Raisin cupped her elbows. “Can’t we go home?”
“Not yet. Soon,” I promised.
“I thought you didn’t make promises you couldn’t keep,” Kitty sniped for my ears only.
“I can keep it,” I chided. “I’ll make sure you’re safe.”
“Is this why you didn’t text me?”
“Yes. They took my phone.”
My admission had her frown easing. “Miguel has ours too. Come on. We’ll eat, dance to their tune, and I’m sure we’ll be out of here before we know it.
“Neev, stop flirting with murderers. Raisin, you look like you’re going to cry. Show no weakness.”
Neev sniffed. “Like Cade and Lucas haven’t murde?—”
Kitty hissed to shut her up, leaving Raisin to muse, “Is it me, or does this remind you of that party scene inPride and Prejudicewhen they did that special tracking shot?”
Kitty twisted around to face her as I led her onwards. “You know what? You’re right. I feel like we’re about to eat cucumber sandwiches and enjoy a ratafia.”
The three of them giggle-snorted, which at least had Raisin relaxing and the others appearing to calm down. That left me on red alert. Especially as they still hadn’t given me my damn phone back.
As we headed into a larger room, this one with a banquet-like dinner table, my brows lifted as Martinez stood at the head, awaiting our presence.
From her seated position at his right-hand side, Eva glared at us like we were dog shit on her heel while her husband held out an arm, indicating we should sit to his left.
Out of nowhere, two dozen men swarmed into the room. Beside me, Kitty tensed, but I clamped onto her wrist, imbuing the gesture with caution.
There was no reason for concern.
Yet.
When Martinez stopped smiling at me and Eva started, that was the moment we were fucked.
As I guided Kitty into her seat, channeling the manners my English grandparents had instilled in my older siblings more than they had me, I noticed Martinez’s approval and shuffled along tohelp Raisin too. Neev was covered by the guy who’d shot someone, in fucking public, in front of Kitty.
I narrowed my eyes at him as we both pushed the sisters’ chairs under the table. Smirking, Miguel seemed unbothered by my disdain.
Once I’d returned to my seat, Martinez finally sat down and so did the rest of us. The women weren’t wrong—this was bizarrely Austen-esque.
Kitty, displaying yet another personality, cleared her throat the moment there was any peace. “SeñorMartinez?”
It should have come out timidly, but it didn’t.
Her tone was strident—ear-biting-offly so. The thought had me hiding a smile.
“Martinez, please.”
As I watched his hand hover beside his shoulder, I glanced around, wondering who that signal had been aimed at. Kitty, unaware, murmured, “I did check the State Department’s website, sir—” When Eva let loose a chuckle, Kitty swallowed. “In retrospect, it was naïve of me to presume?—”
“Your brothers didn’t advise you?” Martinez inquired, but his tone was less aggressive than I might have expected.
Which, of course, was when I remembered he had younger sisters—he was used to their mayhem.
Thank fuck for that.
Neev, Raisin, and Kitty glanced at one another, each with increasing levels of desperation.
