AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I know.” Her lips dust against my arm as she pulls them tighter around her. “I mean after…for us.”
“For us?” I repeat her question and squeeze her tighter, like I know she wants. Like she needs. Reassuring her that I’m here as I pepper kisses along the side of the neck. “You’re mine. That is not dependent upon whether Hector is alive or dead.”
“I’m yours,” she echoes my sentiment and firmly hugs my arms embracing her.
“And when you’re no longer his wife,” I whisper in her ear. “You can be mine.”
“When he’s dead, everything my father left behind becomes mine.” Her serious tone quickly becomes jestful, “Then we’ll be sworn enemies, and I’d have to kill you.”
“Or you can marry me.” My tone is serious. “And we can forge a fucking unstoppable empire.”
“Okay,” she mocks me with a chuckle and a hint of sarcasm. “We’ve known each other for weeks, but sure, we can run off and get married.”
“Good. I’m glad you agree.” I speak the words against her neck with a smile spread across my face and warmth in my cold heart.
Thinking I’m joking with her, she doesn’t press any further. But there isn’t an ounce of me that isn’t serious. I’ve been fucking obsessed with her since the first moment her lips pressed against my forehead.
Fuck.
Maybe even before then.
There were women before her, but nothing I would even remotely consider a relationship. They were physical—purely sex. No emotions. If there were any, they were completely one-sided and definitely not from me. Everyone in my life has always been disposable or replaceable.
But not her.
It's so different with her. She’s not disposable. She’s fucking irreplaceable. There never has been, nor ever will be, another like her.
The first time she clung to me because I was safe.
I’ve never been safe. Not for anyone. My heart is black. It pumps violence and death through my veins. I earned my seat in hell when she was a still a child, and I have spent decades securing it since. Yet, there’s something about me that gives her the comfort and safety she so desperately needs.
Protection that I’ll give her until my dying breath.
Lucia is still in my arms, her breathing shallow and slow as she sleeps peacefully in my embrace. I place a string of kisses along the back of her shoulder as I whisper, “I don’t need to be your husband to know this is forever. I love you, little lamb.”
Shifting her weight, Lucia nuzzles into my embrace, her soft, warm breaths now blowing over my arm as she quickly drifts back to sleep. Not wanting to disturb her, I hold her just a little tighter, and she mumbles, “I love you, Raf.”
Closing my eyes, holding her tightly, sleep creeps over me.
thirty-four
LUCIA
According to Rafael, not long after Papi passed, Hector moved from our home into his. It has a well-enforced perimeter and plenty of men to guard it. Being the head of the cartel now, he likely felt that it would be safer for him than the small estate that Papi had given us as a wedding gift.
Papi had promised me to Hector the night of my quinceanera. Being only five years my senior, we all knew that it would be years before we were to actually be married. But that didn’t stop him from being controlling and deciding who I could and couldn’t spend time with once it was confirmed that I would be his someday.
Because of him, I spent my teenage years learning how to get on and off the compound without being seen. The irony. My need to sneak around to spend time with friends who he didn’t approve of has literally prepared me for tonight.
It's just shy of three in the morning. Guards are at a minimum at this hour, and not a single light is on inside.
Wiggling the bar of the wrought iron fence, I pop it out of place making enough room to press between the bars. It’s a significantly tighter squeeze for Raf, who is nearly twice my size, and he grumbles something about driving a car through the front gate instead.
Raf follows me as we quickly make our way along the fence until we are across the courtyard from my former bedroom. Situated just above a statement wall is a protruding brick façade—practically making a ladder up to the window.
“Lucia!” Raf angrily whisper-shouts after me when I dart across the yard. Even with his long strides, he doesn’t catch the years of muscle-memory building experience. I’m pushing open the bedroom window when Rafael begins to quickly scale the wall behind me.
“Fucking wait,” he quietly yells while glaring at me as I climb into the window.
