Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 48854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 163(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 163(@300wpm)
“I’ll be inside,” Lia tells us and I only offer a grunt in reply. The driver’s gaze burns into my side and I know he’s waiting for some more reaction. When I don’t offer it, he seems happy enough and goes back to the car.
Guillermo leans against the stone wall just outside the boutique, arms crossed, sunglasses on, face unreadable. He looks relaxed, but I know he’s anything but as his shirt sleeves are rolled up and his hands are balled into fists. There’s nothing relaxed about him. I stand a few paces away, close enough to speak low. Far enough to keep up appearances.
Lia’s inside, and I’m on edge. I don’t like being away from her. She’s probably somewhere between layers of ivory silk and the weight of her own damn cage. We stand in silence for what feels like hours. But it hasn’t been that long. It can’t have been.
I look at Guillermo and finally say, “This has to go down soon. I can’t play this game anymore. I hate seeing her with him.”
“It will all be over soon.” There is a promise in his voice, one that sets me at ease, but only just. “Her father didn’t want this,” he tells me then and I can’t help but snap my gaze to his.
“What?” My voice is higher than I expect it to be, but I lower it and whisper, “What are you talking about?”
“She’s a pawn in a game,” he tells me earnestly. “It’s the reason I’m here, to get her out, but he doesn’t know about you. Only I do.”
“She’s really in danger,” I finally say as the truth hits me. I thought her father signed the agreement for her to marry this bastard.
“She is. I didn’t want to tell you because you would lose your shit and do something stupid, but with Cassio arriving soon—”
“We have to move faster.”
“She’s been in there an hour,” Guillermo says, not looking at me.
“I’m sure she likes to take her time when she’s out of the house,” I answer, just as flat.
He turns his head slightly, his jaw ticking. “You ever seen her in a wedding dress before?”
“Not like this.”
He finally looks at me—really looks. “That supposed to mean something?”
I exhale through my nose, eyes still on the glass door. “Ignacio gave me orders. I’m to stand outside the fitting room. Make sure she doesn’t accidentally run into anyone from her old life. He’s suspicious. Thinks she might try to stir up trouble.”
Guillermo scoffs while shaking his head. “He thinks she has the balls to pull something off without help. That’s cute.”
“Yeah. Cute.” My voice comes out sharper than I mean. I roll my shoulders back, trying to ease the tension crawling under my skin. “He doesn’t know her the way we do. He doesn’t see what’s building under all that sweetness and innocence.”
Guillermo steps closer, lowers his voice. “He will know soon enough. I want to make a suggestion for our plan. Something that I know she’ll agree to.”
“I don’t like we’re you’re going with this,” I tell him honestly. I’m already nervous about this plan, but involving her will only add to it.
“I need you to trust me.” Guillermo looks me in the eye then and I know I can trust him. I may not be the man he wanted for Lia, but I’m the one she’s chosen. And I’m not leaving unless she wants me to. “Do you want her forever?”
The question hangs between us, heavier than the European heat. I glance at the boutique’s window, and suddenly, she steps out of the fitting room in a dress of silk. That’s when I see her properly.
Hands lifted.
A veil lowered. A life she doesn’t want being stitched around her like a trap.
“She’s not alone in this,” I say finally, then look back at the man questioning me. “I will die before I allow any harm to come to her.”
Guillermo nods once, slow and deliberate. “So we’re clear—he’s suspicious, but he doesn’t know anything. We do what we need to end the Mosca line.”
“He won’t have her. No one will. There is only one man for her.”
Guillermo nods slowly. “You planning on keeping him blind all the way to the altar?”
“If I have to.” This time, I stand up, squaring my shoulders as if my enemy is right in front of me.
There’s a pause, then Guillermo takes a step closer. “You sure you can hold it together that long? Watch her pick out the dress she’s supposed to wear to marry someone else? Keep pretending?”
I meet his eyes. “I don’t have a choice.”
He studies me like we’re back on our home ground, as if we’re in New York and he’s learned my true name—like he’s running through every angle, measuring the cracks.
Then he gives a slight nod. “All right. You don’t tell Ignacio anything. He asks, you tell him she picked white and didn’t stab anyone with a pin. End of story.”