PROTECT HER (A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance) (LOVE HER Book 2) Page 4

  Men sat at old corner shops that held dirty plastic tables with foldaway chairs. Street vendors peddled their wares on wheelbarrows. Countless stray dogs roamed the streets.

  Cora leaned back on the hot leather seat and felt a wrenching sadness stab her chest.

  She couldn’t believe she was actually back in Mexico.

  She couldn’t believe she was actually heading back to Carlos.

  She couldn't believe she had actually left Julian.

  It had been hard to sneak away but Cora had managed. Julian had an afternoon meeting the next day that couldn’t be missed. Cora promised to go home, change, and then meet him at the office so they could have dinner again afterwards.

  Julian had held her face and kissed her as she stood on the doorway, ready to leave. “I’ll see you tonight,” he said, smiling. “There’s still so much to talk about.” Cora had never seen a more devastating smile on a man which made her only feel more guilty as she nodded and left.

  She wasn’t sure she could meet him tonight. Learning Julian Benedict’s true identity only confirmed for Cora the need to keep him as far away from her problems as possible.

  The danger and scandal alone were enough reason to push Julian away. But Cora couldn’t deny the embarrassment either. He probably never thought that the little girl from fifteen years ago would have grown up into the daughter of a drug lord’s girlfriend.

  As she took the subway to her apartment, Cora wondered what she should do. Selfishly, she wondered if there really was something Julian could do. It would be a relief to have someone for once come to her rescue, for someone to right all the wrongs.

  But Cora refused to be selfish with the only man she loved. She would not let her moment of weakness fall on Julian’s shoulders.

  Cora would figure some way out to help her mom escape while keeping Julian safely away from her problems. And that was the ideal she was maintaining in her head as she walked into her apartment. But as soon as she opened the door, she heard the tinny buzzing of her old beat up phone.

  Cora flipped open the phone with a certain amount of dread but before she could answer, Gloria cried out, “Cora! Cora! You need to help me!”

  Cora was shocked at Gloria’s plea. She could tell her mom was crying. And she sounded oddly nasally…like her nose was broken. Feeling ice run down her spine, Cora said, “Mom? What’s wrong? Where are you?”

  “Cora! I can’t wait. I need to get out of here now! He’s just gone out of his mind, Cora. He keeps accusing everyone of betrayal. He’s accusing me for things I never did! You need to help me!”

  After years of moving around and absconding in the night, Cora had become an expert at uprooting herself and leaving in a moment’s notice. She knew now the only thing she could do was go and find her mom herself. There was no more money to send and Gloria, being as loud and needy as she was, would not be able to find her way across the border without help.

  Folding her papers into an old purse, Cora changed into an old pair of jeans and a t-shirt. She couldn’t buy a plane ticket. First off, she didn’t have enough money but secondly, it would be too easy for Julian to find her trail that way.

  Cora was determined to return from Mexico safely with her mother in tow. And she hoped Julian would be in New York, waiting for her. But until then, he must not find her. She had to manage her way back into Mexico without interference.

  And she had. It had taken two days to reach Mexico’s border and another day and a half to drive all the way down to the southern end. Cora’s heart pounded as she crept closer and closer to her old home of nightmares.

  The driver turned around in his seat. “This is the end of the town,” he said, rubbing his eyes tiredly. “Outside of here is Carlos Vilas’s compound and you don’t want to be going into a place like that. Where in town should I take you?”

  Cora slowly breathed out. “Here is good. Gracias.”

  Stepping out of the car, she looked out towards the dirt roads. She couldn’t see Carlos’s new mansion but she new it was out there.

  She knew she was only miles away from her fate.

  Eleven

  “I’m flying down and should be there within five hours. You keep me posted on anything you find!” Julian snapped the phone shut. Thank god he hadn’t pulled Paulson out of Mexico.

  He should’ve known. He should’ve fucking known to keep her by his side. Julian closed his eyes as his jet prepared for takeoff.

  “She had to have come back to Mexico,” Paulson had said.

  Julian had called him last night as soon as he realized Cora was missing. He had searched her apartment and had found nothing missing except Cora. She hadn’t even packed a bag. For a slim second, he had thought she had somehow been mugged or kidnapped but then, from the periphery of his eye, he saw a dresser drawer slightly ajar.

  Pulling it open, he found something rectangular wrapped in paper. Peeling it open, he found an old US passport. Inside, a small picture of a blonde haired, green-eyed girl was laminated to the cover. Karen Judson.

  So this is where she had kept her documents. Julian rifled through the drawer but only found her old passport. She had taken everything else. That was when Julian immediately called Paulson.

  “The warrant is out for her. Carlos wants her. He’s looking for her. I don’t know how far she’ll make it in Mexico before she ends up in his hands. God, I hope she’s armed somehow,” Paulson had said grimly. “I’ll hit the road right now, chief. Keep your phone handy.”

  Julian gripped his phone in his fist so tightly he heard a small crack. He consciously relaxed his grip, not wanting to break the only link he had to more information on Cora’s whereabouts.

  Damn you, Cora, Julian raged. You should’ve come to me. You should’ve trusted me.

  He could feel the steady whir of the plane engines. He had made sure to tell the captain how urgently he needed to arrive in Mexico.

  When I get my hands on you, Cora Karen Rámon Denton, Julian thought, he would squeeze her close to him, kiss her till she couldn’t breathe and then, you will be very, very sorry.

  Twelve

  Knock. Knock. Pause. Knock.

  After a moment of silence, the tin door opened. Cora quietly slipped in and pushed the door closed behind her. There was only one dim light bulb blinking above them but even through the darkness, Cora could see the purple mottled face of Gloria.

  “Mom!” she whispered in shock. She made a motion towards her but Gloria took a step back, shaking her head.

  “It doesn’t matter,” she said stiffly, her lips cut and bruised. “Are you sure you know where you’re going?”

  Cora looked around. It was the same tin shack she had grown up and lived in. But it had changed quite a bit since she had been there last.

  Someone had tried to expand the place by knocking out some of the walls and joining them with extra plywood and sheet metal to make a more spacious room.

  Cora suspected it had been a large family that had squatted in the shack before moving on. Cora had lived in a room almost the size of a closet but now it was a more spacious 10’x10’ room. She was slightly amazed the room had enough structural integrity to stay up.

  “Don’t worry, mom,” Cora said. “I have a driver back in town who’ll drive us for the entire night to get us as far north as we can. From there we’re hopping the train.”

  Gloria moved stiffly towards the door. She had an odd limp where her left leg seemed unable to bend. “I don’t know how I can hop on anything at the moment,” Gloria said grimly.

  “Mom,” Cora said, taking in Gloria’s battered face, “what happened? What did he do?”

  Gloria grimaced as she moved towards the wall to lay a supporting hand against the sheet metal. Cora watched warily, unsure the structure could take any kind of pressure. But the wall held and Gloria’s face eased a bit at having something to lean against.

  “For awhile now, Carlos has been losing his mind. Business hasn’t been so good and I think that’s turned him
crazy. He fired half of his men last June. And the ones that are remaining, he questions them constantly, thinking they’re stealing from him.”

  Gloria sighed, running a tongue across her cut lips. “I got robbed a couple times while making deliveries. People have been hearing about Carlos and his decline and they’ve been taking advantage of it. But of course, he won’t believe me when I tell him I was robbed. He thinks I stole the goods and have been selling them myself.”

  Cora was confused. “How? How could he think you would be selling his drugs while you still lived with him in the same house? That makes no sense.”

  Gloria’s eyes darted evasively around the room. “Right….” she mumbled noncommittally.

  Shaking her head, she moved on, “I don’t know how far we have to go but I can’t walk too good. I hope the car is close.”

  Cora moved forward to help her mom stand straight. “Well, it is but—”

  Her words were cut off as the tin door slammed open, the door rattling echoingly against the tin wall.

  Gloria uttered a stifled shriek as she grasped at Cora. Cora tried to hold onto her mother while taking a surprised step back.

  “Well, well, well,” Carlos Vilas said, stroking his mustache, “I can’t say I’m surprised at all to see this.”

  Cora was stunned. She hadn’t seen Carlos in years. And as far as she could see in the dim light, the years had not been kind to him.

  His hair was now a dingy gray instead of the gleaming black it had been years ago. His mustache, once thick and greasy, was now gray and limp. He was still just as rotund as he had always been but there was a hollowness in his cheeks that spoke of a sudden weight loss from stress.

  “I knew the kitten would eventually come back to her mama pussy,” Carlos said sneeringly.

  He stepped into the room, letting the tin door swing close behind him. Before the door shut, Cora saw two men standing guard outside. Regardless of how many men Carlos must’ve cut, he still had enough for his usual protection detail.

  “Wh-What are you talking about, Carlos?” Cora said, her throat tightening in fear. She remembered how possessive Carlos was and she knew he couldn’t be pleased about finding his longtime girlfriend about to abandon him.

  Carlos stood, regarding both women with a cool, calm gaze that still had a tinge of manic. “Eventually the dealer needs to meet with her supplier, no, chica?” he said, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

  Gloria immediately began crying. “Please, Carlos, please,” she sobbed brokenly. “Don’t hurt her. I swear I was robbed.”

  Carlos snapped. He lunged forward and grabbed Gloria by her hair, making the woman shriek in pain. “You lying puta bitch! You think I’m stupid? You think I’m a fool?” he nearly screamed. “I know you’ve been stealing! You set up your own trade in America, haven’t you, you bitch?”

  Cora grabbed at Carlos’s arms, trying to free her mom. “Carlos, let her go! Let her go!” The man was surprisingly strong at his age. She could feel the steely tendons of his arms as he fisted Gloria’s hair, shaking her with a roughness that made her teeth clack.

  “Stop!” Cora screamed. With enormous strength, Carlos swung his right hand out, backhanding Cora across her face.

  She flew across the room. A ringing echoed in her ears as she tried to regain her senses. She tried to lift her head and felt immediate pain shoot down her neck and back. Was her neck broken?

  Taking in a deep breath, Cora tried again. This time, she was able to raise her head. Spots swam across her vision and she tasted the iron tinge of blood in her mouth. Through her spotty vision, she saw Carlos’s form walk towards her.

  “So your mama’s been giving you my product to sell in the US, huh?” he demanded. His gray hair was now mussed and standing on edge, making him look even wilder or more manic. “She’s been giving you my quality goods so you and she could turn a profit behind my back, huh? You little bitch!” Cora gasped as Carlos’s foot made even contact with her belly. “You stealing little bitch!”

  Cora tried to deny his accusations. That was insane, she wanted to say. She had never touched drugs in her life, let alone Carlos’s drugs. She wanted to tell him that Gloria had legitimately been robbed. But all she could do was have her mouth open and close futilely like a dying fish as she fought for air to come into her lungs.

  “Carlos!” Gloria shrieked. “I swear I was robbed! I swear it!”

  Carlos stood over Cora’s fetal form. Heaving a sigh, he ran a hand through his hair, brushing it back into place. “You think I believe some puta bitch like you? It doesn’t matter anyway,” he said, his voice becoming calm. “I know you’ve been cheating me for years now. And Carlos Vilas doesn’t keep cheaters in his life.”

  Cora saw the flash of metal against Carlos’s hand.

  “Oh please,” Gloria sobbed, begging.

  Carlos held the gun loosely in his hand as he regarded the two women. “What will be worse, Gloria? Going first or watching your child die first?” Suddenly his fist gripped Cora’s shirt and pulled her up. Turning her around, he held her against him, her back to his chest.

  Cora’s throat was completely dry. This hardly seemed real. Still reeling from the pain of the kick, she felt as if she were in some kind of horribly realistic nightmare. Even Carlos’s arm across her neck didn’t seem real. She heard Gloria’s crying as if through a tunnel.

  Until she heard the gun’s hammer click.

  “I think the mama pussy should watch,” Carlos murmured almost seductively into her ear.

  Cora’s heart raced. She wanted to close her eyes and wake up in her bed in New York. How could this be real? She had always feared she would die in her shack in Mexico and now it was about to become a reality.

  If that was the case, then she would do everything she could to save herself. She would die trying. She had come too far to let it all end in one dismal gunshot. As she took in a deep breath to scream for help as loud as she could, the tin door slammed open again.

  At first, all Cora saw were the two crumpled figures on the ground outside the doorway. Carlos’s guards. What had happened to them?

  As Cora slowly looked up, she saw Julian standing in the doorway, large gun held aloft, his face edged in anger and focus.

  “Let her go.”

  Thirteen

  This definitely was a dream now.

  There was no way Julian Benedict was standing in front of her, in Mexico, with a gun.

  But no matter how many times she blinked, Julian stood there just as solidly as ever.

  His face was cut with a restrained anger. He held his gun with a steady arm as he kept his focus on Carlos. Julian seemed to fill the entire shack with his presence. His tall, broad body encompassed every inch of the room and feeling his presence, Cora breathed in a steady breath.

  But any trace of calmness was wiped away from her being when she saw Carlos raise his own steady arm, pointing his gun at Julian. “Who are you?” he demanded. “American?”

  Julian didn’t move. He just kept his gun pointed straight at his target. “Let her go,” he said with quiet emphasis that spoke volumes of his power.

  Cora couldn’t see his face but she could feel Carlos’s confusion over this stranger’s entrance. But he tightened his grip across her neck, nearly choking her in the process.

  “You’re American,” Carlos said, this time as a statement. “Do you know who I am?”

  “I don't give a fuck who you are,” Julian said, his voice sharp enough to make one bleed. “Drop the gun and let her go.”

  Carlos laughed. “You don’t give a fuck who I am? Well you should, you really should. Because I have this girl’s life between my two hands.” Cora felt the cold touch of metal against her temple, making her blood run cold.

  Gloria shrieked and Julian tightened his hold on his gun. Cora could see the tension strung through his body.

  “I’ll fucking kill you,” Julian nearly growled.

  “Not before I kill her,” Carlos said
, a leering smile crossing his haggard face.

  A heavy tension hung in the air as the two men sized each other up. Cora looked at Julian, willing him to catch her gaze.

  He seemed unable to tear his gaze away from Carlos but he could feel her pull and looked. Cora didn’t want him to die in a tin shack in Mexico. She didn’t want his life to be tainted by her horrible past. She just wanted—had always wanted—to love him. And if the time she had to love him was only mere seconds, she wanted to embrace each one to the fullest.

  Hoping she could tell him to run and find safety through her eyes alone, she held her tears back as she looked at the only man she had ever loved and mouthed the words she had never thought she would say in her life, “I love you.”