I didn’t feel him.
Those words ring in my head, but the devil on my shoulder is louder, reminding me of all the times Ididfeel him . . . of all the times I believed he was the other half of my heart.
“Cover for me?” I ask Lena.
“Pilar . . . ”
“Please,” I whisper. “I-I just need to see for myself.”
Sighing she takes the pen I didn’t realize I was holding out of my hand and looks back at the reservation book.
“Go,” she says.
Without giving her a chance to change her mind, I take off in the direction the blonde was headed. I round the hallway and stop in my tracks when I see Joaquin push her up against the wall.
“Are you fucking crazy?” he growls.
“No, I’m fucking bored,” she spats, pushing him away from her. “Rocco!” she shouts over Joaquin’s shoulder before attempting to side-step him. He spins around, arms outreached, but he doesn’t get to grab her because his eyes lock with mine.
“Pilar,” he murmurs.
I swallow, tearing my eyes away from him to take another look at the woman, but she disappears into the private room. My gaze wanders back to him and tears blur my vision as I stare at him.
I didn’t feel him.
I.
Didn’t.
Feel.
Him.
Something behind me grabs his attention and his eyes go wide with terror. His lips move, but I can’t hear him.
I didn’t feel him.
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his gun. It’s in that second, while the man I love aims a gun at me, that I realize how to end the pain once and for all.
I close my eyes.
Joaquin screams.
Guns blaze in every direction.
A bullet pierces my flesh.
And then another.
No more pain.
CHAPTER 9
JOAQUIN
Idon’t know when the gunfire stopped or even how I wound up on the floor cradling Pilar’s lifeless body. All I remember is the sound of my voice begging for her to wake up, for the blood to stop pouring from her wounds and for those wounds to magically disappear.
Of course, God doesn’t hear the prayers of the Devil and so there I sat, covered in her blood, still holding her in my arms.
