Chin trembling, tears swam in her eyes. “I won’t… can’t do more d-dope.”
“I know,” I whispered in reply as I gently ran a lone knuckle down the left, non-swollen side of her face. “She said you’re fighting to get clean.” It wasn’t an easy feat to accomplish, much less cold turkey, but she was giving it everything she had. “I’m proud as hell of you.”
I expected her to snarl at my words, maybe even weakly smack my hand away, but she did neither. Instead, she leaned into my touch, seeking comfort. The move was so small I doubted she did it consciously.
Not that I cared.
A win was a win.
“I can’t… stay.” Her strangled words ripped me right out of the euphoria that had blanketed my soul. “My girls—”
“Will be fine,” I interjected, telling her what I prayed wasn’t a lie. “Faye is going to tell them where you are and look after them both until you get better. If they come by, then I’ll let them in. I swear it. But you damn sure can’t leave. Not until you’re stronger.”
A fire sparked to life in her eyes.
Clearly, I was seconds away from having a fight on my hands, one which I swore to win. No way in hell was I letting her leave—especially not when she probably couldn’t stand, much less walk, without help.
Bottom line, if she wanted to get out the door, she’d have to get past me, and doing that would be impossible because right then, I was stronger and mightier than any brick wall ever could be.
Determination had that effect.
Hand shaking, she clumsily—not to mention slowly—pushed the bleached white sheet blanketing her legs to the filthy carpeted floor. “I’m going. And you won’t stop me, cabrón, so don’t even try.”
I wouldn’t stop her? I’d be damned. She may not have known how bullheaded I could be, but she was about to find out firsthand.
Done with letting her think she would be calling the shots, I twisted on the bed and leaned over her, placing my hands on the mattress next to each of her shoulders.
Caged in, she narrowed her swollen eyelids and shot daggers my way, making the venomous anger she felt toward me crystal clear.
“You,” I all but growled, “are not going any damn where.” At my words, the fire I’d seen spark to life in her eyes seconds before roared into a blazing inferno. “You can get mad, you can curse and call me every name in the book, I don’t give two shits. But if you think I’m letting you leave this room while you’re still weak and unable to defend yourself from the same people who routinely hurt you, you’ve got another thing coming.”
If looks could kill, I would’ve been dead.
As in, deader than a doornail.
“You are neither my Papá nor my pimp, James Cole,” she spat, eyelid twitching. “You do not get to tell me what to do.”
That’s where she was wrong. “When it comes to your health, I will tell you what to do.” I was quickly losing the tenuous hold I had on my banked temper. “And you will listen when I do.”
To her, I was sure I sounded no different from her heavy-handed pimp with the way I was forcing her to walk the line I’d just drawn.
But there was a major difference.
I wanted her to be happy and healthy.
Not to mention free.
But him? He didn’t give a fuck about any of those things. His sole focus was keeping her addicted to heroin so she’d remain consumed with the need to get high instead of attempting an escape from him.
For that alone, I swore he’d pay.
Her hand found my chest. “James, move.” Her naturally pouty lips thinned into a straight line. “Now.”
“No.”
My one-word reply pissed her right off.
“You can’t stop me from leaving.”
If she’d had the ability to do so, she would’ve screamed that statement to the rafters. Unfortunately for her, her voice was still hoarse and weak, even if it did rapidly gain strength with each attitude-laced word she slung my way.
“Watch me.”
Stubborn as could be, she used the little strength she did to possess to roll to her injured side, facing away from me. Catching sight of the IV I’d inserted hours before into the back of her hand, her nostrils flared. “You did this?” she asked, irate gaze finding mine over her shoulder.
I dipped my chin in affirmation.
“Why?”
“To help you. “
For a moment, just a brief second, her face softened. But a heartbeat later, the hardness lining her features was back as her fight returned. “You can’t help me. No one can.”
I stared down at her, the hidden meaning of her words bouncing around my muddled brain like ping-pong balls.
Ripping her eyes from mine, she stared down at the mattress, the wheels in her head spinning as she plotted my death.
“I don’t know why you’re doing this, Guapo,” she said, voice returning to a strained whisper. “But trust me, I’m not worth the effort.”
My lips curved once more.
“Did you just call me handsome?”
It was the same term of endearment Maddie called my boy all the time. It seemed fitting that my pretty little pixie would use it for me since Hendrix was my carbon copy looks-wise.
Always had been.
Always would be.
Carmen sucked in a quick breath. It was the deepest she’d taken since awakening. Obviously, the fluids and undisturbed rest had helped. A lot. For that, I was thankful.
“Loco pendejo.” After calling me a crazy asshole, she dropped one foot to the floor and attempted to slip off the mattress. It was a move that neither I nor her exhausted body allowed.
Before she could slide off and hit the ground, I slipped my hand beneath her smooth thigh and lifted it back onto the bed, rolling her to her back and pushing her toward the center of the mattress.
“I don’t need your help,” she spat, feebly smacking the mattress with her palm. “Whether you like it or not, I am leaving.”
No, she wasn’t.
“And you can’t stop me.”
Yes, I could.
And I once again told her as much.
A nearly muted shriek bounced between us as
