Page 44 of Twin Deception

He already had.

He killed for me.

He’d saved me once, and that was the reason I could take this leap of faith to listen to him and run.

I sprinted, clenching my teeth and pushing through the panic of a shot hitting me. Of a bullet tearing through me. This retaining wall wasn’t a structure like a fortress, but Miguel had chosen well, on the spot, to direct me to escape this way.

Just who the hellishe?

Military? A cop? Someone from the Cartel?

I literally couldn’t tell, but as I reached the safety of his hotel lobby then rode the elevator back up, I caught my breath and knew that this sexy, rugged stalker knew what he was doing. He had experience. He was armed. He was a good fighter and a skilled spy.

But what I didn’t know was how well he would be able to survive a sniper out on the beach.

Worry engulfed me as I entered the room I’d fled from. The last time I was in this modernistic living room, we’d been arguing about whether I knew anything about what Louis was up to. And if that other man was also someone looking for me versus an opportunist hoping to rape and kill a woman…

I exhaled long and hard, standing in his room and staring straight ahead. For the first time in a long while, I had no cluewhat to do. He’d told me to come here and wait, but the problem with that was that I sucked at it. I wasn’t obedient by nature, and being ordered to come here and be patient for his return wouldn’t end well.

Concerned about him out there, I paced through the room and tried to tamp down the panic. I fought the confusion. Back and forth, I wore a path on the carpet as I waited.

And waited.

Worried and waited.

Stressed and anxious, I passed every excruciatingly long minute eager for his return with too many questions that I couldn’t answer. They bombarded me, pinging at me and making me more confused and lost than before.

Miguel hadn’t been quick to agree with me that the man he’d killed in the alleyonlywanted to rape me. He was stuck on the thought that the man could’ve been following me too.

But I would’ve noticed. And if Miguel was following me, he would’ve noticed that man too.

Now with another source of danger aimed at me, a shooter firing at me from afar, I was further from understanding what this could mean.

All I knew, without a shred of doubt, was that it had to be connected to my father.

Ever since I walked away from him, emancipated and no longer interested in being in his life, I gave myself a chronic case of feeling like I was a piece of something bigger. Like I was always missing something that should’ve stayed with me—a family. My mother had never lasted long and was always in and out of rehaband therapy facilities. Without her, it was just me and Louis. My father. Instinct led me to dismiss this gnawing feeling that I was missing out as a silly and fanciful whim, but now, I had to reach out.

I had to take the initiative to sleuth this out and find a clue or answer that could justify and explain what the fuck was going on with this vacation.

I bit my lip as I picked up my phone, unsure how to reach him. He constantly changed his numbers, paranoid of calls being bugged or anyone tracking him down. Between using burner phones and having rerouted lines, he wasn’t an easy man to find a number for.

Even family. I’d cut ties with him, but he and I were the last parts of what could’ve been a family. Since my mother?—

My mother!

Bayshore Residences could have some kind of a contact for Louis. Even though he cut her out of his life the same as I had him, he’d still have some kind of a means of communication with the place where his wife was placed.

I unlocked my phone and paced as I called Bayshore.

The call dropped.

I tried again. And again.

Nothing.

Stymied with the crappy reception, I picked up the landline in Miguel’s room and dialed it directly.

The woman who answered was kind and sweet, looking into my request for a number from the emergency contact list forEsmeralda Flores. This receptionist had spoken with me a few times, and she was the only one who never got snippy with me.

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