Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 80139 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80139 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
“Hawk…” From Daniela.
“No, don’t Hawk me.” His voice is low but furious. “Robin, what the hell?”
“I meant for it to be transactional.”
The room goes very still again. Hawk looks like I’ve slapped him. Daniela’s face fills with pain. She knows. She’s been in the same situation.
“It was before I knew everything,” I say quickly. “Before I knew about Eagle. I was trying to survive. I thought maybe if he wanted me, if he cared, if I could make myself matter to him… It might protect me.”
Daniela’s eyes soften. “Oh, Robin.”
I shake my head. “But it wasn’t like that. That’s the problem. It started in my head like that, but it didn’t feel like that. It felt…”
I look away.
Real.
I can’t say the word.
Not with Eagle still in the hospital.
Not with Hawk looking at me like he wants to burn down the entire continent of South America at the same time.
“It felt like something more to you,” Daniela says softly.
My throat aches.
I nod.
Hawk makes a rough sound and turns away again.
“I know,” I say. “I know how it sounds.”
“How it sounds?” He turns back, eyes blazing. “He was also the one who kidnapped you in the first place, Robin.”
“I know.”
He squints. “I don’t know why you’re even feeling anything for this guy.”
I wrap my arms tighter around myself. “I don’t either.”
Hawk exhales hard. “He put Eagle in the hospital.”
“I know.”
“He dragged you to Colombia.”
“I know.”
“He worked for Vega.”
“I know.”
“Then what is there to feel besides rage?”
Daniela stands between us, not physically, but somehow emotionally. “I understand,” she says quietly.
Hawk looks at her. “Daniela.”
“I do.” Her voice is gentle but firm. “Not because Cruz is innocent. He isn’t. But because feelings sometimes don’t make sense.”
I almost laugh.
Then I almost cry.
Hawk shakes his head. “That’s not—”
“It is,” she says. “Sometimes the person who hurts you is also the person who saves you from something worse. Sometimes your body trusts before your mind can make sense of it. Sometimes your heart attaches itself to the one hand reaching for you in the dark, even if that hand has blood on it.”
Hawk stares at her.
Something passes between them.
Something I don’t know. Maybe I’m not meant to know.
But they made it. Whatever impossible, forbidden, complicated thing happened between them, they found a road through.
Daniela looks at me. “I understand why your heart is broken right now.”
I swallow. “It shouldn’t be.”
“But it is.”
I look down at my hands. They’re shaking. “I can’t be with him.”
“I know.”
I shake my head. “I can’t bring him into this family. I can’t sit beside Eagle knowing Cruz is the reason he almost died.”
“I know.”
“I did the right thing.”
Daniela’s eyes fill with sympathy. “Maybe you did.”
Hawk drops his jaw. “Maybe?”
She doesn’t look away from me. “Doing the right thing doesn’t always make it hurt less.”
I press my lips together to keep from crying.
I’m not sure what to say next, when—
The doorbell rings.
All three of us freeze.
Hawk frowns. “Who the hell is that?”
“Maybe our mother booked an entertainer for my welcome home party,” I say, trying to sound jovial but failing.
Hawk frowns at me.
“What?” I say. “Fireworks. A mariachi band. A magician who makes trauma disappear.”
The doorbell rings again.
Hawk is already moving. “Stay here.”
“No.”
Mom appears near the dining room entrance, wiping her hands on a towel. “Who is it?”
“That’s what we’re finding out,” Hawk says.
Vinnie’s voice comes from somewhere behind her. “Hawk?”
“Got it.”
Hawk reaches the front door first.
I glance through the side window.
Every drop of blood in me turns cold.
Because it’s Cruz.
Hawk opens the door. “Who the hell are you?”
44
CRUZ
Robin’s jaw drops.
For one second, I let myself look at her.
Really look.
She’s home. She’s safe. She’s dressed in clean clothes, her hair is clean, shiny, and loose around her shoulders. She looks like she belongs here, in this sprawling Texas house surrounded by people who would kill for her without hesitating.
She also looks like something I should never touch.
The man who answered the door is Hawk Bellamy. He’s easy to identify—the only Bellamy brother with blue eyes.
I watched him for days in Texas. Not up close like this. Not with him standing between me and Robin like he’d gladly tear my spine out through my throat and then enjoy what smells like a great dinner.
But I know his face. His build. The way he carries himself.
The woman beside him is Daniela Agudelo. Daughter of Jacinto Agudelo, who was once in Vega’s circle.
Hawk’s eyes narrow. “You going to answer me? Who the hell are you?”
I keep my hands visible. No sudden movements. No reaching into pockets. No glancing around. “My name is Cruz Moreno.”
Hawk’s eyebrows nearly fly off his head.
His lips twist into a scowl. “You have a lot of nerve showing up here.”
Robin inhales sharply. “Hawk—”
He ignores her, stepping closer to me. “After what you did to Eagle.”
I don’t move.
“And Robin.” His voice drops into something colder than shouting. “You show up at my family’s front door?”