Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 80139 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80139 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
She chuckles softly. “So you found a conscience in Robin Bellamy’s bed? Is that it?”
I clench my jaw. How does she read me so well? But I don’t dignify her with an answer. Robin is through with me anyway.
“And you think she will save you?”
Cold spreads through me. “I don’t need anyone to save me. Truth is? I never did.”
“You’re being stupid.” Her eyes sharpen. “Vega will want blood.”
“He already does.”
“If he can’t get yours, he’ll take hers.”
Everything inside me stops.
Adriana sees it. Her face lights with triumph.
I don’t move.
She leans in. “He knows where she’s going. Embassy. Family. Airport. Texas. These people always run toward their names and their money. You think a border will stop him?”
I keep my expression calm as my pulse spikes.
“If Vega can’t have you,” she says, “he’ll get to the United States and take Robin Bellamy for himself.”
A picture flashes through my mind.
Robin at the embassy, thinking she’s safe.
Robin boarding a plane.
Robin in Texas.
Robin opening a door she shouldn’t open.
Robin back in a locked room.
No.
My voice drops. “He will not touch her.”
Adriana smiles. “Then come with me.”
“No.”
Her face goes cold.
For a second, I think she’s going to slap me.
Instead, she moves to her sleeve. I see the flash of metal too late. It’s a small device in her palm. A dart.
She lunges.
I twist, but the needle grazes my arm.
But not enough. I slam her wrist aside. “Bitch.”
She comes at me again.
I knock her hand away and grab her shoulders.
I’m ready to strike her, to stop her any way I can, when—
Something crashes into her from behind.
Mercedes.
She comes out of nowhere, swinging a heavy ceramic vase with both hands. It shatters against the back of Adriana’s shoulder and head. Adriana staggers, nearly falling. She grabs on to the side of the car.
Esmeralda appears beside her, wild-eyed, holding something in both hands.
The tranquilizer device. It must have fallen when Mercedes hit her.
“Esmeralda, no!” I shout.
Too late.
Esmeralda jams the device into Adriana’s side and presses.
Adriana gasps. Her eyes go wide.
“How dare—” she starts.
Then her knees buckle and she collapses onto the ground.
For a second, all three of us stare at her.
Mercedes breathes hard, still holding the broken neck of the vase, ready to stab Adriana if she comes to.
Esmeralda looks at the device in her hand. Then at me. “I think I got her.”
Despite everything, a laugh breaks out of me.
Mercedes points the jagged vase at Adriana. “Is she dead?”
“No,” I say. “Just drugged.” I should know. It’s the same thing I used on Robin at Adriana’s house in Texas.
Esmeralda’s hands begin to shake. She drops the dart like it burned her.
“I thought I told you two to get out of here,” I say.
“You did,” Mercedes says, “but we don’t follow orders from men who aren’t paying us.”
“Ha!” I say. “I gave you Señora’s money.”
“But it wasn’t your money.”
“Stop with the jokes,” I say. “Where are the others?”
“We gave them half the money and kept half,” Mercedes says. “We couldn’t leave until we knew you and Robin were safe.”
I lift an eyebrow. “You hardly know us.”
“But we knew Señora,” Esmeralda says. “And any friend of hers is a friend of ours.”
Mercedes steps closer to me, her face streaked with tears and fury. “You need a car.”
“I have one.”
“That piece of trash?” she says.
“It runs.”
“For how long?”
“Long enough.”
Esmeralda shakes her head. “Take mine. I’m one of only two girls that has one. The others piled into Violetta’s SUV.”
“No.”
“Cruz—”
“No.” I look at them both. “You need your vehicle. You need to get everyone away from here. Far away.”
“We can help you.”
“You already did.” I look down at Adriana.
“What do we do with her?” Mercedes asks.
“Leave her.”
Esmeralda’s eyes widen. “Here?”
“Someone will find her. She’s not your problem.”
“She’ll come after us.”
“Not if you’re gone before she wakes. She won’t have any interest in you. Only in me.” I look at Mercedes. “I can take you with me to the airport.”
“We don’t have passports.”
“But you can fly somewhere else in Colombia.”
“No,” Esmeralda says. “We’ll stay. We’ll meet the others. We’re not the ones they want.”
She’s not wrong.
I nod. “If that’s your choice.” I hug them both. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
I get into the stolen car and I drive.
Away from the brothel.
Away from the dead.
Away from Adriana sprawled on the ground behind me.
Toward the airport.
I keep one hand on the wheel and the other near my pocket. Passport. Money.
A crossroads.
Mamá’s voice returns.
You will have decisions to make, Cruz. All your life. Some small. Some so large they will feel impossible. When you stand at those crossroads, you must try to make the right ones.
Maybe I’ve made wrong choices my whole life.
Maybe every road behind me is stained.
But this one?
This one leads away from Adriana.
Away from Vega.
And if God has any mercy left for sons of whores with blood on their hands, maybe it leads to where I can still stand between Robin Bellamy and the men coming for her.