Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84203 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84203 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
The text was sent a couple minutes ago, and I also have a missed call. This must be what woke me up. I text back that I’ll meet him at the warehouse and then carefully remove Sienna from my side. She groans softly but stays asleep.
As I get dressed, I think about what I want to happen regarding her mom. I should call Gutierrez and tell him I have her. Feed her ass to the wolves. But as I pocket my phone and keys, Sienna’s words come back to me: “I hope one day she gets the help she needs.”
Fuck, Lincoln is right. I really have turned soft.
“I don’t need rehab!” Lenora hisses. “What I need is for my daughter to tell me why the fuck my home was burned to the ground.”
When I told her I would take her to Sienna, I lied, but she went along with it, thinking she was being taken to her daughter. Until she saw the sign for the drug rehab facility.
“You don’t have a fucking house because you screwed with Gutierrez,” I bark, at my wit’s end with this drug-addled woman. “You killed and you stole and then they came after you, and when they couldn’t get to you, they went after Sienna. They killed your druggy pimp and were going to kill your daughter.” This has Lenora stopping in her place and finally paying attention.
“They burned your place down, and I moved your daughters in with me to keep them safe. Gutierrez is still after you, and he won’t stop until you’re dead. So, you have two choices here...You can either go to rehab, get clean, and I can help you disappear, or I can drop you off at his doorstep. Which one will it be?”
“Wait,” she says, her brow furrowed. “How is he after me if he’s dead?”
“Not him, his son,” I explain. “Eleazar Gutierrez came back from Mexico to extract revenge on his father’s killer.”
“Eleazar...it can’t be.” She glances up at me. “Eleazar Sanchez?”
Almost nobody refers to him with his mother’s maiden name. I only know it because we were close at one time. Whenever he didn’t want someone to know the family he was linked to, he would use his mother’s last name. “Eleazar Sanchez Gutierrez,” I correct.
“Okay, I’ll go to rehab,” she says, scrambling out of the car. I have no idea why she’s suddenly changed her mind, but I don’t give a shit. She’s going to rehab—that’s all that matters.
“Where were you?” Sienna asks when I walk through the door a couple of hours later. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah.” I kiss the top of her head and consider telling her the truth, but I don’t want to get her hopes up. The woman in admitting told me that Lenora can check herself out at any time, and unfortunately most do. “I had some business to deal with. What do you want to do today?”
“I was thinking a picnic. Ellie is spending the day at her friend’s. We can go by the deli on the corner and pack a lunch and take it to the park.”
“That sounds like the perfect way to spend our day.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
ELEAZAR GUTIERREZ
“Boss, there’s a woman here to see you. She fits the description of the woman who killed your father.”
I drop my fork onto my plate and glance at my wife, who quirks a brow. Could it be that easy? Could the woman who killed my father be handing herself over on a silver platter? If she thinks she can convince me to spare her life, just as I did for her daughter, she couldn’t be more wrong.
“Bring her around back to the holding cell,” I say, not wanting her to taint this home more than it already is, thanks to her. This is where she stole and killed my father, and I won’t allow her back in here again.
“After this, can we please go?” my wife whines. “I’ve already missed two appointments.” We’ve been trying for years to have children, but we haven’t been blessed yet. She’s suffered four miscarriages, and now she can’t seem to get pregnant at all. The only doctor she trusts is back home in Mexico.
“Yes, you can start packing,” I tell her as I stand. “We’ll leave this afternoon.”
I’ve already gotten a handle on the business. The only thing keeping me here was the hope of finding this bitch so I could end her life the way she ended my father’s. Now that she’s resurfaced, once I put a bullet in her head, my business in this town will be concluded.
“Why have you come back here?” I ask the strung-out whore when I enter the holding cell. The question is born out of curiosity more than anything else. Her brown hair is greasy, and her clothes are tattered. The report said she’s in her early forties, but this woman looks like she’s at least a decade older.