I heard the squeak of leather as Emil’s hands tightened on the steering wheel and then he shot out of the car. There was a beat of hesitation as my brain processed what had just happened before, I scrambled out of my seat and zipped after him. By the time I reached him there was a stream of fast paced Spanish being exchanged between the pair.
“Over my dead body are you carrying out Luc’s dirty work,” Carmen greeted me with narrowed eyes, ignoring whatever Emil had said to her. A perfectly manicured nail was pointed in my direction. “You better turn around and go back home.”
“I’m not leaving until I’ve seen her, Carmen.” It was natural that people would expect me to carry out Luc’s order. I didn’t blame her for thinking the worse, but I had my own plans and they didn’t align with my boss’s. “I’m not going to hurt her. I just want to speak to her.”
“I’ve had enough of this. This wasn’t you’re place, Carmen!” Emil told her sharply. “You’ve made a decision that could affect my alliance.”
“Ouralliance,” Carmen hissed back.
“You want to discuss what is ours? You had little care about that when you hid her from Luc without my knowing!”
“She’s my friend, Emil,” Carmen argued. “She saved Santiago’s life.” This conversation was taking a lot of unexpected turns. Someone was going to need to fill in the gaps.
“And you decided to put us all in danger as repayment?” Emilio looked over his shoulder at me. “Let’s go.” He brushed past Carmen and his children. When his wife caught his hand, Emilio pulled it out of her grasp and walked into the apartment building with me hot on his heels.
“Gio! Gio, watch the boys,” Carmen ordered. Gio was not one of ours. He had been with Carmen from the very start, a small part of her life before being tied to ours, and his loyalty lay only with her. “I didn’t put us in danger,” Carmen said, coming after us. “You did! You did by going to him when you should have come to me.”
Emilio didn’t bother to respond to her. Carmen wasn’t willing to see her mistake and he wasn’t about to waste time trying to educate her. A cacophony of boots and one pair of heels echoed around the stairwell as Emilio led the way to the third floor, not willing to wait for the elevator. At least I hadn’t skipped out on cardio lately.
“She doesn’t need this stress! Leave her be!” Carmen continued, a few paces behind us. Her words bounced around the space.
“None of this was your decision to make,” Emilio finally responded to his wife as we reached the desired floor and stood outside apartment 313.
I raised a fist and knocked on the door while the couple argued. There was a sense of anticipation in my stomach that made my muscles twitch. After six long months, I was about to come face to face with Mia again and slot the missing pieces into the puzzle. All the questions that had plagued us would finally be answered and, with any luck, we could pave the road to reconciliation.
There was no sound from the other side of the door. Not a shuffle or a scrape. I lifted my hand to knock again but jumped when I heard Carmen’s voice. “Stop!” There was no hysteria in her command. Carmen demanded the same level of respect that her husband possessed, but, unfortunately, she did not receive it.
Emilio ignored her and looked at me. “Force it open.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. I hadn’t traveled all this way to turn away at the first hurdle. Mia and Carmen must have had measures in place that ensured they only had contact with each other. As much as I adored Carmen, she’d made a decision to hide Mia, and Emilio had helped me to find her. My loyalty and gratitude to her husband outweighed my fondness for her. I drew back and let the flat of my foot connect with the door, placing all my weight behind the motion. It swung open and I walked in without hesitation.
“Mia?” I called out, scanning the room until my eyes fell on her. She was standing with her arms wrapped around her body as I took her in. She looked perfectly fine until my eyes landed on her stomach. It didn’t lay flat the way I remembered; instead, there was a small curve to her figure hidden beneath her t-shirt. My brow furrowed and my heart stuttered in my chest at the implication of the tiny bump she sported.
“Are you pregnant?” The words flew from my mouth without a second thought and by the look on Mia’s face I’d just stumbled upon a secret that she didn’t want to let loose. Confirmation of an unforeseen complication in my plans.
“Don’t you dare touch her,” Carmen ordered sharply as I took a step toward Mia. I looked over my shoulder to see the small space had been filled with our entire entourage.
“Enough, Carmen,” Emilio told his wife firmly, and she glared at him before turning back to me.
“If you lay a finger on her, so help me God.” The fire in her eyes assured me that Carmen had made her alliance and she wouldn’t back down from it.
“I’m not going to hurt her,” I said calmly.
“Then why are you here?”
I turned back around to look at Mia who had just spoken. “Are you being serious right now?” I asked, some of the calm slipping away. She asked her question as if I had stopped over one afternoon and disrupted her plans, causing her an inconvenience. “You fucking disappeared off the face of the Earth! You’ve had us worried sick!”
“So worried that you’ve put a hit out on me?”
I gritted my teeth together. Some things hadn’t changed. Foolishly, perhaps, I had maintained a small hope that Mia hadn’t heard of Luc’s deluded demand, but with Carmen as her closest ally it came as no surprise that Mia knew the truth, and in typical Mia fashion she had cut down to the bone within the first few sentences.
“That wasn’t me,” I corrected her.
“As if Luc does anything without you knowing,” Mia shot back, her eyes darting from me to the small audience just over my shoulder. She looked like she was trying to calculate the best way to escape. It didn’t matter how innocent I was, Luc and I were one and the same. Inseparable for fifteen years was a hard reputation to shake, even if it was growing cracks in the foundations.
“Trust me,” I said, struggling to keep the bitterness out of my voice. “A lot has changed since your little stunt.”
“And you’re here to drag me back so Luc can teach me a lesson?” she asked just as bitterly.
