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Despite continuing to look through every message and connection on Victor’s phone, she hadn’t seen an update in over a week.
What did that mean?
On a nearby balcony, a dog barked. A couple jogged by, obviously on vacation and enjoying the Mexican sun. Someone behind her opened their window. A car horn blared in the distance. The world was waking up. Laila wished she could just tune all of it, along with her reality, out. But she needed to make some decisions, then take her next steps.
She didn’t dare return to Louisiana. She would endanger her family, and she would be too tempted to see Trees. But she couldn’t stay here much longer. In fact, fleeing Mexico altogether would be wise. If she didn’t, someone would eventually find her. It was a matter of time.
Laila pulled the ball cap lower, adjusted her overlarge sunglasses, and headed back to her rental. Her stomach turned. No surprise. She’d barely eaten in days, but the thought of food held no appeal. Maybe she would go back to bed. After all, she felt exhausted. Who wouldn’t, though, after almost no sleep?
Was this what a broken heart felt like?
Shaking off the maudlin thought, she eased through her sliding glass door, back into her unit. Then she locked up and drew the drapes. When she whirled around, nothing was out of place, but the air felt…disturbed, as if someone had been here. She smelled something that didn’t belong here. No, someone. A man.
She smelled Trees.
That wasn’t possible. Her imagination must be in overdrive. She’d missed him so much that her psyche had dreamed up his scent. Or maybe she was finally losing her mind.
Laila checked the lock on the front door, just to be sure no one had breached her unit, but it was secure. Then she sighed, divesting herself of her hat and glasses. She left both on the breakfast bar before ambling to the kitchen. Listlessly, she opened the refrigerator, then closed it again before making her way to the sink to wash her mug after pouring out the coffee she hadn’t felt like drinking. But once she set down the sponge, she bowed her head. Tears fell. God, she’d been crying for days.
Yes, this must be what a broken heart felt like.
She didn’t have time. She didn’t have the luxury, either. Not until everyone she loved was safe.
Today was another day. She prayed it would finally provide the information she needed to move on.
Laila prowled back to the sliding glass door, kicked off her flip-flops in preparation for her next walk on the beach, probably at sunset, then pulled off the tank top and shorts she’d been wearing the past few days, which she’d retrieved from the villa. They were the same clothes she’d worn when she’d been with Trees, the ones that had made him look at her with lust and lose his train of thought. Having them against her skin had both made her feel closer to him and tortured her with his absence. But she was being foolish. He would never be hers again.
After dropping her clothes in the washer, she turned the corner and wandered to her room, heading straight for the bed. She could take off her bra and panties and don the huge T-shirt she’d bought in town. But that seemed like a lot of effort since she probably wouldn’t be able to sleep.
When she was two steps from the bed of rumpled white sheets and colorful blankets, the door closed behind her with an irrefutable click. Laila whirled at the unexpected sound. She froze when she saw a face she hadn’t expected in her bedroom.
“Trees,” she gasped.
“Laila.” His frigid smile looked anything but happy as he prowled toward her.
Her heart pounded. Instinct told her to back away. “What are you doing here?”
“Did you think you’d seen the last of me?” His stare raked her up and down. His smile turned even more arctic.
Laila swallowed. “We have nothing to say. Get out. You are not welcome.”
“You don’t want to talk to me? Fine. But I’m not leaving without you.”
He meant to take her with him?
She scanned the room for an escape, but Trees had her trapped. Other than the window along the far wall, she had no way out of the condo since he’d blocked the door.
Laila knew better than to believe she could run past him.
“No. I have chosen to stay here.”
“Alone?”
He was asking her about Victor. “That is none of your business.”
“Oh, you’re wrong. Everything about you is my business. So, we can do this the easy way. You can pack your things and come along obediently. We’ll board a plane and I’ll take you back to Louisiana. You can visit your sister and your nephew, show them that you’re okay. And then you’ll deal with me.”
Fear surged through Laila. She was even more afraid to ask him what would happen if she chose the hard way. “I cannot go back. I would put too many people at risk.”
“You will go,” he contradicted, teeth bared. “Or I’ll restrain you right now, transport you back to Louisiana, and toss you into my dungeon for some…corrective discipline. I won’t let you go until I’m convinced you’re done playing dangerous games with drug lords and cartels. What’s it going to be?”
Corrective discipline? Laila thought about all the equipment—restraints, paddles, whips, floggers, and other things she couldn’t identify—in his dungeon. She shivered.
But she’d be lying if she said she didn’t feel a disconcerting thrill, too.
She studied Trees’s face. Those green eyes that used to gaze at her with warmth, that had reassured her as he’d searched her soul to see past her hurts and find the trembling girl underneath? They were glacial now. Raw and cutting. He looked terrifyingly eager to unleash his worst on her. He was so large, so powerful, so determined.
