Wild Hearts by Tina Wainscott - The Justiss Alliance 0.50 - Wild Hearts

Author:Tina Wainscott - The Justiss Alliance 0.50 - Wild Hearts [Wainscott, Tina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Women's Fiction, Contemporary Women, Romance, Contemporary, Romantic Suspense, Contemporary Fiction, Mystery & Suspense, Suspense
ISBN: 9780553390803
Amazon: B00FIN0UWM
Publisher: Loveswept
Published: 2014-01-06T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

Julian Cuevas still dreamed of combat. Nearly every night he was on some mission or another. Not nightmares, though he occasionally had those. More of those than he cared to admit. In this dream, tangos were sneaking into their barracks and cuffing him. He could feel the cool metal snap around his wrist, followed by the click of another cuff around something else.

The metal around his wrist was real. He lurched up and found his older brother, Omar, and his cousin Luis standing in the dim light of his old bedroom.

“Ea diablo!” Julian shouted, jerking the cuff that linked him to the iron headboard. “What the fuck?”

They regarded him warily, hands up in surrender. “We have orders,” Luis said. Omar said, “We need you, JuJu. You went off and did the patriotic thing, but now you belong here with us. Come on, you have to admit you’ve been enjoying being back in the fold.”

“I’ve enjoyed seeing my family, yes. But—”

“The fine wines, the best clothing, the classiest restaurants. You missed that, no?”

“Not enough to become a criminal.”

The lure of the good life. It had corrupted his family for generations, even before they came here from Puerto Rico. Running scams on tourists had grown into the Florida drug trade, and when that got too risky, they’d turned to money laundering and stock market scams. The mansions, the Ferraris, and all the women who migrated to the men who owned such things were a temptation when Julian was seventeen. Just being a member of the Cuevas family held an appeal to those looking in. Those who didn’t mind the source of the money, that is.

Julian had participated in some of their schemes, drawn in before he knew better. When he saw himself sliding into “the good life,” as they called it, he’d escaped in a way they could not begrudge—joining the military.

Omar looked affronted. “Not criminal. Entrepreneurial. Rebels. It’s part of our history, our destiny. Your destiny, brother. You were born to it, and you’re good at it. Remember the car accidents when we were kids? We could cry on command, clutching our heads and acting so well that we should have gotten Oscars. Besides, we don’t hurt anyone. It’s not like we’re robbing old ladies of their pensions. Look what the government did to you. You can get them back, guilt not included.”

“What kind of life will you have now, with a questionable release from military service on your record?” Luis asked. “Especially if an employer figures out you were part of the Rogue Six?”

Julian had to quell the Latin temper that boiled under the surface; the SEALs had hammered self-control into him. “Who, exactly, gave the order to restrain me?”

Omar backed up toward the door. “Mama. You know how she can be when she wants something.” He shrugged. “We tried everything else.”

“Guilt. Obligation. Threats.” They’d even used the kids, all crying—on command, beautifully, he might add—pleading with Uncle JuJu to stay. “And now you think you’re going to, what,

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