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Cole snickered. “It seems that I still get under your—”
Slap.
I slapped him. I didn’t even realize my hand rose and landed against his face until he stumbled backward. His eyes bugged out, shocked by what happened. I was shocked, too, as my hand stung from the impact with his face.
He shook it off, and a sinister smirk landed on his face. “Assaulting an officer, huh? Nice move, Yar. Real mature,” he scolded. “Jeff, come over here and toss Yara into a cell for a while. An hour or two should do her well. She’s a bit feisty around the holidays.”
Officer Jeff stood, uncertain of what to do. He cleared his throat. “Listen, boss—”
“Now!” Cole ordered, pounding his hand against his desk.
Chills raced down my spine as I saw the monster within him unleash.
Jeff walked over to me and grabbed my arm. “Sorry, Yara.”
“Are you joking right now?” I hissed, stunned. “You’re going to let him get away with this?”
“I’m just doing my job,” he stated, dragging me off to one of the cells. He placed me inside and locked the door. “You know I like you, Yara. It’s not personal.”
“It sure as hell feels that way.”
He grimaced and rubbed his forehead. “I’ll let you out in an hour. Don’t worry.”
As he turned to walk away, I called out to him, holding my hands against the cell door. “If you don’t stand up for what is right, you might as well turn in that badge of yours, Jeff, because you are exactly what’s wrong with this world. Shame on you for helping that monster.”
He didn’t say another word.
He left me in that cell, and I worried about Alex the whole time I sat.
When an hour had passed, Jeff released me, and I walked to the front of the station.
Cole still had that ugly smirk and said, “I hope you learned a valuable lesson from your time-out.”
I flipped him off and went on my way.
Alex was nowhere to be found when I returned to Isla Iberia after my oh-so-pleasant time-out. I darted around, asking people if they’d seen him, but everyone stated it’d been a while. His car was gone, too. My heart pounded against my ribs, feeling as if it would shoot out of my chest at any moment. I tried calling him, but his phone went straight to voicemail.
I didn’t know what to do, so I went across the street, sat on the bench, and waited for him to return. He had to come back at some point. He just had to.
“Yara,” Tatiana called out toward me. She jogged over and sat down on the bench. “I think I know where he is.”
“Where? How?”
“Teresa told me…” She shook her head. “I think he’s at his great-aunt’s home. I have the address, and I can drive you over there.”
“What? Why would he go there?”
“Because I think that’s where he goes when he feels far away from home. Also, this is for you,” she mentioned, pulling out a letter. “I was going to give it to you tonight before everything went to crap.”
“What is this?”
“It’s a letter from Mr. Parker. He left it for you. I’ve been holding on to it for a while, waiting for the right time to give it to you.”
I arched an eyebrow. “What do you mean he left it for me? And what did you mean by Teresa told you something? How did you know her? What’s going on, Tatiana?”
“I’ll explain everything on the drive. Plus, Teresa told me a phrase once that I loved. I think you should say to him when you see him. But first, you should read that letter.”
* * *
Dear Yara,
If you’re reading this, everything is going according to plan. Well, hopefully. Hopefully, you aren’t still with that bonehead grandson of mine who would ruin everything good about you. He’s a vampire, sucking the goodness from those around him.
But if you are reading this and have met a man named Alejandro, I urge you to honestly look into your heart and see what you’re feeling. If Teresa was right about that young man, and I was right about you, then you both are a match made in heaven—even if you are just friends. You need good friends in your life, outside of your sisters. And someone who is straightforward like Alex could be great for you.
Now, I know Teresa and I playing friend matchmaker is odd and slightly morbid, seeing how I’m dead, but throughout the letters we’d exchanged over the past few years, I realized she and I both had one thing in common—regret. I loved her, Yara. I’d never loved another the way I loved Teresa Ramírez, and my biggest mistake was not acting on that love when I was younger. I was afraid of hurting my family. I was scared of losing my home. Then, when I realized she was my home, I went to Madrid to win her back, only to find her with another man.
