Chapter 32 Daniela
DANIELA
The road unwinds in front of me. I killed the GPS an hour ago, flipped my phone to airplane mode not long after. Vinnie will be trying to track me by now, maybe Hawk too. He’ll wake, find the note, and hate me for it.
But at least he’ll be alive to hate me.
Every few miles, the tires thump over seams in the asphalt, counting down the distance between who I was and what I’m about to do.
The horizon is colorless. Just a smear of fog and the thin line where night pretends to become morning. I haven’t eaten, haven’t slept, but I feel sharp. Focused. Fear hasn’t found me yet, and I don’t plan to invite it in.
When I stopped at Vinnie and Raven’s, I found my old duffel bag in my closet where I left it.
I unzipped it.
And there it was…
Now, as I drive, I pat the place where it rests in a makeshift holster against my thigh.
The blue dress will cover it nicely.
The GPS coordinates from the note led me down a narrow country road. The trees grow close, crowding the road.
I crest a small hill, and there it is.
A house.
It looks like it hasn’t been lived in for decades. The paint has peeled away in strips, exposing gray wood beneath. The porch sags. Half the railing has fallen. One of the shutters clings by a single hinge.
No neighbors. No lights. No sound.
I park beneath a dying oak and sit for a minute, gripping the steering wheel.
This is it.
If he’s here—if he really is behind all of this—then my fate is sealed and Belinda will go free.
I inhale. I won’t show fear. Not to him. Not to anyone.
When I open the car door, the warm morning air hits me. My feet crunch through gravel. Each step feels too loud, too heavy. The house looms in front of me, its windows black.
I square my shoulders and climb the porch steps.
Then I knock.
Once, twice, three times.
The sound echoes into silence.
For a heartbeat, nothing happens. Then the door creaks open.
I brace myself, every muscle tight.
But it’s not him.
Not the Chef. Not the monster from my past who taught me what fear tasted like. Not Diego Vega either.
It’s the man who first destroyed my innocence all those years ago.
A face I’ll never forget, no matter how much I want to.
Hernando Reyes.