Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 105089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 525(@200wpm)___ 420(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 525(@200wpm)___ 420(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
So weird.
“What’s going on?”
She looked over in surprise to find Reuben in the kitchen. He was filling a travel mug with coffee.
“Is everything all right?” Reuben asked.
“No, it’s not!” She tugged at her hair as she glared at Rafael. “You are infuriating! You cannot open bathroom doors on me! What if I was in the shower? Or pooping? I get to poop in private!”
Reuben’s eyes widened. “What?”
“You were taking too long. I was . . . concerned.”
“Concerned, my ass.”
“Sounds like he was concerned about your ass,” Reuben joked.
“Nope. No! No jokes. Rafael, do not open the door when I’m in the bathroom.”
“He did what?”
Oh. Crap. Mierda.
She thought that Alejandro had left already.
And what just burst out of her mouth sounded pretty bad. The Scot, who stood with Alejandro, stared at her in shock.
“What happened?” Alejandro asked Rafael.
“He was going to unscrew the bathroom door! While I was in it!”
“She was taking too long,” Rafael said coolly. “I was concerned.”
“I get that I made a mistake. Two mistakes. I know that you’re trying to protect me. But if I want to hide in the bathroom to talk to my friend, then I will.”
She stormed out of the kitchen. Ooh, she wanted to kick something. Where could she go?
The gym.
It wasn’t her favorite place generally. But all this anger had to go somewhere.
As she strode into the gym, she called Nighthawk, putting him on speaker.
“Yo, Kittycat! You on for a game?”
She could hear a game in the background.
“No, I need something from you.”
“I don’t know, Kittycat,” he replied. “Kind of busy here.”
“This is serious! I need your help with finding an undetectable poison.” She stopped by the punching bag. She didn’t see any gloves around, but she didn’t need them.
“Poison? You finally taking out Alejandro?”
“No! He’s insufferable, but he’s mine. This is for Rafael.”
“Ahh, Sourpuss.”
“He’s being impossible. I’m going to put it in a bar and feed it to him.”
“Got you. Give me a minute; I’ll be back.”
The call muted and she drew her fist back, punching the bag. She let out a cry as it smashed against her knuckles.
Ow. Ouch. Fuck, that hurt.
“Jesus, Little Queen! What are you doing?” The Scot walked into the gym.
“Punching a rock, apparently. Ouch! Mierda! How can anyone stand to punch that thing? It’s made of concrete.”
“You’re not supposed to do it with your bare fist. Ah, shit. Look at your knuckles. Alejandro will kill me.”
“Why? You didn’t do it.”
“No, but he sent me down to check on you.”
He led her to sit down on a bench close by. Then he went to the small fridge/freezer and pulled out an ice pack.
It had a picture of a dragon on it.
“Hey, this one is mine!”
“Ahh, yeah. Alejandro wanted them in every freezer in the house.”
“How many freezers do we have?”
“I dunno. Four? Five? There are some downstairs.”
Holy. Heck.
“I get why I need a bodyguard when I leave the house. And I know I messed up trying to sneak out. Also, I really messed up in North Dakota. I just . . . I don’t know. Does that mean I can never leave the house again?”
“No one is saying that.”
“Rafael says it all the time. ‘No, Cat’ is his favorite phrase.”
His lips twitched and she glared at him.
“Sorry, Little Queen. For what it’s worth, I don’t think he’s a bad guy. He just takes his job very seriously. Things in Mexico were tough for him. He was undercover in Ruiz’s cartel for years until they figured out that Rafael was a rat. He escaped, but he didn’t come out the same man. Who knows what he was made to do by Ruiz? He’s a terrible guy. So you can bet Rafael’s life was pretty fucking awful while he was working for him.”
“Still doesn’t mean he gets to take off my bathroom door. Who does that?”
“Alejandro. If he thought you were in trouble.”
Shit. Since that was something Alejandro had basically done, she couldn’t argue that.
“Maybe he should go back to Mexico,” she muttered. “I’d help him with a boot up his ass.”
The Scot snorted.
“He just . . . it’s like he doesn’t see me. I’m just a job to him, I guess.”
“Then make him see you. You’re a Little Queen. Show him how this Queen reigns.”
“I was going to with a kick up the backside.”
“Bet you can do better than that.”
Hmm.
Maybe she could.
“Alejandro already said that I can’t bake for him.”
“Of course not. You’re not allowed to use the oven. Although that’s a sweet thought.”
Sweet thought? Oh, he thought she was going to seriously bake for him?
Yeah. Not happening.
14
“Sit down.” Alejandro gestured at the seat across from his desk.
Fuck. Maybe he’d made a mistake agreeing that Rafael could come here.
But after everything he’d sacrificed, Alejandro wanted to give him anything he needed.
However, the one thing he wouldn’t allow him to do was hurt Cat. That was the one thing Alejandro would never compromise on.