AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Let’s go inside where we can have this conversation in private.” I nod and allow him to escort me in. He takes me back to the couch, then he sits on the coffee table across from me. “Have you ever heard of Ernesto Padilla?”
“Should I have?”
“He’s a well-known drug lord. Runs one of the meanest organizations in Durango.”
I huff. “Figures you’ve heard of him then.”
“Apparently, so had your father. Or, at least, whoever wanted what he had enough to have him killed. It was Padilla’s men who were there that night. They left their mark on everyone they murdered.”
“My father didn’t associate with criminals.” I wipe the moisture from my cheeks, furious that he’d even suggest such a thing.
“Sonia, he wasn’t a good man, and you know it.”
“He had nothing to do with criminals!” I insist.
Santos rolls his neck until it cracks, as if he’s losing patience. “If he’d had nothing they wanted, he would have simply been executed. But he was tortured.”
I’m breathing hard, desperate to relieve the tightness in my chest. “Let’s say you’re right and it was Padilla’s men. What wereyoudoing there?”
“Watching you.”
His words send a shiver over me, one I’m not sure is good or bad. “You watched me?”
“I’d heard you got a divorce. That you’d returned home. I went that night to see if it was true. The house was already under attack when I arrived, so there was no time for me to call for backup. I’d just gone in to search for you when I saw your father emerge from the fields. I knew that was where you’d be. I ran in the direction he came from and saw you in the line of sight of a gun. There was no choice but to throw myself at you, and that’s when we fell into the river.”
What he’s saying correlates with my fragmented memories. But I still don’t trust him. “What happened after? Why didn’t you go back to help my father?”
His lips pull tight, and he taps a finger against the table. “I won’t speak ill of the deceased, but it’s no secret that I hated your father. Risking my life or the life of my men for him wasn’t something I was willing to do, especially when we thought he’d gone underground. Besides, my only concern was getting you to a hospital once I pulled you out. You hit your head on the jagged rocks and I couldn’t wake you. Days later, I got the news that Fernando’s body had been found in the river as well. He’d washed up five miles down.”
“How can you say it so dispassionately? He was my father!”
“You said the same thing to me five years ago when you woke up in the hospital demanding to see him.”
“And what did you say to me then?”
His gaze hardens. “The same thing I’ll say now. I’m sorry he was your father.”
“Dios mio,” I gasp. “There’s no one left. I’m all alone.”
“You’re not alone. You have me.”
A burst of sarcastic laughter erupts from me. “So I get to hold the Devil’s hand while I cry. That’s very comforting.”
“You married this devil.”
In my peripheral, I spot the framed photograph of what appears to be our wedding day. It’s one of him and me under a tree, my arms around his waist and my head pressed to his chest. I look away, unable to believe my own eyes. “I don’t remember that. But I very clearly remember everything else you did to me. I want my phone.”
“No.”
“Why not?!”
“Because I am your husband. I am the only one you need. And until you get better, I can’t risk you doing something that will undo all of the measures I’ve put into place to keep you safe. Padilla searched for you for a long time. He might still be. If he were to learn that you live, he might want to remedy that. I’ve gone to a lot of trouble to keep our marriage discreet. To keep you hidden from the men your father pissed off. Trust me, I’m not the only one who hated him.”
Rage fills me, and my nostrils flare. “My father may have been ambitious. He may have made your life harder when he didn’t forgive your debt. But he wasn’t a monster. He never deliberately hurt me the way you did. I’d rather take my chances out there than to remain here another second.”
His hands fist by his side, and it seems he’s fighting the urge to tell me something. But he clenches his jaw instead. “You will get a cell phone when I feel you’re ready.”
“Am I your wife or your prisoner then?”
At this, he smiles. “You tell me.”
