Page 81 of Chris

“The business side of things have run their course here,” he explained, although it wouldn’t help her feelings on the matter. “I can’t stay just because I want to. Jorge has wanted me gone since I arrived.”

“Right.”

“Val.”

She refused to look at him.

Chris tried not to let that hurt.

“Val.

“What?” she asked.

“Hey,” he murmured, reaching for her.

The second his palm came in contact with her cheek, Valeria blinked, and the tears she had been holding back tracked lines down from the corners of her eyes. He could handle a lot of things from this woman, but crying did not seem to be one. When the tears started, all he wanted to do was make them stop.

Now.

“Don’t cry, don’t cry,” he said, his arm snaking around her waist to pull her into his lap. He wiped the tears from her face, and met her gaze. Although, when that didn’t work to make her stop crying, he did the next best thing. Kissed her. His lips touched to hers, he tasted the salt from her tears, and the rest of the world faded away. Still, he breathed against her mouth, “Please, don’t cry. It’s not over, I promise.”

Somewhere behind him, he heard Maria’s little gasp.

Then, her giggle.

Kids.

Valeria pushed away from him, but not very far. She couldn’t get away when he was holding her locked in his arms. “Maria might tell—”

“She won’t.”

That, he was most sure of.

All little Maria wanted was for her mother to be happy. She was tired of seeing her mother sad and hurting. That’s all Valeria ever was here.

Chris used the pad of his thumb to wipe away the last bit of wetness from under Valeria’s eye. “Hey, look at me.”

Valeria did, but he wasn’t sure he liked what he found staring back. “I was never going to be free. I never will be. Hope was a lie.”

“What?”

“I can’t even protect my daughter because she is the sacrifice he’s willing to use to punish me. And now you’re leaving. What am I going to do?”

Those tears had started again.

Her voice climbed higher.

Chris kissed her quiet. Her fingers tightened into the collar of his jacket as their lips moved in a familiar rhythm. Soft, and sweet. A heat spreading between the two of them he had never known existed before this woman.

Against her lips, he said, “I didn’t want to leave until I had a clear way out for you—that won’t happen with the way he has this place run, but I know that now. Which means as soon as I am out of here, I will gather a team, and they’ll come in to get you out. Do you understand?”

“That’s not poss—”

“It is, and that’s what will happen. I don’t want you to stay here a second longer than you need to, but this is my only way to make it work.”

Unless something else came up.

As of now, nothing had.