AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t know where your office is.”
He turns and smiles the devil's smile at me, his teeth gleaming like the vampire that he is.
“All you’ve done during your stay here is snoop around, I’m sure you’ll find it. You have one hour.” Then he walks away into the kitchen, leaving me wordless and frustrated like he always does.
* * *
I spent the entire hour in my mom's room. I brought her food and kept casual conversation while she ate and sat in bed. After I helped her to the bathroom, I fluffed her pillows and left her to rest. Once I was in the kitchen, I washed her dirty dishes and leaned against the counter while Javier was chopping vegetables.
“Don’t you get tired of working for a tyrant?” I asked.
He smiles at me and continues chopping vegetables as if my question did not phase him.
“Dante has given me a great job and a warm bed to sleep in for many years. Sometimes, it’s not awful having the bad guys on your side. Especially if they’re the best of the bad.”
I scoff and roll my eyes, not believing that he’s the best of them. He had a man chained to a wall in his basement. Not like he didn’t deserve it, but his methods of communication were clearly toxic.
“He’s murdered people, Javier. He had me smuggled here without my consent or even my consciousness. He’s not a saint.” My voice is filled with disgust, but Javier doesn’t stop chopping even for a second.
“I never said he was, Emmie. I’m just saying he’ll give you a chance if you prove that you don’t need a bullet put through your head.”
“I shouldn’t have to prove that. I never asked for any of this.”
He stops chopping now and stares at me with sympathetic eyes.
“Go talk to him, Emmie. Maybe if you show him patience he will give you the answers you seek.”
“I doubt it’ll be that easy-”
“But it’s worth a try.” He cuts me off. “What else are you going to do? Wash clean dishes? Separate the rosemary from its stems?”
I stand there in silence, and he chuckles while continuing his chopping.
“Go.” I throw my hands up and huff out afinebefore walking towards his quarters. I walk into the library and notice Sergio searching through one of the bookcases. He nods at my presence and I return the gesture. Once I’m down the hallway to his bedroom, I find another set of doors further down the hall to the left. I take a deep breath and raise my hand to knock but hear his voice before my knuckles hit the wood.
“Come in.” It is dark and short and makes me roll my eyes as I open up the doors to reveal him sitting behind yet another large desk. He’s watching me on his security cameras.
“Are you going to track my every move forever?” I ask sharply as I shut his office doors behind me. It takes a minute for me to register that I am in his boardroom. My frustration starts to fuel my anger.
“That depends. Are you going to continue disobeying the simple things I ask of you?” His voice holds no humor, but I shrug as I sit down in one of the plush chairs facing his grand desk. He crosses one leg over the other and leans back in his chair, a movement that I find makes that stupid flutter in my stomach appear.
“What do you want, Dante?” I sound annoyed and he raises an eyebrow at this.
“Just hours ago, you were so eager for answers. Now you seem annoyed by my very presence, care to enlighten me?”
“Playing cat and mouse tends to take away my eagerness.” I pick at my fingernails and avert my gaze from him, staring at the skin chipping away from my cuticles.
“I don’t have you here for banter, Esmeralda.”
“Then why am I here?” I quip back. He gets up from his desk and retrieves a manila folder from his desk, slapping it on the glass coffee table before me. I open it up and am greeted with both headshots and security footage of a short and chubby man. His face is round, his head bald, but he has a thick, black mustache above a set of full lips. Lips that looked a lot like mine.
“His name is Juan Carlos. Obviously an odd name for a man of his nature. The traditional meaning in his Mexican heritage translates to “God is gracious.” He is not God nor is he gracious, but he is the man that created you. I think we both know he’s also undeserving of the namefather.”
Dante is staring out of the window behind his desk. It overlooks the entire back portion of his estate. I run my fingers along the photos in my hand and stare at the man who helped create me. He is angry looking, and I can feel his wrath through the photos. I look more like my mother, but I have a few of his features and all of his coloring. I really didn’t look like him at all, something that I am grateful for.
“My mother said your club was shot up the night of my conception. She said she saw you holding a man before she left. That was your father, yes?”
He is quiet for a long moment, staring out the window with his back turned to me. I noticed the tensing of his shoulders at the mentioning of his late father, the silent twitch answering my question for me.
