There might be a tinge of jealousy in the way Tracy was talking. This was the first time he’d heard her express that, and it released the small worry he had that perhaps she was only with him for the money and to avenge her sister. “I wasn’t an asshole who depended on what the kid looked like. It took a paternity test for me to believe it, and my wife wasn’t thrilled she had two babies to raise instead of just ours, but what choice did she have? Marisol came to live with us, but I did allow her mother to see her.” Those visits weren’t frequent, but he wanted his daughter to know where she came from. “It was a good lesson about where you could end up if you didn’t conform.”

“Her mother’s still alive?” Tracy’s smile was back when he took her hand.

“She is and is now the madame at her own place. Like I said, she was a woman who was good at her job, and she’s made a good living at it.” That bit of truth was hard for Marisol to accept, but he’d tried to teach her that her future was with him. It was a waste of his time to try to teach someone who had too much of her mother in her head. The woman was successful because she knew how to fuck, but she was still an idiot. “I had more children with my wife, but none of them are ambitious. It’s a flaw that will get them all killed if something happens to me. My life and the way I live it aren’t something you walk away from. That I am good at what I do is the only reason they are safe.”

“But now you’re worried,” Tracy said, staring at him intently. “Someone targeted you, and we have to do whatever we can to find out who it is. You’re a strong man, and I have faith in you to fight until you’re back on top.”

“What happens if I can’t?” he asked, not losing eye contact with her. Women like Tracy were attracted to the power and what you could do with it. She’d left Nunzio Luca’s bed and gotten into his because he was the best chance she’d get at carrying out her revenge against Remi Jatibon and Cain Casey.

“We die together.” She leaned over and kissed him.

“Even if I won’t give you what you want most?” he asked as she settled back. “Cain Casey isn’t someone I’m likely to move against.”

“I know that, and I’ve known it from the moment I realized she helped keep you in power. She says she doesn’t want to do business with you, but I think she doesn’t want to see you fail, either. It’s strange.”