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“I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” I said before going back inside, hoping Noah wouldn’t mind having to leave right away.
“I need to get to Seahorse. My sister…” I started to cry and couldn’t continue.
“What’s happened?” he asked, taking my hand in his.
“She had a bad night.”
He nodded, took out his wallet, and threw a couple of bills on the table.
“Are you sure you don’t want to finish?” I pointed at his food.
“Positive. C’mon, let’s get you up there.”
I hugged my stomach on the way. This was my fault. I shouldn’t have stayed with Noah last night. No matter how many times she told me she was okay, I knew she wasn’t. How could she be?
Noah reached over and rubbed my shoulder. There was no doubt he knew what I was thinking, and I appreciated him not trying to talk to me about it.
I racedinto the house after the light above the door turned green.
“Where is Luisa?” I asked Press, who met me in the hallway.
“Out on the deck. She’s—”
I didn’t bother listening to what he said. I needed to see my sister, not have someone who hardly knew her tell me how she was.
“Hey,” I said, sitting on the chaise beside her. Tears were rolling down her cheeks. I leaned forward, and we hugged. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here last night.” I stroked her hair. “Can you tell me what’s going on?”
“I’m an idiot. A stupid idiot.”
I pulled back and cupped her cheek. “We both know that isn’t true. What’s this all about?”
“First Jorge. My God, I fell for a fucking human trafficker just because he paid attention to me.”
“And second?”
She cried harder and shook her head. My guess was finding out Beau had a girlfriend was the reason for this tailspin. It wasn’t about Beau, though. It was about the tenuous hold Luisa had on her life right now. Both Beau and his brother had been “paying attention” to her, the same way Jorge had. They’d invited her to stay in their home, and her sense of safety and security was dependent on them and on me.
“How about a walk on the beach?”
Luisa shook her head. “I want to go home. I don’t want to stay here anymore.”
“I understand, sweetie. I really do, but the apartment is, well, it isn’t in the best neighborhood, and there isn’t any kind of security system. I’m not sure you’d feel safe being there.”
“I don’t want to be here.”
“Give me a few minutes to figure this out, okay?”
I saw my mom standing by the French doors, looking out at us.
“She’s insisting we leave,” she said when I came inside.
“I know. That’s what she told me too. Can you sit with her while I see what I can do?”
“Your sister…”
“Mom, please. Go sit with her.”
She nodded and went out the doors.
