I’d bought four small kiddie pools, three bags of play sand, and a bag of decorative shells, thus transforming the backyard into a Floridian paradise. Or as close as I could get for the low, low price of fifty-three dollars.
Penn’s head swung in my direction. “What in the…”
“I told you she loved me,” Drew whispered.
I snapped my fingers in his direction. “No touching.”
He leaned over the railing to get a better view. “I can look though, right?”
“Go for it.”
Rubbing his hands together, he shot down the stairs, leaving Penn and me alone on the third floor.
“Part two?” he asked, circling his arms around my waist.
I squeaked when, rather than bending down to kiss me, he lifted me off my feet, bringing me up to his mouth.
“Welcome to Florida, baby. Since you’re stuck in Illinois this year, I figured I’d bring the beach to you. Everybody pitched in this morning, helping me set up. Brittany even opened up her apartment as the bar. She’s making cocktails complete with little umbrellas and neon straws. Keep an eye on Savannah though. I already had to snatch two out of her grip.”
Penn chuckled, putting me back on my feet. “You didn’t have to do all this, Cora. Really, it’s just another day.”
“No, Penn. It’s your birthday. We celebrate birthdays. Nothing is a given. Nothing is promised. Nothing is guaranteed. So, when you have the chance to put on a bathing suit, lie in the sun, dig your toes into the sand, and drink fruity cocktails with umbrellas and neon straws while surrounded by people you care about, you do it.”
He stared down at me, his gaze clear, his mouth smiling. But that all-too-familiar shadow flittered across his face. “You’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.”
“You’re not so bad yourself.”
His hand slid down to my ass. “You gonna be wearing a bikini?”
I swayed into him, looping my arms around his neck. “For a little while.” I pecked at his lips. “But my goal is to end the day very, very naked.”
“So there we were, four women, three of which were in heels, pushing this car to the edge of the parking lot. ‘Just pop the clutch,’ they said. ‘It’s easy,’ they said.” I lifted my drink in the air. “They lied! I was rolling down that hill like a soapbox derby star. I couldn’t get the damn thing to crank. Nor could I get it to stop. I had no less than twelve heart attacks before I thought to pull the parking brake.”
Everyone laughed as we sat in a semicircle around one of the baby pools. Penn and I were sharing a lounge chair. His feet were on the ground on either side, a beer in his hand, and I was sitting between his legs, leaning back against his chest, and halfway through my third piña colada.
It had been a really freaking good day. It was Penn’s birthday, but the smiles on the women’s faces as we all swapped stories and picked on each other like the family we truly were had me vowing to do something like this at least once a month. They deserved some downtime, not time locked away in their apartments, isolated from people who loved them.
And days like that were reminders of how much I did love them. Each and every one of them. No matter how big of a pain in the ass they could be sometimes.
“You need another drink?” Penn whispered into the top of my hair as the girls carried on around us.
I craned my head back to see him and replied quietly, “You want birthday sex tonight?”
His eyes lit. “I wouldn’t turn it down.”
“Then no. Three is enough.”
He dipped, kissing my lips. But I wasn’t done with one. Snaking my hand up, I cupped the back of his head and pulled him down for a few more.
“Oh shit,” someone breathed like they’d never seen two people in love before.
In love?
Shit, were we in love?
Just being able to ask myself that question was more than I’d ever thought I’d have again.
I hummed, kissing him again.
“Cora,” someone hissed, but I waved them off, causing Penn to laugh against my mouth.
And then it was over.
The joy.
The happiness.
The comfort.
That hope that had been enveloping me, warming me, and feeding my soul since Penn had arrived? It exploded. And, as I’d expected, it slayed me in its wake.
“Well, this is cozy,” Dante snarled behind me.
I froze, my pulse coming to a screeching halt before skyrocketing.
Penn shot to his feet, and I scrambled up after him, desperate to get between them.
“Hey, Dante?” I croaked, trying and failing to keep the shake out of my voice.
With a hand on my stomach, Penn stepped around me. “The fuck are you doing here?”
Dante laughed, unsteady on his feet but no less malevolent. His pupils were the telltale size of pinpricks, and the exposed skin beneath his white button-down was sweaty and red. God only knew what he’d taken that day. He was crazy as it was, without drugs adding to his unpredictability.
I swung my gaze around the yard, searching for Drew. He’d handled Dante once and nobody had died. Maybe he could do it again. I blew out a loud breath of relief when I found him prowling our way, a dark scowl hidden beneath a plastic smile.
“What’s up, brother!” Drew called out on his way over.
As Dante turned his unfocused eyes away, Penn whispered in my ear, “Go. Lock yourself in your apartment.”
I swallowed hard. If they tried to keep me from Dante, something he viewed as his property, it would only exacerbate the situation. The easiest and safest way was for me to face him and take whatever he wanted to dole out until his drugged-out mind got bored or passed out.
“No,” I replied. “I’ll handle this.”
Penn grabbed my arm, hauling me against his side, and seethed, “The fuck you will.”
I glared at him and then snatched my arm away. I could argue with Penn later, when Dante was gone and we were both still breathing.
Slapping on a smile, I stepped forward just as Drew arrived at Penn’s side. “I didn’t know you were coming over. Can I get you a drink?”
He chuffed. “A drink. A fucking drink.” He glanced around, searching for an audience, but the women had wisely scattered. “I find one of my fucking whores riding the janitor and the bitch asks if I want a drink?”
“I wasn’t—”
“You making him pay, Cora? Swear to God, you better not be giving my pussy out for free.”
Penn hit my back, but I gave his hand a quick squeeze, silently begging him not to do anything stupid. Insults from Dante were a way of life. They didn’t bother me. Though, if the suffocating rage firing off Penn was any indication, he could not say the same.
And Drew, well… “You got something to say, or are you just here to listen to yourself talk?”
“Shit, are you fucking her too?” He waggled his finger between Penn and Drew. “One in each hole, or are you two taking turns?”
Drew laughed like he actually found Dante humorous.
Meanwhile, Penn jerked, his straining chest getting even tighter at my back like it was costing him a great deal of effort to keep his hands at his sides and not planted in Dante’s mouth.
I gave him another squeeze, whispering, “Please don’t. He’ll leave in a minute. Just wait.”
Penn didn’t reply, but he didn’t move, either.
For me, it was a huge victory.
Getting Dante the hell out of there would have been an even bigger victory.
“So, what can I do for you? Did you need something?” I asked.
He turned to me and smirked. “Oh, right. So here’s the thing. I had a chat with Chrissy yesterday. I don’t know if you remember her, but apparently, Marcos turned her out a while back.” He scratched the back of his head. “That bitch is crazy. Made my damn ears bleed, she was talking so much. She wanted to come back, went so far as to lie to me and tell me you were keeping one of my personal
girls as a pet.”
The blood in my veins caught fire as the air in my lungs turned to sludge. But I fought it all back, showing him no fear as I scoffed, “What? That’s nuts.”
He smirked. “Yeah. Some bullshit about a redhead. I didn’t know what the fuck she was talking about, so I decided to stop by and check in. See if you knew.”
I could barely think with the thundering of my heart in my ears. “Nope. I’m just as clueless as you.”
He shoved a hand into his pocket. “That’s what I thought. Cause you wouldn’t lie to me, would you?”
I shook my head, a sinking feeling settling in my stomach.
He grinned sardonically. “’Cause you remember exactly how much you have to lose, right?”
“Right,” I breathed, nodding repeatedly.
He tipped his head at Penn. “Like, say, you start fucking this asshole and get the idea in your head that maybe you don’t belong to me.”
“Oh for fuck’s—” Drew started, but I threw a hand out to silence him.
Stepping away from Penn, I forced a smile around the fire in my throat.
They were words I’d said before.
Words I’d once believed.
Words that had nearly destroyed me.
Words that I now knew were the biggest lies I’d ever told.
“I belong to you, Dante. I’m not sleeping with anybody. I would never disrespect all you’ve given me like that. I’m a Guerrero. Always and forever.”
He smiled, sick and twisted. “Lies have consequences, Cora.”
“I know. But I’m not lying.”
He held my stare, searching with glassy eyes.
I stared back, showing him nothing but the truth he wanted to see.
“Okay. As long as we’re clear.” He turned on a toe and drunkenly staggered toward the parking lot.
That was the exact moment I realized something was wrong.
Seriously, terribly, gravely wrong.
Dante never gave up that easily. Not until I had paid hand over fist for whatever he’d so much as thought I’d done.
“Where are the girls?” I whispered to Penn, my hands trembling as I watched Dante make it to his car.
Time stopped and the ground opened, releasing the demons from hell in the five seconds it took for him to reply.
“I don’t know.”
He might not have known, but suddenly, it was all too clear that Dante did.
“River!” I screamed.
Penn
Drew and I took off at a dead sprint toward the stairs, Cora’s terror-filled cry fueling my every step. I led the way, my feet pounding on the concrete as I took the stairs three at a time. Drew was right behind me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of Dante pulling out of the parking lot as I rounded the last curve to the second floor.
That son of a bitch.
That fucking fucking son of a bitch.
If he’d touched those girls…
I’d wanted to kill him for breathing the same air as Cora. Then hearing her say she belonged to him? Dante was lucky he’d walked away after that.
But if he’d done anything to River or Savannah, he’d never find himself that lucky again.
When I reached the top, I went straight for the door to Cora’s apartment. My shoulder slammed into the wood, though the door refused to open. I shook the handle, but it wouldn’t budge.
“River! Savannah!” I yelled, pounding my fist against the wood.
“Move,” Cora choked out as she finally made it up to us, her keys already in her hand. She twisted both locks open and carefully shoved the door open.
The chain didn’t catch.
It had been locked from the outside.
Dante was one step closer to his coffin.
“River!” she screamed.
A deep thudding sound came from down the hall. After passing by the girls’ empty room, I threw Cora’s bedroom door open—only to screech to a halt when I saw River and Savannah on the other side.
It should have been a relief, but neither of them was okay.
River was wearing a makeshift gag, tears streaming down her frightened face. Her hands were bound by an electrical cord, which was anchored to the very same bedframe I’d bought Cora. The bed had been pulled clear across the room, and River was on her knees, next to a blue, lifeless version of Savannah. White foam trickled from her mouth while a syringe lay haphazardly discarded on the floor at her feet.
“No!” Cora screamed.
I flew straight to Savannah first, dropping to my knees beside her. My heart was in my throat as I prayed with everything I had for the first time since I’d sat on that phone with Lisa. No one had helped me then. I didn’t know if there was a God anymore, but if there was, I needed him to actually show up this time.
“She has a pulse,” I declared, rolling her to her side.
Drew jumped into action, shoving a finger between her lips, sweeping vomit from her mouth.
“Oh, thank you,” Cora breathed. “Is she breathing?” she asked, her hands frenzied as she fought with the gag in River’s mouth.
“Yeah,” I said with hope. But, while Savannah’s breaths were visible at her chest, they were shallow, each one taunting me as if it could be her last.
And then a rusty knife hit my gut when I lifted her lids. Her hollow, green stare was already cloudy.
Cora finally got the gag off River.
And then the world stopped.
Everything I’d spent four years searching for suddenly fell into my lap, but in that moment, it didn’t seem important anymore. Not with innocent kids dying. Women being taken advantage of, manipulated, abused. Not with people like Dante and Marcos Guerrero walking the street.
It was that exact moment that my purpose shifted, but surprisingly enough, my goal remained the same.
“Mom!” River screamed, diving into Cora’s arms with her upper body, her hands still tethered to the bed.
I saw Drew’s body jerk, so I shot my head up. Shock and confusion registered on his face as he stared with narrowed eyes at Cora embracing…
Her daughter?
“It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay. I’ve got you. It’s gonna be okay. Everything’s going to be okay,” she chanted.
“He made her take it,” River cried as Drew used a pocketknife to cut her free. “She told him no. But he made her. He said he would take her away. Back to his place, where she belonged.”
Cora palmed River’s tear-stained face. “Did he give you anything?”
“No.”
“Pills, food, drink, anything? River, think!”
“No! He didn’t touch me. He just tied me up so I couldn’t get you. Oh God, Mom. Is she going to be okay?”
“Yes,” Cora answered definitively. “She’s gonna be fine. Everything is going to be fine. She just needs to sleep it off.” With tears in her blue eyes, she turned to me. “Right, Penn?”
I wanted to say yes. But I couldn’t lie to her. Not about this.
“No, baby. She needs to go to a hospital.”
Her face paled, but her words were resolute—a pep talk for herself. “No. We don’t do hospitals. She’s going to be fine. She just needs to sleep it off.”
I reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “Cora, baby. She needs—”
“No!” she yelled, her desperation morphing into anger. “Pick her up and put her in her bed. I’ll keep an eye on her. She’s gonna be fine.”
But you couldn’t sleep off an overdose. Not if you ever wanted to wake up.
“Get her in the truck,” I called out to Drew. I tried to gather Cora in my arms, but she fought against me, becoming feral as she tried to keep Drew away.
“Don’t you dare touch her. She’s not going anywhere.”
Wedging my way in between her and the kid, I said bluntly, “Then she’s going to die.”
Her body turned to stone, so I gentled my tone.
“Look at her. We gotta get her to a hospital so they c
an help her. God only knows what Dante gave her. Or how much. He was trying to punish you. Punish her. I would not be surprised if he gave her enough to put down a horse. She needs a doctor, baby. Or she’s gone.”
She burst into tears. “But she’s gone if you take her too, Penn. She’s an underage runaway. Social Services will get her and they’ll send her back to her family in Indiana. Her father will beat her within an inch of her life and her mother will give her more drugs to numb the pain. The kid has been an addict since she was twelve. She gets back in that life, she won’t get out. She’ll end up back on the streets with nowhere to go, using and selling her body to pay. I will never see her again.”
Pressure built in my chest until I wasn’t sure I could take it anymore.
Plain as day, Cora’s heart was breaking.
My heart was breaking for her.
But she wasn’t thinking clearly.
She was thinking like a mother.
I was thinking like a man who would have done anything to take the pain away from his woman.
No matter the cost.
One in. One out.
I wrapped her tight in my arms, as if I could keep her from falling apart, and pointedly tipped my chin at Drew.
“No!” Cora wailed as he took the cue and lifted Savannah off the floor, carrying her with hurried steps out of the bedroom.
Her whole body shook with waves of despair.
I kissed the top of her head. “I’ll get her back. I’ll take her to the hospital and drop her off at the emergency room. That’s all we can do for her right now. The minute she is healthy again, I swear on my life, I will get her back for you. I promised you I would make them safe. And I will. But I gotta do it now. Time is a big factor, and us standing here arguing isn’t helping her.”
“Oh God, you’re right. Go take her,” she croaked, stepping out of my arms. “Check her pockets before you drop her off.”
“What?” I asked, backing toward the door.
“He did this to me too. When River was a baby, I almost died and then spent a year in prison because he planted heroin in my pocket before dumping me on the side of the road.”
My bones turned to concrete, and my vision flashed red. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
The Truth About Lies Page 22