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“Thiago has always known.”
This comes as a surprise to me, one that wounds because Thiago and I were close—like brothers ourselves. But I look at my other brother and think maybe this is the way of things. Brothers keep secrets too, as do mothers and fathers.
“Camilla and Liam, I don’t know. Don’t care,” he says. He takes a deep breath in. “I’m going in. I’m fucking tired and ready for this night to be over.” He moves away, but stops, comes back to me and puts his hands on my shoulders. “I’m going to tell you something, Brother. For you and her. For history. Because it goes on a loop, doesn’t it?”
“What?”
“You don’t want what happened to Alexia to repeat.”
“What the fuck, Caius?” I shove him.
“And favors never come for free. They, too, are on a loop. The world goes around and around. And love is a mother fucker. It becomes hate when you’re not paying attention.”
“Caius, what the fuck is going on?”
“Get her out of here. Get your wife out of here. Take her somewhere none of us can find her and hide her away. It’s the only way to save her.”
Then, without waiting for me, he marches back toward the building. I follow him, keeping a few steps back and we don’t say goodbye when he gets on the elevator to go upstairs. I watch him get on, see the look in his eyes like that of a condemned man as the doors slide closed.
He has known all these years that he was the Commander’s son. He’s known. What that must have done to him… And what the hell was that warning? Because it felt like exactly that: a warning.
I feel it in the very depths of myself.
I walk out of that building, my steps hurried as I move toward the SUV, soldiers on my heels. I need to get to her. I need to get her out of Avarice. He’s right. I should never have brought Madelena back here.
32
MADELENA
I’m just getting ready for bed when Santos comes into the bedroom. His hair is windblown and his hands when he comes to take mine are ice-cold. He searches my face, eyes wild.
“What is it?” I ask. “Has something happened?”
“You’re okay?”
“I’m fine. I just wanted to go and Val—”
“I know.” He keeps nodding like his mind is on something else.
“Santos?” It takes him a minute to focus his eyes on me. I put one of his hands over my stomach. “I want to keep the baby. Okay?” He swallows a lump and only half-smiles. I expected more. “Don’t you want to? I thought—”
“I want to. I want to, believe me, I want to. But there’s something… I need to get you out of here now.”
“What?”
“I’ll pack a few things and send more later. But I need to get you out of Avarice.”
He walks away from me into the closet and returns with the same duffel bag we’d taken to Hells Bells. He starts to pack things, underwear, nighties, random things that don’t make sense. I follow him around the room.
“Santos, what’s going on?”
“I’ll come as soon as I can.” He walks into the bathroom and returns a moment later with a bag of toiletries. He picks up the bottle of vitamins Dr. Moore gave me. He looks at it, nods. “I’ll get this refilled.”
“Santos. Stop.” I go to him, take his face in my hands. “What’s going on?”
He looks at me, but he’s distracted. I can see it in his eyes. But a moment later, it’s like he gets something, and whatever it is has him stumbling back two steps before he drops to the edge of the bed.
“What is it?” I ask.
