Chapter 12
Now that was scary.
I thought sneaking into my father’s bedroom had been bad, but trying to charm my way past security with no plan? That was something else entirely.
I should have thought it through. I’ve always considered myself smart. Careful.
But that was sloppy.
And when the guards stopped me, the first thing out of my mouth was, I’m here to see Rio.
“Who are you?” they asked.
And I just… blurted it out.
His girlfriend.
I was shaking when I said it.
Standing there, waiting for him to come out, I was certain I’d just made things worse. That I’d pushed too far. That this was it.
The guards were nice, though. They treated me like I was telling the truth which meant I’d either pulled it off or I was about to be in a lot more trouble than I’d planned for.
When Rio showed up with his brothers and his dad behind him, I was sure I was done.
But somehow… he played along.
And now I’m walking into his father’s house. The smell hits me—rich, savory, something slow-cooked and cozy. The kind of scent that settles into your clothes and smells like the comfort of grandparents.
But as I step inside, my pulse races. There are too many men here. I don’t know any of them. All of them are built like they know how to handle a situation, even make one disappear.
And I’m a situation, alright.
Men who move as a pack are dangerous.
Luis steps in ahead of me, waving me inside.
“Come on in,” he says, ushering me forward as if I’ve been here a hundred times.
I step inside, mapping the room, clocking exits. What the hell have I done? What if Rio decides to corner me here, with his whole family? He played along at the gate but still…
He seems to be playing it cool. I need to do the same until we can be alone and I can show him this locket and leave.
Tina whines in the backpack and I realize what an idiot I must look like with her still on my back.
I glance at Luis and shrug the strap of my backpack. “Can I let Tina out?”
Not that I want to. If I need to make a run for it, that would be bad. But she’s been in there long enough, she’ll start barking if she has to stay in the bag while she thinks I’m doing something exciting.
“Of course,” he says immediately, lighting up. “I love dogs. I’ve been meaning to get one myself, but I only moved here not that long ago.”
“Really?” I ask, the question comes out before I can stop it.
A girlfriend should know that.
But he doesn’t question it.
Luis continues. “Back in October. Feels like home now, though. I’m definitely ready for more animals.” He studies me for a second. “You like horses, Delilah?”
“I—” Do I? I’m not sure. “I’ve never been around them.”
Luis grins, clapping Rio on the shoulder. “Well, that’ll have to change, won’t it, hijo? You can teach her how to ride.”
Rio’s response is low. “Mm-hm.”
He is livid. Simmering under the surface.
I shouldn’t be here. It took enough nerve to think about being alone with Rio on his turf. Now he has a horde.
The men drift toward the island. Luis moves around the kitchen with quiet authority, grabbing a clean bowl, lifting the lid off a pot that’s been abandoned mid-stir, steam rolling up in thick, fragrant waves.
Garlic, tomato, something deeper I can’t place.
Luis ladles the soup, and it looks familiar, like one I had when I visited mom’s family in Puerto Rico.
“Is that albondigas soup?” I ask.
“You know it?” He looks surprised.
“I think I had it once in Puerto Rico,” I add a personal touch to lower everyone’s guard. “My mom was from there.”
Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything, because I hope like hell he doesn’t ask where my dad is from.
“Ah, compa…” he says with a smile, placing the bowl in front of me on the island.
My mom taught me Spanish growing up. That he thinks I’m a fellow Latino is a brownie point.
Luis is more welcoming than any man I’ve ever met before. If this is what their father is like, I almost understand how they get away with things. Looks-wise, a girl couldn’t go wrong with any one of them, but then… they’re men. I’m sure they all suck under the surface.
I slide onto one of the stools at the island and set the bowl down carefully, aware of how the growing mountain of shoulders around me.
Tina noses around at my feet, sniffing the floor, her tail giving a cautious wag as she circles my boots. I keep half an eye on her, tension sitting just under my skin. If she bolts, I’m following.
Santi crouches slightly, offering a hand to Tina without pushing, letting her come like he’s used to things choosing him.
She does. She licks Santi’s hand and before long she’s on her belly and he’s giving her a rub, thankfully he’s more interested in my dog than in me.
I pick up the spoon. I can feel them watching me, but not the way I’m used to. Not measuring. There’s something else in the feeling, curiosity maybe, a kind of quiet amusement. It should make me uncomfortable but it doesn’t. That’s the part that throws me.
I take a bite.
Jesus. This is—I don’t remember the last time I ate something like this.
“So…” Enzo says to my left.
He’s an exact handsome replica of Rio, only he wears glasses, and doesn’t have any tattoos on his forearms.
“…how long have you two known each other?”
I let the spoon rest against the edge of the bowl and lift my gaze just enough to meet his. “Not long,” I say.
Keeping it vague is the best I can do. Finally, I dare to gaze at Rio.
The look on his face tells me he’s finally recalibrated. I could tell back at the gate, he was caught off guard. The stiffness in his posture, the silence… the way he held my hand so still he didn’t even have a pulse.
But now, his gaze is filled with unholy delight. All the arrogance is back. Like he’s figured out the board. Like he’s already three moves ahead and I’m the one about to lose something. I swallow dryly, sensing I’m in trouble.
Rio leans in next to me at the island and places his hand on my lower back, splayed, unexpectedly gentle. His body is now flush against my arm. His scent encircles me, potent, like it’s about to cast a spell.
Santi stands and slides in next to Rio. “Isn’t she a little too young for you?”
Enzo answers instead. “What’s age got to do with anything?”
Santi winks at Enzo. “Ah. Must be a twin thing.”
I don’t know what he means by that but I’m guessing Enzo is with a younger woman.
“How’d you meet?” Gabriel asks, then takes a bite of soup.
I don’t have an answer…
Rio doesn’t give me time to find one.
“Charity event,” he says easily. “Breast cancer fundraiser. We were both guests.”
And then, he takes a step into my space, traces his finger along my jawline and hooks a tendril of hair behind my ear. Goosebumps erupt under my earlobe and down my neck. My cheeks heat.
“She’s based up north,” he adds, eyes still fixed on mine. “Humboldt.”
That’s… far.
Far enough that no one’s expecting specifics.
“The distance is the reason it took a while for us to find a time that worked for her to visit,” he finishes, now glancing up at his dad.
Luis hums like that explains everything, already nodding, already accepting it without question.
“Well,” he says, pleased, “I hope this means you’ll be staying a while?”
Rio doesn’t hesitate. “She’ll be here for a couple of weeks.”
A couple of weeks? What?
As his prisoner?
That is not the plan. My body jumps immediately into flight mode. I only came here to show him the locket, then find some sort of hideout close enough that I could pester him until he finds the missing women. I’m not staying here.
I can’t react with all of them watching but uncertainty gnaws at my insides. My entire situation has shifted under my feet in the space of a single sentence.
I take another spoonful casually, needing something wet to soothe my now dry throat. I swallow.
“A couple of weeks?” I say, as if he’s being cute and silly rather than making me rethink jumping that fence. “That might be a little ambitious.”
He presses into my side, his heat radiates on my arm. His thigh hits mine and it’s hard as steel. I glance up, meeting his serious brown eyes. I hate that this bastard is such a masterpiece, with his strong jaw of dark stubble and lips shaped like a work of art.
Being attracted to him is involuntary. But I force my thoughts back into logic. Rio is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
What is he thinking right now, touching me like this?
And saying I’m going to stay?
No is the answer but I can’t say it out loud. I also can’t agree.
“I have a few things I need to handle back home,” I say apologetically.
“Handle them from here,” he challenges, in a kind voice I didn’t know he owned.
“That’s not exactly how my life works,” I fire back, smiling tightly.
“Now that I finally have you here…” His gaze sharpens. A slow, cunning smirk follows. “You’re not going anywhere, Princess.”
Tension crackles in the space between us. I don’t know what game he’s playing, but I’m out. I only came to show him the locket…
I need to get a plan in place because Dad will notice I’m gone eventually. Maybe tomorrow, when I don’t come home from work. There’s a rehearsal dinner for my wedding to Luther in two days for God’s sake.
I was going to come here, find Rio, show him the locket and hopefully recalibrate a plan for him to find Beatriz and Isabel. Then, I supposed I was going to grab a cheap motel somewhere. Something I could pay cash for.
Rio still stares at me with fake adoration.
But how long can I hide out in a motel? I’d stay in some low-security, cheap place until I finally convince stupid ass Rio to help me put Dad in jail, every day in between, wondering if he or Luther will find me?
Staying here… might be the safer option.
There’s security, which I’m sure Rio will tighten tenfold now that I got through. Dad doesn’t know who Rio is. Luther doesn’t know I know who he is. It makes no sense that they’d think I’d be here.
I gaze back at Rio, a man determined to control me and take me down. I curse the life that makes this asshole my better bet.
I coat my voice with honey. “Are you sure?” I ask. “It won’t interrupt your work?”
“He can work from the ranch offices.” Enzo offers help. “We have spare laptops, WiFi, whatever. Got it covered.”
Of course they have it covered. Everything about this place is covered. Every corner of the property, every space around the perimeter. Secure. Controlled.
I should have known better.
I didn’t.
I let out a soft breath, like I’m conceding something small instead of something that could get me killed, or the cops called on me for trespassing.
“Okay,” I say, glancing between Rio and Enzo. “A few days. I can make that work.”
Just enough to buy myself time to talk to Rio and figure out somewhere safe to stay.
Gabriel thumbs through a magazine that appears to have men’s suits in it. “So, what do you do for work, Delilah?”
Rio interrupts, hellbent on controlling everything his family knows about me. “She’s a dog groomer.”
Of course he knows what I do.
Luis leans forward on the counter. “So how is it that you were at the charity event?”
Again, Rio answers. “She was a plus one.”
I hate him speaking for me.
I explain my version of our imaginary meet-cute. “One of my clients just got dumped, so she asked me to join her since she already bought the ticket.”
Luis lifts his beer in the air. “Sounds like fate.”
Fate sure did bring me to Rio, just not how you think, Luis.
Santi scoops Tina up from the floor, holding her in his arms. My tiny dog melts into the hunky cowboy.
She didn’t get the memo.
“So.” He rubs her belly. “Did Rio tell you we try to ride on Saturday mornings? We’ve got some pretty nice horses around here. Could set you up this weekend.”
I don’t really want to get any closer to these people than I already am in this room. I don’t want to concoct more lies, or give Rio any reasons not to help me.
We just need to fix this. That’s the only reason I’m here.
“Yeah, maybe,” I go along with it. “That sounds nice.”
Rio’s hand slides in across the small of my back and there are those goosebumps again.
“You must be tired from that drive,” he says, almost affectionately. “I’ll take you back to mine.”
I don’t like the way that sounds.
But where else would I go?
I am his girlfriend, after all.
Part of me wants to stay here at Luis’. Delay what’s coming.
Because the second we step outside, he’s going to stop pretending.