His throat works hard to swallow as he battles to contain his anger. I stare at him, shocked and muted. Just from looking in his eyes, I know the past two and a half months have been as torturous to him as they have been for me, but that doesn’t stop me from standing my ground. I’ve waited for this day for years, and I'm not backing away without a fight.
“Katie wouldn’t be in this situation if I hadn’t forced her to come with me. She didn’t want to go, Enrique, but I stupidly begged her to come.”
Rico drops his hand from running along the scruff on his chin. “Katie is in this predicament because I was looking at someone I shouldn’t have been looking at. If I’d just kept my mouth shut to Sergei’s taunt, none of this would have happened. Not to you and not to Katie. It isn’t your fault, Blaire. Nothing that happened that day was your fault.”
“We both take blame for what happened that day. Then shouldn’t we both have the chance to exonerate ourselves?”
He takes a step closer to me, surrounding me with his spicy scent. “I gave up everything I’ve ever wanted to save you from this lifestyle, and now you expect me to let you back in?”
I shake my head, sending the first lot of tears onto my cheeks. “No. I’m not asking you to let me back in. I’m just pleading for you to understand the guilt I harbor from that day. I feel responsible for what happened. This is the only way I’ll can ease the guilt I’ve been carrying the past ten years. It will give me the chance to move on.”
His eyes blaze into mine. “To move on from this? Or us?” he sneers before he has the chance to stop his callous words.
From the anger projected in his voice, I know he's aware of the kiss Colt and I shared, but now is not the time to discuss the stupid mistakes we’ve both made in our tumultuous relationship. Katie needs to remain our upmost priority.
I hold his vehement stare, striving to display I’ve matured a lot the past three months. I’m not the same Blaire he married within hours of meeting. I'm stronger and more determined.
When the silence becomes too great for me to ignore, I mumble, “I’m not the one who filed for divorce.” I cringe, loathing that my voice comes out with a quiver. “I would have never given up on you like you did me.” I keep my tone low, ensuring his crew won’t hear my painstaking confession.
“I did that for you,” Rico mutters. “Every terrible thing I’ve done the past three months, I did for you. But Inevergave up on you. Isavedyou from a life of misery.”
An ache hits my chest when a cloud of pain filters over his beautiful eyes, but it’s nothing compared to the agony I’ve been harboring the past two and a half months.
“We made promises to each other the night we got married. You never gave me the chance to uphold my vows.”
Rico’s eyes bounce between mine for several heart-clutching seconds. They’re still the darkest I’ve seen, but I know the real Rico is hiding in there somewhere. A man can’t walk the earth without a soul, and his beautiful eyes show his soul is just as remarkable as his outer shell.
“I loved you enough to save you from my lifestyle,” he murmurs, his voice low and pained.
“And Iloveyou enough I would have chosen to stay.” My voice cracks with a range of emotions. “But you never gave me the chance to prove it. You took away my right to choose who I can or cannot love.”
His stern mask slips, exposing a flare of emotion. Although his appearance makes him seem like an emotionally detached person, I know that isn’t true. He’s a deeply emotional man who would do anything to protect the people he loves.
I hold his agonized stare as I mutter, “Please don’t take this away from me as well, Enrique. I need closure for what happened to Katie. This will give me closure.”
The dark cloud in his eyes fades as he considers my plea. Regret. Hope. Worry. They all blaze through his beautifully tormented eyes as he stands across from me muted in silence. When he takes a step closer to me, Erik attempts to speak, but Rico raises his hand into the air, cutting him off. Anxiety spurs on my furious pulse. It isn’t just concern that he will deny my pleas that has my heart rate quickening; it's my body’s reaction to the closeness of its mate. Even in the most heart-strangling situation, his closeness still incites a carnal desire to run ravenously through me.
The past three months of despair disappear in an instant when he places his hand on the curve of my jaw and locks his glistening eyes with mine. It won’t matter if its endured two months of heartache or two years, his touch will always heal my maimed heart.
“Please, Enrique” I beg, returning his ardent stare.
His smoldering eyes stare into mine. “You're to stay in the car with Brent the entire time.”
I sigh in relief before issuing him my gratitude with a smile.
His spicy scent adds to the giddiness in my stomach when he tilts into my side and mutters, “But if you so much as touch your seatbelt latch, that spanking I gave you the last time we slept together will be the least of your worries.” His tone is deep and full of warning.
Ignoring the way his threat both scared and thrilled me, I nod. . . a little overeagerly.
A little aftermidnight Monday morning, I'm seated in the front passenger seat of a black Escalade three doors up from the house where they believe Katie is being held captive. Over the past several hours, Rico and Erik gave me a general rundown of the conditions Katie has been living under the past ten years.
I’m not going to lie, it was hard listening to all the details. After Katie was snatched from Ravenshoe ten years ago, she was to be placed on the black market. But when she caught the eye of one of the head honchos of the Petretti crew, he decided to keep Katie as his pet. In all honesty, I haven’t worked out yet if that was a good or bad thing for Katie.
The blond-haired man seems to have taken a fondness to Katie. He has kept her fed, clothed and safe the past ten years, but if he truly cared for Katie, wouldn’t he do everything in his power to get her out of his corrupt lifestyle as Rico had done for me?
It was only during my discussions with Rico and Erik did reality for what Rico did for me finally dawn on my tired brain. I’ve been devastated the past two and a half months, believing Rico didn’t love me. Where, in reality, he loved me so much he sacrificed his own happiness to save me. Once Katie is safe, I’ll find a way to do the same for him.
I jump out of my skin when my cell phone unexpectedly dings, announcing I have a new text message.
