Page 101 of Thin Lives

No, he just kissed her until the streaks of her tears hit the corner of his mouth, and he was forced to pull away so he could wipe them away again.

“Ti amo, Emma—I always loved you, even when I couldn’t remember you,” he told her.

Emma blinked away the tears coating her lashes. “I knew you did. I was just waiting for you to remember, too.”

Calisto glanced to the side, knowing they didn’t have much time. “We have to go—at least get out of the store. After that, we’ll be clear.”

“The red dress?”

“He’s not going to be looking for red, you know.”

Emma shook her head, smiling slightly. “Why today?”

“It was the right time.”

Except it wasn’t.

Something was still missing.

“Where is my son?” Calisto asked.

Emma stilled, almost like she hadn’t expected him to say that. She didn’t answer, either.

“I was starting to figure it out before I got my memories back,” he explained when she stayed silent, “but I knew for sure after. The math wasn’t all that hard to do, for one thing.”

“I was scared,” she whispered. “Affonso knew—he would have killed me had it been any other man’s child. He almost did the night he found out.”

Rage skipped over Calisto’s body.

He pushed it back down.

Not yet, he told himself. That will come.

“Where is Cross?” he asked again.

Though, he was pretty sure he knew.

“At home with Affonso and Sherry. He wanted me to go out and get some new clothes, but he wouldn’t let me take the baby today. He uses him to scare me sometimes—manipulate me—that’s all it is.”

Calisto was going to ask her to explain that a little more, but his phone dinged with an incoming message. Checking the device, he decided his questions would have to wait.

“Come on,” he said, twining their fingers together.

Emma didn’t hesitate to follow as he led her from the dressing rooms, and out of the store. He was careful not to look back at the enforcer he knew was coming their way, but would probably pass the woman in the red dress by without so much as a second glance.

“Where are we going?” Emma asked.

Earlier, he’d had a clear answer to that.

Now, he wasn’t so sure.

“Somewhere to talk,” he decided on saying.

Somewhere he could think …

The hotel Calisto had been using as a safe-house of sorts wasn’t actually all that far away from the mall he had tracked Emma to. It was only a few blocks away, which at first, he thought would make things easier.

Once he had Emma safely inside the confines of the room, Calisto paced the length of the floor, needing to get his thoughts in order.