Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 122242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
"I want to negotiate," Faith says from across the room.
I jerk my head up to find her and January both watching us. It's clear they've heard every word we said, despite us trying to keep it from them. Faith stares at me, her hands clasped in her lap and her honey eyes full of some emotion I can't name.
"What do you want from him, conejita?" I ask instead of refusing to entertain the idea. I'm not the one they abused for five years. She is. If anyone should have a say in what happens now, it should be her.
"I want him to free his sister, and I want him to find out what happened to yours." She pushes herself to her feet and crosses the room to me. "You deserve closure, Octavio."
"So do you," I murmur, pulling her into my arms.
"Do we have to agree not to pursue charges against him?" She turns to look at Kincaid, tilting her head back to see his face.
"You don't have to agree to a fucking thing, Faith," he promises her. "But I won't lie to you. That's what he's after. He knows he's in for a world of hurt because of your notebook and any testimony you agree to provide."
She nods like she expected that answer and then looks up at me again, her eyes soft. "Think about it, Octavio. We can free his sister and anyone else they're holding in the city. We can find out what happened to your sister."
"If we do this, he'll get away with what he did to you," I remind her, reluctant to agree even though it's not my choice to make. I want him to suffer. I want him to pay.
"If that's the price I have to pay to save his sister…I think I have to do it," she whispers. "She's been locked away for so long, Octavio. It's not right. She deserves her freedom too. They all do."
Dios. How can I refuse her?
"He frees everyone," I growl at Kincaid. "Every goddamn person he's holding against their wills. And they don't bring anyone else in to replace them."
Kincaid jerks his chin in a nod.
"Anyone who touched you is fair game," I say to Faith, not willing to budge on that one. If they put their hands on her, they're going down for it. "They don't get to walk away."
She nods, hope in her eyes.
"And he has to stop looking for Selena Ortega," I say, looking at Kincaid again. "In exchange, we agree to strike Faith's notebook as evidence against him and only him. She won't provide testimony against him. Anything we learned from her, we set aside at his trial."
"Smart," Kincaid says, respect in his steely blue-gray eyes. "You give him exactly what he's asking for, but you leave the door open to continue building a case against him for all the other shit he's done if he steps out of line."
That's precisely my plan. If he agrees to free everyone else, I won't need Faith's notebook or testimony to bring him down. He'll think we've given him a free pass. And the rest of the people he's abused and tormented will help me nail his ass to the wall if he so much as breathes wrong. I'll have my goddamn boot on his neck until the fucking cell door slams closed behind him.
"I'm not finished yet," I mutter.
Kincaid smirks, waving for me to continue.
"They have to agree to stay out of Tarzana. They don't even drive through the area. They also agree to remain no less than five hundred feet from Faith at all times. If anyone violates the agreement, her notebook goes back into play, and Tarasova goes down for human trafficking and slavery."
"Dude, a major freeway runs through Tarzana."
"They can use the freeway, but they don't stop in the district," I retort, refusing to bend on this one. Faith will be safe in our home and our community. I won't accept anything less. "If their car dies, they push the motherfucker to Encino or Woodland Hills. They're not to step foot inside Tarzana."
"I can probably get him to agree to that," Kincaid agrees. "Anything else?"
"Yeah, Tarasova testifies against her mother."
Faith's eyes go wide with shock.
"She doesn't get to walk away from what she did, angel," I murmur, reaching out to stroke her cheek. The bruise has faded to a green color. "She kept you away from the people who loved you. She abused you and then sold you to those pendejos. I'm not letting her get away with that."
"Okay," she whispers. Her honey eyes brim with emotion. There's a little touch of sadness there, but it's overrun by awe, like she can't believe I'd fight so hard for her. But she should know by now that everything I do, I do for her. She's my future, my happiness…the part of me that's been missing for most of my life. There is nothing I wouldn't do for her.