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Bonnie rolled her eyes at Cat. Now that they’d said no, Cat really wanted to go.
“We’re not prisoners,” Bonnie said, glaring at Dante. “We can leave if we want.”
“Think again, Bonnie,” Dante told her with a firm look.
Yikes.
She expected Bonnie to immediately give in, but the other woman sat up straight. “We’re going to take Titus. We aren’t stupid. Besides, we’ll stick to the local town. What is going to happen to us, Dante?”
“What is going to happen is that you’re going to stay the fuck here, where I know the two of you will be safe.”
Bonnie sighed. “I can’t live here for the rest of my life. I’m going to go crazy.”
Dante’s jaw was clenched.
“And Cat hasn’t left since she arrived. We promise we will be careful.”
“And I’ll be with them,” Ortega said.
“You’ll stay with them the entire time?” Alejandro questioned.
“Yep. You trust me to look after them, don’t you, brothers?”
“You should wait until we can take you,” Alejandro said. “Tomorrow, we’re meeting with Emiliano. Right, Dante?”
Dante looked thoughtful. “It might be best for them to be away from here.”
Alejandro didn’t look happy, but eventually he nodded. “Si. All right.”
Cat squealed.
“But you take The Scot, Ortega, and Titus. You do what they say, even if that’s to come back here immediately. Understand?”
“I understand, Papi. I promise.”
Cat stepped out of the car and took a deep breath, looking around at the bustling market. She loved a good street market.
She heard kids yelling and looked over in surprise as they swarmed around Ortega, begging him to play with them.
“Isn’t it great to get away from the compound?” Bonnie said as she joined her. “It’s a beautiful place, but it’s not real. Not like out here.”
“Does Dante know that you want to go to the States to open a Little shop?”
“Yeah. He’s fighting me on it, of course. But I think there’s also a part of him that believes I’ll be safer away from him.”
The kids begging grew louder. She smiled. She’d never thought Ortega would be so popular.
“The people here love O, especially the kids,” Bonnie told her, wrapping her arm around hers.
“They sure seem to.”
Ortega managed to get the kids to leave him alone by promising a street game later. But even as they walked along, people called out greetings to him.
“Would you really be safer away from Dante?” Cat asked Bonnie, going back to their previous conversation as they wandered through the stands.
Ortega stopped to sample some food at a stall. The older woman flushed in pleasure at his praise.
“After he was shot, Dante changed. He’s always been overprotective. But he’s become so much more controlling.”
“I know how that feels.”
“It’s because they have something to lose. And when you love something, you take care of it. However you need to.”
Cat understood that sentiment.
Turning around, she frowned as she spotted someone in the distance. She wasn’t sure what drew her attention to them. It was a woman with long dark hair. A tall man walked with her. Husband? Friend? Or guard?
She watched the man staring out across the market.
Guard.
The woman walked up to a dark car and the door opened. She climbed in.
“Little Queen. Stop.”
“Cat? You okay?”
To her surprise, she realized she’d started moving toward the woman, needing to get closer. She glanced over at Bonnie, who was staring at her in worry. The Scot had hold of her arm and Titus was crowding Bonnie.
“Fine. Sorry. I thought I saw someone I knew.”
“Who?” The Scot asked, looking around for a threat. “Your Ma? Starla?”
Her cheeks grew hot. She knew she shouldn’t have told anyone that she thought she’d seen her mother or Starla. Now they all thought she was nuts.
“I’m not losing my mind,” she insisted.
“I know that, Little Queen,” The Scot said gently.
She didn’t like the look on his face.
“We should go home now,” he said. “You need to rest.”
“I’m not losing it,” she insisted.
“Of course not,” Bonnie said loyally. “Who did you think you saw?”
“I, uh, I’m not sure. Just someone who seemed familiar.” Now she just sounded really stupid.
What if she was losing her mind? Seeing things that weren’t there?
“Maybe I should go back.” She wanted her Papi. And Snuggly and Roger. She wanted to go home to her dragon playroom and curl up in a fort with her pacifier.
“Come on, Little Queen,” The Scot murmured, tucking her under his arm.
Ortega was being surprisingly quiet. And she glanced around.
“Where’s Ortega?”
Bonnie frowned. “I don’t know. He disappeared.”
“Fuck,” The Scot said.
“It’s okay,” Titus rumbled. “He does that a lot.”
She jumped. Whoa. That might be the first time she’d heard him talk. He was kind of scary. Silent and fierce.
When they got back to the car, Mikey straightened up, looking surprised.
“Trouble?”
“Just me seeing things,” she joked. She tapped her finger on her forehead. “Going nuts.”
“Stop it, Little Queen,” The Scot told her firmly. “You are not going crazy and I won’t hear you say that about yourself. Understand? Or I will tell on you.”
