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“Angel,” I grunt, the second the man answers the phone.
“Don’t tell me you’re already needing more help.”
I remain silent. Only a couple of seconds into the phone call and I’m already thinking it was the wrong move to make.
“Quit being a dick,” Lauren says from somewhere near him.
“What can I do for you?” Angel asks, his customer service voice annoying me more than his jab at needing help.
I close my eyes in frustration, reminding myself that this isn’t about me. This is for Ayla.
“Alani, Ayla’s sister, was sent a VHS tape.”
“Fuck,” Angel snaps, knowing exactly what it means.
“Yeah,” I agree. “Ayla, I need details about your sister.”
She faces me.
“She’s at college,” I begin, drawing from the information she’s already disclosed to me. “I need someone watching her until we can get there. Do you have anyone available?”
“I’ll see who I got and will send them that way. But, Nash—”
“I know,” I say.
We don’t have to discuss the very real possibility that Cortez acted first and sent the videos later, or he somehow knows we haven’t left Mexico and plans to go after Alani before we can get to her.
Angel listens as I relay the information Ayla gives me about Alani.
After the call ends, I urge her to stand in front of me.
“I know you’re going to want to leave tonight, but he’s sending someone to help her. We can’t risk getting caught or arrested. It won’t help Alani if you end up dead or behind bars.”
She nods as if she agrees but I know it won’t keep her from thinking she’s more capable of getting across the border than she actually is. Her fear is making her think she’s stronger than she is.
“We need to get some supplies.”
She nods, sitting on the edge of the bed to pull on the shoes I got for her yesterday.
I grab my boots as well.
She doesn’t keep the same distance she kept when we walked into the market area that she maintained yesterday, and after the second brush of her hand against mine, she curls her much smaller hand into my palm.
We don’t say a word. We don’t mention the connection.
It’s not just the physical touch that I can’t wrap my head around. It’s the soul-deep affinity I seem to have for this woman. We cut each other deeply with the things we were forced to do, but neither one of us are asking for forgiveness.
She did what she did to protect her sister. I have no doubt that she’d do it all over again, just like I would to keep Pirro from hurting her.
The hand holding is far enough, so I have no idea why I lift her hand and press my lips to the back of it.
Chapter 31
Ayla
I don’t know how I convinced myself that Alani was safe. I knew it was a risk the second Cerberus pulled me from the compound, but it’s not like I could’ve demanded that I stay. Every person that helped Cortez run that place was killed. I watched from inside one of their SUVs as they lined the bodies up outside.
Cortez wasn’t in the mix. Pirro had said as much the day before. The boss had left on a business trip which I have to presume is him making the rounds to check on his other compounds.
I thought not telling her what happened would maintain her safety, but Cortez got to her first. She hates me. She thinks I’m some sort of pervert that’s been lying to her for months while I made pornographic videos. I shudder at the thought of her watching anything I’ve been forced to do. I have no doubt he sent her some of the most extreme stuff. His goal, of course, would be to drive a wedge as far between us as he could manage, so he wouldn’t start with the vanilla stuff. He threatened me with this. I guess I just thought with my months of compliance that he’d leave her alone.
I jump at the sound of a horn outside the room, my eyes locked on the door as if someone will kick it in at any moment. I’ve been jumpy since Alani hung up on me two days ago. As insistent as I was to get to my sister, I had to trust that Nash was doing everything he could to get me back to her. With the militia and border patrol where we needed to cross in Reynosa, all we could do was wait until they moved on.
Nash left the room over an hour ago, saying he needed to line some things up, but there’s a real possibility he deemed me too much trouble and just took off. Maybe the phone call he made two days ago was the limit of his willingness to help. Despite the threat of overwhelming emotion threatening to clog my throat, I know the man doesn’t owe me a damn thing. Expecting anything from him is misplaced.
