to say to me?”
Dimitri’s mouth relaxed as he watched me. He touched his fingers over my forehead, smoothing them along my cheek, and kept silent, one side of his mouth shifting up. “When this is over, it will be…just us. No bullshit. No excuses. Just you, me, and the baby. The three of us.”
I held my breath, unable to keep my heartbeat from rattling against my ribs. Smoke didn’t lower that smile when I grabbed his hand, pulling it from my face. “What does that mean exactly?”
“No delays. All of us, under the same roof. Together. We’ll be a family, bella.”
“I…”
My cell chimed with a text and I straightened, moving away from Dimitri. He grabbed it before I had a chance and from the expression on his face, what he saw there deflated the mounting happiness that had distracted him just seconds before.
“What?” I said, ripping the phone from his hand.
“He wants us to come, right now.”
Alejandro did, in fact. The picture was dark, but I could make out Mateo’s bright eyes, my eyes, and the dimples in his perfectly round cheeks.
I opened the text message accompanying the image and the muscles along my jaw tensed. “Let’s go,” I told Dimitri, forgetting everything but the desire to get my baby away from that bastard.
As we left the car, the cell pushed in my back pocket, I reminded myself that staying off the water and with Smoke was the game plan. No matter what Alejandro wanted, I wouldn’t do what his message demanded.
Alone time with the gringo is over.
Now come home to your husband.
17
Maggie
The shack was small, with worn apple green lap siding around the surface. Some of the pieces had rotted or were completely missing in certain areas while the small, eight-foot-deep front porch was shy the left side-railing.
Dimitri walked in front of me, his gun in the waistband of his jeans and another one strapped to his ankle. If Alejandro had been watching before we left, he’d know where Dimitri had kept his protection. But a sweep of his office had come up empty, unlike the restaurant and my apartment. We were banking on my ex not being ballsy enough to infiltrate all of Dimitri’s security measures.
“Keep behind me,” he warned, reaching his hand back for me as we came to the porch.
“He’s not gonna like you touching me,” I tried, earning a slow look over his shoulder for my effort.
“Easy, mami,” I heard as we came to the porch, spotting the open front door shielded only by an old screen door. “Nice and slow.” Alejandro’s voice was lower now than it had been on the phone, calmer somehow. But it didn’t fill me with anything resembling ease. “Open the door, gringo. Let my wife in first.”
“That’s not gonna happen,” he said, stepping forward, then Dimitri paused, tensing when the sound of a gun clicking seemed to echo.
“I have no problem shooting you where you stand. But I’d rather not upset my son or my wife.” Alejandro moved, coming to the door. His body was shaded by the darkness in the small cottage, but I could make out the thin silhouette of his body and the glint from his gun as he held it up.
When neither of us moved and Dimitri kept everything but the glare he threw at Alejandro still, the man seemed to give in, just a little bit.
“I’m not going to hurt her. That’s a promise.”
“You took our son,” he said. “You invaded our lives with your cameras. Your word means dick to me.”
“Our. Son,” Alejandro corrected through gritted teeth. “Besides, you can’t stalk someone who belongs to you,” he said, his voice low, each word releasing with a sharp bite. “She’s my wife—”
“Not anymore. She divorced your ass and as long as I’m here, she’s standing behind me.” He inhaled, moving his head to the side, squinting like he tried to get the make of Alejandro, see how far he could push him. “Back up and we’ll come inside.”
“Fine, gringo,” he answered, moving back into the dark cottage. “Watch yourself.”
Dimitri nodded, shifting his gaze to me, not meeting my face directly. He squeezed my hand before he reached for the screen door and opened it.
I moved behind him, my fingers against his back, my heart thudding in my ears. I took slow, even breaths before we moved across the threshold. Then, my gaze was everywhere, at everything, looking at the small table to the right, at the monitors that lit up one corner of the