AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I never wanted this for her,” she whispers, seemingly staring through me.
Jack, sensing his partner’s distress, steps in. “Ray? What was the update on those plates?”
The techie clears his throat and brings out a tablet before responding. “It took a minute, but I finally narrowed down the location.” He glances at Jack with a grimace. “I got some good news and some bad news.”
“Jesus. What now?” I mutter under my breath. From the way Jack’s mouth twitched, I’d wager he heard me.
Unperturbed, Ray continues. “Good news is there’s a match and CCTV footage that shows that same vehicle entering the property less than six hours ago.”
“Bad news?” Jack presses.
“The building is owned by the Romero Cartel.”
I exhale in relief. “Thank fuck.”
I might not like her, but if Eda Romero was going to do anything to Roisin, she’s had more than a few opportunities to do it. I’d rather she be her prisoner than anywhere near Padraic Duffy.
Jack turns to me with a look of confusion. “What has Eda Romero got to do with this?”
“She was like a mentor to her as a child,” I explain quickly. “They’ve recently reconnected, and even though the Romeros are temperamental at best, I don’t think Eda would hurt her.”
“You’re wrong.”
I turn to look at Aimee in surprise—only to find her trembling from head to toe.
She looks me dead in the eye. “Eda Romero is a monster.”
Her words are like ice across my skin.
“What are you—”
“If she’s with Eda, we need to get her out.Now!” Aimee practically yells at Jack.
He grabs her by the shoulders and kneels down to her eye level. “Talk to me. What did Eda do?”
She glances at us all frantically, examining each of our sympathetic yet intently curious faces one by one until she finally lands on mine.
“This cannot leave this room,” she begs me with her huge emerald eyes.
“I promise,” I reply instantly—aware that her fiancé looms behind her, reminding me with his equally serious expression what will happen if I betray Aimee’s confidence.
Kate and Ray nod in silent agreement.
“I blame my father because it’s the easiest thing to do,” she begins quietly. “He was hurting after he lost my mother. It made him drunk and miserable, and he took it out on every one of us, even if I didn’t recognize it at the time.
“He became negligent, lazy. I blamed him for Roisin’s addiction because he should have seen the signs, should have stopped buying from the cartel and kept Roisin far, far away. But the reality is I was also to blame. We were all grieving, but I didn’t realize how far Roisin had slipped into her own pain before it was almost too late.
“You see, back then, the Romeros had a reputation to uphold. The only reason they continued to sell to my father was because of his estate. They knew if they could rinse him dry, they’d be able to eventually take the house. But we were poor. Sometimes, months would go by before the cartel visited us again. So, Eda decided she’d take matters into her own hands in order to speed the process along.
“Eda Romero saw a hole in Roisin’s life where my mother had once been and took it upon herself to fill it. At first, it was innocuous, a small gift when she visited my father, a birthday card maybe. I don’t know when it started properly.”
Aimee’s voice breaks a little.
Jack picks her up gently so he can settle next to her on the couch. “It’s okay.”
She swallows hard. “I tried. But I couldn’t figure out where she was getting the drugs. I thought my father must have been negligent, but even when I stored them myself, Roisin would come home in a stupor. For years, I tried to confront her about it, but she wouldn’t tell me a thing.
“She was barely seventeen when I found her, dying of an overdose. Eda Romero was by her side, just watching her as she writhed on the floor. I—” Tears spill down Aimee’s cheeks. “I will never in all my life forget that night.”
