Page 55 of Bound to the Crime Lord

Maybe it was naïve of me to trust someone I had only met after being kidnapped. She was either a very good actress, or an angel in human form.

The only time I had ever seen such kind eyes was…

I ripped my lips from the bottle. My quick movements shocked her a little, but she quickly corrected her features and closed the now empty bottle.

I stared at her like I had seen a ghost. But then again, she was technically a ghost. Her own son had believed her to be dead all these years.

Her brown hair had greyed some, and her face was etched with gentle lines that indicated the years she had lived. And yet her beauty still remained. That was what happened when you had a good heart. Your beauty radiated from within and shone outwardly.

“I know you.” I could not believe that I had met her here, in captivity, of all places. “Rosa? You’re Rosa Gomez.”

She turned away from me and dipped the towel back in the bowl of cold water. “I haven't been called that in many, many years.”

“Don't you remember me? I went on a medical trip to aid your people in your village about five years ago. You called mybonitaevery time I walked in the reception.”

She turned her head to look at me more closely. Her aged eyes moved across my features until the realization dawned on her. “Oh my God, Juliette?”

I nodded. “It’s me, Rosa.”

She threw her arms around me and pulled me into her. She clung onto me the way a mother would her child, and for a split second, I forgot I was being held captive by some crazy lunatic gang.

She pulled away with tears brimming in her eyes. “What are you doing here? Why has Diego taken you?”

“Diego? Who is Diego?”

Her shoulders sagged. “He is the leader of The Triad, and a very,verylost boy.”

What did she mean by lost boy?

“Lost boy?”

She nodded sadly. “He’s been through much pain. Some of which I caused.”

What was she on about?

“How are you here, Juliette? You’re not a part of a gang, are you?”

I shook my head. “No, I’m not. Well, yes and no.”

Her eyebrows pulled together.

“Your son. I work for your son, Manuel.”

Her lips parted and released an audible gasp. “Wha… what? How… how do you know Manuel?”

“It’s a long story, but he’s here, in Mexico, looking for you. He heard about the treachery that happened all those years ago, and when he learned you were alive, he decided to come and find you.”

Tears brimmed her eyes. I had no idea if it was sadness, relief, or fear that she wept for. Maybe it was all of the above.

“He’s here?” There was this distant kind of look in her eyes. “Manuel is in Mexico?”

I nodded. “I have no idea why The Triads wants me, but Manuel will find us, and he will come and rescue us.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but she quickly shut it when we heard some rattling from the door.

The door creaked open, and a heavy footstep strained the wood underneath it. Rosa trembled with fear rattling through her body like a rippling wave. She quickly blinked away the tears and schooled her features to show no emotion.

A tall man dressed in black slacks and a black button-down stood at the door, staring down at me on the mattress. My muscles still ached from where the needle had pierced my skin, so I had to brace my head against the concrete wall to look at his face.

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