AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Who are you?” I say quietly.
“One step closer to the man you’re looking for, leaving you one step closer to mine.” He toys with my drink for a moment, drawing a letter and a shape in the same condensation before spinning it around to show me.
I don’t need to look down to know what it is.
“Are you telling me you know who committed these murders?”
“Who, the two whores?” He smirks. “I suggest you ask the man in your bed that question, and please don’t bore me with your bluffs and rebukes,” he adds, seeing my face. “I know all about you,señorita,no matter how hard he tries to hide you, or reject you. You have no idea how vulnerable you’ve made him since you stormed back into his life last week. Every man has a weakness, and I’m staring straight at his.” Without asking for permission, he takes a long draft of my water, and smacks his lips together as though it’s the most delicious thing he’s ever tasted.
“Tell me your real name,” I demand, losing my temper.
“Not yet.”
“What’s the big mystery?”
“I do so admire you for yourpersistence, Ella,” he says, choosing to irritate me with his patronization instead. “You fight for your freedom the same way men like myself and Edier Grayson fight for power and status. You’re relentless about it, and even sweetly devious, if I may be so bold.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Would you like to see a demonstration oftruepower?” It’s like he hasn’t even heard me. “I understand you’re familiar with that concept, having grown up with a father such as yours, but have you ever considered the possibilities of a power without limits?”
“No thank you, I’m leaving.” I go to stand, when that ice-cold hand shoots out and closes like a vise around my wrist, just above my anti-sickness bands. He glances at them but doesn’t comment. “Let’s keep this pleasant, shall we? It would be a shame for all these good people of New York City to die because of your impetuousness.”
I glare down at him, fighting a vicious swell of nausea. “I have three armed bodyguards sitting five meters away, Mr. Whoever You Are,” I clip back. “One sign from me and you won’t be walking out of this bar alive.”
“You’re also forgetting the two SUVs parked out front, not to mention the one that’s parked in the side street behind the bar,” he adds, his black eyes glinting. “I do my homework before I step into a meeting with any Santiago,señorita. Even the decorative, wallflower-type ones.” On this, he leans into me, his orangey scent turning my stomach even more.Any minute now, his smart Oxfords are goingto get hurled on.“Just don’t think for one second there won’t be consequences if you choose to go with a moreregrettablecourse of action tonight.”
I stare at him, thinking fast, and then I’m sinking back down into my seat.
He directs my gaze to Ivy who’s still waiting at the bar, making his second threat implicit. One false move and he’ll be telling her exactly who I am. The life I’ve struggled so hard to make for myself here will disappear overnight.
“Now, about that demonstration of power…”
“I’m not interested.”
“You should be,” he sneers. “Watch and fear,señorita. Then, I want you to run back to your friends and family and tell them exactly who the face of their enemy really is.”
With this, he flips his wrist over and suspends it a couple of inches above the table, palm to the ceiling. Flicking me a vicious smirk, he slowly crushes it into a fist.
Right away, the air whooshes out of my lungs, and that veil over my missing memory flutters violently in my mind. I see glimpses of the day I forgot—an old lady, strange words, the sound of bullets—before a piercing scream slams me back to the booth in the bar.
I blink, my gaze snapping to a woman standing next to my bodyguards’s booth. She has her hands clapped over her mouth, her horrified expression creeping around her fingertips.
A beat later, Antonio is staggering past her, blood pouring from his nose and mouth as he clutches at his throat. I watch in mounting horror, as he collapses to the ground, convulsing violently.
Oh my God.
I fly from my seat to help him, but the stranger yanks me back, my aching wrists screaming from his rough treatment.
“Get off me!”
“They’re already dying,señorita,” he says, sounding amused. “There’s nothing you can do for them now except watch their demise.”
I blink back the tears as my other two bodyguards stumble from the booth, the polished floorboards beneath them quickly turning into a lagoon of crimson.
The bar goes deathly quiet.
This isn’t happening.
