Page 71 of Her Passionate Hero

“I need to track down San Marco, and the only way I can think to do this is to find Mateo. Nicolas thinks that Darla might know who his girlfriend is.”

“Great, it’s like we have to keep pulling the string—find Darla to find the girlfriend to find Mateo to find San Marco. This is crazy,” Aliana huffed. “Does Nicolas have any idea when Darla is going to be home.”

“Add one more person to the string. We have to find her friend Ynez. According to Nicolas, Mateo and Darla got into a big fight, and Darla’s been MIA ever since. He thinks she’s with Ynez. He says that Ynez is crazy, and he never knows what she’s going to do next.”

“Oh, for God’s sake. I know her from school. She is wild. This just gets better and better.”

“Alia,” Hunter grabbed both of her hands. “Stay with me for a moment, okay?”

“Sure, what?”

“Did Darla have many boyfriends at school?”

She thought about it for a moment. “No, I’m pretty sure she didn’t. Why are you asking?”

“It’s pertinent.”

“She hung out with another girl, not Ynez, a real mean girl, and they made life hell for other the weaker girls. She hated boys, that was how she ended up in juvenile detention, she attempted to stab a boy. She said he accosted her, but his buddies were there and said it was unprovoked, so she ended up locked up for eight months. But Hunter, she’d been bad news from the day she entered Bertrum. I talked to her middle school counselor, it was the same thing there. She was the school bully.”

“She never dated?”

“Not to my knowledge.” She said slowly. Her mouth went dry. She didn’t like where this was going. Not at all. She tried to pull her hands away, but he held firm. “Hunter, what aren’t you telling me?”

“Darla had two additional locks installed on her bedroom door. Both of them were broken.”

Images exploded across her mind.

Broken.

Broken.

Like the lock on the bathroom stall that had been broken.

Hunter’s face wavered. She couldn’t breathe.

Ping, the button hit the cement.

Ping. Mateo cut another button off, his foul breath blowing in her face.

Darla fighting with her older brother.

A broken lock.

A broken girl.

“How long?” Her voice sounded far away. Tinny.

“This isn’t for sure.”

“Tell me, Hunter. Tell me. How long has this been going on?”

“I don’t know, mi Cariña.”

Suddenly, the toast and cocoa were roiling around in her stomach.

“But how would that be possible in such a small apartment?” Had she just asked such a stupid question? “Scratch that. Monsters always find a way.”

She sat there in silence as pictures went through her mind. Dizzy, she walked out of the kitchen and went into her bedroom. She picked up her cell.