AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Not really.”
He stands and buttons his jacket. “What can I do for you?”
“Absolutely nothing,” I reply without making eye contact. Instead I look at the asshole sitting in front of his desk who is just about to take another swig of his beer. “But you can.” I glare at him.
“What?” He frowns at me but Mason sits back down in his chair, realizing why I’m here. The asshole with the beer doesn’t though as he stares at me with his mouth hanging open.
I don’t wait for any further response from any of them as I grab him by his hair and slam his face down onto his boss’s desk.
Mason doesn’t flinch but his employee howls in pain while the other two guys scramble from their chairs. I don’t know if they’re planning on taking me on or they’re just getting out of the way, but right now I don’t care. I will deal with every one of them if I have to, but not until I’ve done what I came here to do.
“What the fuck, man?” the asshole squeals as I lift his head back up.
I lean close to his face. “You are never to go anywhere near her ever again. You understand me?”
He blinks at me in confusion as blood pours from his nose, and it only angers me more that he doesn’t know what I’m talking about. I grab hold of his busted nose and twist it and the sound of cartilage and bone snapping makes him scream. One of the men standing behind me retches. Mason doesn’t flinch, though. He has worked with me and Alejandro long enough to know how we operate.
I lean my face closer to the jackass who touched Lucia earlier and reminded her of her brother. “Lucia Montoya,” I growl at him as I pull his head back by his hair.
Realization dawns on his face and he whimpers, opening his mouth but coughing on the blood running down his throat before he can speak.
“When she has a meeting with your boss in future, you will be nowhere near here. If you should ever find yourself unexpectedly in her presence, then you should get yourself as far away from her as you possibly can as quickly as humanly possible,” I snarl as anger pulses through me.
He nods his understanding.
“And should so much as your breath ever touch her again, I will chop off all of your extremities before I bury you alive. You got that?”
“Yes,” he sputters.
I push his head back, releasing him from my grip. “Make sure that she never lays eyes on him again, Mason,” I bark as I turn to the door.
“Of course, Jackson,” he replies.
CHAPTER 9
LUCIA
I lie back on the sun lounger in my parents’ garden, keeping an eye on Matthias and the twins as they play in the pool with Hugo. All of the boys can swim and Hugo would die before he ever let anything happen to any of them, so I should be able to relax, but I can’t. I replay the events of the day over and over in my head. How much that asshole reminded me of my oldest brother. The way that he looked at me made me feel like I was thirteen again, fighting off Luca’s wandering hands. Trying to fade into the background so that he wouldn’t notice me. Wedging a chair under my door each night to prevent him from getting into my room.
A shudder runs the length of my spine as I recall his hands on my skin. The smell of his foul breath. A tear runs down my cheek and I swat it away. He is dead. He can’t hurt me anymore and he doesn’t deserve another second of my time.
The night my two brothers and the man I believed was my father were murdered was one of the worst nights of my life, but it also signaled the start of a new one for me. My freedom.
After my biological mom died when I was eight, my life had been a living hell in that house. I never understood why the man I believed was my dad hated me so much that he left me to the mercy of my animal older brothers.
It was only once I came to LA and met Alana that Alejandro discovered my real father was actually his uncle, Carlos Montoya. He was a psychopath, too. He kidnapped me and my mom in some crazy takeover attempt. I was pregnant with Matthias at the time and I remember being so terrified that we were all going to die in the filthy basement where he was keeping us prisoner.
My mom was so fierce and protective and the way she handled the whole thing makes me so proud of her, but it was my father and Jax who rescued us. That was the first time Jax ever hugged me and I think it was the moment when I fell in love with him. I always expected it to fade. I mean what girl wouldn’t fall in love with the handsome man who rescued her from a psychopath? But instead of fading, my feelings have only grown stronger over time.
Thoughts of Jax make me happy and sad at the same time. It was so good to work with him today. He has so much confidence in me that it makes me want to make him proud. We were having such a great day until I went and ruined it. And then he hugged me and I felt all kinds of things I shouldn’t feel about him. Making everything awkward between us again. Why can’t I just accept that it will never happen between us?
“You okay, sweetheart?” my mom says as she takes a seat beside me and hands me a glass of fresh lemonade.
“Yes,” I lie.
“How was your first day?”
“Great.” Only a half-lie this time.
