Chapter 15
Omar
“So, there’s no amount of money—” I swore as the man on the other end of the line, a business contact of Angel’s, hung up.
The boat that Pascal and Efrain were re-outfitting was nearly finished, but I still didn’t have safe passage to Miami.
I needed to get to the mainland, and I wasn’t going to hold out hope for Felix Suarez anymore. Not nine days later without a word.
I didn’t know what I was going to do with Lyse if he didn’t come through, but that was a problem for another time. Right now, I needed to find a way back. Lili was going to come apart at the seams if I didn’t.
But down every avenue I looked for some help, I came up against a brick wall. Either no one wanted to help me because I wasn’t Angel, or they’d heard that he was in a coma, and they were content to let the Castillos burn so that they could take over when we were gone.
As if I’d ever let that happen.
I should have used the guns the Corazón Syndicate had stored here as leverage and I was kicking myself for not thinking that far ahead, but at the same time, I knew better than to piss them off.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lyse’s dark hair bobbing by the window. She was outside again: I didn’t think she’d been inside for more than a few hours to sleep each night since I’d left her door unlocked. Exploring again, I thought absently. She was a curious little rabbit, that was for sure.
“You must have had good news.”
I jerked at the voice and looked toward the door. Helena stood in the doorway of my office, the only one brave enough to open the door without knocking. “What are you babbling about?”
She crossed her arms, mocking me. If she were a man, I’d shoot her. “You were smiling,” she said. “I thought that might mean good news.”
I shook my head. “Nothing good yet,” I said.
“So—?”
“I wasn’t smiling.”
“Whatever you say, jefe.” Her tone conveyed her disbelief, and I barely resisted the urge to flip her off. It would be the incredibly juvenile thing that she would expect of me…but I couldn’t do that anymore. “Lyse has become quite the outdoorsy type since you unlocked her door, hasn’t she?”
“Really?” I feigned disinterest. “I hadn’t noticed.”
Helena scoffed. “I’ve seen you, jefe. Your eyes follow her all the time, and if she’s not near, you’re looking for her. You doubled the amount of time you normally take for dinner just waiting to see if she’d show up.”
Heat spread across my face. It wasn’t like I’d thought about it consciously, but of course, the moment she said it out loud, I realized that was exactly what I’d done for the last two nights…
and I’d been disappointed when Lyse had taken me at my word and not expected Helena to feed her.
Instead, she had taken to grabbing small snacks throughout the day and kept to herself.
“She’s been…distracting,” I admitted.
Helena practically beamed. “You like her.”
“I don’t.” I didn’t. Being attracted to someone wasn’t liking them. “I’m not a child with a crush.”
“I never said you were.” She smiled in a far too motherly way, and I felt a pang.
I hardly remembered my own mother, but Padre had a knack for hiring matronly women to care for his children.
Helena might exasperate me on a daily basis, especially lately, but she saw me in a way that Padre never had.
It could be absolutely humiliating. “But I’ve never seen you so invested in a woman before. ”
“She’s my—”
“Hostage, I know.” But Helena and I both knew how keeping someone hostage went, and this wasn’t it, especially not after the conditions of release weren’t met.
She should be dead. Or under lock and key.
Instead, I was allowing her to amble around as she pleased.
“But it doesn’t change the fact that you’re treating her as if she’s special. ”
I ground my teeth together. “I know.”
“Mijo.” Helena tutted. “It’s okay to realize that she isn’t the Devil, you know. I know she’s a Rojas…but people aren’t always just their family.”
It was a concept that was hard for me to swallow.
The Castillos were a unit; we moved and operated for the greater good of the whole.
It left little room for individuality, and it was abundantly clear that when I made decisions for myself, I made mistakes.
Separating Lyse out from her family was hard to do.
“It wouldn’t matter what I did anyway. I slaughtered her family for what they did to Angel. We couldn’t move past that.”
“Do you want to?”
Helena was goading me, and I knew it, but it was hard not to rise to her challenge. “It wouldn’t matter,” I insisted. “She can’t swim. She’s terrified of deep water, and I threw her off the dock and watched her drown.”
She studied me for a long while. “There’s nothing you can say,” she agreed. “But if you have feelings for her, you could do something for her. Show her that you have feelings for her.”
I stared at her blankly. “Like how?”
“How do you normally get women’s attention, mijo? It’s not that different.”
Was she kidding? “I’ve never tried to seduce a woman that I’ve done such an injury to.”
Helena scoffed. “Are you Omar Castillo, or aren’t you?” she asked before turning and walking away.
Before Emma became Angel’s wife, my brother had only had casual relationships; he had little interest in settling down with anyone, but he disliked the messiness of hookups and would only indulge occasionally. Unlike my brother, I had few qualms about finding a fling for the weekend.
But I didn’t have to seduce those women. So long as I showed an interest, they came to me…and seduction wasn’t exactly the same as romance in any case.
Romance? A Rojas? I snorted. I should put a bullet through my skull for the very thought.
Still…I glanced out the window and caught sight of Lyse again. She was making her way down to the beach where she would, undoubtedly, draw again. She’d been doing that a lot, but ever since that first time I caught her, she had erased everything before I could get close enough to get a peek.
While I pretended that I wasn’t staring, a thought came to mind. There was something that I could do for her. It might even make her smile.
After checking in with Lili — no change in Angel, though they were going to start lightening his sedation — I locked my office and went to seek out Lyse.
Since I’d unlocked her door, she’d stayed on the beach near the house, but today, I found her on the other side of the island.
It faced the open ocean; the water was a little darker, and the beach a little more unkempt.
She sat in the sand, eyes set on the horizon, like she was trying to memorize it.
“I’m starting to think you’re obsessed.”
Lyse jerked and looked at me. Her eyes were wary. “What do you want?”
Irritation flickered through me, but it was chased with a warm fondness that I refused to think about. What was it about this woman mouthing off to me? I was feared and respected…and yet, Lyse Rojas could speak to me in a way that no one had ever dared, bar Padre and Angel.
I held out my hand. “I want to show you something. Come with me.”
She snorted and looked out at the horizon. “No.”
“Do I need to carry you, conejita?”
Lyse practically yelped at the mention of me carrying her, and I had to bite back a wince.
Not the smartest thing to say given what happened, I berated myself.
She stood up and dusted the sand off her legs.
My eyes dragged down the length of her, following the movement of her hands, and it took her clearing her throat for me to come back to attention. “Show me whatever you need to show me.”
I beckoned her to follow me to the house, and the closer we got, the more tense she became. She relaxed a little bit when she realized that we were going into the house, but she went ramrod straight again when I started climbing the stairs.
“I’m not locking you up again,” I said. “I promise.” Lyse didn’t believe me, I could tell, and I couldn’t exactly blame her.
“Just—” The words trust me nearly made their way out of my mouth.
There was no way that she was going to trust me.
“Just follow me,” I said as I opened a door that hid the stairs to the attic space.
The attic was large and airy: my mother had windows installed on both sides that overlooked the island, filling the space with as much natural light as my mother could possibly make happen. Lyse gasped slightly when we stepped into the room. “This is—”
“The perfect place to paint?” She looked at me, and I gestured to the stack of boxes in the center of the room. “My mother wanted us to learn about art, but I told you about my Padre. He thought it was ridiculous…but she bought all these supplies anyway and they’ve been sitting up here.”
“Supplies?” Lyse’s eyes widened. “Art supplies?”
I nodded. “I’m not sure what’s still good there, but you can have anything you want.” I gestured at the space. “While you’re here, you can use this space as much as you want.”
Lyse looked around, and then her eyes met mine. “Why would you do this for me?”
A hundred excuses came to mind, some of them sarcastic, some of them sincere, but I settled for shrugging my shoulders. “I don’t know,” I said. “You’re the first person who might…enjoy this place.”
She looked around again and blinked. “This is the most beautiful studio space I’ve ever seen,” she said, almost absently, like she couldn’t believe it. She turned to me, the sweetest smile curling at her lips, and my chest squeezed tightly. “Thank you so much.”
I wasn’t expecting her to thank me. “Um…you’re welco—”
She crossed the space, and standing up on her toes, Lyse pressed her lips to mine. It was whisper-soft and so fast that I thought I might have imagined it, but the bright red flush that stained her cheeks assured me that it was real.
I reached out and cupped her cheek in my hand before she could get away. “That must have been your first kiss.”
Her blush grew even darker. Hermosa, I thought. “What makes you say that?” Her voice was guarded, like she wasn’t sure if she was going to get in trouble for something.
“Considering your fiancé’s serious hard-on for your chastity,” I said, “I’m going to bet your father kept you under lock and key.”
The mention of Felix made her face drain of color. Where was the girl who had tried to seduce me? The one who was bold enough to drop a towel and reveal her naked body? Surely, she wasn’t one and the same with this scared bunny.
Before she could say anything, I leaned down and kissed her again. I kept things soft, but I took my time, slowly coaxing her lips to open for me. Lyse gasped slightly when I licked into her mouth, brushing my tongue against hers.
It was the tenderest kiss I’d ever given someone, and it was making my head swim. This was not how this went; I wasn’t the one who did soft and intimate…I wasn’t sure a man like that existed in all of the Castillo family. I need to get out of here.
When I pulled back, her hands were fisted in the front of my shirt. “The space is yours,” I said, intent on leaving her alone. “Enjoy it.”
But when I tried to leave, her hands clenched in the fabric of my shirt, unwilling to let go. “Stay. Please.”