Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 145729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Gatita soothed her, purring gently, so that the insides of her body vibrated, almost to the comforting music of the swamp.
“Nikita always acted like we were important to him. Always. I would never have believed this about him if someone had told me, but I heard him myself. And Sasha agreed with him. I thought Sasha truly loved me, that he’d fight for me.”
She hadn’t realized tears were falling, but one slid off her chin and dripped onto the upper curve of her breast. She wiped at them. She’d done enough crying when she realized how the Bogomolov family had taken advantage of her. Nikita Bogomolov, head of family, had ordered her father Roberto’s execution. He’d been tortured first because they’d believed he had stolen money from them. Maybe he had. He had a lot of pride and didn’t like his wife or daughter working. Roberto had brought them from Cuba, and he’d had connections to the Bogomolov family, so he’d had work immediately.
“It wasn’t right, Gatita,” she whispered. “Even if he stole from them, they didn’t have to kill him. What were they looking for? Why would they have Mami work for them, use her like that and then pay for all her cancer treatments? She had round-the-clock care until she died.” She knew the answer. Sasha. He’d made certain her mother had been taken care of. He’d been Sonia’s rock throughout it all.
“I thought he loved me,” she repeated sadly. “Nikita said we were not the type of women to marry, only to fuck. Not to love. Not to have children with. We weren’t women to take into society. I hate how that made me feel.”
Sasha had agreed with him. Her world had been shattered. She’d been seventeen when her mother was diagnosed and two months into her eighteenth year when she’d died. Sasha had taken care of the nurses, the hospital, paying the bills, organizing the service and burial afterward. She had looked to him for everything.
He said he loved you and he didn’t lie. I would have heard it.
“Did you know that Nikita killed Papi?”
How could I? You were never around a conversation regarding your father’s death.
Sonia scrubbed a hand over her face, removing more silent tears. They’d made their try, planting a bomb in her car – the car Sasha had given to her when they’d married to encourage her to get her license. The car had been blown to bits, crashing with a fiery orange-red and black tower of smoke and flames into the ocean.
She would have been a burned corpse, dead at the bottom of the sea, had it not been for Gatita. She hadn’t known Gatita existed. The leopard had risen, bursting through skin to take over, leaping from the vehicle just as the bomb went off. The blast had catapulted the cat to the edge of the road on the far side from the ocean. Even injured, the leopard had known to run fast and get under cover.
They’d made their way back to the huge Bogomolov estate, where Sonia picked up the keys to the safety deposit box her mother had opened and told her to use for stashing money just in case. It had become a habit. No one was to ever know about the box. A few times she’d been tempted to tell Sasha, but she’d heard her mother’s voice warning her it was only for emergencies and no one should know. She had a “go” bag, something her mother and father had always insisted she keep ready. It had clothes, identification, papers she would need and cash. Lots of cash. That had been kept away from the house along with the key to the safety-deposit box.
“Mami knew I would need money,” she whispered to the leopard. “There was so much cash I have to wonder if Papi did steal from the Bogomolov family.”
We are safe here.
“We were safe here,” Sonia corrected. The slight breeze slid across her body, touching her burning skin. “Now I’m not so certain. You heard Bastien. Joshua Tregre very well could be a member of a crime family. If he is, Gatita, they’re all connected. Sooner or later, we’d slip up, and he’d tell Nikita and Sasha we’re alive.”
He wouldn’t turn us over to them.
“Technically, I’m still married to Sasha, at least I think I am. It isn’t like I could file for divorce. He’d know I was still alive.” She rubbed her temples. It was all very confusing.
He tried to have you killed.
“I’m very aware of that, thanks, Gatita.”
Absently she ran her finger over her breast, tracing the soft skin through the lace. She tapped her thigh with the phone in her other hand. Over and over. Keeping beat to the music playing through her head. Drumming to the sounds of the swamp and the love song she listened to. The finger on her breast found her nipple. It was hard and aching. Because Joshua was back in her head. Nothing she did seemed to keep him out, not even when she thought of the past.