Page 115 of Forbidden Fate

Please wake up.

Please be stronger than bullets.

She’s gone.

But at least Zabala’s gone too.

I killed one of Vega’s men. Vega will hear. Adriana will hear. If they were hunting me before, now they’ll burn the world to find me.

This is the final nail.

My coffin closing.

And somewhere in the house, Robin is hiding. What will she see when she looks at me now? Knowing that I’ve killed? Knowing that my actions directly led to Señora Valentina’s death?

Will she still want to help me?

Because if she doesn’t, I’m a dead man walking.

33

ROBIN

I’m folded inside an armoire that smells like cedar and sex.

My knees are pressed to my chest. My shoulder is shoved against a row of dresses. Esmeralda is beside me, one trembling hand clamped over her mouth, the other gripping my wrist so tightly my fingers are starting to tingle.

Neither of us moves.

Neither of us breathes much either.

The armoire is ridiculously beautiful—carved dark wood with curling vines and flowers etched into the doors. In another life, I might have admired it. I might have run my fingers over the craftsmanship and haggled with its owner.

But in this life, the one I apparently live in now, I’m hiding inside it clutching the hand of a prostitute who predicted my death only hours ago.

My stomach turns.

We heard the shot.

Of course we heard the shot.

One second, Cruz told me to hide. The next, the whole house cracked open with the sound of gunfire.

I took the stairwell as he commanded. I obeyed without question, even though a big part of me wanted to stay with him.

I made it out of the sitting room and almost crashed into Esmeralda in the hallway. Her eyes were huge. She had come running from the kitchen.

“What’s happening?” she whispered.

I grabbed her arm. “Hide.”

“Mercedes—”

“Where is she?”

“She went back upstairs.”

“We’ll tell her when we get up there. We’ll tell her to hide. Are there any others here?”