"I don't think Isa believes in violence," I mused thoughtfully, turning my attention to stare down at her. She tilted her head up at me as I spoke, the shock of her eyes meeting mine for the first time reverberating through me like a claim that I wouldneverescape.
I'd thought myself the captor in our relationship, but I suspected she'd own me just as thoroughly as I possessed her.
When her eyes rolled back and she faded back out a bit more, I turned my attention to the boy who swallowed against my palm. "Fuck, Isa" he laughed. "I thought you were a prude! You just like older men, huh, baby?"
I narrowed my eyes on him, clenching my fingers tighter so he gasped. "Are you always soestúpido?"
"Man, you ain't gonna do shit to me! There's an entire room of witnesses," he laughed on a wheeze. I nodded, releasing him as I leaned into his space.
"That may be so, but they have to go home at some point. Don't they? And who will protect you when I return?" I asked, watching as his face paled and he realized the severity of the situation. Normally, I wouldn't be bothered with killing a man if I couldn't do it in the moment.
For the first time, it was personal. I wouldn't tolerate another man being the one to watch the life bleed from his eyes as he fought for his last breaths. I'd be the only one to have that right.
Hugo stepped up to my right with Odina at his side, cursing and spitting at him as he dragged her to my view. The moment I turned my gaze to her, she silenced, staring up into my face in shock. She recovered quickly, smiling in a way she must have thought was seductive. Her eyes met mine, and it sent a shock of revulsion through me. They weren't Isa's, but they were close enough to be a mockery of everything I saw in her.
"Well, you could have just told me a handsome man demanded my time," she purred. In a move I'd practiced far too many times to count, I ran my eyes up over her body and to her face, and gave her an uninterested look that conveyed just how unimpressed I was. She glanced to her sister, rolling her eyes the moment she realized she was tucked safely in my arms. "Why do the fun ones always like the innocent virgins?" she asked, stepping closer to me. Her hand touched my thigh, moving toward my fly as she spoke. "Let me show you who the fun sister is."
I caught her hand, flinging it away from me before she could touch what wasn't hers. "How fun could a pale imitation be?" I asked, my voice cruel. She flinched, and I knew the words struck home. Whatever issues she had, they stemmed from some seriously misguided jealousy over the sister who only wanted to do right by her.
"Then what the fuck did you summon me for?"
"I know about the roofies in the water," I said simply. "I will make one thing very clear. If your shitevertouches Isa again, I will be the one to make sure you get your shit together. I promise you willnotlike my methods."
"Yeah. Okay, hotshot," she laughed. "That's an awful lot of trouble to go to for a bitch who won't even fuck you," she said, nodding to her sister.
"Ifyou ever endanger her intentionally again, I will make you disappear," I threatened, meaning every word. "You will not be in Isa's life to put her at risk." Hugo touched my shoulder, nodding down to Isa where she stared up at me with wide eyes. I sighed, wishing I could dedicate more time to making sure Odina truly understood the consequences of her actions in the future. "Deal with her," I said instead, sweeping an arm beneath Isa's legs to lift her up and cradle her against my chest. "She's not to breathe a word of this. I don't give a shit what you have to do." Tucking Isa's head into my shoulder, I strode out of the house as the crowd of teens parted to let me pass.
I'd known the moment I saw her that she'd be trouble for me. I just didn't realize I'd be threatening to kill two self-centered twats so soon.
Joaquin emerged from the shadows, hauling open the passenger door of my Ferrari and then disappearing once again after he gave me a nod. He knew that both his brothers would suffer for what they'd nearly allowed to happen to Isa, but he wisely refrained from commenting.
As I set her body in the seat and buckled her up, she lifted a tired arm to cradle my face in her palm. "Phantom," she whispered softly, the breathy note to her voice making the void in my chest clench.
If I'd had a heart, it would have beat for her.
I drew her hands off my face with a clearing of my throat, forcing distance between us to prevent her from crossing any lines in her intoxicated state. Dropping into the driver's seat, I started the ignition and drove more carefully than I might have without her in the car with me. She watched me cautiously, and not for the first time I wondered what she saw when she looked at me. Even in her only half-awareness, I couldn't help but be conflicted about what I wanted her to see.
Did she seeEl Diablo?Or did she somehow see a man that I wasn't even sure still lived inside me?
She blinked those uniquely stunning eyes, reminding me of just how wrong it had felt to have her sister's locked on me. "You were m-mean," she whispered, fighting for each word.
"I was mean?" I glanced back to the road in shock, having been so distracted by her that I'd forgotten I was driving.Neverin my life had I been so unaware of my surroundings.
"To my sister," she slurred. "Shouldn't have said she was imitation."
"I hardly think me being mean matters when the bitch drugged you," I said, watching as her head settled further into the seat. She didn't answer, sleeping the rest of the way as I drove to the home Joaquin had rented for him and his brothers.
When we finally made it, I lifted her into my arms and brought her into the house after Gabriel opened the door. "She needs a bed," I said, even if I detested the idea of her sleeping in any bed but mine. At least Hugo knew I would slaughter him if he so much as looked at her wrong.
I'd only just settled her in the bed and pulled the covers over her when Hugo and Joaquin got home with her mother's car and theirs. Hugo came into the room as I sat on the edge of the bed and ran my knuckles over her cheek. After slipping her shoes off her feet, I reached beneath her and pulled the phone free from her back pocket, touching the button to bring up the lock screen. “Passcode?” I asked.
“6948,” Hugo said immediately. Punching in the numbers, I rattled off a text to her mother saying that she’d crashed at Chloe’s house after she had boyfriend problems, and that she didn’t want her mother to worry.
"The sister?" I asked, setting the phone on the nightstand once that was done.
"Dealt with. She promised she wouldn't say anything about your threats, too," Hugo said.
"And what did you offer her for that bit of damage control?" I asked, glancing up at him. He hesitated, glancing to the window as he scrubbed the back of his head and then looked down at Isa. "What?"
"Nothing," he said. "She said she'd keep the secret, as long as I promised whatever we were planning would hurt Isa in the end."
"La hostia," Joaquin cursed.Holy shit.
"Something made Odina hate Isa so much that she would drug her and want her hurt," I said, standing from the bed with one last rueful glance at Isa. "I want to know what," I growled as I strode from the house.
I knew, without a doubt, that I couldn't see her again until she was mine. Until her vague memory of me faded and she wouldn't recognize me when we met.