I hear her before I see her. Her voice rings out through the heavy metal door.
“HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!”
Thalia hits the door first, and I tear through it, my pulse quickening until I find her. Her gold dress is covered in blood, her hands trembling around a flannel shirt pressed against Ignacio’s thigh. She’s alive.
“Alma.” I sigh with relief.
Her head lifts to meet mine, and the moment she sees me, her entire body breaks down. She sobs and the pain that ripples through her almost breaks me. I’d pushed through everything today for this moment, this exact moment where I could see the one person worth falling apart for. I drop to my knees next to her and pull her into me.
“Efren…” Her voice collapses.
“You’re okay, Kitten.” I rise with Alma against my chest, her arms locking around my neck as I push through the pain in my ribs and turn towards the door.
“I’ve got you,” I whisper, pressing my forehead to hers, my voice breaking as her whole body shakes against mine.
“Compadre,” Ignacio murmurs next to us.
Patricio takes one side and Thalia the other as they work together to lift him. A loud roar rips from him when he tries to stand on the injured leg, and his knees buckle. Patricio and Thalia catch him instantly, lifting him back up on one leg.
“Who did this!” Patricio bites out, looking around him for anyone.
Alma sobs into my shoulder, and I use the remainder of my energy to push toward the waiting limo, and we all pile in.
“Get us to the nearest fucking hospital!” Patricio orders.
“Alma, are you okay? Are you hurt?” Thalia asks, moving in next to us.
Alma shakes her head and watches Ignacio intently. They both stare into each other’s eyes, lost and broken. Ignacio barely registers Patricio unwrapping the flannel from around his thigh. Patricio grabs a bottle of tequila from the limo bar and pours it over the open wound. Ignacio hisses and curses under his breath.
Alma winces, and then her gaze returns to mine. She presses her cheek back to my chest, and I kiss the top of her head.
“Yo contigo mija,” I say.
My hand slides to her stomach. Her eyes flutter, and her voice softens as she whispers under her breath, “Tu conmigo.”
Chapter 43
Alma
“Make your decision, Ignacio,” Cassiel demands. “Give me Genesis, and both your daughters live. Or pick one and watch the other die in her place.”
The nightmare spits me out violently, and a choke is lodged in my throat. I want to scream, but I don’t. I reach for the warm body beside me and latch onto him for comfort.
The room snaps into focus. The dim light, the stiff bed, and the thin hospital gown. Night has bled into morning, sunlight slipping through the blinds in pale stripes. The last twenty-four hours feel unreal, a blur of sirens, shouting, and fear that still hasn’t fully left my body.
Efren’s chest rises and falls beside me, slow and steady. One arm is tucked beneath his head, the other stretched protectively across my belly like it’s instinct now.
“Hey,” I whisper, leaning down to kiss his cheek.
“Kitten,” he murmurs, voice rough with sleep. “Don’t go.”
He hasn’t wanted me out of his sight since they brought him in. Efren was admitted overnight for observation after multiple rib fractures and a deep canine bite to his left calf.The bite was serious enough to require IV antibiotics and monitoring. He only agreed to stay because he insisted the baby and I be checked too.
Gael updated us on the DNA results before dawn. Told us Patricio was waiting to talk. Efren refused. Maybe he always will. I can’t blame him. My fingers trace the purple welts blooming along his forearms, then drift to the swelling around his eye.
I was ready to run away with this man. There was no life worth living where I had to worry about one day identifying his body. And just like he said, this family is cursed.
Missy may have taken me away from my parents, but she’d saved me from the pain I saw lurking behind Genesis’s eyes. Efren stirs when I shift. His eyes snap open, already searching the door before settling back on me.
