Page 109 of Devious Lies

“Shut up, bitch! You belong to me, and when I get you home, I’m gonna remind you of that.”

I scoot closer to the door while Matteo starts shouting orders to his driver in barely comprehensible Spanish.

It must be a dialect or something I just can’t understand. But then again, my Spanish has always been more a cool thing to know when I’m in a restaurant as opposed to being fluent enough to converse in the language.

My parents were both practical like that. They wanted me to be American, so I was encouraged to use English when I was a kid.

Seems the older I get, the less I remember.

But I’m not worried about my lack of bilingual abilities. As Matteo snaps and shouts, I am making sure my cell phone is on.

Luc is the smartest man I know. With any luck, he’s using the location app to find me right now.

Please be looking for me.

But even if he’s not, I won’t regret anything we shared. I won’t regret getting complacent and comfortable.

Running was no kind of life for me. And I would rather have a few weeks with Luc than none at all.

He’s changed my life. Made it better.

I just hope he knows how much I love him.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT-LUC

Nico is driving, and in my rearview, I see Angel following us in his big, suped up matte black SUV.

“Do you have her location?” Nico asks.

“Yeah, they’re headed down West Side Avenue,” I growl.

I watch as the little dot that signifies Maria is getting farther and farther away from me and a tidal wave of emotion slams into me.

It is cold and hard. And it’s trying to drown me.

It’s fear.

I have to work at it, but I finally push it away.

I have no room for fear. No room for error.

I close my eyes and I exhale.

Fear can’t help Maria now. She needs me to be strong.

And what stronger force is there on this earth besides love?

“We’ll get her,” Nico says.

“I know we will. We have to. I love her,” I say it for the first time out loud.

It’s not enough. She needs to be the one to hear it. But it is a start.

And it frees me

“They stopped,” I practically shout.

I run off the address to Nico, and he adjusts our course.

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