Page 15 of Dina's Favorite Mistake

“Don’t let her call Rafa or Sky!” Lola instructed. “He’ll panic and fly straight back from Greece. Those two need this honeymoon.”

“I’ll make sure Rafa knows what’s going on and that Jasper is safe,” Beto promised.

Realizing he still held Dina’s wrist, Steve let go. She glanced at her hand and then back to his face. She seemed almost bereft at the loss of his touch. Any other time, he would have flirtatiously offered to keep his hands on her. Right now, his sole concern was finding Camila and making sure Diego wasn’t involved with her disappearance.

“We should liaise with the police,” Steve warned. “We don’t know what we’re walking into, and if Diego is there—.”

“You can liaise all you want. I’m going to get my daughter.” Dina marched out of the hotel suite. Lola shrugged and raced after her sister, leaving him with no choice but to do the same.

Out in the hallway, he spotted two harried security guards. Neither looked happy about being left behind while the two sisters entered a hotel room. He’d had concerns about the family’s security before this, but now those concerns were much more pressing. Unfortunately, they’d have to wait until later.

“I’ll drive,” Lola announced as they rode the elevator to the lobby of the hotel.

“No,señorita,” the more senior of the two guards disagreed. “We have a vehicle waiting.”

“You drive so slow, Antonio.” Lola pouted. “It will take us forever to get there.”

“We’ll get there in one piece,” Antonio replied before stepping out of the elevator as it arrived on the first floor. He glanced left and right, making sure the path was clear before nodding for the women to follow.

Steve fell in with the second guard, an older man who looked irritated by the whole mess. As if reading Steve’s mind, the man lowered his voice and said, “They never listen to us. We can’t keep them safe if they don’t cooperate.”

Steve nodded his understanding. “We’ll have to do something about that.”

The other man snorted. “Good luck,guëro.”

“It’s Steve, but I’ve answered toguërobefore just fine.”

“Jose.” The man gave him an appraising look. “Your Spanish is very good.”

“I grew up in the Rio Grande Valley. McAllen. La Feria. Harlingen. I spoke Spanish before I spoke English. Or, at least that’s what my granddad always said,” Steve replied with a wry smile.

“Housekeeper?” Jose guessed.

Steve nodded and scanned their surroundings as they emerged from the hotel. The SUV Antonio had mentioned idled at the curb. Another car pulled in behind it, and a valet hustled out to get the keys.

“I am not riding in the middle.” Lola yanked open the front passenger door. “It makes me carsick.”

Certain Dina would not appreciate having to climb into the third row of the Suburban, Steve volunteered. “I’ll take the back.”

Dina shot him a thankful smile as he maneuvered himself onto the bench seat in the rear. Once everyone was seated and belted in place, Antonio pulled away from the curb while Lola helped him navigate. Jose stared out a window, probably thinking of allthe ways this could go sideways, and Dina clenched her phone in her hands, looking like she might snap it in half at any second.

Steve hated to see her hurting like this. He placed his hand on her shoulder and gave it a very gentle squeeze. She stiffened under his unexpected touch, and he worried he had overstepped a boundary. He started to remove his hand, but she reached up and placed her hand over his.

The spark of her skin against his sent a lightning-fast arc right up his arm and into his chest. She wrapped her fingers around his, gripping them as if terrified she might fall. When she glanced back at him, his brain conjured a similar image, one of her against that hotel room door, looking back at him as he did filthy things with his hands between her thighs.

But that image vanished as soon as he registered the absolute panic in her dark eyes.

She was terrified for her daughter. Beneath all the anger and frustration, she was a mother scared to death that her baby girl was in trouble and hurt.

He wanted to take all that pain away. He wanted to gather her close and promise to keep her safe, to keep her daughter safe. He wanted to show her that he could be the man she needed, a partner, a protector.

But he stayed in his seat. He kept his hand on her shoulder, letting her draw comfort from him, and waited for a better time.

“Wait!” Lola suddenly shouted twenty minutes into their drive. They were in a heavy tourist era with pedestrians milling on both sides of the road. “Is that her? There? In the school uniform? At that ice cream cart?”

Dina leaned forward and peered around her sister. “Stop the car, Antonio!”

The vehicle was still rolling when Dina bailed from her seat and onto the street. She managed not to break her neck and raced off in her sky-high heels. Swearing at her recklessbehavior, he clambered across her empty seat and practically dove onto the road. His foot got caught in her seat belt, and he must have looked like a drunk flamingo trying to break free.

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