AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER SEVEN
SONIA
The rideback from Hospital Regional de Chihuahua is a quiet one, mostly because I don’t have the energy to bicker with Santos. Though I desperately wish I did.
What a pointless waste of time. Anyone in their right mind would’ve hoped nothing would be found. However, I wish there had been something, anything to indicate what’s wrong with me. Why I can’t remember what’s happened in the last five years. But there was nothing. No stroke, no mass event in my brain, nothing in my blood, no organ failure. Absolutely nothing.
Which means, they have no idea how to fix it.
I wanted them to keep going, to keep poking and prodding. I wanted them to let me stay in the hospital. But they refused and sent me back with the man they also believe to be my husband.
I glance away from watching the desert scenery of the drive back to Las Cruzes and notice the time on the dashboard clock. We’ve been on the road for almost an hour, and there’s still no sign of life. No one nearby I can run to for help. It doesn’t bode well for any other escape attempts I may make, though that doesn’t mean I won’t try.
Santos shifts in his seat, rubbing the light stubble on his chin as if he’s deep in thought. It gives me the perfect opportunity to take him in.
He’s much bigger than I remember, his shoulders broader and his arms thicker and more heavily chorded. Fine lines mark his face now, around his eyes and full mouth, and several strands of gray hair intermingle with the black ones. He’s older, and yet I won’t deny that it suits him perfectly. Every sign of aging seems only to serve to make him more attractive. And all the new tattoos inked onto his chest and arms make him so much sexier.
It also makes him scarier.
As if he senses me staring, he smiles. “Enjoying the view?”
“Why do you live in the middle of nowhere?” I demand, ignoring his question.
“It’s not the middle of nowhere. It’s the middle of my land.”
My jaw drops. “You own all this?”
“I own the land and everything on it.”
“You don’t own me,” I comment snidely.
He reaches for my hand and takes it. Then, bringing it to his face, he rolls it over until he can see the Diablos tattoo. Grinning, he arches a brow at me. “Are you sure about that?”
I attempt to snatch it away, but he holds it firmly and bites me there. The sting of his teeth against my sensitive flesh brings back memories of other times, years ago, when I welcomed his bite. Relished the pain because it was always accompanied by pleasure so intense that his nip creates an automatic response in me even now.
To my horror, a low pulse beats between my legs, and I clench them tight.
“You’re despicable,” I seethe.
Santos sighs and releases me as he slows the black El Camino we’re in when we come to the large gate at Las Cruzes.
Four men spring to their feet, opening the massive door to let us through. As they do, I stare at the name and laugh. “You know you’ve misspelled the name. It’s supposed to be Cruces with aC,” I add smartly.
“I didn’t name it. Tobias de la Cruz did,” he informs me. “He left it to me when he died.”
“Thenhedidn’t know how to spell.”
“He was smarter than you and me combined. Trust me, he knew how to spell. It was a play on his name.”
Tobias de la Cruz. Infamous cartel leader of the Diablos del Sur before Santos. Just as deadly, leaving a string of dead bodies wherever he went.
I’d do well to remember where Santos got his name from. I’ll never understand why he left the way he did. Or why he decided to run with a group of murderers like the Diablos. Then again, by the time I met him, he’d already set a course for a life of crime. I wasn’t enough to change the trajectory of it.
I turn back to the window as my chest tightens at the thought. It’s the memory of the hurt, I tell myself. It’s recalling the way my heart broke into a thousand pieces because he wanted a life without me.
The drive to the house takes about ten more minutes from the time we cross the gate—his land is that vast. It looks even grander because of the breathtaking canyons that surround it, so distant they look like they’ve been hand painted with hazy blues, greens, and browns.
There are crops of corn, beans, and squash, and just beyond that are the stables and buildings I assume hold the offices of the administrators.
