Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 47626 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 191(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47626 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 191(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
“I would love to go to the library, but I am sure we can’t leave here, right?”
“That is correct, Piccola. However, I can bring the library to you.” She cocks her head to the side like she is unsure what I mean. I walk over to the tablet and bring it back to her. I open my purchasing account and hand it to her. Her eyes light up when she realizes what I mean. “Get whatever you fancy.”
She spends the next thirty minutes filling the cart up with not only books, but movies she had wanted to see and clothes she wants. She buys cute cups and a coffee machine. When she is done, she looks at me, shocked by the total she hasn’t paid attention to this entire time. I see her mind ticking away at her perceived error, but I simply smile and press purchase after selecting the same day delivery for things that are qualified.
“I…I don’t know what to say,” she says ,yawning and raising her hands above her head. Simple things tire her out right now, but she needs the rest.
“Piccola, why don’t you go take a nap. I will wake you when it is time to eat. She nods her head, yawning again and then she turns back to me.
“Thank you for everything.” She makes me want to be a better man, but this is who I am.
“You don’t have to thank me angel. Most of your things will be here in two days. Until then, you can read on my Kindle.” Before she answers me, she is out like a light. I pull the blanket over her and kiss her head before walking out of the room. Fuck. How am I going to let her go?
An hour has passed, and I have spent it making a light salad for her and some grilled fish. Before I can go to wake her, the phone rings. I already know who it is without looking.
“Boss.”
“LB. I assume the girl is ready for transport?” Shit. I thought I had another couple of days. My mind begins to panic at the thought of letting her go, but I knew this was the assignment right? I mean what did I expect to happen? No one told me to fall for her. The thoughts are coming like sniper bullets, and I don’t have a form of attack. “Is there something you want to tell me? Is there a reason you have not dropped her off, or at least making plans to do so, let’s say in the next twelve hours?” My heart is hammering, going out of control, begging me to say something, anything to give us more time for me to come up with a plan and then I think of the one thing that could work in our favor.
“Actually boss, she gave me some intel we didn’t know.”
“Is that so? What could she have said that would be of interest to me?”
“She is being married off to one of the Lozado’s.” Silence meets my statement, and she is either doing one of two things, getting pissed about this information or trying to figure out why I am wasting her time.
It feels hours have gone by and I can hear muffled conversation, intermittently with cries of an infant and the babbling of a baby. Finally she speaks.
“Is this a fucking joke, LB? Some bullshit you have cooked up to not give her back? Have you fucked her?” My skin begins to get hot listening to her reduce my Piccola to a whore, but I swallow so I don’t spell instant death for the both of us.
“No. I would never disrespect you in such a way that would waste your time, boss. She knows this for a fact.”
“Those leeches. Does her father know what they will do to her? All of their brides disappear once an heir has been born. What the actual fuck.” Her righteous anger makes my muscles intense. “This is what we are going to do. I am going to have this information confirmed. In the meantime you two stay there where it is safe. Should this be true, you will be bringing her to Miami, to Quan, so she is under the protection of us all. But so help me, LB, if you are lying, I will bleed you like the rest of them. Are we clear?”
“Yes.”
“Very well. I will be in touch.” Once the phone has been disconnected, I place both of my palms on the counter and take a deep breath. We dodged a bullet. For now.
“So when do you have to take me back?” I hear whispered behind me. Shit. I didn’t know she was awake. I turn to her and try to smile to put her at ease. She is standing by the wall, biting her lip which is trembling, looking like a lost puppy.