There was no other choice.
Blowing out a breath, she shifted her weight between her feet, fidgeting in place. “Before I go, there’s something I want to give you.” Eyes bouncing around nervously, she slipped her hand deep into the cup of her bra and pulled out a strip of tobacco-colored leather.
My brow furrowed.
“Give me your arm.”
Confusion growing with each second that ticked by, I did as she asked without question despite the anger working its way through my system.
The smooth leather felt cool against my skin as it wrapped it around my wrist, forming a simple bracelet, and then tied it in place. The perfect length, it laid flush against me. “Did you make this?”
Pride gleamed in my woman’s eyes. “Si, I did.”
The smile she wore at that moment was one of the most tantalizing I’d ever seen her display. I wanted to see more of it.
A hell of a lot more.
“Do you like it?” she asked, nervously. “I know it’s homemade and plain looking, but I had to make do with what I had on hand, which admittedly wasn’t much.”
Did I like it? Hell no.
Plain or not, I loved it.
Because she’d made it.
And she’d done so for me.
It didn’t get any better than that.
Which is exactly what I told her.
“It’s so dark out here you can’t read the numbers I burnt into the leather using a candle and the tip of my knife, but here they are.”
Eyes focused on the place where her finger tapped against the bracelet, and now the most valued possession I owned, I caught sight of several markings. But just like she said, I couldn’t read them thanks to the shitty parking lot lights.
I really need to get those fixed…
“Tell me what they say, baby.”
Lips thinned, she peered up at me with watery eyes. “April 10th.”
I didn’t understand what the date meant, not at first, but once the memory smacked me in the face, the urge to kiss my pixie about did me in.
“That’s the day that—”
“I robbed you,” she finished for me, giggling. “Absurdo or not, I’m counting it as our anniversary. I mean, it’s not every day you pickpocket the person who turns out to be your soulmate, so I thought—”
“Say it again, Carmen,” I interrupted, my voice hoarse as I fought to keep my eyes from sliding closed as euphoria washed through me, stronger than any shot of whiskey I’d ever taken. “I want to hear you—”
“You are my soulmate, James Cole,” she whispered, giving me what I both wanted and needed, something she never failed to do. Pushing to her tiptoes, she cupped my cheeks. “And I pray with every piece of my tattered heart that you never forget it either.”
It was a prayer she didn’t need to say.
Because bottom line, I’d always remember.
Ten Minutes Later
“We really must go.”
Never in my life had I hated four words as much as the ones Carmen spoke as we stood in the darkened alley across from the station, hearts and souls entwined while Hendrix and Little One stood ten feet away, lost in whatever animated conversation they were having.
If I hadn’t been so pissed, I could’ve watched them talk all day long. As unexpected as it was, they’d somehow clicked. It worked out perfectly considering she’d be sticking around for a long while to come.
And hell, once Maddie met her, Carmen and I may not see her again. Not literally, but between Hendrix and his future wife, Shelby too when the time came, I was certain they’d spoil both Little One and Chiquita rotten.
I couldn’t wait.
Except, I had no choice.
Because they were going back to him.
Fists clenched, I leaned my shoulder against the wall to my right as I worked to keep my shit under control. Filled with unease at letting both women walk back into the devil’s lair, I was more than tempted to toss both over my shoulder and carry them to my truck.
But I couldn’t.
Leaving Chiquita behind wasn’t an option.
My chest rose, then fell when Carmen ran the tip of her finger down the side of my anger-tinged face. “Guapo, what’s wrong?”
“I don’t want you to fucking go.”
Bottom lip trembling, my woman lowered her gaze at my sharp tone, tear-filled eyes focusing on the pavement beneath her feet. “I won’t be gone long,” she whispered, tearing my insides apart. “Only three more days until we can be together again.”
Three more days of hell…
For less than twenty-four hours of Heaven.
Scrubbing a hand across my clenched jaw, I swiped my tongue over my bottom lip. “I don’t know how much longer I can do this.” Needing to touch her before I lost my grip on reality altogether, I slid my index finger under her chin and tilted her head back, forcing our eyes to lock. “If we can’t get you and the girls away from that piece of shit soon, I’m liable to do something stupid.”
“Listen, pendejo,” she said, trying to sling a handful of sass my way even as tears streamed down her cheeks. “You can’t do anything estúpido. If you do, it could get all of us killed. I hate him more than anyone, but he’s powerful and possesses enough connections to wipe us all off the map if he so chooses with no worry of the consequences.”
My blood pressure climbed.
I was close to blowing a mental gasket.
Yet again.
“Carmen—”
“No,” she admonished, watery eyes narrowing. “No matter how badly you wish to plunge a rusted knife into my bastardo pimp’s blackened heart, you can’t. End of story. The only thing we can do is wait, and when the time is right, escape.”
That wasn’t good enough for me. Not anymore. On tenterhooks, and beyond desperate to get her and the girls first to the shelter and then to my house, the place that would soon be their forever home, the loose grip I had on my sanity wavered.
For what had to have been the millionth time.
“What if the time is never right?” My hand shook beneath her
