Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 89772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
I didn’t deserve sympathy. I fucked up. End of story.
“Mrs. Martinez, please know you have the support of me and the five families.”
“I don’t understand what that means,” my mother replied with disdain.
“It means we will find her, and we will make them pay. No one disrespects me in my own home. No one.” He turned to face my father. “We have business to take care of, Martinez.” With that, he spun and walked toward his men. Leaving us alone.
“Leo!” Papá called for his right-hand man, who never left his side. They grew up together. I knew him as my uncle Leo.
“Take them home and don’t let them out of your sight.”
“I want to stay.”
“Cruz, no,” Mamá ordered.
“I’m an adult. I can make my own decisions and I want to stay and help find my sister. This is my fault and I want to make it right.”
“Alejandro, please. We already lost one child tonight, we don’t need to lose another.”
“I’m not a child.”
“Your mother’s right. You’ve done enough damage for one evening. Stay with her, however Leo will be the one who’s in charge of protecting her. Seeing as I can’t trust you.”
I jerked back like he slapped me in the face. He wanted to hurt me, and he did. I could take the physical altercations, but the loss of his trust was the beginning of the end…
For us.
PART II
Chapter 10
—Cruz—
Five days.
One hundred and twenty hours.
Seven thousand and two hundred minutes since my sister was taken.
I’d barely seen my father. He was in and out of the house day and night, and most of the time he didn’t come home. Spending every waking second trying to find Adriana. Although, he was never much of a sleeper. I lost count of how many times I’d find him sitting in his office at all hours of the night. Sometimes he’d be in the living room, others he’d be out on the balcony. It changed with his moods.
I couldn’t think back on a time, where I didn’t wake up to go look for him. My body would jolt out of sleep and there was no telling it otherwise. Without any resistance, I’d get up and my feet wouldn’t stop moving until I saw his looming frame lurking in the shadows. It was when there was a bottle of bourbon beside him and a glass in his hands, that I often wondered what he was trying to forget.
My life never made any sense, but neither did the connection I always felt to my father. Especially, to his name, and I wasn’t referring to Martinez.
Be careful what you wish for…
My sister wanted freedom and look where it led her. I wanted to know about the man they called El Diablo and now it felt like he’d always been a part of my being. As if I was born with the devil inside of me.
These last five days my father didn’t talk to me, he didn’t acknowledge me, he didn’t even glance my way when I tried to get information on Adriana’s whereabouts. It was much more complicated than he was hoping I’d believe. It wasn’t just about disappointment in my poor decision making, it was much more than that.
He kept the truth away from me for as long as he could because deep down in every inch of his soul, he knew who I was and what I was meant to become. There was no getting through to him, not then and even less now, he completely shut me out.
My mother, on the other hand, she spoke to me, yet was still very much withdrawn in her own way. The spark and life in her vanished.
No laughing.
No smiling.
She hardly moved from the spot on the couch.
Anxiously waiting for my father to walk through the door so she could ambush him. Fully aware he wouldn’t involve her in any of his findings unless she made damn sure of it. Even then he blew her off in his own way. The only concern he had for anyone right now was his daughter.
Nothing else mattered but getting Adriana home.
Which only added to the guilt I was experiencing with each passing day. I had to do something, I couldn’t just sit around and wait for her to come back. I wasn’t made like that. Over the years, in my pursuit of searching for the truth of who El Diablo was, I learned how to work a computer and by that, I meant I was skilled in hacking.
I spent hours ripping apart Ari’s laptop trying to find whatever I could that might point us in the right direction or give us clues on what happened, or where she was. I thought I’d find a boyfriend or at least a guy she was hiding. As juvenile as it may sound, she knew better than to talk to strangers, let alone leave with one. Whoever she followed out of Luciano’s estate was a familiar face, and no one could fight me on that.