Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 39689 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 198(@200wpm)___ 159(@250wpm)___ 132(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 39689 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 198(@200wpm)___ 159(@250wpm)___ 132(@300wpm)
She had a habit of writing things down when she was stressed, and I remember her sobbing about someone named Diego. I hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but I knew she would have written about him if she found the need to cry over him. At the time, I’d thought maybe he was just someone that Drake had killed that she’d known the name of.
Knowing the name’s of your man’s victims made shit a lot harder to deal with.
I finally found her notebook, and I sat on the edge of the bed, opening it up. Instantly, a picture fell out onto my lap.
It was Lacie and a Hispanic guy. She was smiling as he pressed a kiss to her temple. She looked healthy in the picture. Her blonde hair was in loose ringlets around her face, and her make-up was done to perfection. His arms were lovingly wrapped around her waist.
I flipped it over to the back, hoping it would tell me something about the man she was with in the picture.
Marshalls
Beside the name, she had written a date.
I set the picture beside me on the bed and flipped through the pages of her journal, looking for Diego’s name.
The first page I found was a letter from him that he had written in the small notebook.
Lacie,
I don’t know if you will find this in time. He is keeping us separated—said you will ruin me, that you are a distraction.
Please stay far away from my home, amor. He is off the rails, and I do not want you to get hurt. I will come get you when I can, but until then, continue staying with Drake. He can keep you protected.
I love you, Lacie.
Please stay safe.
I turned the page and found an ultrasound picture taped to the back. And then I saw her next journal entry, explaining her pregnancy.
And it explained when Louis Carter got his hands on her for fraternizing with Diego, how he forced medication down her throat to force her body to miscarry, and how she had been left with two options—snort the coke up her nose or die.
She snorted the coke up her nose, starting her addiction. She forced herself to hate Diego—forced herself to hurt him to keep him protected from whomever Louis was.
And at the end of it all, my best friend ended up ruining herself.
I snatched my phone off the nightstand and dialed the phone number in Diego’s letter to her, hoping it was still his number.
"Hola?" a smooth, Hispanic voice asked through the line.
“Is this Diego?” I asked a bit nervously.
“Who is asking?” he demanded, his tone now hard and cold.
“I’m Lacie’s best friend—Hayley,” I told him, hoping like hell she had told him something about me so he would recognize my name and not hang up on me.
“Hayley Jones,” he stated more than asked, but I answered with a yes anyway. “What do you want?” he demanded. “I do not have time for a conversation right now, Miss Jones.”
“It’s about Lacie,” I told him.
I walked out onto the back patio where the guys were still sitting, talking about protection to put on everyone’s families if the Carters were really involved. I knew there was a fifty percent chance that Damien would be pissed that I had called a Carter, but I had a feeling that Diego would be more help than he was a risk to us.
“You were gone a good minute,” Damien commented as he locked his dark eyes on me. It was like he already knew I’d been doing something I shouldn’t have.
“I laid down for a few minutes,” I lied.
His eyes narrowed on me, but he didn’t comment even though I could tell he knew I was lying to him. The doorbell rang, and I turned to go back into the house, going to answer the door.
The guy standing in front of me was definitely the man in the picture with Lacie. He was fucking good-looking. Dark hair hung onto his forehead in slight curls, and his eyes were almost as dark as his hair. He had a strong jawline and angular cheekbones. It was easy to see why my best friend had fallen in love with him.
“Diego?” I asked, though I somehow already knew.
He nodded wordlessly. “What the fuck are you doing here?” Damien snarled as he protectively shoved me behind him, glaring up at Diego with a murderous expression on his face.
“Miss Jones called me in regard to Lacie,” he informed Damien, not seeming bothered at all by the hostility radiating off of Damien.
“Damien,” I said softly, gripping his biceps to grab his attention. He turned his angry gaze to me, and I swallowed hard in nervousness. “Just hear him out,” I whispered.
The muscle in his jaw was ticking, but he stepped aside. “Take a seat in the living room,” I informed Diego as I rushed off to our room, Damien following close on my heels.