6. Amorette
AMORETTE
I stumbled back, reaching out to grip the back of the couch.
My eyes had to be playing tricks on me, but there they were. Andre smoothed a hand down his suit and glared at Matías as if he was barely worth spitting on. They were so similar in looks they could have been twins.
One angry twin and one cold unbothered twin.
Lafe clenched and unclenched his hands as he slid in behind Andre. His gaze swept over me. He started to turn toward me, then hesitated, returning his attention to Matías.
“Come,” Andre commanded and held out a hand.
My first reaction was to sneer. I wasn’t a fucking dog. But my logic knew that wasn’t what they or I needed right now.
“Why don’t you stay for a drink,” Matías asked while curling his upper lip. He didn’t seem to want Andre and Lafe to stay. The question was more of a taunt.
“There’s no reason for us to stay. You’re lucky we came alone.” Andre dropped his hand and strode the ten steps separating us with dark purpose. When his gaze touched mine, I lost some of my bluster.
He looked like hell. His ebony hair was brushed back and his suit was impeccable, but his face was haunted by shadows. Purple bruises edged the bottom of his eyes, and his cheeks were slightly sunken in.
Before he reached me, Matías’ voice cracked through the room. And I didn’t understand a word of it. Whatever he told Andre made both brothers tense. Andre slowed to a stop and turned only his head toward Matías.
Responding in harsh Spanish, he spat on the floor. The exchange went back and forth as Lafe shook his head and moved toward me. As he got closer, I backed up another step.
This is what I wanted. Right?
I wanted to go back to the brothers. I wanted to make sure Grey was okay. But…why did it feel like I’d been betrayed?
Matías didn’t owe me anything. He’d been civil while I was with him. Then he goes and calls Andre behind my back when I’d been all but begging to speak with them.
I was chattel—something to be bartered for.
Whipping my gaze back and forth between Andre and Matías, I sucked in a grating breath. “How did you find me?” I directed my question at Andre.
Lafe, who had been seconds from touching my arm, paused.
Andre angled his body toward me without taking his glare off Matías. “We’ll talk about this at the compound. We need to go.”
“No. Before I leave, I want to know how you found me.” My voice rose with each word.
Lafe caught my arm but with none of the kindness I expected. His fingers bit into the muscle as he tugged me toward his chest.
“Did you find me?” I narrowed my eyes on Andre. “Or did Matías call you?” I switched my glare to his brother.
Both men stared each other down, silently daring the other to speak. Neither did.
I let Lafe wrap his arm around me, and when he did, I sunk into his chest. The trembling started, and his chest rose against my side as he pulled in a deep breath. I wasn’t sure how I felt. Shocked, maybe. Maybe I was still in a state of shock.
Let down too.
Matías almost reminded me of the brothers, but when an opportunity presented itself, he was just like everyone else.
“He called me,” Andre bit out. He seemed to want to say more, though not in front of Matías.
That was the only answer I needed. Whatever kind feelings I might have had for Matías evaporated.
I should be thankful that he hadn’t raped me.
Or worse. But sometimes, the most frustrating and painful hurts were the ones that hit your chest dead center.
I was a fool, and I only had myself to blame. Even when I thought I’d learned something.
As Lafe steered us toward the door, Matías walked to cut us off. Lafe growled as he pulled me deeper into his body, and Andre punched Matías’ shoulder.
They had another exchange in Spanish, then Matías straightened his shirt and looked down at me. Some of the coldness seeped away.
“Take care of yourself. I’m sure we’ll see each other again.” He cut his eyes at Andre and stepped back.
Lafe pushed on my back to get me moving again. The house was silent in a way I hadn’t noticed until now. We walked down the hall, through the kitchen, and out the back door. There was a black SUV caddy corner to the door, parked in a way that said they were in a rush.
To get me.
Lafe reached around me to open the door, and I slid in. He followed and shut his door at the same time as Andre. There were no sweet words, no concern, nothing. Andre started the car and peeled out of the driveway.
He glanced in the rearview mirror as I scooted to the other side. If Lafe noticed me putting room between us, he didn’t say anything. Andre scanned the street while Lafe messed with his phone. Both were completely engrossed.
Once we pulled onto a long stretch of dirt road, they relaxed just a hair. Even I relaxed on their cue. As the danger had passed, Lafe leaned back against the seat and glanced at me with sad eyes.
Andre felt none of it and used a nervous hand to muss up his hair.
“I think we’re clear,” Andre said as he glanced at us in the rearview. “We have about fifteen minutes to the chopper. Then we should be good.”
So many questions sat on the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t know where to start. No, I did. The question I’d been asking Matías for days.
“Is Grey….” I couldn’t finish the question. I just pressed two fingers against my lips, willing one of them to tell me that my worry had been unfounded. Grey was bloodied and beaten the last time I’d seen him, two seconds from a death blow from Bruno’s hammer.
“Grey’s fine.” Andre paused, spearing me with a contemplative gaze through the rearview mirror. “The better question is, how did you come to be with Matías?”
I blinked. He didn’t actually believe that I left with him on my own, did he? I didn’t know anyone outside the men I’d come into contact with at the warehouse or anyone they’d introduced me to.
“Why the hell would you even ask that?” Blood rushed to my cheeks. “Your fucking father had me drugged. Then dropped me off to him like I was some piece of meat. He told Matías that I was his now.” I bent forward, trying to ease the sudden ache in my stomach.
Lafe rolled his head to face me, his lips pursed. He wanted to say something, though he was working up the courage. “Why did you look like you’d been betrayed when we walked through the door?”
“Because I was fucking betrayed!” I yelled.
“I’d been asking to call you all for days.
Every day. Every day I was there, I asked to call Grey.
Call you, Call Andre. Even Parker. I asked if Grey was okay.
I asked when he would take me back. He avoided every single question like the plague.
But you tell me, what did you give him to come get me? ”
I wanted to know exactly why they weren’t close, but I was more concerned with why they appeared now, after a whole week. What did Matías stand to gain from it?
And why did I feel like I couldn’t trust myself or my instincts?
Loud, bitter laughter tumbled from my lips, and Andre and Lafe stared at me like I’d lost my mind. Maybe I had. I was so relieved to be going back to the place I felt most comfortable that I could taste it. Tangy but sweet on my tongue.
Lafe straightened, shocked either by my laughter or my words. Ever since they’d walked through the door, he'd been eyeing me with suspicion. Now, though, he had a deep furrow between his eyes.
Andre cursed in the front seat. “Matias called us two hours ago. He didn’t ask for anything, but that doesn’t mean he won’t. Just said that something that belonged to us was at his house. And to not make any noise when we came to pick you up.”
Rubbing my hands down my thighs, I struggled to comprehend what that meant. It would be easier to put Matías in a neat box if he’d ransomed something for me. Except he hadn’t.
“Why did he wait a week to call you, then?”
Tightening his grip on the steering wheel until his knuckles were white, he growled. “To make us squirm. To see how far we’d go to get you back.”
I almost asked what they did while I was with Matías. Did they look for me at all? But I didn’t. I didn’t want to know the answer if they were happy to wash their hands of me.
Tears–stupid, betraying tears filled my eyes, and I turned my head to stare out the window. My emotions were all over the place. I always seemed to be doing fine, ignoring the new traumas dumped on my lap, but every once in a while, something would happen or not happen, and I’d break down in tears.
This wasn’t me. I wasn’t like this.
I hated it.
Warm fingers touched my temple, then tucked the fall of hair behind my ear.
When I turned, Lafe dropped his hand. He didn’t say anything, but he kept his gaze locked on mine.
Then Andre pulled up to the pad, recklessly throwing the car in park, causing us to jolt forward.
“We need to go. Vicente could know we’re here.” He met my gaze in the rearview mirror. “That was the other option. Matías could be working with Vicente and this could have been a trap.”
We slid out of the SUV and speed-walked to the chopper. Andre opened it up and I climbed inside as they raced around doing their checks. In minutes, we’re buckled in and taking off.
I adjusted my headset, weighing how much of this conversation I wanted to have in the helicopter.
Turned out, my need for answers was too great.
“Vicente’s your father. You’re all his enforcers. Why would he be setting a trap? Why would he even take me in the first place?” Grey and Lafe had alluded to the fact that there was no love lost between the sons and father, but to trap them? That didn’t make sense.
Lafe twisted in his seat, his bright sapphire eyes pinning me in place. He studied me as he pursed his lips like he was trying to come to some kind of conclusion. He shook his head and turned around, typing out a message on his phone.
“When Vicente took you during the fight, that was his sign that we’re no longer blessed with his approval.” Andre’s voice came through slightly scratchy over the headset.
“Why?” I scooted to the edge of the bench as much as the seat belt would allow. “What happened?”
None of the brothers seemed fond of him, but they hadn’t mentioned any issues before I was taken. I sat back. Why would they? I was just a nuisance to them.
They exchanged a look but didn’t say anything. I wanted to push for more, but I wasn’t sure they would react well to that. Especially after they came to collect me.
Too many questions swirled around inside my head. What did that mean if Vicente removed his favor from them? Were they targets? How much did he know about me, and if Vicente knew about me, could he know about Grace?
The likelihood that Vicente knew or cared about who I was beyond his sons’ interest in me was slim. I had been drugged during the transfer and had only given Matías my first name. He hadn’t probed me with questions the way Grey and Parker had.
I steadied my breathing and didn’t let my fear and annoyance show on my face. If they thought that I was a threat during their fight with Vicente, they might take drastic measures. I wasn’t sure if they would. I hoped they wouldn’t, but if I was on the outside, I needed to make a decision.
Stay and work for them as they’d offered or redouble my efforts to get back home.
The irony soured my stomach, when I could have been looking for an escape from Matías’ low-security home.
Except, I was trying to learn. I was constantly learning, but if their situation was as dire as they were conveying with their grim expressions and rigid bodies, what choice did I have than to leave any way I could?
At the end of the day, my personal feelings aside, I couldn’t let anything in this new life touch Grace.
I’d die first.