Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Flora
I heard someone at my door before Pablo opened it.
I live alone, so no one should be fiddling with the doorknob.
I knew it wasn’t my mother, who’s the only other person with a key to my place.
She would’ve knocked. I suspect men followed me here from work, so hearing the lock turn freaked me the fuck out.
I grabbed my gun and aimed for where I figured a man’s chest would be.
To say I’m pissed to see Pablo break into my home would be a half-truth. It pisses me off that he believes he has the right to enter here whenever the fuck he wants. That he can barge in because the mood struck him. But he’s so fucking hot looming in the doorway.
My brain is seriously twisted.
“You have the sweetest way of welcoming me, chiquita.”
He enters and shuts the door behind him. I should freak all the way out when he locks us in. But somehow having him between me and the outside world is actually reassuring.
My brain is seriously extra twisted.
“Get out of my home. You have no right to be here.”
He raises his hands where I can see them after putting the lock picking kit on the table beside the door—right next to my keys. It’s as though he’s dropping his next to mine.
Honey, I’m home.
He could reach for his own gun, but he doesn’t. He could reach for however many knives I’m certain he carries, but he doesn’t. It’s as though his sheer aura can command me to give in.
Nope.
“Flora, whe—”
“We are not friends.”
“Florencia, whether or not you come with me, you need to get out of here. There were men watching your place.”
“Were? You killed them.”
I don’t know why the first part was a question since the second part proves I already know the answer.
“Would you have preferred they kill you? You didn’t shoot me the moment I opened the door. If I’d wanted you dead, I would’ve shot you before you knew who was on the other side. They would have too.”
Rather than respond, I lift my arms to aim the gun at his forehead rather than his heart. I flip the safety off. His hands drop as he shakes his head.
“Chiquita, that safety should’ve been off the moment you heard the doorknob twist.”
Rather than believe I’m one step closer to killing him, he steps toward me. I wrap my finger tighter around the trigger without squeezing it. He takes another step.
“You have more confidence in yourself than you should, Pablo. No matter how fast you can draw your gun or flick open your knife, I’ll still be quicker.”
“Put the gun down, Flora, before you hurt yourself. I will take it from you, but that risks you getting shot.”
“More likely I’ll shoot you if you take another step toward me.”
“And then what? The men in my family won’t kill you, but the women will.
If you’re as smart as I believe you are, you’ll understand how much worse that will be than facing my tíos, papá, or primos.
Mamá and my tías will hunt you to the ends of the Earth, drag you back to their den, then feast on you like a pack of she-wolves.
It won’t be a quick kill. Mamá’s always been overprotective. ”
The story about how Margherita defended her sons comes to mind.
Getting a hint of what his tía Luciana did to the men who carried out the hit on her husband doesn’t ease the sudden bolt of fear that courses through me.
I know nothing about his tía Catalina, but I’m certain she must be like her sister Luciana.
I’ve heard speculation that his newest tía—Enrique’s wife—is the worst of them all.
That her family is Mafia in America and that she’s been a gun for hire before.
It could just be a rumor, but something Humberto said a few weeks ago makes me think it’s not just conjecture.
“You’re considering what I said. You know your life is forfeit if you move a single hair on my head. Put the gun down, Flora.”
“I didn’t invite you into my home. You don’t give me orders. Leave.”
“Chiquita, pack what you need for the next week. If you don’t have somewhere safe to go, I will find you somewhere.”
“And why should I believe you? Why should I think you’re any more trustworthy than your tío abuelo?”
A wall drops between us, even if I can’t see it or touch it. I sense when it slams to the ground. I’ve deeply insulted him by comparing him to Humberto. While his outward demeanor doesn’t shift, I know I’ve made a grave error.
“Choose, Flora. Get your stuff and walk out of here on your own, or refuse me, and I’ll carry you over my shoulder. If I have to do that, I’ll spank you.”
“You are unreal. No.”
No one calls me Flora, yet he insists upon it as though we’re friends.
He moves faster than I expect. He surges toward me, and I raise the gun on instinct rather than shoot him. Any other man outside my family, and I’m confident I would’ve pulled the trigger. I have no fear of taking someone’s life. I haven’t done it, but I’ve come close.
I don’t want to shoot Pablo.
He disarms me and flips the safety back on before dropping the weapon onto the sofa.
While one hand gains control of the gun, his other arm wraps around me and pulls me against his body.
It’s all hard muscle and bone. He’s so much bigger than me—bigger than I realized from a distance.
I can’t help but brace myself with my hands on his chest. My palms itch to slide down to the rock-hard abdomen I feel pressed against my tits.
“OW!”
I’m utterly unprepared for his hand to land across my ass.
“Pablo! Stop! OW!”
“It may have been hot as fuck watching you during that meeting and when I went to the pharmacy, but your obstinance isn’t attractive. You are going to get yourself killed if you don’t listen to me. If you won’t agree to my help on your own, then I won’t give you a choice.”
“I don’t give a flying fuck if I’m attractive to you. Let go.”
“My spanks might push your hips toward me, but you’re pressing the rest of your body against mine on your own. You give a fuck.”
His hand lands across my ass over and over.
It burns like a motherfucker, but he isn’t wrong.
I may want him to stop because it hurts, but I’m not pushing away from him.
I’m not truly rejecting this spanking. I feel safe despite him being a virtual stranger.
He’s doing it because I turned down his offer for protection.
Because we both know I’m cutting off my nose to spite my face.
But I’m not ready to agree to his offer. I don’t trust him entirely.
“You’d knock me over if I didn’t use you to brace myself. I don’t consent to this. Stop.”
His arm drops from around my waist immediately. He stops spanking me and steps back. As he observes me, it’s as though he’s surprised by his own actions. He looks at me as though he’s not sure what to make of me, as though he’s confused.
“Chiquita—”
“Why do you insist upon calling me that?”
“I don’t know.” His answer is swift, and from his still befuddled expression, I believe him.
“Pablo, I’m not going anywhere with you or anyone else.”
That snaps him back to reality as his eyes narrow. He glowers at me, and I’m certain this look has made plenty cower before him. I lift my chin and lock gazes with him. He cups my chin, but he’s gentle even though he holds it in place when I attempt to pull away.
“Your stubbornness will get you killed. Humberto’s put a quarter-million-dollar bounty on you. I heard your conversation with him yesterday.”
“How—Did you tap his phone or mine?”
Confusion gives way to anger.
“His. I didn’t like how he spoke to you, and I definitely won’t allow you to go back into the on your own.
Do you have any clue how lucky you are that you’re alive?
No one—not me nor any of the men in my family—travels there alone.
We’d lose our ever-loving shit if any woman in our family even suggested doing it. You sure as hell aren’t going.”
“You don’t dictate to me, and you shouldn’t have listened to any of my conversations.”
“You weren’t the reason I listened, but I learned plenty. I also know Humberto far better than you.”
When he cocks his eyebrow at me, I bare my teeth. I try to shove him away.
“I’ve never fucked him. How dare you even hint that I have?”
I struggle to get free of him for real. He lets go just as fast as he did when I said I didn’t consent to the spanking. He has boundaries even he won’t cross. That’s reassuring in a fucked-up kind of way.
“Then you should believe me when I tell you that your unwillingness to follow his orders pissed him off. He can’t stand it when anyone defies him, but he’s limited in what he can do since he can’t leave his home. He can’t come here to intimidate you—”
“But you can.”
“You don’t fear me, chica.”
“I don’t fear him either.”
“Then you’re as foolish as you are beautiful.
I would never hurt you, and I’ll kill my tío abuelo for trying.
But he will have you killed and not suffer a moment’s doubt.
You need to go somewhere safe. It can’t be to your mother or grandparents.
That’s too predictable. You need to get away from Bogotá. ”
“I’ll take my chances—”
“No, you will not. You will not endanger yourself. I won’t allow it.”
“You don’t get to decide. Why does it even matter to you?”
“I don’t need your death on my conscience, chiquita.”
“I’m not your problem, Pablo. I don’t matter to you. You’re just worried it’ll be bad for business. You’ll have to find someone new to develop the product, and that’ll cost you.”
I take a step toward him, closing the gap he made when he let go of me.
I don’t realize I’m doing it until the tips of our shoes touch.
We stare at each other for a moment before his hand fists my hair, and his arm wraps around my waist. He pulls me against him, and I clutch his shirt.
His mouth crashes down on mine, and I open to him without resistance.
What the fuck, Florencia?
One moment, you’re refusing to consider the common sense he speaks, and the next you want to jump his fucking bones.