“But you know something, right?”
“All I’m going to say is that he won’t be back for a while. Beyond that, you’ll have to talk to him directly. It’s not my place.”
I shivered, trying to ward off the sudden chill racing down my spine despite the balmy breeze from the open windows. I stared at the woven ceiling fan as it rotated in slow circles. A faint buzz hummed through the room.
I’d hoped Ryker would want to spend the day with me. I needed him, more now than ever. I was scared out of my mind about so many things, but now I feared he planned to abandon me. Ignacio had never held his tongue before. That he felt the need to do so now could only mean Ryker had given up on me. Our baby. Us. My vision tilted as the realization slammed into me like a swift punch to my gut.
My gaze drifted to Dr. Mendez. His greedy eyes darted around the room, drinking in my anguish like a glass of ice water on a hot day. I swallowed hard, making a heroic effort to stifle my rising dread.
“Right,” I said, my voice flat. “Do you know if my suitcase is around here somewhere? I’d like to get dressed so I can go for a walk later.”
“No. Not today,” Ignacio answered.
My eyes narrowed, and my heart drummed to a panicked beat. “So, I’m a prisoner again. Is that what you’re trying to say? Here, I thought Ryker rescued me, but I guess I just exchanged one sadist cartel warden for another one.”
“Dr. Mendez, can you step outside for a minute?”
“Por supuesto.”
“Those are Ryker’s rules, not mine,” Ignacio said after Dr. Mendez stepped into the hall. “You can take it up with him. If it were up to me, I’d have you on the next flight back to D.C. You don’t belong here. You’re not right for him anymore.” His lips pressed into a thin line and his eyes darkened into twin lumps of coal. “You’re a liability and Ryker doesn’t need any distractions right now. He owes me.”
Pain rippled through my chest, and I struggled for my next breath. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
His smile turned reptilian. “We made a deal. I helped him rescue you, and now he has to help me.”
I circled my arms around my waist, trying to hold myself together. My nerve endings prickled. “Help you with what?”
Ignacio angled his head to the side. “Rever’s gone. I needed a new successor. Now I have one.”
My hands shook as I threw the sheets off my body. I bolted out of the bed like it was on fire. It took all my power not to wrap my hands around his neck and strangle the life from his body. I dug my fingernails into the palms of my hands until I mentally winced.
“You’re lying,” I hissed. “He would never agree to that. He doesn’t want anything to do with your perverse cartel. He doesn’t want anything to do with you. He promised me.” My voice fractured on the last word, making me sound pathetic. Weak. Vulnerable. At that moment, I was all of those and worse.
Ignacio rolled his eyes. “For God’s sake, Miss Covington. Grow up. That’s exactly what he did, and you don’t have anyone but yourself to blame. You did this to him. You shouldn’t have left that hotel. You shouldn’t have come back to Mexico.”
A rush of saliva flooded my mouth, and nausea rolled through me as the last three months finally caught up with me.
Lies.
Betrayals.
Secrets.
Fear.
My pregnancy.
Being taken as a hostage.
Now this…Ryker had pledged his future to the Vargas Cartel. No wonder he had fought me every step last night. He was going to push me out of his life. It was only a matter of hours, and I’d be alone again in a prison of my making, but this time I’d have a child. A hurricane of sadness slammed into my chest.
“Please,” I begged as an unhinged sob sloshed out of my mouth. “Please don’t force him do this. He doesn’t want it. You’re going to kill him.”
“It’s already done. He gave me his word. You know him well enough to know his word means everything.”
What about his promises to me? Did they mean less than his promises to Ignacio?
Every time I thought I’d made progress and put the past behind me, life punched me in the face. I couldn’t take anymore. The last thread of the rope tethering me to reality severed. All of my disjointed emotions twisted like a tornado inside my gut.
Suffocated by his betrayal, I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t form a coherent sentence. My limbs trembled like branches in a windstorm. With one hand, I clutched my chest trying to calm the frenetic beat of my heart. With the other, I reached for the headboard to brace my weight, but I didn’t move fast enough. The room swirled before my eyes in a blur of jewel tones and surprised faces.
Pain vibrated up my knees, and my head snapped forward, crashing into the tiled floor. Blood burst from my nose, and streamed down my face. A shower of white stars flickered behind my eyes. I licked my lower lip, and the warm metallic taste of copper coated my tongue.
A hand stroked the back my head. Two sets of dark eyes searched mine. Two mouths moved open and closed. Shouts and rapid-fire questions echoed through my ears, but I couldn’t understand anything. I didn’t want to. It was too hard. I didn’t want to fight any longer. My emotions turned off like a spigot. Numbness slithered through my veins like a lethal injection. I felt so heavy.
Too heavy.
Too tired.
Worn out.
Just like that my eyes slid closed, and I embraced the darkness. I invited it in, and willed it to claim me. Giving up had never felt so peaceful.
Chapter Fourteen
Ryker
“She fainted?” I squeezed my phone against my ear as I ran up the front steps of the Vargas compound. “How the hell did that happen?”
“Calm down,” Emanuel said. “Dr. Mendez took care of her. She’s resting in your room.”
“Is he still there?”
“No, he left, but you can call him if you have any questions.”
I pressed the code to unlock the front door and flung it open the minute the light flashed green. “I’m here. Where’s Ignacio?”
Emanuel sauntered around the corner and slipped his phone into his pocket. “He went to his room to rest. He wasn’t feeling well. He’s still not one hundred percent.”
“Did he do something to upset Hattie?”
Emanuel rubbed the back of his neck as he glanced to the side. “I don’t think he did anything to her.”
Anger vibrated through my nerve endings. “But he said something, right?”
“Apparently, he told her you intended to stay in Mexico and work with Ignacio.”
“What the fuck? Why would he do that?”
He shrugged. “How the hell am I supposed to know? I wasn’t there. It probably came up in conversation. It’s not like he lied to her. He told her the truth. She didn’t like it. She fainted.”
“I wanted her to hear it from me,” I growled.
“Then you should’ve told her this morning instead of hiding your head in the sand.”
I pointed my finger at him. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Shut the fuck up.”
Smirking, he raised one eyebrow. “Or what?”