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“I haven’t yet.”
“But you will?”
“Eventually.” He took her shoulders gently. “Remember, everything I do is consensual. That’s the reason I insist on a safe word. Ultimately, any woman I take to that room would have all the power. A word will stop me; you know that.”
“Red.”
“Exactly. I can only give as much pleasure as any woman trusts me to give. There are other safeguards I employ to ensure she doesn’t feel as if she’s performed any act against her will.”
She frowned. “I believe you mean that.”
But she didn’t ask more questions, probably because she wasn’t ready to hear the answers. And Trees wouldn’t push her.
Besides, she wasn’t staying with him forever. It didn’t matter that he was in love with her. His sentiment wasn’t reciprocated. What was the most he could say about her feelings? She didn’t hate him. She didn’t completely distrust him. That was progress, sure. But anything that would lead to a happy ever after? No. He lived in the real world. He had these stolen moments with her, nothing more.
When she left, it would fucking hurt because he’d probably never see her again.
“I do. Have you talked to your sister today?”
She nodded. “Jorge is improving. It is a relief.”
“Glad to hear it. I’m going to grab a shower and some food. I’ll probably watch a movie after that if you want to join me.”
Laila didn’t answer, just laid a soft hand on his arm. Tingles blasted through his body. “I have accused you of working against me, trying to hurt me, and betraying me. When I am wrong, I say so. I am sorry.”
An apology? He’d never expected that. “You’ve been through hell, and I was a stranger. You’ve known me…what? Five days. I’m not surprised trust has been tough for you.”
“You have not always been easy, but you have been fair. You not only protected me, you avenged me.” She shook her head. “I know you did not kill Hector for me, but—”
“I did.”
She sucked in a shocked breath.
“I told him I was pulling the trigger for you as I did it.” He shrugged. “The truth is, he was reaching for his wife’s gun so he could shoot me, which forced me to kill or be killed. But I have no remorse for putting a bullet in his brain. You might not have had justice any other way.”
Laila’s expression collapsed. He’d seen her cry tears of sadness, anger, and frustration. She’d shed tears in panic, relief, and satisfaction. But she’d never looked right at him and allowed herself to be utterly vulnerable. She was giving him trust she never had. That was even more evident when the first trembling tear rolled down her cheek and she didn’t look away.
The sight wrecked him. He thumbed the hot drop away. “Honey…”
“Hector is one reason I fear the dark. A few weeks after I came to visit Valeria, she and Emilo had a fight. He told my sister to shut up or there would be repercussions. Valeria thought he meant against her.” Laila gave a little shake of her head and looked away.
Trees tucked a finger under her chin. “You don’t have to say more, little one.”
“I want to. I have never told anyone.”
And she’d chosen to pour herself out to him? “Not your sister? Or your mother?”
“I did not wish to make either of them feel guilty or risk themselves trying to protect me. But that night, Emilo locked me in an underground room with no windows. Two men came in as I slept and…” Laila couldn’t finish her sentence.
He fucking wished he could go back in time and protect her. She had been a fourteen-year-old girl forced to endure the worst in men through no fault of her own. “Raped you?”
“They took turns holding me down while…” She pressed her lips together as another tear fell. “It happened again the next night. And the night after that… I-I did not even know who had violated me for days. Then one morning at breakfast, Victor came to sit on one side of me, Hector on the other. As soon as they spoke, I knew. I knew their voices. I knew their smells. I almost threw up, but I did not dare betray my reaction with my mamá watching.”
“You worried what they would do to her if she retaliated?”
Laila nodded. “So I complied and became their whore.”
Trees shelved a violent urge to go back in time and kill Hector all over again—with his bare hands. But Laila needed him now. “Don’t ever use that word to describe yourself again. You didn’t give yourself for a buck; you sacrificed yourself for your mother.”
More tears fell down Laila’s face. “It did not matter in the end. She still died. They refused her medical treatment when she needed it. I don’t even know if or where she is buried.”
