Page 170 of When Lies Unfold

It’s been ten goddamn hours.

Ten hours with no word on Lola while she’s inside that compound with that monster.

I fuckin’ hate waitin’. But I know it’s what she wants. Needs. Without sayin’ it outright, I knew what her plan was and that she needed to do it alone.

She’s gonna do whatever she can to eliminate that motherfucker—whether or not it’s at the cost of her life.

Juarez’s pissed at me for callin’ him nonstop. He told me to go home, but he doesn’t fuckin’ get it.

I don’t have a home without Lola. My place was merely a house before she got there. Before she effortlessly changed everythin’ in my world and Alma’s. Hell, she even changed the way my men initially viewed her.

Lola Arias changed my house into a home, and fuck if I’m gonna go back there without her.

“Stop calling every second.” Juarez grinds out the words over the phone. “There’s no word from Agent Garcia. Now, I’m going to say it one last time.” A brief pause lingers. “Go. Home. And wait for my call.”

It takes considerable effort not to crush the goddamn phone with my bare hands. Juarez doesn’t give a shit that I’m climbin’ the walls ’cause I’m worried sick about my woman.

I’ve been pacin’ a path inside our hotel room, and at this point, I’m convinced I’m gonna wear a damn hole in the floor soon.

Seated at the table, Gordo clears this throat. “I, uh, got somethin’ I should probably give you.”

His tone is suspicious as fuck, which has my head snappin’ in his direction. “What do you mean, you got somethin’ for me?”

“Lola said to give this to you once she was gone for forty-eight hours.” He reaches into the back pocket of his pants and pulls out some folded papers. “But you’re not doin’ so well, so I figure it can’t hurt to give this to you now.”

The fuck? My hands curl into tight fists. “You’ve been holdin’ on to somethin’ from her all this time?”

“She made me promise.” With a shrug, he taps the papers against his thigh. “Said it had to be after forty-eight hours or once you got a call from Juarez.”

My knees go weak at that last part. ’Cause I know exactly what a call from Juarez means.

Gordo’s expression is somber as he offers the papers to me. “I didn’t look at ’em, but I was with her when she pulled ’em straight outta Hidalgo’s book.”

I’m in front of him in the blink of an eye, droppin’ into the chair opposite him. Eager to see whatever the hell is in the papers, I open them, and a smaller, folded paper drops into my lap.

But it’s the object with it that makes my heart slow its beating to a near halt. That blue feather’s been stuffed at the back of my office drawer for years. Stupid as fuck, but somethin’ held me back from tossin’ it in the trash dozens of times.

A tremor takes hold of me as I read the note, the feminine print actin’ like a gut punch.

Dear Santy,

If you’re reading this, it means I won’t be coming back.

Please don’t be angry with me. I knew what I was walking into, and I don’t regret it. I had to do what was necessary to rescue Alma and get her back to you.

My only regret is that I won’t have more time with you—that I won’t have years to show you and Alma how much I love you both.

I wasn’t trying to snoop through things in your office, but when I found this feather, everything fell into place.

We were meant to be. My abuelita was right. Fate played a role the night we met at that carnival over a decade ago. It just took me longer than I would’ve preferred to find you again.

Fate has a plan, and we don’t always understand it at the time. You and Alma made me feel like I was part of a family for the first time in my life. You gave me a priceless gift I’d never received before.

You gave me something I’d resigned myself against the possibility of ever experiencing. You granted me the opportunity to feel what it might be like to be a mother. You allowed me to experience what it’s like to have a man care for me, protect me, and accept me regardless of my many imperfections.

Whether or not you return my feelings, I want you to know that, in the short time I was with you and Alma, I loved you both enough for a lifetime.

If I learned anything about fate, I know we’ll see each other again, perhaps in another life.

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