Page 75 of Forbidden Fate

“Yes.”

“Oh.” Her grin turns wicked.

I shoot Señora V a look. “I hate you.”

“No, you don’t.”

“I’m close.”

Mercedes props her chin in her hand. “So it sounds like you’re a gifted lover as well.”

I nearly choke on my coffee.

Esmeralda’s smile widens. “Wife? Girlfriend? Fiancée?”

“No.”

“No to which one?” Mercedes asks.

“All.”

“Ah,” Esmeralda says. “Complicated.”

I stare at my mug. “You have no idea.”

Señora Valentina’s smile fades slightly.

Mercedes leans back. “Is she beautiful?”

I don’t answer.

“Very complicated,” Esmeralda says.

I push back my chair. “I should take this upstairs.”

“What?” Mercedes asks. “And deprive us of meeting her?”

I rise. “That’s the plan.”

I can’t sit here any longer. I need to think. Plan. Call someone. Find out how close Vega is to discovering where we are. But before I can decide which bad choice to make first, Robin appears at the bottom of the stairs in an ivory robe.

“Where’d you get that?” I blurt out.

“I had Luisa leave it for her outside your door,” Señora V says.

Robin’s hair is loose and tousled, falling in dark waves around her face. Her eyes are still heavy with sleep, but I can tell she’s alert. She scans the room and her gaze lands on me.

She looks like a goddamned angel.

And I know with a certainty that sinks straight into my bones that I’m in more trouble than Vega could ever make for me.

Vega may take my head.

But Robin Bellamy is going to take everything else.

27

ROBIN