Free Infinity Unleashed by Sedona Venez Page A

over to the opposite side of the table. Her body tensed and she slipped her hand into her clutch, palming her gun.
    Cortez sat down, leaning forward menacingly. “Hands on the table. Now!”
    She grunted before slowly putting her hand on the table. “Can you blame me? Last time you tried to kill me.”
    Casually, he poured champagne into her glass, then filled his glass with blood. She reached forward, grabbing her glass. She swallowed the liquid hard, thinking.
    He swirled his half-full glass of blood with a brooding stare. “Correction. I tried to kill the bear-shifter who was touching my mate.” He looked at her pointedly. “You just got in the way…” His lips curled up with distaste. “Next time, think before flaunting your lovers in my fucking restaurant. It’s damn disrespectful.”
    She bristled. “You don’t own me, Cortez. Besides, he had no clue about you and me.” No one knew Cortez was her ex-lover and she planned on keeping it that way. “You almost killed him.”
    Cortez stared at her for a few seconds. “I was in a very forgiving mood that night.” He shrugged. “I granted him mercy. Now he’s learned a valuable lesson: don’t fuck with what’s mine.”
    She skewered Cortez with an enraged stare. “You don’t…” Her voice rose and she caught herself, giving him a now-composed stare. “Own me, Cortez.”
    “Are you sure?” Cortez responded, looking at her coolly before taking a sip of blood. He deliberately ran his tongue slowly over his luscious lips, taunting her. Kara bit back a whimper.
    “What do you want, Querida?”
    She swallowed over her pride and did something that under normal circumstances she would move heaven and earth not to do… ask for his help.
    “I need your help.” She gritted the words through stiff lips.
    He calmly placed his glass onto the table, twirling the stem. “I give. You take. However, you refuse give me what I want. Now is that fair?”
    She looked at him incredulously. “You know that I can’t give you what you want,” she sputtered. No matter how much she wanted to.
    He sneered, “Then why the fuck should I give a shit that Infinity was taken by the Degrassi pride?”
    She didn’t blink. Nothing was secret in the Others’ world, especially to a powerful man like Cortez. “You know why. She’s my daughter.”
    His face tightened. “She’s not your daughter. She’s property of Glen and the High Council. You would do well to remember that.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “I love her just the same.”
    He tilted his head, eyes transformed to blood red. “Love?” He snarled. “You and I don’t know the meaning of love.” He leaned forward, grabbing her face. “We understand lust, greed, death, and power. Love is not in our fucking vocabulary.”
    Her heart raced as she pulled her face away from him. If only he knew how much she understood what love was, but a cold-hearted man like Cortez would never understand. Cortez wouldn’t understand how much Infinity had changed her life for the better. Infinity made her a better woman—a woman who now put selfish things aside and was willing to lay down her life for her daughter.
    Steeling her heart, she looked at him coldly. “This is not about you or me. I need an audience before the Other Council. I need her back, and the only way to do that is by breaking the pact with the tiger-shifters.”
    “You want us to go against the High Council?” He laughed mockingly. “That’s a very bold request. To go against Glen is a death sentence.” He raised a brow. “Personally, I don’t give a shit about Glen or the High Council. They don’t give a shit about me, but I’m not putting my clan in danger to save Infinity unless there’s a damn good reason. And this is not it.”
    She arched a brow. “You’re telling me that saving your sorry vampire ass is not a good enough reason?”
    “If you’re talking about that bullshit rumor that Glen plans to use her to kill all Others, then no. No one