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She pouts. “Okay.” She passes me her pale. Closing her eyes, she flips over and snuggles deeper underneath the covers. Within a couple minutes, her mouth pops open and I know she’s fallen asleep.
As quietly as possible, I set down her pale of candy on the dresser and walk over to the bathroom to an impatient Violet. “We have to hurry.”
“Sorry. She’s gotten a little clingy since we got here.”
She smiles sadly at me. Grabbing onto my shoulders, she spins me around so she can start on my hair. “I don’t want to be stepping out of line, but was it really bad there?”
A tightness in my throat makes it hard to get the words out. “Yeah, Violet. It was.”
“What was it like? What did you do?”
I think back to day one. Going through the sex trafficking process. Santiago buying me. Him training me. The Hut. Ms. Maria.Alexia.Elena.
A tear slips down my cheek at the names of my friends who tragically died in the crossfire. Gone before they should’ve been.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to make you cry.”
“No, I’m fine.” I smile at her, though I know it looks forced. “It wasn’t good. They don’t care about you. Whether you live or die. Whether you’re scared or angry. They want to make money off you. They want to rape you and see you cry. I’ve seen countless girls sold to the most ruthless men, only for those men to come back six months later to buy a new girl.”
“What does that mean?” Violet asks, her eyes wide in terror.
“The girl died. Maybe the guy killed her, I don’t know. Sometimes the girls didn’t even make it to be sold. Sometimes they went through the process and died while they were being trained. Some kill themselves, other times the guards or some other worker kills them. I never should have made it as long as I did. I don’t know how I did, honestly.” I shiver at the thought.
“How did you stay alive? How long were you even there?”
“Five years. Five, awfully long years. I’m only alive because of Lilah. I know that wholeheartedly.”
“If she’s only three, that means you had her while you were there? Whose baby is it?” She pulls the curling iron out of the outlet and sprays my hair with about a pound of hairspray.
I cough and wave my hand. “She’s Santiago’s.”
Her hair spray bottle drops to the ground, and I whip my head around to see Lilah flip over on her other side and fall back into a deep sleep.
“Sorry.” Violet winces. “But who is Santiago? I’ve heard his name before.”
“You don’t know who he is?” I narrow my eyes at her.
She puffs out a laugh. “I might be nosy, but I’m seriously just the guys’ nonblood-related little sister. I don’t get told anything. The only reason I know about anything is because I know how to snoop.”
I shake my head at her. “He’s the…El Jefe.”
“What’s that?” She picks up a brush. “Close your eyes.”
I close them. “It means boss, I guess. He’s the boss of the Mexican cartel.”
She stops brushing on my face, and I crack an eye open. She’s staring at me with wide eyes and a slack jaw. Her ruby red lips stretched into the largest O I’ve ever seen. “You mean to tell me…” She leans into whisper, “Lilah is the daughter of the king of the Mexican cartel?”
I wince. Why’d she have to say it likethat?
I nod.
“Holy shit.Girl.I knew Aziel liked you, but Idid not knowit was that deep.”
“It’s really not that deep.”
She laughs. “Close your eyes.” I do as she says. “And yes, it really is that deep. The Seven have been at war with the Mexican cartel for a few years now. They absolutely hate each other. Straight out of a story book kind of rival hatred. Aziel used to be a lazy, nice guy who liked fighting and biking. These last couple years he’s turned into an angry son of a bitch who has one thing in mind, and one thing only. That’s to kill Santiago.” She lets out another laugh. “If you’re here, sleeping in his bed, with the daughter of the man who he thinks about killing day in and day out… yeah, he’s in much deeper than either you or I thought.”
My heart drops from the left side of my chest, bouncing off my rib cage until it plummets to the pit of my stomach. I don’t have a response for her, and I don’t think she really expected one. I didn’t realize Aziel’s hate for Santiago ran as deep as it did.
