“I’ve found Mia.”
Chapter Three
Mia
Tap.
Tap. Tap.
Tap.
The sharp, short pattern of knocking caused me to lift my head. Out of habit, my body stilled, and I quietened my breathing, waiting a moment to see if there would be anymore.
Tap. Tap.
Tap.
That was the confirmation I needed. Placing the book face down on the sofa, spine earning yet another crease, I stood up to answer the door. Carmen had a specific knock that I adhered to and everything else went unanswered.
“Sorry, Mia,” Carmen said, as I opened the door. She stood at the threshold of my tiny apartment with a pram in front of her and Santiago hanging onto her hand. He was the best dressed three-year-old I knew. Just behind her was the looming figure of Giovanni, who I had learned followed Carmen around like a silent and lethal shadow. “Apparently, neither of my boys could do without me today.”
“Don’t apologize.” I brushed her off, moving aside so she could make her way into the apartment. Santi immediately let go of his mother’s hand and ran at me, grin plastered on his face. Someday, Santiago Diaz would be a complete heartbreaker with that bright smile and blue eyes. He’d inherited everything from his mother. “Santiago! Careful!” Carmen scolded him.
Laughing and with a slight wobble, I crouched down, hugging him close and placed a kiss his cheek. “Hello, Santi.”
He suddenly became shy and retreated. Carmen removed Javier from the pram carefully. The smallest Diaz was wide awake and looking around the room before letting out a yawn that made my heart tug.
“How are you feeling?” she asked, taking a seat on the couch and narrowly avoiding the book, which I pulled out of the way last minute.
“I’m fine. Tired but okay,” I responded. “You can take a seat if you want, Gio.” The mass of muscle gave me an uncomfortable look before shaking his head, taking up his customary position against the wall in a laughable attempt to blend into the background.
“Suit yourself,” I mumbled before sitting beside Carmen and tossing the book onto the coffee table. Santi had joined Gio and I turned my attention back to the baby in my friend’s arms. “He’s grown so much.” Javier wasn’t as tiny as the initial pictures Carmen had sent me, slowly losing the newborn features that made him indistinguishable from every other baby and taking on subtle Diaz characteristics.
“Mmm,” she hummed, gazing adoringly at her baby son. It was a look that held so much love that it made me ache for my own mother, a yearning that seldom occurred when I hardly had any memories of her. “You have to enjoy every minute with them. They grow up in the blink of an eye.” Carmen looked up at me and asked, “Would you like to hold him?”
I raised my hands up in front of me as panic flooded my system and shook my head. “He looks content with you.”
Carmen looked as if she wanted to say something but held back and I was grateful. This had been her first visit in months. She’d understandably had her plate full with the new arrival and family visiting. Her replacement had been her stoic bodyguard who appeared with the necessities or to accompany me to appointments before leaving without a word. I tried not to take it personally. Gio only had a soft spot for Carmen and even that would go unnoticed by an untrained eye.
“Mia,” Carmen said after a few moments of silence that was broken by Santi asking Gio questions. I knew what was coming. We’d had several iterations of this conversations over the course of the year. “Are you sure this is what you want?”
There had been many times that Carmen’s lilting accent and soft-spoken words had almost lulled me into changing my mind. On the days where it all seemed too much, when I felt that life had tested me to my breaking point, I wanted to give in and walk back into the family fold. I longed for someone to make the decisions for me, because every time I settled on a path it felt wrong. But it was impossible. When Carmen had arrived with the news that Luc had put out a search for me with a hefty bounty on my life, I knew there would never be a way of returning to what I had turned my back on.
Numbly, I nodded my head at my friend, even though my heart weighed heavy with regrets. “It’s the only way,” I told her.
“You know that isn’t true.” Carmen placed a hand over mine and I swallowed hard to rid myself of the lump in my throat. Her ring finger bore an impressive set of rings, engagement and wedding band, and my own finger felt bare. “Emil and I can speak to him. He’ll see sense, Mia.”
“You know it’s not just Luc.”
“If you told me the full story then it would be easier for me to help.”
I pulled my hand away and shook my head. Carmen had spent a lot time at the beginning trying to coax from me why I’d left Luc, but I couldn’t tell her the truth. I had seen first-hand what Xavier was capable of, and I refused to put Carmen and her family in danger. She had already gone above and beyond for me. The topic had been dropped when I’d mentioned that the truth would risk her family. We may have been friends, but I fell beneath her family in the list of priorities.
“Okay,” she said quietly. “Gio, hand me my bag.” Gio peeled himself away from the wall and handed Carmen the designer bag that matched her outfit perfectly. She dipped a hand inside before presenting me with a manilla envelope. I took it from her, dragging my index finger under the seal and peering inside.
“Carmen,” I breathed, seeing a tidy bundle of notes inside. “I told you I only needed—”
“I know what you told me, Mia,” she cut me off. “But you can’t start fresh on nothing but a hope and a dream. I’m not sending you out there with nothing. This is the last thing I can give you, so please.”
