Page 79 of Corrupted Bride

“Get those men on Cruz. I don’t care what it costs.”

I hang up and linger in the foyer for a few minutes more. A part of me wants to go straight upstairs to talk to Mari, but she needs time to herself right now. Instead, I go to my office, pour a drink, and begin to plan.

24

BASS

It’s early the next morning when Marisol creeps into my office. I’m sprawled on the couch near my desk, feet dangling over the edge. I’ve made a blanket of my suit jacket and tried to get some sleep, but I’ve been drifting between waking and dozing, trapped in never-ending nightmares.

“I’m not going to say sorry.” She looks down at me but the anger’s gone.

I sit up, rubbing my face with both hands. “I didn’t expect you to.”

“But I know it’s not your fault.”

“At least we can agree on that.”

She hesitates before sitting beside me. “I want you to teach me how to shoot.”

I stare at her, trying to make her words work in my muddy brain, before laughing. “Goddamn, girl, you’re full of surprises.”

She doesn’t smile. “I have to defend myself and my family. I can’t do that while being so fucking—” Her hands curl into fists.

God, she’s got so much anger. I don’t blame her for feeling this way. I wrap an arm around her shoulders and for an instant, she tenses before relaxing against my side.

“When Dario first died, I felt like nothing made sense,” I say quietly.

“Cruz isn’t dead.”

“I know that, and he won’t be, but listen. I felt powerless after he died, like I was toxic. My father was worse though. He died a couple years later from a heart attack, and my mother insists it was from the stress of losing Dario the way he did. Once he was gone, I threw myself into my family, into growing our power and protecting my siblings, and that has been my existence ever since. I haven’t known anything else… until you showed up at my hotel room door that night.”

She looks at me with surprise. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’re the first person to break through for me in a very long time. I didn’t let myself live. It was like I existed for one reason only, and that was to build the Serafino powerbase and to keep my siblings safe. But now it’s like I’m awake for the first time, and I don’t want to see you make the same mistakes I did.”

She chews her lip, her fingers brushing over my knuckles. “I think I see what you’re saying.”

“Don’t let your hate for them consume you. We won’t let Cruz down. I swear, Mari.”

She rests her head against me and her shoulders sag. For a moment, I think she’s crying. But instead she straightens again, her face serious.

“I still want to learn how to shoot.”

“Are you sure?”

“Right now, please.”

“Alright then.”

Breathe in. Breathe out. Squeeze.

Mari’s finger tugs at the trigger and the motion jerks the barrel slightly to the right. The gun bucks and misses the target.

“Smooth, like this.” I adjust her grip and try to help her pull with an even pressure. The gun fires again, and this time, there’s a hole in the paper near the center. “See how that feels?”

Mari chews on her tongue as she squeezes off a few more rounds, each one more accurate than the last. I wouldn’t say she’s a good shot or even a natural, but she’s not flinching away from the noise or the recoil, and that’s a big deal.

“I don’t hate this,” she admits once I have the gun safely set aside, the bullets removed.