I nodded slowly. “Okay.”
I didn’t know the whole of what was waiting for me in Valle Perdido. A courtroom. A funeral. A baby. All I knew was that Jason was coming with me—and for once, I wasn’t walking into the unknown alone.
Chapter Two
JASON
It wasa miracle this apartment building was still standing. Every time I’d even hinted that Cora needed to find a better place, I was met with resistance.
And that was before she saved my life.
You don’t owe me.
Only, I did.
The memory hit much like it always did.
The ambush had come out of nowhere. Men I thought I could trust had turned on me. Next thing I knew, I was waking up in a chair, tied up. I’d barely opened my eyes when the beating started. My father was going to make me pay for executing a successful coup, exiling him, and taking over the family.
The last few hours were hazy. I hurt all over. At one point, I remember being hit so hard that the chair toppled over. Everything had gone black.
Cora had thrown herself in harm’s way for me. Prevented him from crushing my windpipe with his foot. If not for her, I’d be dead.
So, yeah, I owed her.
But debt wasn’t why I wanted her somewhere safer, better. This place was a staph infection waiting to happen. Still, every suggestion was met with that stubborn streak I’d come to know well.
Her key jangled in the lock. “Sorry. It’s finicky.”
“Is that code for broken?” It was a snarky comment, but I couldn’t resist.
Thomas Vasil, my best friend and second, laughed.
Cora whipped around, pointing her finger at us. “Neither of you are funny.”
The five or so inches I had on her made it feel more comical than threatening. She was so incredibly cute when she was trying to be bossy, like she was when she tried to tell me that she could handle going to Valle Perdido on her own.
As if that were ever, ever going to happen.
She actually expected me to just send her on her merry way to a border town? Where cartel members and bikers roamed the streets? A woman and a baby in an area well-known for human trafficking? Yeah, no.
At least she’d finally seen reason about letting me come along. Trying to stay in the shadows while keeping her safe would have been a nightmare.
The smile I shot her was deliberate. The one that made her cheeks bloom pink. “I’m a little funny.”
Her gaze darted to Thomas and back to me. I could see it in her eyes.Stop that!
I didn’t. I shot her a different smile, her second favorite, and watched as her cheeks darkened even more.
Cora worked her jaw and faced the door again, muttering under her breath.
I needed to back off. I was about to be thirty thousand feet in the air with her. The last thing I needed was her tossing me off the plane. I wanted to lighten things up, not make them worse.
She huffed and this time when she jiggled it, the knob twisted, and we were in.
“I’ll just be a minute.”
We followed her inside, and the second she was out of sight, Thomas looked at me. While the outside was an OSHA violation away from being condemned, I had to admit, she’d made the inside warm and inviting. If I’d been shown a picture, I would have bet money that we were in an entirely different building.
