for over an hour. I lost track of time after that, just kept heading south until I came to a break in the fence. A road lay beyond. I was numb, forcing myself to block out any feelings I had about leaving Tanner behind. Of seeing Diego and my papa again.
The minute I stepped out onto the pitch-black road, low lights from a waiting car glared, and the car came toward me. The back door opened, and I slipped inside. Two of Diego’s guards were in the front seats. They had guns at the ready, and their eyes scanned the forest.
“No one is coming,” I said, slipping back into Spanish. “This isn’t a trap.”
They clearly didn’t believe me, and drove slowly, checking for an ambush. When we were away from the compound and taking back roads to Lord knew where, they kept their focus on the rearview mirror, I assumed for any sign of attack.
Closing my eyes, I wrapped my arms around my waist. I found I couldn’t breathe when I thought of Tanner, and leaving him behind. Of him begging me not to go.
I rubbed at my chest and tried to stave off the panic I felt building inside me. And I fought it as we arrived on a rural airfield and took my father’s private plane back to Mexico. As the plane soared into the sky, dawn began to break. The sky boasted a vibrant pink painting. I stared at the Texan ground below me and prayed, with everything I had, that Tanner would one day find happiness. And that one day again, in the next life or beyond, we would find each other again.
*****
I stared at the hacienda and had to fight my hands from shaking. I didn’t know what awaited me beyond the familiar wooden doors. But I wasn’t the woman who had left. I was coming back with knowledge of my father and ex-fiancé that I would never have previously believed.
The car came to a halt, and the guard who’d picked me up opened the door. I climbed out and made my way up the stairs. When I went inside, the foyer seemed cold and barren. And I now knew this was a house built on the pain and suffering of innocent women. On their loss of freedom and blood.
Carmen came rushing from the direction of my suites. The woman who had taken care of me since I was a child threw her arms around me and held me tightly. I held her back. “Adelita,” she whispered, and I saw relief on her face. “Come. Let us get you cleaned up and out of these clothes.” I glanced down at my black jeans, boots, and the Hangmen tank Beauty had given me. I felt a sudden urge to push Carmen away.
“I am going to see my father.” I headed in the direction in his office. Carmen stood in my path, face flustered.
“No, Lita. He has insisted you be cleaned and rested after your ordeal. He will visit you when his business is done.”
Pure anger ripped through me, and I pushed around Carmen, determination in my step. I marched to my father’s office. I didn’t bother knocking, simply pushed the door open and walked inside.
My father sat behind his desk. Diego sat in the opposite seat. At my entrance, they both spun around. Annoyance drifted across my father’s face until he saw it was me. Then his eyes absorbed what I was wearing. His face wore an angry expression. “I told Carmen to make sure you were to rest before I came to see you.”
“Tell me it isn’t true,” I demanded, working hard to stop my voice from shaking. My father’s head tilted to the side. As he sat before me, I felt like I was staring down a stranger. “Tell me it isn’t true.”
“What isn’t true?”
“The women,” I said, my voice losing strength. “The women and young girls you steal and sell to men for sex. To be slaves and God knows what else.”
My father was good. I knew there were years of schooling his expression—to enemies and business partners—that made sure his face remained neutral. But I was his daughter. And I saw, by a flash in his eyes, that it was true. It was all true. I knew this, of course. But to witness the lack of guilt in his eyes, eyes I had admired all my life . . . it was like taking a hammer to my heart.