Page 70 of Drawn Together

“The brakes,” I answered. “It had to have been someone close to the family. If not, I don’t understand…”

“The car was in the shop last week…” he said, then suddenly seemed to remember something. “Son of a…” He stopped as his eyes fell on Cortés’s daughter. “Get her in the car—we need to get her out of here immediately.”

Marfil was quieter than normal. Glancing at her in the back seat, face bruised, pale skin smudged, and lip bleeding, I wanted to kill whoever it was that had tried to harm her. And that fury I felt scared me more than anything else.

When we got back to the Cortés mansion, everyone was waiting for us, sick with worry. The first one to come running out to us was Marfil’s little sister.

“Marfil!” she shouted, pulling the car door open.

I moved to help her out, but she stopped me before I could touch her.

“I’m fine, I can manage on my own.”

Her mood was as dark as mine, which I could understand. Someone had tried to kill her. This went way beyond a tasteless joke involving animal blood and a threatening message. They had taken harmful action, which meant Marfil Cortés had been marked. It was only a matter of time before another hit was put out on her.

And if she was marked, then I was, too.

CHAPTER 20MARFIL

I didn’t see my father until after returning from the hospital, where they took X-rays and cleaned the wounds on my face and body caused by the glass. Sebastian, worse off than me, grudgingly accepted a sling for his left arm. I hadn’t said a word to him at the hospital, despite the fact that he had stood watching, looking concerned as they examined me, rejecting any medical attention for himself until they’d finished treating me.

Back at home, my father came into the living room, his face ashen and angry as a thousand devils. He shot me a look I didn’t know how to decipher, and then gestured for Sebastian to follow him into his office.

Lupita served me tea and cookies, but I wanted to hear what they were saying. Gabi was asleep in my lap after crying the whole time I’d been in the hospital. Logan was inside my father’s office as well, and the last thing he’d said with regard to what had been done to my car left me in suspense. Who the hell had taken my car to the shop? There was nothing wrong with it! It was practically new, given I’d barely driven it since I lived so far from home.

After Lupita left the living room, I stood up carefully, trying not to wake my sister. I walked down the long hallway, the taxidermized animals following me with their lifeless eyes, and stopped outside the office door.

“You’re going to call Bianic! Do you hear me? You’re goingto call that son of a bitch and tell him that he either helps me with this or I swear to God he’ll never see another dime.”

Who the hell was Bianic?

Someone else spoke, but I couldn’t hear what they said because they weren’t shouting like my father was… I was sure Sebastian would be able to keep his cool.

“You’re wrong, dammit!”

I heard something slam against the desk, followed by the sound of a chair scraping across the wooden floor.

“I’m not going to stop until that piece of shit is pushing daisies. Until then, I don’t care about anything else!”

I strained my ears. There were some more comments that I only half heard, and then the door opened. I jumped back. Sebastian stepped into the hall and closed the door behind him. When he saw me there, eavesdropping in the dim hallway, he gave me a disapproving look that quickly softened into concern.

“How are you doing?” he asked, delicately cupping my chin to examine my cheek and lip, causing chills to rush through my body.

“Better than you,” I said, looking to the wound on his eyebrow that had started bleeding again, staining the bandage they had put on him at the hospital.

He ignored my comment and dragged me away from the door with his free arm, his other still pinned to his chest due to the sling. “You shouldn’t be listening in,” he scolded me.

I followed him down the hall, noticing he now walked with a slight limp.

“Are you planning to go back so they can take a look at that?” I asked, gesturing to his leg.

“I’m fine,” he answered curtly.

“Who is Bianic?” I asked, stopping beside the head of an especially large deer. If he wasn’t going to let me worry about his injuries, he could at least give me some answers.

“No one you need to worry about.” He sighed, exasperated.

“Of course I’m worried if he’s the one you have to ask for help to keep me alive.”