Page 39 of Trapped

“Giving me a few decent orgasms doesn’t make you a husband any more than me standing in a garage would make me a car.” He had given me more than a couple orgasms just with his tongue this morning, but that’s beside the point.

“What did I tell you about this mouth?” he says. His dark eyes go stoic. His body goes rigid before he untangles himself from my embrace. He gets up and begins to dress himself. I pull on one of his shirts and follow him to the kitchen.

Vero is off for the holidays, so I set a pot of water to boil and pull out some eggs from the refrigerator. My heart pangs at the thought of Luca and Lucia. I missed Christmas morning withthem. Watching them open their presents and their laughter when they covered the living room with their new toys.

“Do you have any pancake mix?” I ask. Silas looks in the pantry before pulling out a box.

“Thanks.” He gives me a lopsided smile. Silas helps me with breakfast. Side by side, we work together. He cooks the bacon and eggs while I make my world-famous, six-year-old approved pancakes. Only, my little gremlin isn’t here. She isn’t here to tell me my blueberry smile is crooked, or that Luca needs more whipped cream.

I push down the pain in the back of my throat and look up at Silas. Something had shifted in me last night. My vagina convinced my head he could be trusted. He is willing to do anything to get his siblings back, the same way I am willing to protect our daughter.

When I was pregnant with her, I remember sleepless nights when I’d wrap my arms around my stomach. I had been hiding in California, and we couldn’t take any risk that I would be found, so I grew lonely trapped inside the house. I would often talk out loud to her, and sometimes even to what I thought was Silas’s ghost.

On one of those sleepless nights, I cried out to San Cipriano. I held the medallion my grandmother had given me and whispered my petition. That my child would look like Silas, so I could see him in their reflection. From my mouth fell the blessing and the curse. Looking at Silas now feels more painful, because I can see her in him. I notice the small gestures and facial expressions that mirror my little gremlin’s.

I watch as Silas piles food onto two plates. An irritable pang hits my side, and I clear my throat. I can trust him with this. He deserves to know the truth. He can help me protect her. Before I can find a way to bring Lucia up, a knock sounds at the door. A high-pitched voice shouts through the foyer.

“Amor!”

Silas’s eyes widen in a way I have never seen before. His body goes still as we listen to the heels click across the wooden floor. A thin brunette with blonde highlights makes her way to the kitchen and wraps her arms around him from behind.

“Feliz Navi—” I drop the spatula and rage streams through my body. Her smile falls briefly before she replaces it with a bemused one. Silas removes her hands from around his middle and pushes himself away from her. Her eyes remain on me, slowly looking at me standing there, with nothing but Silas’s oversized shirt covering me.

“Oh. You got a new housekeeper.”Housekeeper?I fucking knew it. This lying son of a bitch. I straighten my spine while I recollect myself. Silas just stands there, his words caught in his throat.

“Try… his wife,” I say, the words falling out so suddenly I barely recognize the blood rushing to my ears.

“Not for long, sweetie,” she says, staring me up and down. Silas gives her a puzzled look. I clench my fist and pull it back before I strike him in the face. I take hard steps up to the bedroom and slam the door shut.

I hear them yelling downstairs while I pace the bedroom. How fucking stupid am I? What fucking delusions am I playing into, thinking he had been desperately waiting for me? It is one thing to feel humiliated in the bedroom or let someone watch him fuck me. But this? This does not fucking excite me. I have never been the sharing type. She can fucking have him.

“Thalia. Open the door!”

He bangs on the door repeatedly while I curse him under my breath. This is exactly why I was keeping my guards up around him. Men are to be used, and love is nonexistent. His banging becomes persistent, and I look around for optional weapons. Seems I’m not the only one who let their guard fall. On thevanity sits Silas’s favorite black pistol. I pick it up just as he busts through the door.

“Thalia—” His eyes narrow when he sees me pointing the gun at him. I had forgotten how much I love the feel of a gun in my hands. The power that comes from standing behind the weapon.

“Go back to your puta, Silas, and leave me alone!” He continues toward me with his darkened eyes. He doesn’t stop until his chest is pushed against the barrel.

“How many times are you going to try to kill me, diabla?” he asks.

“As many times as it takes before I succeed.” I cock the gun back, and he stares down at me.

“Death won’t hold me back from you. I will come back as a ghost and continue to fuck you.” My thighs clench when he continues to step toward me, pushing my back into the wall.

“You talk a good game, Silas, but you couldn’t even remain loyal to me when you knew damn well where I was and how to find me.” I push the gun into him and square my shoulders.

“You are a fucking coward!” I yell as my rant begins. “This was fun, but I’ll gladly sign those divorce papers so you can be with her.”

His hands fly to my throat, and the gun shakes in my hand. As much as I want to shoot him, I can’t. I can’t bring my finger to pull the fucking trigger. He runs a hand up my leg, and my body can’t refuse the way it reacts to his touch.

“She is no one to me. I don’t even know how she got in here,” he says, releasing my throat.

“Who is she?” I ask through clenched teeth.

“She’s the oldest daughter of Kiko Maestas, the Governor of Tamaulipas. I was supposed to marry her before my parents agreed to Ivan’s proposal,” he says. Internally, I fight the green cloud blinding my vision. Silas picks up my hand, grippingtightly around the gun. He brings it up to his temple and pushes into the barrel.

“If you want me dead, Thalia, just say the word.” I freeze in my place, unable to move or make a sound.

---