In the event something went wrong, he was under strict orders to get Isa to safety immediately. But nothing would go wrong.
Not with the van filled with my men waiting directly in front of the restaurant.
"Why am I here?" Isa asked, her voice barely a whisper. "Wouldn't it have been better to leave me at home?"
I ignored the way it felt to have her refer to the island as home, the distinction something I wasn't certain she was ready to face herself. "You're here because this is a part of me, and you cannot love part of me without loving the devil too," I said, turning my attention away from the restaurant. I leaned in and kissed her softly, melding our mouths in the same way our souls felt combined. I only pulled back when Joaquin cleared his throat, forcing me to turn my attention back to where Maxim and his date stood from their table.
He helped her into her coat, playing the role of the gentleman so efficiently that I would have believed it if I hadn't seen the evidence of what would follow.
Of what always followed his dates.
They stepped out of the restaurant, the woman giggling drunkenly at his side, far too lost to the alcohol he'd plied her with to understand what was coming. With Isa's hand held tight in mine, I guided her into the center of the sidewalk until we stood directly in Maxim's path. "Hello, Maxim. Welcome to Spain," I said, tilting my head at him with a dark smirk.
He stopped short, his eyes going wide for a moment before he released his hold on his date and moved to reach for his gun.
The gun that was already gone, clutched in the hand of the shadow who moved without ever being seen. Joaquin tossed me the weapon, melding back into the shadows next to the car as he watched and waited for Maxim's next move.
The bag came down over the top of his head as two of the men jumped out of the van, grasping him around the shoulders and prying him away from the woman who stumbled away in terror. Isa was quick to move to her, touching her arms gently and rubbing them with a soothing touch. "Let's get you a cab," she murmured softly, guiding the woman to the side of the street. Entirely uncaring about the people who watched her from inside the restaurant, she accepted the Euros I held out to her and helped the drunken woman into the back of a cab while the driver stared at her baffled.
Isa trusted me to protect her from any repercussions that might come from her being recognized, of being left to deal with the innocent in the situation while my men secured Maxim into the back of the van.
Once the woman was on her way home, Isa returned to the car and lowered herself into the passenger seat as Joaquin held the door open for her.
I smiled, knowing I'd made the right choice.
Mi reina was ready.
36
Isa
The drive back to his uncle's house felt like a dream, like a nightmare made real. The reality of what I'd done settled over me with the heaviness of everything I knew I should have been.
I'd watched him abduct a man off the street, and instead of being outraged or trying to stop it, I'd put the witness in a cab and sent her home. I'd been far more concerned for her than for the man that Rafael was sure to kill shortly.
I should have felt appalled by my actions. There should have been that moment of realization when I came to understand just how far I'd fallen from the girl who did as she was told and who did what she had to do to keep her parents content.
What would they think of me now?
"You're quiet," Rafe observed as he turned up the driveway. We followed behind the van with Maxim in it, watching the back doors to be certain that nothing had gone wrong.
"What would you like me to say?" I asked, fiddling with my hands as I tried to find the words to explain the mess of emotions swirling inside me. "I just don't understand how this is my life right now. I should be getting ready to go to college and study my ass off, not sitting in a car with you while we drive to a murder site."
"This is your life, because you fell in love with the devil," he said with a casual tone as he passed the house and continued further up the hill. The van pulled over to a stop beside a shed as we followed, watching as his men wrestled Maxim out of the back of the van. With the sack still placed over his head, they guided him into the shed. Rafael climbed out of the car, moving around to open my door and pull me out. He kept my hand in his, and I glanced back to the safety of the house.
His cousin said their mother didn't like to know the details, but it seemed Rafe had a different opinion of how our marriage would proceed.
I didn't know how I felt about that.
"You know, the books always say that kidnappers only cover your head if they intend to let you go. That it's when they don’t blindfold you or wear a mask that you have to worry they'll kill you. We both know you plan to kill him, so why the sack over his head?"
