best motivation I could give her to tell the truth.”

“She obviously didn’t back down if Marisol is still with you,” Tracy said before taking a sip of her coffee. “And she looks like you, so there’s the other piece of proof you needed.”