Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 105089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 525(@200wpm)___ 420(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 525(@200wpm)___ 420(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Now, it was a few weeks from Christmas and she hadn’t had a chance. Maybe she should ask Alejandro if she could go on her own.
Yeah, even if she took Rafael with her, she could see that going down well. Not.
Cat shuffled through everything in the bathroom cabinet. They’d come here for a few days away, but Alejandro hadn’t had much free time. Right now, he was in his office with Reuben, which meant Cat had been left on her own to play. She drew out six packages of bath slime.
Hmm . . . how much to use?
Well, it was a big bath. So, all of it?
She tipped out all the powder into the bath. And then added some bubble bath.
There, that should do it.
Ooh, wait. She needed some bath toys and she didn’t have any in here. They were all in the bathroom attached to her playroom.
Running off, she headed toward the playroom. When she entered, she saw that she’d left the Play-Doh out.
Oops.
Nothing worse than dry Play-Doh. And Papi wouldn’t be happy if she left a mess. Even if he’d gotten called away in the middle of their playtime.
She tidied it all up and then grabbed her bath toys.
Skipping back, she walked into the bathroom attached to the main bedroom.
And came to a stop.
Oh.
Pumpernickel.
There was slime and bubbles everywhere. It was overflowing out of the bathtub.
Because she’d forgotten to turn off the taps.
“Oh no! Oh no!” She raced toward the bathtub, but ended up slipping on the slime and falling onto her hands and knees.
Ouch!
That really hurt.
With tears sliding down her cheeks, she crawled on her hands and knees to the tub and reached up to turn off the taps. Ouch. The water was really hot too. She sat back and looked at the disaster around her.
Papi was gonna kill her. Could slime stain white tile?
Dead. Meat.
That’s what she was going to be.
Alejandro sighed in irritation as his phone rang. He’d been about to walk out of his office and head back upstairs to Cat. He hated leaving her when she was in Little headspace. But Reuben had needed to talk through some things with him urgently. Reuben was certain that someone was skimming from several of his businesses. Alejandro had had a suspicion for a while, but now, thanks to Reuben, they had proof. They just needed to set a trap to figure out who dared to steal from him.
Alejandro and Cat were staying at their Southampton house so they could spend some time together. Ever since Maeve was kidnapped she hadn’t been sleeping well or eating properly.
And he was feeling terrible that he hadn’t been able to take her to see her friends.
“Dante?” he answered the call.
“Hey. Is Ortega with you?”
“Nice to talk to you too.”
“Fuck. I don’t have time for small talk. Is he?”
“No. You lost him?” he asked.
“I’d have to have him to lose him. I swear he’s gone more than he’s here.”
“You sound stressed. What’s wrong?” Alejandro asked.
“Nothing.”
“This is because Bonnie left, isn’t it?” Alejandro guessed.
“What? No.”
Yeah. Right.
Bonnie had finally convinced Dante to let her move to the States to open her shop.
Alejandro knew that Dante had likely let her leave because he was worried staying with him was the more dangerous option. He could keep her under lock and key and slowly stifle her. Or let her go.
Didn’t mean Dante wasn’t stressed as fuck worrying about her.
“When are you and Cat coming back?” Dante asked.
“You’re an overprotective asshole who can’t stand to have the people he loves out of his sight,” Alejandro told him, staring out the window at the cold, wintry day. “Admit it.”
“Takes one to know one.”
“You sent Titus with Bonnie. And knowing you, you’ve sent more men to keep an eye on things.”
Dante grunted.
“Cat isn’t happy that she can’t tell her friends about Bonnie’s shop,” Alejandro told him.
“It’s safer if no one knows about her connection to me,” Dante replied. “She’s got a different last name and few people know that I have a stepsister. She will be fine.”
“I think Cat’s going to give her friends hints about her shop.”
“I’d feel better if I knew where Ortega was, though,” Dante said with a sigh.
“You know he dances to his own tune.”
“Little asshole could answer his phone though,” Dante grumbled.
“How are things going with Emiliano?” Alejandro asked. Emiliano was stalling on their deal. He’d insisted on coming back to see Dante three times since that first meeting. And he’d been placing pressure on Dante to have Alejandro return in person for the meetings for some reason.
“He’s still being a cagey fucker. I don’t get it. I fucking hate having to cater to him, but we need him. He keeps saying he wants to meet with you here again. He’s quite insistent.”
“Want me to see if I can rearrange things and come back? Cat will enjoy it.”