11. Valentina
VALENTINA
Dark streets rush past as the bus Diego’s dragged me onto weaves through the night like a rattling bucket of bolts. Every pothole in the road makes the windows and seats shudder as if they’re seconds from falling apart, and a stale scent of something sour lingers in the air.
We’re seated near the back with only a few other passengers scattered near the front, giving us a weak blanket of privacy.
“Are you okay?” Diego’s a tall, broad man, so seeing him nearly strangled to death like he weighed nothing was alarming.
“Fine.” Diego waves me off with a rough scrape of his voice, then he winces and swallows. “I’m more concerned about you.”
“Me?” My eyes widen and drop to the shadows forming around his throat. “I’m fine. You were…” I shake my head. “I was so scared you were going to die.”
“Is that why you did the…” He waves his hands suddenly and winces again.
“I’ve never seen anything like that in real life before.
He was almost twice your size and you just…
” He puffs out his cheeks and whistles. “Don’t get me wrong, it was incredible, but should I be scared that one wrong move will put me on the receiving end of those killer thighs? ”
Despite the wariness in his words, there’s an interesting glint in his eyes as if he wouldn’t mind such a thing at all.
“I don’t know.” Coldness seeps down my arms so I huddle in my seat and press my hands between my thighs for warmth. “Something just came over me and clicked when I saw you like that. I wanted to help you, and the next thing I knew, it was already over, and he was on the ground.”
Diego nods slowly, then winces as a particularly deep pothole rattles through us. After a moment of heavy silence, he slides his arm around my shoulders and pulls me close to his chest.
“You shouldn’t have come out without a coat,” he murmurs. “You’ll catch your death in this state.”
“I’m fine,” I lie as the warmth radiating from Diego instantly sends another shiver through my body. Every cell surges forward and I cuddle up into him until we’re shaking as one over the next pothole. “Are you scared of me?”
Such a weighted question likely shouldn’t have passed my lips, but it’s too late now.
“No,” Diego answers with what sounds like complete honesty.
“I won’t pretend I’m not scared overall because that fucking bastard nearly killed me, and someone fucked you up this much.
So clearly, something scary is going on.
But you, specifically?” His arm tightens around my shoulders. “Not at all.”
I take comfort in his words. Staring down at my legs, I attempt to recreate what happened in the pub in my head, but when I think about how I even got onto that man’s shoulders, it’s an impossible feat.
It had to be instinct.
But what kind of instinct makes me react like this?
“Maybe you’re CIA,” Diego says quietly as if my thoughts were spoken out loud. “Or FBI. Or maybe I’m harboring some kind of international spy. That’s how it always goes in the movies.”
Adjusting my cheek against his chest, I close my eyes while nausea warms my gut. I’ve overexerted myself. “I don’t feel like a spy.”
“Which is exactly what a spy would say,” Diego decides triumphantly, then a ripple of tension moves across my torso and his muscles tighten under my palm. “Wait, Amber, are you okay? Why are you even out here?”
“Valentina,” I say, lifting my head from his chest. “My name is Valentina.”
Diego’s eyes widen. “You remember?”
I nod.
After studying my face for a few seconds, Diego’s expression melts into a warm smile. “I like that. Valentina. It suits you.”
Warmth gathers in my cheeks as I soak up the compliment that, for some reason, makes my heart flutter harder than when I walked into that back office. “Thanks. Oh! That reminds me…”
As loath as I am to lean away from Diego’s warmth, I need to in order to reach into my pocket.
“You remember this?” Pulling the black card from my pocket, I show it to him and after he nods, I quickly put it back in my pocket.
“I was looking at it earlier, trying to see if anything about it would trigger my memories, and it activated.”
“Activated?” His brows curl together.
“Mmhmm. Like a screen. I think it’s electronic. Words flashed up. The Suit. Queen. And then my name, Valentina. Soon as I saw it, I knew it was my name.”
“The Suit?” Diego’s mouth briefly twists to the side. “What is that, some kind of club?”
“I don’t know. I tried Googling it but nothing came up online other than clothes. I tried searching for it with my name, with the name on those rings and everything, but nothing came up at all. You haven’t heard of it?”
My bubble of hope bursts as Diego shakes his head.
“Nope. There are a lot of nightclubs and bars around, though, and having an electronic card sounds high-end. Might not be in my budget.” He smirks slightly.
“So… The Suit. Queen. Your name, Valentina, and the fact that you have some killer self-defense moves… you really are a puzzle. I saw how insane your muscle tone was, but honestly, I figured you just worked out like a regular person.”
“Does any of this constitute what happens to regular people?” I ask, gazing up at him.
“Probably not.” Diego snorts. “When we get home, I’ll take a proper look at that card and see if I can figure it out.”
“Will you be in trouble for what happened at the bar?”
“Nah.” He lifts his head and turns his gaze out the window. “I doubt that guy’s gonna rat on us when he wakes up.”
Despite the confidence in his words, there’s something else in Diego’s tone that sends an unsettling ripple through my own heart. Admitting he’s scared didn’t unsettle me, but the shadow passing over his face as he looks away brings a curl of pain to my chest.
He looks tired. Worn down. Like he’s balancing on a precarious edge and everything I do is shoving him over one side or the other. He nearly died tonight. Likely came close on the day we met as well.
All because of me.
If I’m not careful, there’s a chance Diego will reach his limit and end up handing me over to the next bastard who crosses our path.
Why can’t I remember?
Thinking is hard. Remembering is exhausting. Each time I try, it’s like a space opens up in my chest waiting for the rush of information locked away in my mind, but no matter how hard I try to catch the trailing, incoherent thoughts, I’m left with nothing but disappointment.
And sickness.
The wave of nausea coursing through me builds as the bus shudders, so I close my eyes and sag back against Diego. He immediately tightens his arm around me and a different warmth blooms in my chest.
I like being with him.
He makes me feel safe and protected, like I can trust him even though we barely know each other.
Diego’s been kind and decent to me with nothing in return, which is surely the mark of a decent person.
Given the arguments I overheard with Tech and that woman, Mindy, he’s used to taking care of people and dealing with more alarming shit than anyone else deserves.
I don’t want to be another weight on his chain.
I will get better.
I will make it up to him.
“Valentina, what the—shit!” Diego curses under his breath as he pushes me away.
Confusion warms my thoughts, but it’s oddly difficult to open my eyes. When I do, he’s gazing at me with worry warped all the way across his face and crimson staining his fingers.
“Are you okay?” I ask slowly.
His worry softens a fraction. “Valentina, you’re bleeding.”
I follow his eyeline down to where blood soaks through the shirt I stole from his closet. “I didn’t even feel it.”
“You must have torn some stitches when you were kicking that dude’s ass. We’re nearly home. I’ll take care of it there. How are you feeling?”
I blink slowly and meet his gaze. “Tired. Little sick. Kinda… hard to keep my eyes open.”
“I’ve got you,” Diego says and his voice suddenly sounds a little distant. “I’ll take care of you, I promise.”
Smiling comes easily after listening to the warmth in his voice and I nod, then settle back under his arm.
His heartbeat thrums underneath my ear and each rock of the bus has his arm tightening around me just enough that my heart flutters each time.
I could sleep here. I could let my eyes stay closed and sink into a blissful rest knowing that the man next to me would protect me.
But I want to protect him too. This is my mess. It was my choice that led me to his car that night and for whatever reason, he trusts me enough to believe that we’re in danger. Something that’s easier to believe after that man tried to kill him, but that doesn’t stop the urge to do more.
As we drive, his hand on my shoulder starts stroking in small circles and a smile grows across my tired lips.
It’s not long before the bus slows down and Diego tenses under me.
“Valentina? This is our—” He stops dead.
Opening my eyes, I look up at him, but he isn’t focused on me. He’s peering past me with a deep frown and his lips set in a deep, firm line.
“Wrong stop?” I murmur.
“No,” he says tightly. “Stay with me.”
I have no plans to do anything else so I nod, then the bus brakes sigh and the vehicle surges back into life. “Wrong stop?”
“Right stop,” Diego says, twisting in his seat so he can keep staring at whatever caught his eyes as it fades behind us. “There were people at my apartment.”
Tension jolts through me. “People?”
“Some massive fucking brick house of a man, and another burly man next to him, and a bunch of black cars. Sleek black cars. The kind of cars that don’t belong in my neighborhood.”
“You think they’re linked to that cop?” I ask weakly. Every blink grows harder, every word trips on my tongue, and the warmth spreading against my side is heating up. “They found your home?”
“Gotta be.” Diego’s teeth snap together, and he looks down at me, meeting my eyes for a second and then down further to the blood-soaked shirt. “Shit. We can’t wait much longer. Come on.”
He hits the stop button on the railing and then slides his arm around my waist. We stand, but the shift in position makes the bus spin and an odd, sickening weightlessness surges through my mind with such force that I can barely put one foot in front of the other.
“Oh, goodness,” rises up a concerned woman’s voice as we stumble down the bus ramp. “Is she alright?”
“She’s drunk,” Diego says with forced laughter. “Always one too many!”
Drunk.
Cool night air suddenly hits my flushed cheeks and I grip Diego’s arm with all the strength I have left.
If I were drunk, this nightmare would be so much easier to handle.