Oh, she wanted to speak to her sister, too. “Where is she?”
“Changing Jorge,” he added. “She’ll be out in a minute.”
“Thank you.”
Kane offered them a drink, which they both declined. Together, they made their way to the sofa and sat in uncomfortable silence. Thankfully, Valeria emerged with her long hair piled on top of her head and Jorge in her arms, looking adorably fresh from a bath with slicked-down hair and a dimpled smile.
Laila jumped up from the sofa. “Sobrino!”
Valeria handed Jorge to her with a soft glance of love. “He missed you.”
“I missed him.” She clutched the boy close, basking in the hint of his powdery baby smell. “It has only been three weeks since I saw him, but he has grown so much!”
Her sister nodded. “More every day, it seems.”
“He is recovered from his illness?”
“Completely.”
“Good.” Laila swallowed, then looked at her sister with a million questions in her eyes. She didn’t dare ask them in front of Trees and Kane. And if she switched to Spanish, Kane would understand. They needed privacy. “Where can we talk?”
Valeria hesitated. Clearly, her sister knew she was displeased.
“The bedroom?” Kane offered.
Laila nodded to her sister. “I will follow you.”
Clutching Jorge, she kissed his little head as she and Valeria made their way to the back of the small but comfortable unit. Inside, she sat on the edge of the bed and bounced Jorge on her knee.
Valeria shut the door. “We are alone.”
“Why did you betray me? Why did you tell Trees where to find me?”
Apology softened her face. “Because I am worried about you.”
“I am doing all I can to keep you and Jorge safe.”
“If you had asked me, I would have told you not to risk your life. I pay EM Security to do that.”
Laila huffed. She understood her sister’s perspective, but as before, they saw this matter differently. “They have yet to succeed. If I do it myself, I know it will be done.”
“At what cost?” Valeria took Jorge from her, set him in the playpen, then turned back to her. “You are my only sister. Other than Jorge, you are my only family. You worry about us—”
“Of course I do.”
“We worry about you.”
“So you sent Trees to stop me?”
“I sent Trees to make sure you stop baiting dangerous men who would make your end terrifying and awful simply for the sport of it and leave me without the sister I love. We have been apart for too long. After I escaped, I felt incredibly guilty that circumstances did not allow me to bring you along. I could not save you for nearly two years. I did not risk everything to get you free so that you could throw yourself back to the wolves in some misguided attempt to save me. Stop sacrificing yourself for everyone else and start living for yourself.”
Laila sighed. Of course Valeria saw the situation that way. And she could hardly tell her older sister to care less. “As Emilo’s wife, you did not see the worst of his men, of their plans. You do not grasp how they think. You do not understand just how ruthless—”
“They can be?” Valeria laughed bitterly. “My husband did not love me. He did not even like me. To survive, I had to learn his business, hoard information, figure out how to manipulate him and those around him to provide for my own comfort, as well as yours and Mamá’s.” Then her sister seemed to remember Laila’s reality, and her voice grew small. “Or I tried. I had no idea what was happening to you…”
“We have been over this. You could not have known. Emilo made sure of it.”
“But I should have guessed.” Valeria did not often cry, but she looked close to breaking down.
She had also inadvertently made the point Laila had been trying to. “You did not because you do not understand the criminals and degenerates of that horrible cartel.”
Her sister fell silent, gripping the side of the playpen as if she needed the support and strength. “If I could tear the whole thing down, I would. Today. In one fell swoop. I would wipe it off the planet and I would laugh.”
“I know.” Laila would like that, too. But she understood full well that something more violent would only grow and metastasize into that criminal space. Because she was a realist, she had been happy to settle for eliminating the people who wanted her and her sister dead. “Why did you send Trees after me?”
“I did not. He came to me, desperate to find you.”
Laila hadn’t expected that. “And you told him where to find me? I trusted you.”
“He loves you.”
“Did he say that?”
Valeria frowned. “Has he not told you?”
He had…before circumstance had forced her to break his heart. “It does not matter.”
“It does,” Valeria insisted. “You have the one thing I never will, a man willing to give you his whole heart. Trees stood here less than twenty-four hours ago and promised to bring you back safely if I told him where to find you. So when he admitted that he loves you, I spilled everything.”
“That was yesterday?” After she had sent him the video? Apparently, and she shouldn’t really be surprised. Hadn’t she wondered on their way here if it was possible Trees still loved her?
“You can be angry if you want, but I would do it again. For you, hermana.”
“What if I did not love him in return?”
Valeria’s gaze was softly chiding. “Why ask when you do? I had only to see the way you looked at him just now to know how you feel. But you are afraid. Is that why you fight him?”
Laila considered her sister’s question. The truth smacked her in the face. “Except for you and Jorge, everyone I love has been taken from me. It is easier not to love anymore.”
“Easier but empty. What sort of life will you have with no one in it? I can tell you. Meaningless. Jorge gives me purpose and a child’s love, but what I would not give for a man’s strong, protective arms around me. For him to give me more children and stand beside me as we raise them. I threw myself at Mr. Preston.” Valeria looked embarrassed. “He would not have me.”
Empathy softened Laila. Valeria had never expressed any of these feelings, and she was stunned by her sister’s loneliness. “I am sorry.”
“If I upset you, I am sorry, too. But I meant well.”
Valeria had. She always had. And Laila now had a lot to think about.