Page 84 of No Darker Temptation

She doesn’t hear me at first. The car’s back door opens and she’s only a few feet away.

“Dahlia!”

She spins around. The Mercedes takes off and the back door slams shut. It’s gone before I get a read on the license plate; not that it matters. It was probably a rental anyway.

“Hey,” she says with a smile. “Your meeting ended quickly⁠—”

I grab her the second she’s within arm’s reach and turn her around. “Where the Hell is your purse?”

She blinks up at me, shocked and perplexed. “What⁠—?”

“Did you leave the hotel without your phone? Your wallet? Are you fucking insane?”

She can’t seem to muster a response. “I…I just wanted to take a walk. My phone is in my pocket⁠—”

“And where’s Oscar? He’s supposed to be watching you.”

“I…I don’t know. I told Lettie I was going⁠—”

“You thought you were trapped last year?” I seethe, grip tightening. “Try walking around in public without a security detail again and I’ll show you what a real fucking captive looks like. Don’t you ever do that again or I swear to God it’ll be the last time you see the outside world. Do you understand me?”

She opens her mouth to say something but it never comes out.

“Hey!”

Diego gets between us and pushes me away. “Do you want me to beat the shit out of you? Don’t fucking grab her like that.”

“It’s fine,” Dahlia says quickly and sidesteps the two of us. “We should go.”

Before I can follow, Diego plants a hand squarely on my chest, right over where the bruising is insufferable, and trails behind her instead.

We drive back to the hotel in silence.

Dahlia

No one can hear me cry over the running water.

And if the water wasn’t running, I doubt they’d hear me anyway. They’ve all been huddled together in the living room since earlier this afternoon. Whatever happened at that meeting, I’ve decided I don’t care. From now on, my attention needs to be on myself. Otherwise, I’ll come undone at the seams.

Unintentional as it may be, Alejandro has too much control over me. My time, my finances, my freedom. For the sake of our relationship, I need to gain some of that back. Today showed me what happens when Alejandro spirals and has no outlet for those emotions. Anxiety, worry, anger, fear. They all boiled to the surface and finally sent him over the edge. I just so happened to have been the closest target and while I know he never meant to explode the way that he did, I won’t give him the chance to speak to me like that again.

I have to draw the line somewhere and I’ve decided I’m never going to be anyone’s captive again. So before he thinks he can lock me up in our house and saddle me with a babysitter he has another thing coming.

This is so much harder than I thought it would be.

After spending enough time in the tub for my skin to prune like a raisin in the sun, I let the water drain and wrap a towel around myself. We’re only meant to stay one night but I’m not entirely sure. If Alejandro has a few other things to take care of after his meeting, I suspect we’ll end up staying longer.

Once I get dressed and slide into a pair of slippers and a robe, I step out of the bedroom and make my way down the hall. Diego, Lettie, and Alejandro are exactly where I left them hours ago: all huddled by the granite fireplace on contemporary style sofas that somehow blend seamlessly into the more opulent, turn of the century style of the rest of the suite. It’s rich with dark wood paneling, crown molding, intricately patterned floors, and decorated with glass tables, abstract gold sculptures, and heavy curtains over large windows. Night has already fallen and the rest of Madrid twinkles under the moonlight.

Lettie looks up and stops her reading from the file in her hand. She glances at her brother. “Should I…?”

He’s sitting with his back to me on a love seat facing the fireplace, gripping a glass of amber colored liquid in his hand. I lean forward and wrap my arms around him from behind and he expels a deep, albeit shaky breath. “It’s fine, Leticia. Keep going.”

Lettie hesitates only a moment before continuing. “After that we have the August twenty-first and September ninth shipments⁠—”

“Why the ninth? It should be the fourth.”

“We’re allotting more time in case we run into trouble in France again.”