I consider. My throat is raw, and my eyes are gritty. My back hurts like hell, like somebody rubbed it raw and poured salt all over it. “I’m alive, which is what matters.”
“How did that asshole get you?” Bryce asks.
“He put a cloth with something over my face, and I passed out. He blamed me for everything and wanted me to pay.” I turn to Ares. “But I don’t think he was planning to contact you for ransom or anything. How did you find me?”
His mouth parts, but nothing comes out. His family all stare at him, then look at each other.
“Perhaps we should give these two some privacy. I’m sure they have quite a lot to discuss,” Catalina announces.
“Thank you, Grandmother,” Ares says sincerely.
“If you need anything, all you have to do is push the call button.” Jeremiah gives me a meaningful look.
I smile at the blatant way she sides with me, to let me know I’m not alone.
They file out, and Bryce, who’s the slowest, probably hoping to catch something, closes the door behind them.
“Well…?” I raise an eyebrow.
Ares shifts, then looks away briefly. “Iputatrackeronyourphone.”
“Uh…what?”
His eyes dart to me before dropping to the lilies and roses in their vases. “I put a”—he clears his throat—“tracker on your phone.”
I stare at him. “That’s a blatant violation of privacy. Furthermore, it isn’t exactly respectful.”
“Nope. Or indifferent.” His chin juts out.
I search his face, but there’s nothing but inscrutable determination. He looks like he’s about to face off with the biggest antagonistic force in his life, except I’m the only one here. “Okay, I just don’t understand. You confuse me, Ares. You tell me you want one thing, but then do the opposite.”
He looks sucker-punched for a moment, then blinks a couple of times. He exhales, rakes his hair and sighs. “I didn’t mean to. Look, I wasn’t lying when I said I wanted a marriage of respectful indifference. Back then, I really believed that’s what I wanted. But being with you made me realize I was wrong. You changed me, Lareina.”
The earnest sincerity in his voice takes my breath away. It’s the sweetest thing anybody’s ever said to me, but I can’t forget him calling for another woman in sleep. “What about Queen?”
Shock cracks his composure, and sudden pain pushes into my heart like shards of glass.
I continue, “You call for her at night.”
His shoulders deflate. He knows he’s caught. Bitterness fills my mouth until I can’t help scrunching my face. Why did he have to embellish so much, trying to make me believe he cares?
The pain is like acid over my skin. I close my eyes briefly to hide the heartache.
“I suppose Soledad told you.”
I nod.
“Yes, there’s a woman I call Queen. I call her that because she never told me her actual name, and she said she preferred being a queen over a princess. Queens are in charge. Princesses aren’t.”
I frown up at him. That’s very similar to what I told Ares while running from the bad guys in Vegas.
“She was my salvation, my only anchor to sanity when my mother kidnapped me. She came by with Wonder Bread and shared her food with me so I wouldn’t have to eat the drug-laden food Mom left so she could manipulate me. You know the burn scar on my arm?”
I nod.
“I got it when she pulled me out of the fire. It started after Mom fed me some nasty stuff and left me alone in the shed. I was drugged and really out of it. If Queen hadn’t been there, I would’ve died.”
I cover my mouth and stare at him. He told me about the kidnapping before, but not the details of his rescue. I just assumed the police had found him or something. But it also makes me realize there’s no way I can overcome the attachment he has for Queen. She’s his savior—or, as he put it, hissalvation.
