Lucia shrugged. ‘I know I should have backed off. I knew there was a chance you’d figure out who I was …’
‘So, why didn’t you?’
‘Because, I also know that if I’m important to her, then by default, maybe I’m important to you. And that keeps me, and my baby, safe.’
I sat back in my chair and rubbed a hand across my jaw. I hadn’t been expecting that level of honesty.
‘Hey, don’t judge me. It’s self-preservation. I’ve had to survive on my own for the past eight years.’
‘No judgement from me. We all do what we have to, kid. Tell me what happened the night your father and brothers were murdered.’
She swallowed and I saw the slight trembling in her lip before she regained her composure. I didn’t enjoy making her relive the experience, but it seemed like she was going to become my houseguest for the foreseeable future and I had to know what I was letting myself in for.
‘Eight men came into my house while we were sleeping. Four of them were my father’s own men. They knew the alarm codes. They knew where he kept his guns. They dragged all of us into the kitchen. Tony and Nico put up a fight. My father did too. But there were too many of them. They shot them all in the head while I watched. When they shot my father, his brains exploded all over the kitchen. As they were laughing and wiping themselves down, I ran out of the back door. They chased me of course, but I had been running through those streets since I was eight years old. They were never going to catch me,’ she said as she wiped a tear from her eye.
‘Did you see the men who killed them?’
She nodded. ‘You took care of all of them, Mr Montoya, don’t worry about that,’ she said with a half-smile. ‘I suppose I should thank you.’
I ignored her last remark. The truth was we had taken out the firm responsible, but it had been nothing to do with Lucia and her family, and I wasn’t stupid enough to admit anything to this kid.
‘You said you’ve been surviving on your own for eight years? Why?’
She looked at me, her frown turning to a scowl as though she was annoyed at herself for revealing too much. ‘You heard the rumors about my father,’ she said with a shrug. ‘He was every bit the evil bastard people believed him to be. You think because I was his child, I was spared any of that? And my brothers weren’t much better. Pigs!’ she spat.
She shifted in her seat and suddenly looked like a frightened little girl again. Her father was a snake. He double crossed almost everyone he worked with and it made him many enemies. I’d also heard the rumors about his cruel streak too, and now I wondered just how far that went. I wasn’t about to ask her though. That was her business. ‘Your mom died when you were eight?’ I asked instead. I already knew that but I wanted to hear it from her.
‘Yep. He killed her. The only person in my life who ever gave a shit about me.’
It was my turn to frown now. Her mom had died from an overdose. ‘He killed her?’
‘Yep. He might not have forced those pills down her neck himself, but he was the reason she took them.’
I nodded and we sat there in silence for a few moments.
‘Does anyone but Blake know you’re in L.A?’ I asked her.
‘I don’t think so. He probably told his cousin, Kalvin, but he’s just a pot-head, and he doesn’t know anyone worth telling.’
I nodded. Little did she know, Kalvin had already been taken care of a few weeks earlier when my men had been looking for Blake.
‘If anyone is still looking for you, it’s only a matter of time before they find you. You know that? And I can’t put my family in danger, Lucia.’
‘I know,’ she sniffed. ‘If I could just stay here until I figure out my next move? I could apply for emancipation, but you’re right, that could take months. Maybe you could get me some new papers instead? I could move on to somewhere new and start afresh – again!’
I couldn’t help but smile at her. We both knew that she was always going to be a target. She would always need protecting until she was capable of protecting herself.
I ran my hands through my hair. I knew that I would live to regret this, but what choice did I have? ‘You can stay here until we can figure out a more permanent solution.’
She looked up at me, her eyes wide with surprise. ‘Really’
‘Yes. Really. I’ll have my lawyer sort out the paperwork to make Alana and I your legal guardians for now.’
‘Thank you so much. You won’t regret it, I promise,’ she said with a huge smile.
‘I’d better not. But before you go running to tell Alana, I need you to know that if you are under this roof, you will do whatever I ask you to do, Lucia.’
She blinked at me and suddenly her smile was gone, and her eyes were full of fear. She visibly trembled in her seat, her knuckles white as her hands gripped the armrests on the chair. I felt the bile rising in my throat. What the fuck had this girl been through?