Page 56 of Chris

“Where did you go off to?” Jorge asked.

Do not look that woman’s way, Christopher.

He could feel Valeria’s stare burning into his back from across the backyard. She exited through the rear of the home, but he decided it would be smarter if he didn’t take the same way back to the party she did.

Better not to play with fire.

Hadn’t they already risked a lot?

Chris thought so.

Stuffing his hands in his pockets, Chris came closer to Jorge, making sure his posture was light, and easy. “Fireworks always give me a headache, so I took a walk. Thought it might be nice.”

“Ah, yes. They bother the horses, too. You’ll make friends with those beasts.”

Had he compared Chris to animals?

Well, whatever.

Chris took the clipped cigar Jorge offered him but used his own lighter to get it smoking. Jorge turned his back to Chris for the moment, watching the men who had gathered in a slight circle, and the two in the middle who were sharing punches. A bareknuckle match, it looked like.

Another time or place, and Chris might have joined in just because. Not here, though, and not with these men. These people weren’t his family or friends, and he could not afford to forget that fact.

This job was already dangerous before he came here and got stuck in his head about a woman he needed to get the fuck out of this place. Now, he couldn’t get her out of his head, and that made it worse.

Emotional attachments were bad.

Even if they felt good.

Speaking of which …

Chris could still feel Valeria’s stare on him, and with Jorge’s back turned, it allowed him to check her way. Sure enough, she watched him from her position on the porch, looking no better or worse than she had before their little encounter in the house. Frankly, looking at her wasn’t any good for his side of things, either.

The woman was a siren.

She called to him.

He didn’t know what to do with that.

Knowing he should turn his stare away from her before someone noticed his attention, he gave Valeria a quick nod, and looked away. It was all he could do although he wished he didn’t have to do that at all.

She needed someone to care. That much was painfully obvious with her. The woman was strong as hell, no doubt about it. Look at all she had gone through and was still dealing with regularly. No one could ever say she hadn’t done all she could and still held her head high while she did it.

Simple as that.

Valeria was still human though. And very much a woman. Her mind, heart, and soul needed things, whether she craved it or it felt good. Affection, touch … attention. All of it, those were basic human needs. He knew she wasn’t getting those things from the man they forced her to marry, and he wasn’t sure what to do with the fact he wanted to give it to her instead.

Yeah.

This was a mess.

A dangerous one.

“What’s next, hmm?” Chris asked Jorge.

He needed to get his thoughts away from Valeria, what had happened in the house, and how he felt about her. If not, someone would notice his distraction, and he doubted it would take them long to put two and two together to make four.

No one needed that.