Page 103 of Violent Attraction

He was supposed to be here tonight, you know since he’s my brother’s best friend and a member of the cartel, but Emilio banned him from the party.

I found out when I talked to Leo earlier and asked him where his friend was.

Learning about the ban made me want to throat punch Emilio during pictures. And if I wasn’t terrified that he would do something to me, I would have.

My fear of Emilio keeps growing with each passing day and starting tomorrow it’s going to get much worse.

For right now, I shake my head and get those dark thoughts of the future out of my mind. That is something I will deal with tomorrow.

I make it to the restroom and I’m about to close the door behind me, when a hand lands on the door, holding it open.

I feel my stomach drop to the floor for a quick second, then the door opens wider, and the hand’s owner walks in.

“Santiago.” I let out a sigh of relief.

“Hola, mi bella.” He gives me a smile that I missed so much and closes the few feet separating us, before wraps me up in his arms.

For the first time in weeks, I feel safe. I feel like whatever is waiting for me tomorrow doesn’t matter and I could get lost, even for a few minutes, in this man’s arms and I will be okay.

In the six months since our night together, we have been at a distance but still close at the same time. We’ve been together a few times since but we both had our roles to play and that didn’t leave much time for us to figure out where we stood but, in a way, we were still able to show our love to each other.

“What are you doing here?” I ask pulling away from him so I can collect myself.

He cups my cheek and helps me wipe away the tears.

“I know tonight was going to be hard, and I wanted to come check on you. Also gave me the opportunity to stick it in Emilio’s ass by showing up.”

I receive one of his smirks, and I can’t help but laugh a little through the tears flowing out.

“I’m glad that you did.” I didn’t know how much I needed to see him tonight until this very moment.

“How are you holding up?” He caresses my cheek which causes me to lean into his touch even more.

“I want this to be over. I want to be done with this. I don’t want tomorrow to come and I sure as hell don’t want to marry Emilio Castro.”

More tears are brewing but I keep them inside. I don’t want to continue crying over this. One, because it dries my skin and two, if I continue to cry, I’m letting this define who I am and it doesn't.

Santos takes my face fully in his hands and leans his forehead against mine.

“Me and Leo are working on something. It has taken us longer than we thought it would to get all the loose ends tied but we are working on it. We will figure this out and we will get you out of this.”

I want to believe his words, I do, but given the time constraint with the wedding tomorrow, it’s a little hard to do so.

“But the wedding is tomorrow.” Whatever they are planning is cutting it a little too close.

Santos moves his head against mine. “I know. I know,” he says through his teeth, anger starting to radiate off of him. “But just trust us. Please. We will get you out of this.”

I look into this man’s eyes and I see that he is just as broken about this as I am. I know it breaks him to not only see me as an emotional wreck but also seeing me marrying another man, can’t be easy.

Trust him.

I do, that’s why I give a nod and silently tell him that I will continue to wait.

But I have to tell him one thing that might make this whole thing go faster.

“Something happened between me and Emilio.” Santos pulls back from me instantly, his eyes changing to whatever he was just feeling to anger. Everything about him is on high alert.

“What?” He asks through his teeth.

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