Page 62 of Blackbeard
“He won’t admit it, but he’s the backbone of this family.”
I turned toward the voice to see Abuela, smiling at me. She gestured to the pictures.
“We would be lost without him.”
A lump lodged in my throat. I didn’t—couldn’t—say anything, so I kept scanning the pictures.
I stopped at a picture of Blackbeard in his twenties, seated next to a stunning woman who rested her cheek on his shoulder. The way he gazed down at her…
A pit formed in my gut.
That was love. Real, genuine, raw. The adoration was so plain, so clear, sobrighton his face that it felt like staring into the sun.
“Courtney,” Abuela said. “Diego’s girlfriend when he was attending medical school.”
I nodded, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the picture. I knew with gut-wrenching certainty that no one looked at me the way Diego looked at Courtney. I had sex, I flirted, but…no, I’d never been loved. Not like that.
“What happened?” I asked and my voice came out dry with a hoarse croak. I knew already. Sort of. Digging up Blackbeard's past revealed his relationship history, but I wanted details. “They seem…very happy in the picture but they’re not together anymore. Obviously.”
Abuela sighed and shook her head.
“Diego wanted to become a doctor to help people who didn’t have access to proper medical care. Like the people in his Mexican hometown. Or his Native American cousins who were turned away by the rich, white doctors. Courtney didn’t care about any of that. She wanted to marry a doctor for his money.”
My heart sank. Poor Blackbeard.
Abuela continued.
“Some of his professors in medical school didn’t like having a Hispanic boy in their classes. When they found out he had Apache blood in his veins, too, well…it made his life even harder. They realized he was a smart boy, a hard worker, and he wouldn’t flunk out on his own. So they gave him failing grades anyway, even though he passed his other classes with straight A’s.”
My jaw clenched as anger boiled in my gut for his sake.
“So he dropped out,” Abuela went on. “He tried to start a clinic of his own, but funding fell through. The money dried up. Courtney dumped him. In six months, she married one of his classmates who became a well-known plastic surgeon.”
I blew out a breath at the injustice of it all. Blackbeard didn’t deserve that kind of treatment—from the medical school, or from a woman he had clearly loved.
Abuela sighed.
“As soon as Courtney broke up with him, Diego joined the Chupacabras MC, down in Mexico. And I knew the whole thing had changed him. Broken his heart and turned him into a completely different man.”
She smiled and touched my cheek gently.
“But you don’t have to worry about any of that now. It’s ancient history. Diego is head over heels in love with you. Everyone can see it.”
God, was that true? Fuck, I felt like scum of the earth now. Knowing that I had to betray Blackbeard one day, after he’d already had his heart broken once before…was I prepared to destroy him for a second time?
"When did Diego end up here, to Montana?" I asked. "It seems like a long way from Mexico."
Abuela shrugged.
"Our family has always stretched across many miles. Sofia got married, moved to Billings with her husband for a new job. When she became pregnant, Diego paid her a visit to help out. But he never left. Over the years, the rest of us started drifting up here too and settled with him. He still has a few cousins in Mexico that he sees from time to time."
What would it be like to have a family that would follow you to the ends of the earth? I wondered.
“Where’s my wife?” Blackbeard called.
“Looking at pictures,” Abuela called back. “Listening to an old woman yap about her grandson.”
A moment later, Blackbeard turned the corner and came into view. My throat tightened. I couldn’t afford to develop feelingsfor him. I couldn’t think of him as anything more than the target that I had tricked into signing on the dotted line.
