Page 156 of Devil Mine

“You take up so much room, you’d think I’d sleep like a baby without you there, but… everything waswrong. The sheets were too tight. The bed too big. And I was so cold, no matter how many blankets I wrapped myself in. I hated being in that bed without you. Wherever you slept last night, I’ll be burning that mattress like you burned the one in the guest room.” I pause, my lips twitching with emotion. I shake my head. “And just like you came after me once, it’s my turn to do the same and bring you home.”

He rakes his gaze slowly down my body before lifting heated eyes back up to mine.

“Dressed like that?”

I look at my long, bare legs and haphazardly buttoned top. My cheeks flush.

“It’s late, I was ready for bed but waiting up for you. When it became clear that you weren’t planning on coming home tonight, I left.” I lift a helpless shoulder. “I didn’t think about changing. All I cared about was finding you,” I admit.

He burns me up with his stare, but his gaze gives nothing away beyond that, making my anxiety soar.

Silence stretches for long moments before there’s a knock at the door.

“Come in,” Thiago orders brusquely.

I look away, dismayed that he’d let someone interrupt us before saying something. He must still be furious with me to draw out my torture like this.

Joaquín walks in carrying a brown manila envelope and stops when he sees me standing there. He takes quick note of my attire, or lack thereof, and looks hastily up at the ceiling.

“Jefe, the lawyer just dropped off the documents you asked for,” he says, handing him the envelope.

Thiago takes it and my stomach hits the floor.

A lawyer?

Documents he wanted? And at this hour?

Surely that can’t be what I think it is… Not after one silly argument.

It must be cartel-related business.

“Thanks, you can go.”

As Joaquín closes the door behind him, Thiago slides his arm to the side and extends the manila envelope towards me.

“These are for you,” he says.

My fingers close around the documents and my heart cracks in half. Like the aftermath of a catastrophic earthquake, the impact fractures the surface of the needy organ, splitting it beyond repair. I’m surprised he doesn’t hear it rupture when the sound echoes so resoundingly in my own ears.

If this envelope contains what I think it does, then this is the end. “Are these divorce papers?” I whisper, my voice so small it’s barely audible.

Thiago’s face darkens violently, as if a supercell thunderstorm takes over his features and blackens them entirely. He stands, slowly unfolding himself to his full, towering height. There’s absolutely no trace of humor in his voice when he speaks, only a lethal edge.

“Are you hoping that’s what I just gave you?”

“No!” I shake my head vehemently. “That’s not what I want at all, but you spoke to a lawyer this late, so… I don’t know...”

A satisfied look gleams in his eye at my response. A small glimmer of hope flickers to life in my chest.

“Open it,” he orders.

Turning the envelope over, I reach inside. I take out a stack of documents about a quarter of an inch thick. I read the first line of the top page and my eyes fly up to Thiago’s in shock. The corner of his lips stretches into a smug grin and he tips his chin at me to keep reading. So I do. I read the entire topsheet before I look at him again.

“What— what is this, Thiago?”

He starts making his way around his desk. Every step that takes him closer to me steals breath from my chest until I’m finding it hard to access any oxygen at all.

“When your father couldn’t repay his twenty million pound debt within the allotted thirty days I gave him, he started owing me significant interest for every extra day he took beyond the deadline.” He nods at the documents. “What you have in your hands is what he used to pay off said interest. Five board seats for the Noble Group.”

---