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I set down the kit and got out what I would need to clean and bandage the wound. I did notice that there was a suture kit if I needed it, but I hoped the cut wasn’t that deep. I poured some of the antiseptic on a gauze pad and came back to Angel.
It was hard to see when he was standing next to Omar, who dominated the room in terms of size, but Angel wasn’t a small man either. He was tall and broad, and there wasn’t a comfortable way of getting where I needed to without getting close to him. I stepped between his splayed knees and leaned forward. We were close enough that I could smell his cologne. It was earthy and warm and way too good.You’re just sick of the smell of blood, I thought, and that was true. I was still covered in the dried, flaking stuff. There would never be enough hot water to get the feel of it off of my skin.
“This may sting,” I said in warning and touched the gauze pad to his face. Angel didn’t flinch, but his jaw did that tightening thing that it did. “You’re going to lose your teeth if you keep grinding them like that,” I said.
His eyes flicked to mine and held, and my whole body froze. His eyes were so dark, they were nearly black, and while he might have an icy gaze, there was a fire in their depths that I hadn’t anticipated. A shiver ran down my spine. Why did he have to be so damn attractive? Why, after everything, did I want to wrap myself around him like a coat?
“Is it going to need stitches?” he asked.
I looked at the cut. It wasn’t jagged, thankfully, and I didn’t think it was that deep. I stepped away from him and dug through the kit. It had liquid stitches. “I think we can get away with this,” I said, holding up the bottle.
Angel eyed the bottle for a moment, and then nodded. “Get on with it.”
You could say thank you.I was smart enough not to say it out loud even though a part of me wanted to. Fear — make that terror — was making it difficult tonotblurt out everything that came to mind, and this was definitely the worst place to do that.
I used butterfly strips to bring the edges of his wound together and then sealed it with the liquid stitches. When they had dried, I cleaned it again and put a sterile bandage over the whole thing. “It’s going to scar,” I told him, “but you won’t get an infection.”Hopefully.
Angel met my eyes again. He seemed to be assessing me, and I realized just how close we were together. I was practically sitting on his knee. I tried to step back, but his hand shot out and wrapped around my wrist. I winced as he gripped the battered skin. Angel noticed, and he raised my wrist up for his inspection; his touch softened. “We should get these cleaned up,” he said.
The sudden softness made my head spin. The guy who was threatening to throw my body in the Everglades literally two hours ago was capable of this? “I’m fine,” I parroted his words back to him. “Don’t worry about me.”
I expected him to let me go of my wrist, but he didn’t. “You didn’t ask what my brother meant,” he said. “When he called me your fiancé.”
“That’s because I know what the word ‘fiancé’ means, I’m not a moron,” I said before I could stop myself.
Angel’s eyes were sharp. “You have a smart mouth, you know that?” His tonemighthave been teasing, but his expression was near-murderous.
I trembled in his grasp and tried not to show it. He wasn’t hurting me; he was just keeping me in place. I could do that. I inhaled slowly through my nose and let it out again. “Ididask what he meant,” I pointed out. “You just got scary and threatened him before he answered me.” He considered that for a moment, and then he dropped his hand from my wrist. I took a step back, and put a little distance between us. “What did he mean?”
“I owe you a life debt,” Angel said. “You saved my life when you jumped on me at the bar.” The look on his face told me how happy he was about that. “That means that I owe you.”
“So let me go,” I said, “and we can consider it square.”
Angel shook his head. “I wasn’t lying about the Rojas before,” he said. “You’re marked now. You leave the estate, and you’ll be dead within twenty-four hours.”
Shivers wracked through me, and I wrapped my arms around myself. “So get me out of Florida,” I said. “Help me get started somewhere else, and you’ll never have to hear from me again.”
“My father —” The word seemed to stick in his throat. He swallowed hard and tried again. “My father wants me to marry you.”
I shook my head. “Not going to happen.”
“I told my father the same,” he said and motioned to his cheek. “He didn’t take my reaction well.” He leveled a frosty, speculating look at me. “Imagine what he would do to get you to comply.”
I swallowed against the growing lump in my throat.
Marriage was special. Marriage wasforever. “My mother would roll over in her grave if I married a man who I didn’t love.”
His look was scathing. “A criminal is fine though,” he mocked.
I bit my tongue, there was no way I was touchingthat, but then because I couldn’t resist, I said, “You said it, not me.”
Angel laughed. The sound didn’t match him in the slightest. “My father’s logic makes sense: it would keep you protected, which is what I owe you, and spousal privilege would keep the family safe legally.”Because I witnessed about a dozen murders and an assassination attempt, I added for him.
“How does marrying you keep me safe? Wouldn’t that put a target on my back?”
“To kill the spouse of a prominent member of a family like mine would mean certain death. All of the Castillos would fall on the Rojas like a plague and wipe them all out. Luis Rojas isn’t a brilliant man, but he’s not stupid enough to invite that kind of war.”
“You say ‘family,’ and it doesn’t sound like you mean parents, kids, and grandparents. This is a cartel, isn’t it?”
