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My mind conjured up the image of Omar leaning over me and how sinfully good his hands felt against my skin. “I’m fine, Felix,” I said in as flat a voice as I could manage. “I’ve just been waiting.”
“Good. That’s good.”
“I’ve held up my end,” Omar interrupted.
Felix was quiet again, and my eyes slipped closed as I waited for the inevitable blow. “Lyse, love, I’m so sorry.” Tears welled in my eyes, but Felix continued, and each word was another nail in my coffin. “The feds want you brought in, Mr. Castillo. The only thing keeping them from finding you is thatIhave been dropping anonymous tips that you are in Orlando and Tallahassee and fucking Atlanta. Keep that in mind.”
Omar was furious. His face had gone still, but I could see the way his eyes roamed over me. “How did you want me to send your fiancée back to you, Mr. Suarez?” Omar asked in a deceptively calm tone that did not match his face. “Whole or in pieces? I will pay for the shipping container either way.”
I didn’t know what I expected as a reply, but it wasn’t for Felix tolaugh. “You should let your brother stick to the idle threats,La Bestia,” he snarled. “They don’t suit you.” He made a noise akin tooops. “I suppose that plan only works out if Angel ever wakes up again.”
“Leave my brother out of this.” The words came out in a painful growl, as if his mouth were suddenly filled with overgrown, razor-sharp teeth, and he was having trouble forming words around them.More beast than man, I thought.That’s what Apá always said.
“I’ve seen him, you know,” Felix continued, and my stomach began to cramp with fear at the dangerous look on Omar’s face. The man was going to put his fist through my skull and make Felix listen. “The once great Angel Castillo, hooked up to a hundred different tubes just to stay alive. He’snevergoing to wake up; I sincerely hope you know that.”
I tried to move away, but Omar’s arm shot out, and in a terrifying mockery of what happened between us, he wrapped his fingers around my wrist. This time it was all pain and I cried out. “Felix!” I begged.
My fiancé said something, but I couldn’t hear it. Omar dragged me across the room that had been my prison cell, and for the first time in a week, I left it. I had done nothing but wish to be let out for days, but now, I would give anything to run back to the relative safety of those four walls.
Omar dragged me down the stairs; the only thing that kept me from tumbling down and staining the light oak floor with my blood was his steady grip on my wrist. The foyer came into view, and then we were outside in the sunshine.
Despite the fear pressing down on me and the muffling in my ears, I took a deep breath. It smelled like sand and surf and sea salt here; it would be perfect…except for the part where I was being dragged off to a certain demise.
There was a shack not too far off that I thought he was headed for, but at the fork in the path, Omar steered us down toward the dock. My chest tightened tenfold. “No,” I moaned and tried to tug my arm out of his grip. My shoulder exploded in pain, but Omar didn’t even react to the desperate sobs coming out of my mouth. He just kept walking. I dug my heels into the sand, but that did little to slow us down. “Omar,please.”
“Shut. Up.” The words were thrown over his shoulder.
We hit the dock, and the wooden planks slapped under our feet. I couldn’t breathe. The world was closing in around me, and I was starting to get tunnel vision. Omar walked us out to the very end of the dock. He wrenched me around so that I stood in front of him, looking out at the horizon.
Even in my panic, I could see how beautiful it all was. The water was a deep azure; the sky seemed to go on forever. It was something I wished I could paint. Even thinking the wordpaintmade me ache for my set at home. The last thing I’d committed to canvas had been a dour, abstract piece; I’d done it the day my engagement ring came by courier.
Now, I would give anything to be able to whitewash that silliness away and paint this view instead.
“Look down,” Omar growled at me.
I shook my head. “No.” If I did, I might start screaming and not stop. Or I might throw up. Either option sounded terrible.
His giant hand cupped the back of my head and forced me to look down. The pilings of the dock disappeared into all that blue. I could see fish…but I also noticed that despite the clearness of the water, I couldn’t see the bottom. “It’s fifteen feet,” Omar said, loud enough that I knew he was really talking to Felix. “She can’t swim. Can you,conejita?” He crooned the pet name, and my skin crawled.
“Lyse?”
Omartsked. “How much do you actually know about the woman you were going to marry?” he asked.
“And what the hell is that supposed to mean?” Felix’s panic had bled back to anger and frustration, but all I could focus on was that my toes were curling over the edge of the dock.How embarrassing is it to pee yourself before you die?
“Your little bunny is a feisty little thing,” Omar taunted. “That’s all. Shame you’ll never get to know that side of her.”
“Did youtouchher?Bastardo! I will see you rot in jail for this!”
Omar let go of my wrist but quickly grabbed hold of my shoulder. His fingers brushed my collarbone, almost intimately, before he tipped me out over the water. “Stop!” I cried, grabbing at his arm. “Please, Omar, don’t do this.” The man groaned out loud, as if I’d done something pleasurable to him. “I’ll do anything,” I begged.
“Don’t offer him anything,” Felix demanded, but his voice was tinny and far away. “The big moron won’t hurt you! It’s against those stupid rules of your organization. No women or children!”
Omar seemed to freeze at that, and for a moment, I thought Felix might have gotten through to him somehow. Maybe he’d reminded Omar of his humanity just enough for it to kick in. “You are absolutely right, Mr. Suarez,” he said, and I shivered at his tone. “The rules of my organizationarestupid. Thankfully, I don’t always abide by those rules, especially when they don’t suit me. If you thought that I wouldn’t hurt her, and you would be able to skate by until the feds found me, you thought wrong.” He squeezed my shoulder, and I whimpered under the touch. “Say goodbye to your pretty fiancée.”
He shoved me hard, and I went toppling into the water. It happened so fast that I didn’t have enough time to scream. Buoyancy kicked in for a moment, and I rocketed upward, sucking in a breath and screaming for help. I thrashed my arms and legs, trying desperately to keep myself above water, but it was hard to keep myself oriented because I’d never learned how. The water sucked me back under, no matter how much I fought, and even though I was able to breach the surface again, I knew it was a losing battle.
Glancing up at the dock, even as I fought, I zeroed in on Omar. His face was a stone, and he turned away from me, not watching as I sank for a final time below the warm, blue waters of the Caribbean.Don’t open your mouth, I told myself.Don’t suck water into your lungs.
