Falling with Grace - Page 186

“I can’t do that.” He twisted the cap onto the bottle. “You know I hold a special place for you.”

My stinging lips closed as I subdued a laugh. “Yeah. I’m everyone’s favorite toy. Go…me.”

He stood, his boots scuffing against the hard floor. I sat upright, cradling my aching belly.

Miguel frowned. “The cramping should go away soon.”

A searing pressure pulsed through my skull, the room a dizzying whirlpool. “I guess he wants to keep me if he’s replaced this.” I tapped my arm where the small device sat under my skin, disrupting my hormones and preventing little mishaps from his eager men.

He shrugged one shoulder. “He’s still angry with you. I don’t think he’s decided yet.”

I snorted. “He’sangry withme?” My gaze skimmed over the bodies in the corner, then back to Miguel. “Let m-me go, M-Miguel. If you feel something for me, then help me leave.”

He shook his head. “You know I can’t do that.” He moved towards the door. “That’s a death sentence.”

My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth as I swallowed. “You’re going to die anyway once Elias finds me.”

He raised his brows, shut his eyes, and shook his head as he drew in a deep breath. “Elias has been searching for Andrés for years.” He rubbed his smooth jawline with the back of his knuckles. “He hadn’t found us then, and he won’t now.”

The ache in my belly morphed from mere hunger pangs and cramping to a malevolent sickness, a gnawing dread that coiled and twisted within me like a fanged beast poised to strike. My eyes stung. “He’ll find me.”

He will.

“Hope is good.” He shifted the water bottle to his other hand. “It keeps you fighting another day.”

“I’m not fighting anymore.” I turned my knee and covered my breasts as I rested against the wall opposite of him. “I’m just waiting to die.” My chin trembled as I stared at my naked legs coveredin blackened old blood, a mixture of their barbarism and the side effects thereafter. “Will you remove them for me?” I nodded towards my dead friends. “And give them a proper burial?”

“I’ll see what I can do.” He rounded the open door and braced his hand on the knob. “I hoped for more for you,cariño.”

I braced my head against the cemented wall. “I guess that’s all you’re capable of.”

He stepped towards me, his jaw tight, his finger pointed. “You act so ungrateful for what I’ve done for you.”

I snorted. “What have you…” I winced as I sat straighter. “Done for me?”

The lights beyond his dark, ruffled hair flickered, and I raised a brow.

“Killing those men who saw you at the border for one.” He stepped towards me, the lights twinkling like midnight stars.

“Why would you kill them?”

He huffed. “Because they saw you alive after I’d told him you drowned in the river.” His hair waved as he shook his head. “Don’t you get it? I tried to help you the only way I knew how…the only way I could.” His jaw pulsed, and the lights went out. “What the hell?” Miguel glanced back behind him into the open space.

Bang.

Rattatat.

“Fuck.” Miguel shuffled around in the dark.

Men shouted as they waged war below. Boots hit the ground like maddening heartbeats.

My skin hummed with energy, electrifying every sense available.

“Stay here.” Miguel slammed the door.

Where else am I supposed to go?

What’s going on?