Page 13 of Consume

9

Mia

Grant came home an hour later,but we didn’t talk anymore about Joaquín, which was fine. At least he wasn’t pushing any more of his theories down my throat.

At bedtime, he pulled me to him. “I need you tonight. This may be the last time for a while.”

“What? Why?”

“I may be going away for abit.”

I didn’t question him. He’d taken so much time off work that I knew he had to pick up the slack. His lips reached mine, and we kissed for what seemed like a blissful eternity. It always amazed me how such a strong, masculine man could kiss me so softly. I loved his contrasts. He pressed into my body, and we made love, so tender, so beautiful.

The next morning, Grant woke at seven and pressed his uniform.

“You going towork?”

“No. We’re going to court. Joaquín has a hearing today.”

I stuttered. “Wh-why didn’t you tell me? He didn’t mention it to me yesterday. How did you find out? What’s the hearing about?”

He shot me a cold stare. “It’s a pre-trial hearing. Get dressed.”

He didn’t need to tell me twice. I hurriedly put on my most conservative outfit. Maybe today would be the day that this nightmare ended. Joaquín would be freed. Without the bars that separated us, he would be able to explain everything. What he know about Julián. How he met Rafael. How he found out that Tiffany had my child. Why he never told Grant that I had been raped.

And even worse, why he had never told me that heknew.

Grant tossed me my keys. “We’re taking yourcar.”

I squinted at him. “Why? You told me I wasn’t allowed to drive it because you thought it was tracked.”

“I changed mymind.”

“You don’t want to drive that truck you borrowed?”

“Nope.”

Okay. That was incredibly odd. Grant always wanted to drive, everywhere. I didn’t question him about his reasons as he squeezed into the passenger side of mycar.

As I drove to the courthouse, a knot built in my stomach. I felt like after all this time I was finally on the cusp of getting the answers that I needed in this puzzle.

We parked in the parking garage. I opened the door to get out but Grant reached over me and pulled itshut.

“What?”

He clutched my shoulders. “Mia, I need you to listen to me. I want you to know that I love you. I’ve always loved you, no matter how hard I tried to deny it. I’m not going to be around for a while to protect you after today.”

“What? What are you talking about? Why are you sayingthis?”

“Just listen to me. I’ve left you all the passwords to my bank accounts in my nightstand.” He shoved three hundred dollars into my hand and then handed me a gold band. “I want you to wear this. It has a tracking device onit.”

“What? Why?”

“Just do it. Please. When I come back, you can chuck the thing.”

“Okay.” His pupils were dilated, but he remained calm. Too bad, I wasn’t. I removed my wedding band from my finger, and for the first time noticed that it had been engraved with the words, “worth fightingfor.”

I gulped and put the band in a zippered pocket in my purse before sliding the tracking band on my right hand instead of my left. I didn’t want Joaquín to see it and find out that way that Grant and I were married.