41. Robin
ROBIN
“Robin!”
I turn toward the sound.
Raven.
She hits me hard enough to knock the breath out of my lungs, arms locking around me, face buried against my shoulder. For one stunned second, I don’t move.
Then I fold into her.
“You’re here,” she whispers.
I close my eyes. “I’m here.”
“You’re really here.”
“Yeah.”
Her breath breaks.
Mine does too.
And then everyone is around me.
Not everyone.
Almost everyone.
Vinnie. Falcon. Savannah. Hawk. Daniela. Even Belinda, pale and wide-eyed and crying openly.
No parents.
Good.
No Eagle.
Not good.
The absence hits me harder than I’m prepared for.
People mill around us, all finding their family members, hugging and kissing in the airport.
Raven pulls back and touches my face with both hands. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m okay.”
“Robin.”
“I’m okay enough.”
That seems to be the answer everyone can accept, because no one challenges it right away.
Hawk and Falcon come at me then, both of them huge and muscular. Falcon first pulls me into his arms. Then Hawk.
“I’m sorry,” he says against my hair.
The words surprise me.
“For what?”
“For not finding you sooner.”
I pull back and look at him. “This isn’t your fault, Hawk. It’s not anyone’s fault except mine. I went somewhere without backup.” I let out a weeping laugh. “I’ll tell you all about it. But later, okay? I want to go home.”
His jaw tightens.
“I’m okay,” I say again.
He pulls back and looks at me. “You’re not.”
“No. But I will be.”
Raven makes a sound like she can’t decide whether to cry or laugh, and then Belinda is there.
Belinda.
For a second, I only stare at her.
Because part of me has been holding her disappearance in the same locked room as mine. Belinda gone. Daniela threatened. Eagle in the hospital. Me in Colombia. Everything connected by some invisible thread that I still haven’t figured out.
But she’s here.
Alive.
Crying.
“I’m so sorry,” Belinda says, throwing her arms around me. “I’m so sorry, Robin.”
“You’re sorry?” I hug her back, stunned. “You disappeared.”
“I know.”
“You’re okay?”
She nods against me. “I’m okay.”
A shaky laugh breaks out of me. “Great. Wonderful. Everyone’s okay. We’re all doing fantastic.”
Hawk snorts.
Daniela wipes at her eyes.
“That may be overstating it,” Falcon says.
The sound of his voice makes my heart hurt.
Falcon.
My oldest brother. The one whose life has been shaped by prison, a dead man who may or may not be dead, a history that keeps coming back with sharper teeth.
“You’re home,” he says.
Yes.
I’m home. Or at least close enough, surrounded by people who love me in the Austin airport.
Daniela steps forward then. I grab her.
“Oh, Robin.”
“You’re okay?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“They’re not making you leave?”
She shakes her head. “No. It’s handled. Or being handled. The woman who came to the house was a fake.”
Right. The woman who came to the door telling Daniela her temporary protective status was under threat claimed to be Officer Leona Patel.
I now know that was just an alias for Adriana de la Fuente—the whole reason I got into this mess in the first place.
It happened less than a week ago, but it already feels like another lifetime. I'll explain it all to Daniela later.
Hawk slides an arm around Daniela’s shoulders. “Daniela is staying.”
I look around. “And Eagle?”
Raven steps in first. “He’s okay.”
I almost collapse.
“He’s going to pull through,” she says quickly. “He’s still in the hospital, but he’s doing better. The doctors are optimistic.”
My hand flies to my mouth.
Thank God.
Eagle is okay.
He’s going to pull through.
Cruz didn’t kill him.
Cruz didn’t kill him.
But he could have.
I shove that down.
Hard.
Not now.
Not in front of them.
“What happened?” I ask. “Belinda. Daniela. Eagle. Everything.”
Vinnie glances around. “Let’s get out of here first.”
“No.” My voice comes out sharper than I mean it to. “Tell me now. At least the basics.”
Everyone exchanges looks as if they’re deciding how much I can handle.
Damn it! I’ve had enough of others making choices for me.
Raven seems to understand that first. “Eagle is stable,” she says. “Daniela is safe and isn’t being deported. Belinda is safe. We found her.”
I turn to Belinda. “Where were you?”
“At the bus station,” Belinda says quietly. “Or…that’s where I ended up. It’s complicated.”
“Everything is complicated.”
She gives me a weak smile. “Yeah.”
Hawk’s expression darkens. “We think Vega got her an Uber home.”
I blink. “What?”
“That’s what it looks like,” Hawk says.
“Vega?”
“Or someone acting on his behalf,” Vinnie says. “But yeah. It points to him.”
My body goes cold in a whole new way. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“No,” Falcon says. “It doesn’t.”
“I thought Vega was in Colombia.”
“So did we,” Vinnie says.
I look from one face to another. My mind goes back. Adriana’s house. The prison. Cruz. Zabala. Senora Valentina. The brothel. The embassy.
Vega everywhere and nowhere.
“I never saw him,” I say slowly.
“What?” Hawk asks.
“In Colombia. I never saw Vega face to face.”
Vinnie’s eyes sharpen.
“Cruz never mentioned seeing him face to face either,” I add.
The name slips out before I decide whether I’m ready to say it.
Vinnie’s gaze narrows. “Cruz?”
My heart thumps once. “The man who helped me escape.”
No one speaks.
“He worked for Vega,” I say.
Hawk goes rigid.
“But he got me out.”
“Why?” Falcon asks.
I hear everything beneath the single word.
Why would one of Vega’s men help you? What did he want? What did he do to you? What aren’t you saying?
I wrap my arms around myself. “I don’t know if I can answer that yet.”
Hawk takes a step closer. “Robin.”
“I said yet.”
Raven touches his arm, warning him without words. Thank God for Raven. There’s truth to the twin thing. We’re different as night and day, but we know each other in a way no one else does. We communicate in a way others don’t understand. She knows what I’m feeling, what I need.
“This Vega thing,” I say, looking back at Belinda. “If he got Belinda an Uber here, but everyone thinks he was in Colombia, then either he wasn’t there, or he has people moving under his name, or—”
“Or he’s very good at making us think he’s in two places at once,” Hawk says.
A chill moves down my spine. “He already seems able to do that.”
Falcon’s face hardens.
Because we all know.
The man Eagle killed all those years ago.
The man buried on Bellamy land.
The man everyone thought was Diego Vega.
Except the body is gone now. Dug up by Cruz, though my family doesn’t know that yet.
And maybe the dead man wasn’t Vega at all.
Still a mystery.
The relief of being home starts to buckle under the weight of everything.
For one second, I want Cruz.
My heart twists.
No.
I can’t want him.
I can’t.
Eagle is still in the hospital. Cruz put him there. I can’t be with the man who did that. How would I even explain it?
Hey, everyone, this is Cruz. Yes, he worked for Vega. Yes, he helped abduct me. Yes, he staged Eagle’s overdose and left him for us to find. But he also saved my life, and he has very soulful eyes, so yeah. Accept him.
I did the right thing.
I know I did.
At least my brain knows. My heart isn’t sure.
“We need to talk,” I say. “But I want to go home.”
“You’ll be staying with Vinnie and me,” Raven says.
“You already have a full house with Daniela and Belinda,” I remind her.
Hawk tightens his arm around Daniela’s shoulder. “She’s at my place now.”
I smile. “Oh?”
“And besides,” Raven continues, “the house is a freaking mansion. So yeah. You’re staying with me. I’ll take care of you.”
“I’m fine, Ray.”
“I’ll decide when you’re fine.” She hugs me again. “You didn’t leave my side when I was in the hospital fighting for my life. I’m not going to leave your side now.”
I give a weak smile. “That sounds like heaven, really, but I have work to do on the ranch. The animals—”
“Are fine,” Falcon cuts in. “Shane and the others are on the job, and there haven’t been any problems while you were gone. You stay where you’re taken care of.”
“But first,” Hawk says, “we’re taking you to the main house.”
“Why?” I ask. “Vinnie promised me the best restaurant in town.”
Hawk sighs, rolling his eyes. “Our mother decided we need to have a big dinner to celebrate your return.”
“I’m so tired,” I say.
“I know,” he says.
We exchange words with our eyes. Raven, Falcon, and Eagle all have a great relationship with our mother. Hawk and me? Not so much. I just want to take a hot shower and crawl into a clean bed.
“You know what?” Hawk says. “Fuck it. We’ll tell her no. You’re exhausted. You’ve been on a plane for eight hours. And you’ve been through hell—”
I raise a hand to stop him. “It’s okay. I’ll go. But I need to shower first. And change, obviously.” I look down at the sweats and socks I’m wearing. I managed to snag some shoes at the airport. They’re ugly blue Crocs.
“Of course,” Raven says. “We’ll take you to our place first. You can clean up there. Maybe even get a nap in. There’s time.”
I sigh out a thank you and look at my siblings, all with their significant others.
Falcon and Savannah.
Raven and Vinnie.
Hawk and Daniela.
So in love. Not just love, but forbidden, difficult, dangerous love that somehow survived the impossible.
A pang hits me so sharply I almost hate them for it.
Not really.
Never really.
But for one ugly second, jealousy flashes through me.
They all got their forbidden romances.
Why did I have to walk away from mine?