Page 51 of Forbidden Fate

Robin leans forward. “That’s it?”

“Yes.”

I park a block away, tucked beneath a tree where the shadows are thick. I kill the engine and sit for a second, listening.

No cars approaching fast. No shouting. No sign we’ve been followed.

At least not yet.

“We walk from here,” I say.

Robin looks down at her bare feet.

I bite my lower lip. “I can carry you.”

Her head snaps up. “No.”

“Your feet⁠—”

“I said no.”

I get out and then come around to her side. She opens the door before I reach it. The street is quiet as we cross it. When we reach the brothel, I climb the front steps and knock.

A minute passes before the lock turns.

Señora Valentina stands in the doorway wrapped in a deep red robe, her dark hair pinned back, her face softer with age. She stares.

Then her face breaks into a smile. “Cruzito.”

Before I can move, she grabs my face and kisses both my cheeks.

“My God,” she says. “Look at you. So handsome. So serious.” She frowns. “But too thin. Are you eating?” She shifts her gaze to Robin. “And who is this?”

Robin straightens. “I’m Robin Bellamy.”

Valentina lifts her brows. She knows the name. Then she looks back at me. “A new girlfriend?”

“No,” I say. “Not exactly.”

She isn’t my girlfriend. Until an hour or so ago, she was my prisoner. A woman I was ordered to hurt. A woman I have now stolen from the man who owns my fear. A woman whose mouth I’ve had under mine, whose body I’ve had against mine, whose voice I can still hear in that cell when everything between us turned dangerous in a different way.

We had fantastic sex in a prison cell.

That’s it.

But damn…I wish it were more.

There is something between us.

Something hot and impossible and wrong. And I can’t start picking apart what that means until I know she won’t be dragged back there.

Valentina watches my face. “Not exactly,” she repeats. “That sounds complicated.”

“It is.” I clear my throat. “We ran into trouble with Vega.”

Valentina wrinkles her forehead. “Diego?”

“Yes.”