With that, I snapped.
Hands cupping her tear-streaked face, I forced her eyes to hold mine. “He will not take your life.”
I wouldn’t allow that to happen. No way. I had lost enough loved ones already. I wouldn’t lose more.
“H-how… do you k-know?”
A malicious smile contorted my pain-riddled face as the darkness that lived inside me rose to the surface. “Because, mi bella chica”—hands steady, I paused—“I will kill him first.”
It was a grande vow to make.
But one I intended to keep.
Twelve days clean and counting…
Pulse thumping as the double-digit number echoed through my head, I knelt on the dirty floor, eyes affixed to the same mirror as the night I tried to commit suicidio, studying the woman who stared back. A woman who wasn’t as much of a stranger to me as she’d once been.
Eyes shining bright, my healing cheeks were now tinged with color, erasing the ghostly paleness that had washed out my bronzed complexion for far too long.
At thirty-four, I was no longer the proud beauty queen I’d been at eighteen, but the hope I’d felt that fateful night, the very one in which my entire world had been shattered within the space of only a few minutes, was returning.
And it was all because of James.
I had yet to understand my feelings for him, as strong and unyielding as they were, but I neither tried nor cared to decode them any longer.
Done with allowing the cynicism that plagued me to plant seeds of doubt in my head, I now embraced the potent magic that shimmered in the air between him and I, filling me with both hope and faith, two things I’d been missing for far too long.
Though I still lived in hell and wore shackles the devil himself had secured around my heart and soul, they grew weaker with each day that passed.
Before long, I’d burst free of the invisible restraints, and when I did, there would be no turning back.
Not ever.
“Yello!” Still jumpy whenever I was in or near the trap house, I jerked in place, nearly coming out of my skin when Jade bounded into the ramshackle room from behind me, a beaming smile on her gorgeous face. “I’ve got something for you.”
Brow climbing my forehead, I looked at her over my shoulder. “You do?”
“I do,” she answered in a singsong voice, hands hidden behind her back. “And you better like it too because I went through a whole mess of trouble to get it.”
Alarm bells started ringing. “What did you do?”
Lips thinned, she shrugged.
“Jade—”
“Oh my God,” she huffed, eyes narrowing. “Don’t take the mom tone with me.”
Standing, I turned to face her. Hands on my hips, I crossed the room, coming to a stop inches in front of her. “You have tres seconds to talk, or else I will—”
“Ground me?”
It was my turn to roll my eyes. “Smartass.”
Her smile returned, growing in size. “I’d rather my culo be smart than dumb, ya know.” Giggling to herself, she rocked back on her heels. “Now close your frickin’ eyes so I can give you your surprise.”
A smidgen of anxiety gripped me, holding on tight as I did as she asked.
“Well, holy crap. She listened,” she mumbled, putting her sass on full display. “Somebody alert the media because it’s a miracle.” The laugh that spilled past my lips was genuine. And it felt good. So damned good. “Now hold out your hands.”
Doing as she asked, I held them out, palms up. “Give it to me.” The excitement that flooded my veins went straight to my head, giving me a natural high like no other. “Whatever it is, I want—”
My eyelids fluttered open when she placed something soft in my hands. I gasped when I saw what the item was. “It’s…”
My mouth opened and closed like a fish fresh out of water as my tongue fought to form the words I so wanted to speak. “Oh, Little One”—I cleared my throat—“it’s beautiful.”
Jade beamed. “You like it?”
Tears of appreciation and joy filled my eyes as I held up the simple yellow sundress she’d gifted me and let it dangle from my fingertips. The bright color looked so out of place next to the trap house’s dingy walls. I couldn’t help but take the contrast as a sign of the beautiful changes to come.
Soon we will escape the darkness.
Then, we shall live only in the light.
“I do, but where did you get it?” Both suspicion and dread took root in my chest. Jade had no money. Every cent she made went straight into Dominic’s hand. It was the same for Ashley. “You didn’t steal it, did you?”
I prayed she hadn’t.
As hypocritical as it may have been, I didn’t want Jade to walk that path. I was a thief, si, and a damned good one at that, but theft wasn’t a sin she needed staining her soul. Through no fault of her own, she had enough of those already.
I wouldn’t allow her to add more.
Especially not on my behalf.
“No,” she said, guilt sliding across her pretty features. “But Faye did.” Of course, she had. “I know it was wrong,” she quickly added, likely knowing that I was about to give her a mile-long lecture. “Trust me, I know. But she wanted you to have something nice to wear whenever you see the medic guy again and well…” Gnawing on her bottom lip, she crossed her arms. “I did too.”
My heart swelled.
Fighting to staunch the flood of tears that had begun to fall, I pulled in a shaky breath. “James,” I whispered. “His name is James.” Remembering the vow I’d made to keep Ashley in the dark to protect her sanity, I quickly added, “But you can’t tell Chiquita. If she learns of him, along with how I feel, she’ll—”
“Do you love him?”
The innocent question, one that I should’ve known was coming the moment I mentioned my feelings took me by surprise. Slamming into my chest, it knocked me off-kilter. “Excuse
