Page 40 of Dina's Favorite Mistake

“We’re going to be smart. We’re going to use our heads, and we’re going to be safe. We’re going to stay close to the house until he’s caught.”

“What if he isn’t caught?”

“He will be.” Dina couldn’t explain it, but she felt certain Diego wouldn’t be able to leave her alone for long. He wanted revenge, and he would come for her—just as he’d promised all those years ago at his sentencing.

“Ama?”

“Yes,mija?”

“Can I stay with you tonight?”

Dina’s heart burst with motherly love, and she hugged her daughter close. “You can stay forever.”

Camila’s mouth quirked with a lopsided smile. “Ama, I can’t stay here forever. I have to grow up and leave eventually.”

“Eventually better be a long, long way away,” Dina said, not wanting to even think about Camila going off to college.

“You say that now, but in a few weeks, you’ll be fantasizing about sending me away to boarding school,” Camila warned.

“I would never!”

Camila leveled a knowing stare.

“Okay. Like—once.”

“I knew it!”

Chapter Twelve

“You were looking for me?”

Steve glanced at Jose who had found him sending texts in the library. He pocketed his phone and asked, “Do you have cameras on the entire estate?”

“We have some blind spots but yes.”

“Anything near Lola’s greenhouses?”

“The hoop houses or the actual Hartley greenhouses?”

“There’s a difference?”

Jose chortled. “Well, don’t let Lola hear you ask that. Yes, there is. The hoop houses are the plastic covered tunnels. The Hartleys are the glass and brick greenhouses on the right side of the property, right near Lola’s wing. You know, the room with the balcony and all the hanging plants?”

“Jesus, this family and their estate and the wings and the balconies and the gardens and the patios!” Steve couldn’t make sense of it all. “I need a map.”

“I can get you one,” Jose offered seriously. “They keep laminated ones in the groundskeeper’s office and over in the farming operation headquarters.”

Steve’s mouth settled into a grim line. “I might take you up on that.”

“So—the hoop houses or the greenhouses?”

“The hoops,” Steve clarified. “I’m pretty sure the two idiots who tried to kill me and Beto last night were out there before they came for us.”

“No.” Jose shook his head. “I would have seen that on the security tapes. I went back and pulled footage. I didn’t see anything.”

“Pull it again. Maybe you missed something.”

“Maybe,” Jose agreed uncertainly. “I’ll look. You want to come?”

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