Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Liliana
Mia met us at her front door, wrapping me in a hug. “Liliana, are you okay?”
I looked over my shoulder at Nick and back to Mia. “Sí, I am.” We walked toward the living room.
“Nick.” El Patrón’s voice bellowed from his office. “Ven aquí.”
Nick nodded to me and backtracked to Jano’s office.
Mia reached for my hand and pulled me out to the deck.
I squinted as sunshine reflected off the crystal blue pool water and sparkled onto the Pacific Ocean.
After what we’d been through in the apartments, it felt as if I’d escaped hell only to land in heaven.
I took a seat at an umbrella table and sighed. “It was horrifying.”
Mia sat on the chair to my side. “I’ve talked to Isabella and gotten messages from many of the residents.” Her lips curled upward. “You’re a hero.”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not.”
“You are. I heard about the man that came in the lecture hall.”
My nose wrinkled. “He was close enough to smell.”
“Honey, what if he’d known you were there?”
“I don’t know. All I was thinking about was keeping the residents safe.”
She laid her hand over mine. “Liliana, you’re important.”
I blinked, unsure if I’d heard her correctly.
“You are,” she repeated. “Isabella told me what you told Horace, that you wouldn’t be missed if anything happened to you.”
“The fuck?”
We both spun toward the open glass doors. Nick was standing just outside the living room on the travertine patio pavers, his dark stare again laser focused on me.
“Did you say that?” he asked.
Standing, I met his gaze. “Horace was trying to get me to stay with Isabella in Mia’s bathroom. He’s her bodyguard. I understood. Emiliano would never forgive him if anything happened to Izzy. She needed to stay where she was safe. The women…they needed someone.”
Nick’s tenor slowed. “Did you say that no one would miss you?”
“I guess.” I shrugged. “I think,” I answered honestly. “It’s all a blur.”
Crimson seeped from Nick’s collar up his neck and into his cheeks. The vein from before was back on his forehead. His wide shoulders tensed as he balled his fingers to fists at his side. “You’re wrong.” His nostrils flared as he turned and disappeared into Mia’s home.
Unexpected tears filled my eyes. “Nick. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. Nick.”
He didn’t turn around.
In that instant, I would have accepted his threat to my ass. Enduring his stare, one filled with disappointment, was more painful than anything I’d endured with Gerardo.
Was it because I hated my first husband?
Or more specifically, was it because I didn’t hate Nick?
And now he was gone.
Mia was at my side, reaching for my shoulders. “What’s happening?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. I think I just ruined everything.”
She led me back to the table. “Honey, start over. Why is Nick so upset?”
Each time I woke during the night, I checked my phone for a message from Nick.
I had a couple from Isabella and some from different residents but nothing from Nick.
Giving up on sleep, I went downstairs, careful not to wake anyone.
The only illumination were the colorful LED lights on the beautifully decorated tree.
By the time the sun rose, I was seated in Mia’s kitchen at the breakfast counter with my third cup of coffee.
The house slowly came to life when Viviana and Silas joined me. Viviana and I spoke as she prepared for breakfast. Then she headed upstairs to help with Jorge.
My mind was filled with more questions than answers when Aléjandro, el Patrón, came down the stairs. He was wearing his customary black t-shirt and dark denim jeans. His boots on the tile clicked with his determined saunter as he entered the kitchen and poured himself a mug of coffee.
“Buenos días,” he said.
He seemed almost approachable, as if he weren’t fully in drug-lord mode yet.
Jutting his chin toward me, he gave a brief smile. “Gracias, for yesterday. I don’t want to think how Mia would’ve reacted if Cabez?n had gotten to the residents.”
My fingers wrapped around my warm mug, warding off the chill yesterday’s memories revived. I smiled at his deliberate omission of the word whores. “If the man who came into the lecture hall had found us” —I’d been wondering about this scenario all night— “Would he have killed us?”
Holding his coffee mug, el Patrón leaned his tall muscular body against the counter. “No sé. I can’t answer that for certain.”
“If the situation were reversed?”
“I don’t send soldiers to scare whores.”
There’s the derogatory term.
He pressed his lips together. “If it were reversed, if my soldiers found where Cabez?n housed his whores, I wouldn’t have them killed.”
“You wouldn’t?” Was my devotion to the women for nothing?
“I’d put them to work or give them to my soldiers.”
The coffee in my stomach soured. “Give them? They wouldn’t be yours to give.”
“Spoils of war.”
“That’s—that’s worse.”
“That’s why I’d do it. Cabez?n would be upset to lose whores. He’d be furious to know they were working for Roríguez or being fucked by my men.”
I couldn’t let myself think about the alternative to dying. “Did anything happen at Wanderland last night?”
Aléjandro looked down at his watch. “I need to take this call.”
“Wanderland?” I asked again.
“All quiet,” he said as he headed toward his office.
I sighed with relief and sent a text message to Isabella.
“Could Horace pick me up at Mia’s for work? I don’t have a ride.”
She replied right away.
“I’ll see if he will. Em doesn’t want me to go to the apartments today. I’m sorry.”
I let out a breath, wondering why Em didn’t want her at the apartments. Hadn’t the danger passed?
“Horace doesn’t need to get me. I’ll ask Silas.”
She replied.
“I’m sure Horace wouldn’t mind.”
I looked up to see Mia with Jorge in her arms at the bottom of the steps. “Are you supposed to be carrying him?”
Mia shook her head. “The doctor said I couldn’t lift over twenty pounds.
He didn’t say anything about me carrying over twenty pounds.
” She lifted her eyebrows. “It’s all about finding loopholes—Viviana lifted Jorge.
” Her smile spread across her face as she kissed Jorge’s light hair. “I’m just carrying him.”
Jorge was tightly holding Mia’s shoulder with his pudgy little hands as he gave me an uneasy once-over, scanning me with his father’s dark eyes.
I moved from the stool to the high chair and pulled back the tray.
Mia set Jorge in the seat and secured the lap belt.
I watched as she placed cut fruit on his tray.
“How are you doing this morning?” she asked.
“Worried.”
“About Nick?”
“About the women. Aléjandro said the club was quiet last night, but Em doesn’t want Isabella at the apartments today. I don’t know what to think.”
“Think that Roríguez men, whether Roríguez or Ruiz, are notoriously overprotective.” As Mia made herself a cup of tea, she continued. “You surprised me with your story about Nick yesterday.” She looked up as she fiddled with food for Jorge. “Do you think you could marry again?”
“I don’t think it’s any longer an issue. I messed it up.”
“Let’s say you did. Does the loss of the possibility upset you or is it a relief?”
Sighing, I leaned back against the tall stool. “More upsetting than I predicted.”
“You want to marry Nick Ruiz.”
“I don’t know. I’m confused. He was talking about marriage, and I think I fell into a stupid fairy tale. It’s ridiculous because we both know that marriage can be a nightmare, not a fairy tale.”
“Jano isn’t Rocco. Nick isn’t Gerardo.” She shrugged. “I mean, I didn’t really know your late husband, but what little I did know, I detested.”
My cheeks rose as I curled my lips. “Me too.” I took a sip of my coffee.
“Nick is different. When Sofia and I lived with Em’s parents, he spent a lot of time there with Em.
I got to know him. I was too confused at that time to think of him as a man.
I guess I got to know him as a person. If that makes sense. ”
Mia nodded. “And now?”
Warmth filled my cheeks. “I’ve noticed he’s a man.” I shook my head. “More importantly, he doesn’t frighten me. Even yesterday when he was upset, I wasn’t scared. I didn’t think about that until I was lying awake last night.”
She smiled. “Jano can be intense, but I know that no matter what happened, he’d protect me, not harm me.”
“Intense is a good word. Nick was upset with me.” I brought my phone to life. “I keep hoping he’ll message, but he hasn’t.” I looked up. “Do you think Silas could drive me to the apartments?”
“Really, Liliana, after José, Renata, and yesterday, you should take a few days off. I know it’s winter, but the patio is still beautiful. Relax under an umbrella. Read a book.”
Jorge dropped a banana slice onto the floor and giggled.
Her offer was tempting, but not going into the apartments felt a little like hiding from the issues at hand. “I want to be sure everyone is okay. And I assume tonight Wanderland will be back to full staff.”
Mia wiggled her eyebrows. “The men will be.”
I shook my head.
“Silas will drive you when you’re ready.”