Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
I’ve scouted three retail spaces for my new spa today.
I’m exhausted. All of them were beautiful but extremely out of my budget.
I think I underestimated the costs of moving to LA.
I’m determined not to fail, though. The last three days, although lonely, have been refreshing. It’s nice not to be followed by ghosts.
I feel like I could make this my new home. There’s so many people here, and yet not once have I seen the look of pity on anyone’s face. I’m not the orphan girl in this town. I’m just another random woman in the crowd, and I like it.
If I could stop thinking about a certain someone, whose name I won’t mention, my life would be almost perfect. I’m still not sleeping properly. I barely knew the guy and yet something deep inside me feels so empty without him. It’s stupid. I hate feeling this insane need to reach out to him.
Thankfully, I have no intention of doing that.
I won’t cave. No matter how much I miss him.
I can’t be with someone who’s so close to the cartel responsible for my mother’s death.
I might not be able to do anything about getting justice for her, but I can stay well clear from the people who took her from me.
I push the key into the door of my new rental.
It’s a small apartment, but it’s nice enough.
And so far, the neighbors seem pretty quiet.
I’ve spent my nights on video calls to Alice and my cousins, but once I’m off the phone, the loneliness sets in.
I’m thinking it’s only going to last a little while, a bit of homesickness.
It’s normal. I just have to ride it through.
Hopefully, the exhaustion takes over tonight and I sleep without waking up looking for a warm body next to me.
I turn the handle and step into my apartment.
My eyes land on the dark figure sitting on the sofa in my living room, and my heart speeds up.
Sammie. I slam the door shut and calmly walk farther into the space, my eyes locked on his.
Either I’ve finally lost it and am now conjuring up his image… or he’s actually here.
Why now? I haven’t heard from him since I left Vegas. He never texted, never tried to call, nothing. And now he’s here in the living room of a new apartment he shouldn’t even know about.
“How did you get in here?” I ask, and then mentally slap myself. He’s a criminal. Of course, a locked door isn’t going to keep him out.
“Miss me?” he asks, closing the computer he has open on his lap. He sets the device on the table in front of him. The place is scarcely furnished. It came this way.
“Sammie, get out of my apartment.” I point to the door. Why the hell did I close myself inside a room with this man?
“You don’t really want me to leave.” Sammie stands and starts to slowly stalk towards me.
“Yes, I do.” I hold my hand out in a stop motion. “Do not come any closer.”
“We need to talk.”
“I have nothing to say to you. Was that not evident when I left without saying anything?” I fold my arms over my chest. Sammie’s eyes land on my cleavage. “Stop staring at my boobs,” I growl, quickly unfolding my arms.
His right shoulder lifts and drops. “They’re fucking great tits. They deserve to be appreciated.”
“What do you want, Sammie?”
“You.”
“Well, I’m not available. Now you can leave.”
“You’re already mine, Poppy,” he says.
“No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are.” He takes a step forward.
“I left, Sammie. I don’t like you. I don’t want anything to do with you. You need to deal with it and leave me alone.”
“Why’d you leave?”
“Because I don’t like you,” I tell him.
“Why did you really leave, Poppy? And this time, try the truth.”
I shake my head. I can’t tell him the real reason I can’t be with him. “Just leave, Sammie.”
“I’m not the one who leaves, Poppy. I don’t run from my problems. I face them. Now, tell me… why did you leave?” He takes another step. He’s so close now. I can smell him, and damn it, I like it.
My hands shove at his chest. “Your uncle killed my mother, Sammie. I can’t be with you because your family is responsible for taking mine from me. You need to leave. Get the hell out of my apartment!”
“See? That wasn’t so hard, now was it?” He smiles at me. He doesn’t look shocked by my outburst.
“You knew!” I gasp. “You knew and didn’t think to warn me that maybe I’d have to come face-to-face with the man responsible for my mother’s death?” I scream at him. “I hate you!”
“First, I only just found out. Second, it’s not true.”
“What?” I shake my head.
“The cartel didn’t kill your mother, Poppy,” he says.
I laugh. “Okay, sure, whatever you say, Sammie. Of course you’re going to proclaim your family’s innocence.”
“I don’t lie. If I thought for a second they had anything to do with it, I would tell you. But I’m telling you they didn’t. They don’t even work out of Kestral Valley, Poppy. They never have.”
“I know what happened, Sammie. It happened to my mother. I was the one who took the phone call that changed my life forever. I was the one who had to bury both of my parents the same day.” I can’t stop the tears from falling.
Tears of frustration, grief that I still feel every day for my parents and anger over the fact that this man is standing here trying to tell me lies.
“I’m sorry.” Sammie reaches out to touch me, and I step backwards. “Poppy, I’m telling you the truth. I have no reason to lie to you.”
“They’re your family, Sammie. I know the lengths your family goes to, to protect each other. I’m not an idiot. You have every reason to lie to me.” My hands wipe angrily at my cheeks.
“What happened to your father?” he asks.
“What?”
“I’ve read the file, but I want you to tell me. What happened to your father after your mother died?”
“She didn’t die, Sammie. She was murdered. She was taken from me.”
“I know.”
“My father was distraught, so taken by grief he couldn’t see a life without her. He killed himself and left me alone. He didn’t think about what his death would do to me. He was selfish and just left me,” I explain.
“How?”
“What does it matter?”
“It matters. How did he kill himself, Poppy?” Sammie presses.
“He hung himself. Jaxson found him hanging from the rafters in an old barn.”
“Did he leave any notes? Tell anyone what he was thinking about doing?”
“No.” I looked everywhere for a note, any sign that he did at least spare me a thought, but I never found anything. I gave up and accepted the fact I wasn’t enough for him. “He loved my mother so much that a life without her was too much for him.”
“I get that, but I don’t understand how anyone could leave you, Poppy. You are enough,” Sammie says.
I shake my head. “I need you to leave.”
“I’m not leaving.”
“Fine. I’ll leave.” I pick up my bag from the counter.
“I’ll follow you wherever you go,” Sammie calls out. He doesn’t move from where he’s standing in the middle of my small living room.
“Why? Why are you doing this to me?” I throw my hands in the air.
“I don’t know what happened to your mother, Poppy, but I’m going to find out the truth for you,” he says.
“I know what happened to her.”
“You were lied to.”
“Why would the police lie about one of their own, Sammie?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find that out too.”
“You really expect me to believe you? Just accept that you’re not covering for your family? Why?”
“I want you to believe me because you know I wouldn’t lie to you. I want you to believe in us, Poppy. Because whatever this is, it’s not going away just because you hide from me.”
“It will,” I tell him.
“It won’t,” he insists. “You know what? Don’t believe me. Believe the man himself. I’ll call my uncle and ask him now if he had anything to do with a cop’s death in Kestral Valley.”
“Because criminals admit to their crimes, Sammie, sure.” I roll my eyes.
“Tío E does. He doesn’t lie.” Sammie takes out his phone. “Just listen,” he says. A ringtone sounds out through the speaker before the call connects.
“Sammie J, any news?” an older man’s voice answers. Emmanuel Lopez.
“No news yet, Tío E. Still waiting for results. I want to know something,” Sammie says.
“What?”
“What business have you had in Kestral Valley?”
“Kestral Valley? Where is it?” Emmanuel asks.
“Texas.”
“Never been there.”
“Have you had shipments sent there? Had any packing houses set up in any of the cottages?”
“Why the fuck would I use a cottage in Texas to pack product? You think I’m a fucking amateur, Sammie J?”
“No, just curious. Oh, and when’s the last time you’ve had a cop killed?” I ask him.
“That’s a very specific question, Sammie J,” Emmanuel grunts. “I don’t make it a habit to kill off law-and-order personnel. It’s easier to pay them.”
“Right. If you did say… have my girlfriend’s mother killed… would you tell me?”
“Why the fuck would I have your girlfriend’s mother killed, Sammie J? I have no reason to lie to you.”
“Poppy’s mother was a cop in Kestral Valley. I read the report that claims she was shot by a member of the De La Sangre Cartel.”
“In Kestral Valley?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve never sent anyone to that town, Sammie J. Whatever happened to her, it wasn’t us. But leave it with me. I’ll find out. If someone is using my name as a scapegoat, I want to know why,” Emmanuel says.
“Tell Elias to meet me in LA. I’m heading back to Texas to find out what the fuck happened,” Sammie replies.
My eyes widen. I don’t want him going back to Kestral Valley. “No,” I tell him. “Just leave it alone.”
“Poppy?” Emmanuel asks.
I stare at the phone. I do not want to speak to this person.
“I’m sorry about the loss of your mother, but I assure you my organization had nothing to do with it. And if I find out otherwise, someone will pay for going rogue,” he says.
“You really didn’t have my mother killed?” I don’t know why I’m asking. It’s not like he’s going to say: Oh, yeah. I did it.
“No, I didn’t.”
“Then who did? What happened to her? They said she was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Maybe she was, but it wasn’t my organization. I’ll find out. And, Sammie J, call your mother. She’s not happy that our plan to snatch doctors isn’t going ahead,” Emmanuel says.
“I’ll call her.” Sammie presses the red button on the phone, pockets it, and looks directly at me. “Believe me yet?”
“No,” I tell him.
“It’s okay. I’ll find the proof you need.” He nods once, like it’s a done deal.