Page 26 of Until Retribution Burns (Beauty in Lies 3)

12

Isa

What the fuck just happened?

I moved over the hazardous steps of the walkway in a daze. My mother's and grandmother's eyes bored into my spine as we made our way toward the SUV. The questions in their heads felt almost tangible when I turned back to glance at them and found them staring at Santiago and Joaquin in confusion.

I forced a slight smile to my face, wanting to reassure them that I would see them again. I didn't doubt Rafael's words that he would separate me from my family, but he wouldn't do it after the first meeting. He couldn't expect miracles in one hour spent together. Even he wasn't that unreasonable.

I hoped.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I hissed as soon as the car doors closed. I turned to snarl at Rafael, ready to throttle him for his insufferable bullshit. "'Your daughter is mine now'?!"

He laughed, a deep chuckle that vibrated up his chest as he folded me into his side despite the fact that I felt like a hellcat ready to claw his damn eyes out. That had been the most infuriating conversation I'd ever had, between his aggravating attempts to defend my decisions and my mother's determination to question every choice I'd ever made.

"You told them you couldn't say no," he said, the sound of his laughter hissing through his teeth as he tried to restrain it. I snorted, placing a palm against my forehead as I realized that Ihadsaid that.

"Oh my God, why did I say that?" I asked. I'd all but told them the truth several times, and if anyone ever told them the full story of what had happened, then they would remember the little subtleties that had wormed their way into my words. "You all but told them you'd kidnapped me and that you would do it again!"

"It's the truth," Rafael said with a shrug. Joaquin groaned in the front seat, seeming to find us as insufferable as I found his boss.

"You need to have more tact in handling my family. Introducing yourself as my husband was ridiculous. We should have had the foresight to take our rings off—"

"No," Rafe growled, his eyes turning serious as he narrowed them on my face. "Those rings never leave your finger,mi reina,or so help me I will find a way to permanently attach them to you.”

Sadly, I didn't doubt he meant it.

"This is never going to work out if we can't make them believe that I chose this. Which is going to get harder every time you make a comment about cutting them from my life. They'll never buy into me being okay with that," I said. "Because I wouldn't be. You cannot keep me from my family, Rafe," I argued.

"Watch me," he said, his lips twisting with a scowl. "I won't let them try to turn you back into the girl who did everything she was told. You stood up for yourself in there." He nodded his head toward the house as Santiago pulled away from the driveway. "Aren't you pleased with that?"

"Of course I am," I sighed, pinching my nose between my fingers. "You act like they mistreated me. They didn't."

"No, they just allowed Odina to do that without ever making a move to stop it," he accused, and the truth stung as those words hit me straight in the chest. "I won't tolerate any of her bullshit where you're concerned."

"Neither will I," I admitted. I wasn't sure when I’d stopped feeling so guilty for the danger I'd unknowingly put Odina in. Maybe it was just the time away from her that allowed me to see how toxic she was and how she kept me buried in those emotions. Perhaps it was knowing that Rafael's father had been the one to throw me in the river.

What chance did a five-year-old girl have against Miguel Ibarra?

"I don't think you understand," he said, turning and leveling me with a fierce look that left little doubt as to how serious his next words would be. "She will disappear, and it will be a much less pleasant disappearance than you had,mi reina.She has already endangered you once."

I sat in silence, staring into his intense eyes as he willed me to understand the words he wasn't speaking. Not wanting to make things worse, I neglected to mention all the times Odina had knowingly put me in danger before the drugging. "If she does it again,” he drawled. “I'll fucking kill her."

* * *

Rolling my neck as I sat up in bed early the next morning, I stretched as quietly as I could. Rafael slept peacefully behind me, his massive body sprawled out and taking up most of the bed. He was so breathtaking to look down at when his face was relaxed in sleep, it didn't seem possible for a man capable of such evil to be so handsome.

I knew he'd probably disarmed my family with his appearance the day before, until they couldn't believe that the man who stood before them was the same man Chloe had accused of murder. I contemplated what that meant of their research as I moved through my morning routine in the bathroom as quietly as I could.

Tugging the robe hanging on the back of the bathroom door tight around myself to cover the slip I'd worn to bed, I stepped back into the bedroom and crept through the space to the door.

I padded my way downstairs on bare feet, wandering into the kitchen. Joaquin and Santiago sat at the island, staring at their phones and drinking coffee. Crossing my arms over my chest, I stepped behind the island. "Have you eaten?" I asked, quirking a brow at them.

"Can't cook," Santiago grunted. Joaquin shook his head as his eyes trailed down to the peek of skin at the top of my robe.

"Are you naked under that?" he asked, grimacing as if the thought pained him.

"Nope," I said, not bothering to mention that what I had on wasn't much better. "Eggs okay?" Santiago and Joaquin hummed their agreement, watching me as I moved about the fully stocked kitchen. Grabbing sausage out of the fridge along with the eggs, I set to hunting down the cutting board and other things I would need.

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