“It’s like a fucking nightmare! It’s happening all over again. Another good man is sacrificing his life for my fuckup. Only now, in addition to my wife being under threat, an absolutely amazing woman and the two daughters she and Waters adopted are going to be without him, and that is definitely my fault. None of this would be happening if it weren’t for me fucking everything up.”
“He’s not going to die,” TB growled.
“Once my family turns him over to the Salieri, he’s as good as. They won’t risk losing their prize a second time. Not after all the damage we’ve inflicted over the past seven years. They’ve had a long time to dream of this moment, and he basically put a fucking bow around his neck, which they’ll fashion into a noose.”
“Even if that happens, it won’t be your fault. That’s on the Salieri and whoever is running that shit show.”
“It doesn’t matter.” He felt his spine begin to straighten, and the walls within him rebuild. “I can’t put her at risk again. I won’t.”
It wasn’t that he didn’t want Daleyza back in his life. Every day they’d been separated, he’d thought of her. Wondered what she was doing. Wanted her in his arms and his bed. It was why he’d risked the trips to check on her and his mother.
But until his shitty family was wiped off the face of the planet, like the cockroaches they were, likely to outlast him, she’d never be safe. The only way to protect her was to put aside his wants and needs and get her as far away from him as possible.
“Either shut up and keep helping or get out of the kitchen,” he groused. “This subject is closed.”
The two men exchanged a look, then went back to the tasks they were completing.
With his back to Steel, Demon said, “We’re not leaving you.”
He swallowed hard. The double-meaning message wasn’t lost on him.
“Copy that,” came from TB.
This is what a tribe was.
16
AUGUST 22, 2024
Daleyza
“Daleyza.”He touched her shoulder, his voice barely a whisper in the darkness. “We have to go.”
Her stomach lurched. She hadn’t pulled the covers over her, not wanting to waste the precious seconds when every single one counted. Despite being fully dressed, a cold sweat broke out, and she shivered. “Fanso?” she questioned.
“We have twenty minutes.” He pulled her to a seated position, then knelt at her feet, sliding her sneakers on and quickly lacing them. “Grab our bag. I’ll get Tobias.”
Rising from her feet, he quickly kissed her on the lips and took off into the living room of their suite and across it to their son’s room.
By the time she’d done as he asked, hoisting the pack onto her back and moving into the living room, he was already returning with a sleeping Tobias in his arms, the boy’s sleepy head on his shoulder.
“Mijo, we’re going to play a game, okay? We’re playing hide-and-seek with Abuelo and your uncles. You have to be absolutely quiet. No sound, even if you see them. Can you do that?”
“Sí, Papá.”
“Good boy.”
Suddenly, they were outside on the estate, hiding at the far edge of the compound in the garden. Fifty feet away was the shrubbery-covered door that led out to the back road where his friend was to be waiting for them.
He made some sort of bird call, something she didn’t recognize, and the gate swung open on quiet hinges he’d made sure to oil two days earlier.
Whispering to her, he said, “Run as fast as you can. Don’t stop. No matter what you hear, sí?”
“Sí.”
Taking a precious second, he removed one hand from beneath Tobias’ once again sleeping form. He reached to clasp her around the nape of her neck and pulled her close. His lips pressed against hers, and she could feel the desperation in them.
This was it. Their freedom lay on the other side of that door.
