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“When necessary.”
That killed my appetite, and I had to wash down the food stuck in my throat with a big drink. “What’s wrong with you?”
He shrugged. “Anyone that I torture deserves it.”
“So you get to be judge, jury, and executioner? Who made you God?”
Instead of getting mad at me, his looked amused, like I was some cute puppy yapping at him. “You sure like to judge people and situations quickly, don’t you? So sure you know everything, so certain your view of the world is right. Makes it easy to comfort yourself with bullshit lies, to pretend you had no idea Leo isn’t like most men. But you’ll never admit that—because then you’d have to admit you aren’t like most women.”
Stung, I moved over to the windows, my arms crossed as I rubbed my elbows. “You’re talking out your ass.”
“Defensive,” he said in a teasing tone that irritated me beyond measure. “You’re so quick to call Leo out, but how about your little stalking habits? How many times have you been threatened with a restraining order? Gone a little too far in your efforts to make sure the loser you were with was happy?”
Ashamed, I turned away. “It’s not the same thing as being a serial killer.”
“No, it isn’t, but you’re stupid if you don’t realize how perfect you and Leo are together. Unconventional, but you will never be as happy with anyone else as you are with him. I’m not going to lecture you, you’re a big girl, but I will leave you with this. If the situations were reversed, if you were pursuing Leo, what wouldn’t you have done to keep him? All he’s ever tried to do is make you happy, Hannah, because you are literally the only person on earth he’s given his full heart to.”
“He lied,” I whispered, the urge to tell Mark to shove it up his ass because I knew Leo brainwashed me battering at my self-control.
“Yeah, he did. He’s human, we make mistakes. You need to ask yourself if you want to turn into someone like your parents, holding irrational grudges against the people who love them the most.”
I flinched, his words hitting me as hard as a punch to the kidney, and twice as painful. “Get out.”
The cart rattled, then the door shut, leaving me staring out at the cloudy horizon, framed by soft curtains in a warm ivory tone. I wondered if it was going to rain and wished once again I had my phone. At Judith’s, I hadn’t been allowed to make any calls, and since I wasn’t talking to anyone it made asking for a phone difficult.
Gnawing at my bottom lip, I wondered if my silence was childish, if I’d reverted to the negative habits that I’d grown up with.
Joy would know; I needed to talk to her. She was my touchstone.
A fat plop of rain pinged off the bedroom window, matching the tear trailing down my cheek.
With a start, I remembered that we kept a phone in here. I darted over to it, trying to remember Joy’s number. Oh the irony of cell phones; without mine, I had no idea how to contact anyone.
When I picked it up and got a dial tone, I hesitated, tempted for a moment to call 9-1-1. But what would I say? Don’t arrest him, just get me out of here? That according to everyone, Leo only tortured people who deserved it? The Cordova cartel would lawyer up and lie to protect him, but at the same time I couldn’t do that to him, couldn’t betray him like that.
For a moment, I wondered if that was just the hypnosis bullshit Leo had done to me talking, but quickly dismissed that thought. I’ve always been loyal, sometimes blindly and painfully so, and I just wasn’t the kind of person that would turn on someone like that. Not only would it harm Leo, it would also endanger the entire Cordova family. Yes, they were drug-dealing bad people, but they had good hearts—in their own messed up ways. Maybe I was making excuses, but I couldn’t help feeling compassion for them, especially Fernando. He’d paid the ultimate price for their criminal lifestyle, and he deeply regretted it.
With a press of my thumb, I hung up the phone, not wanting to talk to anyone right now as I tried to figure out the conflicted, tangled knot of my feelings.
Restless, I went to the door, not surprised in the least to find myself locked in. Thankfully there was a TV that dropped down from the ceiling and I flopped back into the bed, scanning through the channels as I flip-flopped between relaxation, and guilt that I was feeling relaxed. The desert storm pounded the house now, vibrating the windows and drawing my gaze to watch the tempest. Once again the scent of Leo’s cologne comforted me and I grabbed his pillow, telling myself I was just trying to get comfy, not surround myself in his scent.
