Page 15 of High

I shook my head. “Not in that way. He thought Manny was like a little brother. Papá knew about my preferences, if that’s what you’re asking. He knew that I was fucking you, too, but familia is important to us. As long as I was happy, Papá was happy.”

Ryan hummed and nodded. “Come downstairs. I have a work area set up in the main dining room where your childhood love is. He’s talking with your mother.” Somehow he managed to say all that with dry humor, and not an ounce of the irritation he was entitled to, since I knew it wasn’t fair how easily I’d pushed him aside. I tried to dredge up some guilt but couldn’t. I’d never lied or made promises.

I followed Ryan out of the room and down the circular stairs.

“I’ve already cleaned up his face and bandaged it.” He glanced over his shoulder at me, almost as though looking for praise. “It’s minor, nothing that should scar him.”

“Gracias,” I murmured.

We headed through the hallways until we reached the formal dining room that always seemed too big for just the family and too small for a party. I preferred to eat in the kitchen, with only me and Mamá.

Like Ryan had said, Manny was sitting in the seat beside Mamá, and they were leaning in, whispering something, and when they were done a sweet chuckle slipped from him. He had a white bandage taped over his cheek and was absentmindedly touching it. It was good to see them together again. He really was like another son to Mamá, and she’d missed him as much as I had.

“Sit down,” Ryan ordered, pointing at the seat near Manny.

Manny raised his gaze and it hardened. He looked away again, as though the mere sight of me made him sick. Anger at the situation swelled in my stomach and made my blood boil, but I let Ryan manhandle me into the seat and get to work on cutting at the jagged skin on my arm. Even with the bottle of whiskey a servant passed me, and the local anesthetic that Doc jabbed into my shoulder, the niggling pain as he worked made me wince.

It took him half an hour of cutting, cleaning, stitching, and bandaging before he made a noise that let me know he was happy with his work. Manny and Mamá hadn’t moved the entire time, watching and talking as they caught up, and I hated how jealous I felt at their easy connection. How did Manny forgive her, but not me? I’d fucking tried to go to him, but it’d been our fathers who had gotten us to this point—Manny’s more than mine.

Ryan smiled easily at me when he was done, and I stood, giving him a shoulder hug as a thank-you.

“I’d rather come to visit for a conversation than fixing you up, Thiago,” he said with a quiet laugh.

“Maybe next time,” I replied.

Ryan said his goodbyes to Mamá, and she offered to walk him out, which left Manny and me in the room alone. I turned to him, but he wouldn’t look at me, his gaze instead firmly fixed on the dark wooden table in front of him. I didn’t know what I could say to make him forgive me, and I wanted nothing more than to bash heads in for this. I knew who I wanted to start with, too—Antonio.

“Manny, talk to me.” I ghosted my fingertips over the curve of his elbow and he sighed. “I missed you.”

“I missed you, too. I thought you’d come for me earlier.” He blinked toward me and then stared around the room, shivering like someone had walked over his grave.

“I begged Papá.”

“If it’d been me, I would have disobeyed his orders,” he snapped.

I didn’t believe it. Manny had always been loyal to his own father. He would have never gone against Antonio’s wishes, at least, he wouldn’t have until things got bad at his house. “I couldn’t. He was the jefe, hermoso. He would have stopped me before I even got to the border, and I didn’t have the resources he had. That I have now. Don Antonio would have killed me before I even got close to you. It would have been me, alone, trying to reach you. It took nearly twenty of us to break Antonio’s security.”

Manny dropped his gaze again and leaned away from me. I fucking hated how it had come to this.

“Do you like the house? It’s near the beach. Can you hear it?” I asked, closing my eyes so I could concentrate on the sound of the crashing waves on the beach outside. We were so close that the lull of the ocean always sent me to sleep, that and the idea that soon Manny would be here to enjoy it with me.

“I can hear it.” He chewed on his bottom lip. “I haven’t been to the beach for years. Papá would never let me after I tried to escape.”

“You tried to escape?” I dragged my seat closer to his and touched his jaw. He leaned into my palm and sighed.

“Once. That’s when he locked me up for good.”

“Do you remember when I took you to Windansea before you went home that last time?” I asked. I wanted to find Antonio and strangle him, watch the life disappear from his eyes for everything he’d done to Manny, but I’d have to do it without Manny knowing. He clearly still loved his father, even after everything he’d been through.

Manny smiled and my heart skipped a beat because this one was real, and it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. “You carried me into the ocean and threw me in.”

I laughed. “I did. You yelled bloody murder and promised you’d get your revenge. You never did.”

“I never got the chance.” Manny leaned closer to me, and I took it as a win, but then the dining room door opened, and Rafael stepped through. He pulled back again.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, Jefe.” Rafael winced and bowed his head in a way he didn’t normally bother with, his short dark hair glinting under the sunlight that peeked through the curtains of the large windows.

“This better be good,” I growled, shoving myself to my feet. I’d told Rafael and the men that I needed some time alone with Manny as soon as we got him back.