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I took a deep breath and pretended everything was fine. “Vó, you need something?”

“Do I have to need something to call my grandson?”

“No.”

“I just want to remind you about dinner tomorrow.”

Shit.I’d forgotten all about it. I couldn’t cancel on her, no matter what. It would crush her. Maybe I’d hear news about Kiera before dinner, and I could take her to meet Grandma.

“Yes, I remember. Do you need me to bring anything?”

“No. Just come ready to eat. I invited a new friend. She’s really pretty—”

“Vó, I already have a girlfriend.” I had to interrupt her because I didn’t want to discuss another woman while the woman I loved was missing.

Fuuuck.

The emotion I’d been avoiding glared at me. I loved her. I’d been so afraid of the truth that I kept shoving it to the side. She gave meaning to my life. She brought a new sense of wonder and amusement—all the things I was missing.

“What? You didn’t tell me?”

“I was going to introduce you to her before I went home. You’ll get to meet her soon.” Then something occurred to me. “You never invite strangers to our family dinner,Vó. What happened?”

“I’m not sure either. But she has a business plan I’m interested in, and I need your input.”

A new business plan was the furthest thing from my mind, but I didn’t want to disappoint my grandma. “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I walked over to the counter and poured myself two fingers of Scotch, hoping it would ease the tension in my body. As I swirled it around my mouth, I thought about Kiera and how she’d changed me. She made me believe in fate. I was angry with God for a long time. Because if there were a God, why didn’t He or She save my father and mother?

Even when I worked at the hospitals, I was used to seeing people suffer when their loved ones passed. I saw the grief on their faces. They were probably asking the same questions as me.

Where is God?

Grief and pain demanded we look inside of ourselves for strength, but I couldn’t wait for God. He was probably too busy trying to fix the messed-up world as best he could.

I got my strength back because of Kiera. Love inspired, motivated, and healed people better than any medicine.

Love was the only medicine that could save a dark and unsalvageable heart.

But loving her meant she had to be close to me, and being close to me meant danger. WasIresponsible for her abduction? Had the leader of the Anacondas caught up to me? I’d already eliminated the other two men who had been present the day my dad died. Only one was still missing.

Intuition told me it wasn’t the Anacondas.

What if I never got a chance to tell her how I felt?

Don’t think like that.

Too tired, I dropped into bed and closed my eyes. I just needed a little rest before I conducted more research on Kiera’s whereabouts.

But my body had its own plan, and exhaustion dragged me into a nightmare.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-NINE

KIERA

Olivia and I clung to each other when the driver’s phone rang again. The man sitting across from us lowered his gun and looked toward the front seat.

The driver held up his phone while he stared out into an empty parking lot, listening to the distorted woman’s voice. “You can bring them back now.”