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Omar reached over and tucked his finger beneath my chin, using it to make me look in his direction. “He shouldn’t have put his hands on you.”
I jerked my head away with a derisive snort. “That’s really rich coming from you.”
He scowled. “I’m not your father,” he said. “I’m not your family.”
“Like your family has never hit you?” I shot back.
That angry tension had returned, and we were both on edge. I knew what my brother endured in the name of “training,” so I could only imagine what the great Gustavo Castillo had done to prepare his sons for a world like ours.
Omar stood and shook the sand off himself. “I’ll leave you to draw, if that’s what you’d like. Don’t bother Helena for lunch or dinner. If you want something, make it yourself. And stay—”
“Out of your office and bedroom,” I intoned. “I know.”
Omar stared down at me for a long while, long enough that I nearly asked if he wanted something, but then the sand crunched softly as he walked away. What the hell was going on? I wanted to pick up the pieces of driftwood and hurl them at him. It felt like every time I felt the ground beneath my feet, Omar would come along and yank it away.
I was terrified of the man, of that I was certain, but beneath the terror, there was something else. Desire, possibly. Make that definitely. Desire for the man who washed my hair and talked to me about art. Desire for the man who probably still wanted me dead.
CHAPTER15
Omar
“So, there’s no amount of money—” I swore as the man on the other end of the line, a business contact of Angel’s, hung up. The boat that Pascal and Efrain were re-outfitting was nearly finished, but I still didn’t have safe passage to Miami. Ineededto get to the mainland, and I wasn’t going to hold out hope for Felix Suarez anymore. Not nine days later without a word.
I didn’t know what I was going to do with Lyse if he didn’t come through, but that was a problem for another time. Right now, I needed to find a way back. Lili was going to come apart at the seams if I didn’t.
But down every avenue I looked for some help, I came up against a brick wall. Either no one wanted to help me because I wasn’t Angel, or they’d heard that he was in a coma, and they were content to let the Castillos burn so that they could take over when we were gone.
As if I’d ever let that happen.
I should have used the guns the Corazón Syndicate had stored here as leverage and I was kicking myself for not thinking that far ahead, but at the same time, I knew better than to piss them off.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lyse’s dark hair bobbing by the window. She was outside again: I didn’t think she’d been inside for more than a few hours to sleep each night since I’d left her door unlocked.Exploring again, I thought absently. She was a curious little rabbit, that was for sure.
“You must have had good news.”
I jerked at the voice and looked toward the door. Helena stood in the doorway of my office, the only one brave enough to open the door without knocking. “What are you babbling about?”
She crossed her arms, mocking me.If she were a man, I’d shoot her. “You were smiling,” she said. “I thought that might mean good news.”
I shook my head. “Nothing good yet,” I said.
“So—?”
“Iwasn’tsmiling.”
“Whatever you say,jefe.” Her tone conveyed her disbelief, and Ibarelyresisted the urge to flip her off. It would be the incredibly juvenile thing that she would expect of me…but I couldn’t do that anymore. “Lyse has become quite the outdoorsy type since you unlocked her door, hasn’t she?”
“Really?” I feigned disinterest. “I hadn’t noticed.”
Helena scoffed. “I’ve seen you,jefe. Your eyes follow her all the time, and if she’s not near, you’re looking for her. You doubled the amount of time you normally take for dinner just waiting to see if she’d show up.”
Heat spread across my face. It wasn’t like I’d thought about itconsciously, but of course, the moment she said it out loud, I realized that was exactly what I’d done for the last two nights…and I’d been disappointed when Lyse had taken me at my word and not expected Helena to feed her. Instead, she had taken to grabbing small snacks throughout the day and kept to herself.
“She’s been…distracting,” I admitted.
Helena practically beamed. “You like her.”
“I don’t.” I didn’t. Being attracted to someone wasn’tlikingthem. “I’m not a child with a crush.”
