Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 118333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
My lip twitched, fighting a smile. “I have hair.”
“You look different.” Adelita ran her dark eyes all over me. “Parts of you are still the same, but you seem different. Does that make sense?”
I nodded. “You look exactly the same. Still beautiful. Still perfect. Still you.”
“And still yours.” As those words left Adelita’s mouth, coldness ran through me. She must have seen it. Her smile fell and her face clouded with worry.
“Am I still yours?”
Adelita froze, then dropped her eyes. A second later her gaze met mine, and she took my hand. “Always.” She took a deep breath, then slowly straddled my thighs. Her arms hooked around my neck. “I love you, Tanner. I never stopped. In fact, when you left, my love for you only grew.” Her voice went hoarse, then she held my face. “I never let him touch me.” I blew out a breath I didn’t even know I was fucking holding. “I have only ever made love to you. I couldn’t . . . I wouldn’t . . .” She trailed off.
“You were marrying him.”
Adelita’s head shook back and forth. “He wasn’t you. Would never have been you.” Her husky voice told me she was getting upset again. “My father . . .” She blinked away tears that were building in her eyes. “He made it happen. I resisted his plan for me and Diego for as long as I could. But he planned it all. I didn’t know what to do or how to get out of it.” Adelita dropped her head to meet mine. “Even if I had been forced to marry him, I still would have been yours. You cannot give your heart to someone when it is already owned by another. I would have found a way, Tanner. To leave. To run. To get to you . . . somehow.” Adelita’s expression changed to what looked like worry. “And . . . you? Has there been anyone else for you?”
I rolled Adelita beneath me. “No one. Only you, princess.”
The smile that pulled on her lips knocked the breath from my fucking lungs. I kissed her. I kissed her for so long her lips looked bruised when I finally pulled away.
“I don’t want to go back,” she said and the effect of her father’s betrayal was written all over her face. “I am not going back to those men, Tanner. Because if my papa is involved in this, so is Diego.” Her dark eyes flared with anger. “I cannot face them after learning this. After seeing Saffie, the girl my father hurt over and over . . . after hearing from the other women . . .” Adelita inhaled slowly through her nose, her eyes momentarily closing. When they opened, she said, “Did you ever dream we would be here like this?”
“Yes.”
“Me too.” She kissed me, then whispered, “Please don’t make me go back now we’ve found each other again.”
“You ain’t going anywhere.”
In minutes, I was inside her again. Adelita’s arms never let me go all night, and her lips never stopped touching my skin. I didn’t care what anyone had to say. She was here with me now.
And she was fucking going nowhere.
I’d die before I let anyone take her from my arms.
Chapter Nine
Styx
One week later . . .
“We ain’t got any intel yet,” Shadow said. “They’ve gone quiet, which in my experience is never good.”
I lifted my hands and signed, “You hear anything—anything at all from the Quintanas—and you let us know straight away.” Ky spoke for me.
Chavez nodded his head. “Will do.” I stared at Chavez and couldn’t get my mother’s journals from my head. Mae didn’t know, but when she went to bed at night, I came downstairs, poured myself a fucking strong whiskey, and read. Mae had been reading them too. And I knew when she’d reached something she thought was important. From the minute I came in at night, she looked at me differently or came over to me and kissed me, wrapping her arms around me, choking me to fuck. It was always when my mother had mentioned me. About how she’d run to Sanchez, run away from me and my old man. Fucked off out my life.
I didn’t mean to fall for him. I went to him for help. To get River away from the club. But when I saw Raul Sanchez, everything changed. He didn’t treat me like a whore. He didn’t belittle me like Shade did every single day. He didn’t make me feel unwanted—in fact it was quite the opposite.
I stood in his office, asking for help. I was so nervous. Sanchez knew who I was. He asked me if I was Reaper’s old lady. I told him the truth. That I had never been more than a whore for him to play around with, toy with like a pet. I told Sanchez he had my boy. My son. I told him I wanted out of the club. And I wanted my son out too. I wanted him away from Reaper and the club, period.