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Oozing venom from her hateful eyes, she pushed Sonia away, banging her back against the wall. I ran to them, putting myself in front of Andrea, torn between helping Sonia up and not letting the evil witch get close to Sofia.
“Look whom we have here,” Andrea sang. “The desperate mistress. Get out of my way.”
“You’re not getting anywhere near Sofia until Danny approves. And I’m more than qualified to assure you he won’t.”
“Really? What makes you think that? Because you’re his latest bang? You must have one hell of a pussy if you think you could make him forget about me, and that he’s not using you as an easy lay. Now move so I can get the kid.”
“Yourdaughterwon’t leave here with you. Go away and work it out with Danny before I call the police.” She was ready to attack me, and I was so pumped up that I was kind of wishing she did. I wanted a legitimate reason to punch her in her phony face.
“I’m already on it,” Sonia stated, with her phone already pressed to her ear.
“I don’t think so.” A man walked into the house, taking advantage of the still-open door. His presence was ominous, and a chill ran down my spine. There was something lethal and evil brimming in his eyes. He pulled the home phone out of Sonia’s hand, threw it on the ground, and stomped his foot on it before addressing Andrea. “Take the kid, and let’s go. We don’t have much time, and I’m losing my patience.”
I stepped in front of Andrea to keep her from walking through the hall, while Sonia faced the man.
“You’re sorely mistaken if you think you’re getting out of here with my granddaughter. I don’t care who the hell you are, get out of this house.Now.”
The man was walking past Sonia into the living room, ignoring her, when she picked up a lamp and broke it onto his back. He slowly turned to her with a diabolical stare, and everything went down the drain.
He advanced on her, punching Sonia in the face, who fell on the ground, disoriented. I kicked Andrea on the knee, elbowed her nose, and ran to jump on the man before he could hurt Sonia even more.
It was wishful thinking on my part to believe I could take them both and keep Sofia and Sonia safe. I was attached to the man’s back when Andrea pulled my hair and forced me away from him. I was still trying to gain back my balance and fight her off when he turned around and backslapped me so hard, I could taste blood.
He pushed me out of the way as Andrea kept hitting me while I tried to run to where Sofia was. I heard her piercing scream when he got to her, and my desperation urged me on. I picked a bowl from the coffee table and smashed it on Andrea’s head, then ran after the man, who was carrying Sofia over his shoulder, while she cried and looked at me with fear clear in her teary eyes.
When we reached the front lawn, I managed to jump on him again, almost tackling him to the ground. He let go of Fee, and I yelled, “RUN!”
She seemed scared but did as I instructed. Her little legs were no match for her mother’s, though. Andrea scooped her up from the ground, while I screamed at her, right before the man punched the side of my head, turning everything dark.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
We've been working nonstop on everything we got about the cartel, and we still had a lot to peruse from the files Mia'd managed to put together.
We dealt with our private clients in-between the cartel investigation, and we had a ton of new information to analyze. Besides that, we were also dealing with the renovation of our original building. Just a little bit more, and we’d be able to move back. I couldn’t wait not to be crumpled into a tight box anymore.
The setback would be coming back to the place where we lost one of our best friends.
I was heading down there to oversee the progress of the construction company. Ben was already on-site, and Mia was nowhere in sight. Since she wasn’t working away, I figured she was at the same place.
I found both their cars parked at the company. I assumed Ben was inside, but Mia was still in her driver’s seat. She seemed lost in her thoughts; she didn’t even notice my presence until I climbed into the passenger seat.
“Benny already checked on me.”
I chuckled and got comfortable inside her car. I’d spend as much time there as needed. “Allow the father in me to do the same.”
I took her small hand in mine and squeezed it in reassurance. We didn’t need to talk. I just wanted her to know she had a safe place in me to feel her pain.
“I don’t think I can get in just yet,” she whispered, sounding as defeated as she looked, not once gazing at me. I wasn’t naive enough to have believed that because she wasn’t moping around the company that she was healed.Just because we didn’t talk about it, it didn’t mean she’d overcome her trauma, her—misplaced—guilt, and her grief.
“So, don’t. There’s no need for you to go inside right now. Take your time to heal. We’ll be here for you when you’re ready.” I waited a bit, unsure if I should say those words, then decided to hell with it. “We missed you.”
“We see each other almost every day.”
“We see the physical Mia, the materialized one. I miss the Mia who made jokes and pestered us.”
She bit her lower lip to stop her chin from trembling. I noticed from her profile that her nose was turning red and eyes were shiny. She’d yet to look at me.
Mia just nodded in agreement, and I took that as her way of saying she missed us, too. I was still thinking about new safe topics for us to talk about when I felt the vibration of my phone.
