Page 36

CHAPTER 36

Carolina

Carolina tugged Lalo along the corridor as fast as she could without drawing suspicion. Her heels clicked loudly against the tile as if the soles of her boots had been replaced with horseshoes. Though Lalo was draped in many layers, as soon as they stepped into the open courtyard of the casa, Carolina could feel his body tense. The morning sun was particularly bright for an autumn day.

“Tuck your hands into your pockets,” she said. She’d forgotten to bring him gloves.

He did as he was told in silence. Lalo didn’t need to speak for her to understand his worries—if they didn’t get away before Rafa told the truth, her family would kill Lalo before he and Carolina had a chance to escape to the mountains.

She slinked her arm into the crook of his elbow. They needed to resemble two lovers spending time together. They needed to appear as if nothing was amiss. But inside, there was a nest of nerves.

Lalo leaned in close, his sombrero shading her face. “Your heart is thundering.”

“Just focus on the task ahead,” she snapped. She didn’t mean to sound so harsh, but her overwhelming emotions made her frantic. “The carriage is just out front. The driver believes he’s taking us to check on Jorge, but I have other plans.”

Mamá swept into the foyer from the gardens.

“Ah, there they are,” Mamá said, her cheeks rosy from walking, her hands pressed to her back.

“Amá,” Carolina said breathlessly. “You’re supposed to be resting.”

Mamá waved her off. “How can I rest with so much uproar. The only good news is that Rafa has awakened.”

“Have you heard anything from the healer? How is he faring?” Carolina’s words came out rushed. She needed to slow down, to take a breath, before Mamá grew suspicious.

“Nothing yet, but I expect word any moment.”

Lalo stiffened in her grasp. Carolina gave him a little shove, but he didn’t move. They were both failing miserably.

Mamá raised a brow. “Are you well, Lalo? I know it was a harrowing night.”

Leave it to Mamá to be concerned. If Carolina didn’t make it back, if she for some reason was cut down, her mamá would make sure everyone was okay, even though she would never be the same herself. She was good and pure in that way. Perhaps Carolina hadn’t appreciated her enough. She should have loved her mamá harder. Better. She should have told her she was doing a fine job more often. Raising children must be challenging. Especially willful daughters like Carolina.

Her eyes blurred with hot tears.

“Ay, Carolina. Do not cry,” Mamá said. “Lalo is fine. Perfectly handsome and odd as ever.” She winked and pinched his cloak.

Lalo cleared his throat. “I want to thank you, Se?ora Fuentes, for raising the bravest woman I’ve ever known.”

“Oh,” Mamá whispered. “That is so sweet of you to say.”

“I mean it. You and Se?or Fuentes should be so proud.”

Mamá’s chin wobbled. “We are.”

Carolina turned her head from her mamá and wiped her cheek. “We really should get going,” she said before life got trickier than it already was. “We’re going to bring tequila to Jorge. We might go for paletas after. So we won’t be back for some time.”

Pretending as if her world wasn’t imploding was exhausting. What if she never saw her mamá’s face again? Carolina tried her best to memorize every angle and freckle. Every laugh line at the corner of Mamá’s eyes.

Mamá sighed. “To be young and in love again.” She smiled, waving her hand at them. “Off you go.”

Mamá kissed Carolina and shuffled by, taking Carolina’s aching heart with her.

I love you, she wanted to say. Even when I was cross, or getting in trouble, or having to do a million chores. There wasn’t a moment I didn’t love you, Amá.

“How do we do this?” Lalo whispered. “How do we leave our loved ones behind?”

“I will not judge you if you stay here,” Carolina said softly.

She was done judging. Here she was, hating Lalo with an unrivaled fierceness because he was something she thought she despised. When all along he should hate her family for cursing him.

“I can go on without you. This is my family’s debt to undo.”

“You think my fighting skills are that poor?” He raised his brow.

“We did only manage one training session.”

“Two, actually. Though that first lesson in your abuelo’s room probably didn’t count. You spent most of the time punching me into oblivion.” He smiled. “Nonetheless, I will not leave your side.”

This time, Lalo took charge. He tucked his head in as they left the foyer, walked outside, and the sun’s rays washed over them.

Lalo opened the coach door. He held Carolina’s hand and guided her in first, even though the sun must have been beating down upon his shoulders. When she was seated, he removed his sombrero and slipped into the coach, placing himself as far as possible from any leaks of sunlight.

“Here,” Carolina said, shifting beside him to block most of the sun. “Is that better?”

Lalo gave a curt nod. “Much. Thank you.”

The coach lurched forward, and they bumped down the cobbled road.

“Where are the supplies you gathered?” he asked.

“Under the carriage.” She smirked. “And hidden in my skirts. We will stop at Jorge’s home first. He lives with his wife just outside the main square. He has a shed in the back with ample weapons. No one will notice if I take a revolver or two.”

Lalo’s throat bobbed.

“Are you nervous?” She scooted closer. He grew tenser.

“Exceedingly so.”

“When I am anxious, I like to learn how to do something.” She reached down and tugged her skirts up, pulling out one of the lover’s daggers, the very tool Alma had used to call Tecuani from the Land of the Dead. She took his hand and placed the hilt in his palm. “To end Vidal, you can either slash”—she moved his hand in a slicing motion—“or you can stab.” She thrust his hand forward. “But here…” She took his hand and pressed the blade to her chest, to the small space just between the ribs where her heart was beating like the horses’ hooves outside. “This is the kill spot for your kind. For mine too, I suppose.”

Lalo was still. His eyes remained focused on where the blade touched the exposed skin just above her bodice.

“If I cannot complete the kill,” she said, “you must aim for this very spot.”

“And if I miss?” His voice was gruff, as if he’d never spoken a day in his life.

“You won’t.”

“How do you know?”

“Because your sister’s life depends on it.” She released her grip on his hand. He pulled back immediately, and the dagger clattered to the floor. Carolina bent to retrieve it at the same time the carriage hit a dip in the road. She landed against him, her palms splayed over his chest.

His lips were so close to hers. Her gaze flicked to Lalo’s mouth then back to his eyes, which were wide and panicked.

She frowned. “Why do you look so terrified?”

“Because…” He gulped. “Because I desperately wish to kissyou.”

Carolina’s heart plunged to her belly.

“Why don’t you?” she said breathlessly.

“I’m afraid,” he said. “I’ve never…I haven’t…” He shook his head. “I want to kiss you, Carolina. But I fear that if I do, I might never stop.”

Dammit. Why was this boy so…perfect?

“Kiss me anyway,” she said. And she meant it.

“Do you feel something between us, truly? No pretenses?” he asked, all the hope in the world pooling within his gaze.

“Kiss me, Lalo Montéz, and I will show you.”

He grimaced. “My real name is actually Lalo Villalobos.”

Carolina snickered. Rafa was right. “I want Lalo Villalobos to kiss me too, then.”

His hands wrapped around her back, and he drew her in. He hesitated. “What if I lose control?”

She grinned. “I have daggers strapped to both thighs.”

Carolina’s fingers moved from his chest to the collar of his shirt. She gripped the fabric tight and eased herself close to him until their lips were nearly touching. Lalo closed his eyes, waiting. Carolina smiled at his innocence. Then she closed her eyes too.

Pure energy sizzled through her body when their lips met. The feeling was as if the world inside Carolina exploded into starlight. She jolted back—her lips, her body, her everything tingled.

“Wow,” Lalo whispered.

She had been thinking the same thing.

And now she yearned for more.

Carolina kissed him again, but it wasn’t enough. She crawled onto his lap. She wanted to feel every part of him against her. And when he pulled her closer to him, the world fizzled away. There was only the caress of his soft lips, his lithe form. The taste of him. The quiet moans he made when their tongues touched.

She dug her fingers into his hair. Pulled his head back so she might kiss the sensitive skin on his neck. Lalo groaned, gripping at her layers of skirts.

The cochero called out to the horses, and the carriage came to a sudden stop. Lalo flung Carolina to the other side of the seat. His face was flushed. His lips were pink. His eyes were wild and glossy.

“I…I’m sorry,” Lalo rasped. And when he spoke, Carolina saw the tips of his fangs. He clamped a hand to his mouth. “I shouldn’t have…,” he mumbled. “We shouldn’t have…”

Hurt flared within her, then anger. She crossed her arms. “No one should look so horrified after a kiss like that.”

Lalo’s eyes bulged. “That kiss was a mistake.”

The door opened and—Carolina’s jaw dropped. Nena poked her head in. “Hello, lovebirds,” she said merrily.

“What are you doing here?” Carolina asked.

The sudden brightness of the day filled the coach. She could only hope Lalo was too busy suffering from the sunlight to see how rosy her cheeks were.

“Checking in on Jorge. What else?” Nena’s eyes flicked between the two of them. “Am I interrupting something?” She wiggled her brows.

“No!” Lalo said. Just as Carolina said, “Yes!”

She glared at Lalo, the miserable fool who thought he could regret her kisses, before starting for the door.

“We were stopping in to see how your brother is faring,” shesaid.

Nena waved her hand. “Don’t bother. Jorge is fine and resting. The sediento gave him a good swipe to the chest, but his wound will mend. Worse things have happened to him. Remember the time he threw a stone at that hornet’s nest?”

“How could I forget. I was standing next to him. My eyes were swollen shut for a week from the pests’ stings,” Carolina said.

“Oh yes! It was the prettiest you ever looked,” Nena teased.

“Hilarious.” Carolina inched toward the door, but Nena didn’t move. How was she going to sneak to the shed and snag extra weapons with nosy Nena to block her way? They were ten minutes into her plan of escape, and things were already going awry.

Fernanda’s head popped into view next. She narrowed her eyes. “Is my brother boring you to death?”

“I think it’s the opposite,” Nena said.

Fernanda grinned. “How scandalous.”

“Scoot over,” Nena commanded.

“What?” Carolina’s spine stiffened. “Why?”

“Because it’s hot, and I’m tired and I want to go home.”

Carolina didn’t budge. If Nena placed her bottom on the seat, Carolina knew she’d never leave el pueblo. Nena understood all of Carolina’s tells. She would notice something was amiss. The last time Carolina tried to hide a bag of sweets from Nena, she was onto her lies in seconds. Nena said she could tell by the way Carolina had acted. She was a bit too good-natured and supposedly batted her lashes twice as much as normal.

“We aren’t headed home,” Carolina confessed.

Fernanda’s gaze kept flicking to her brother, who was hunched in the corner to stay away from the sun. He stared at nothing, rubbing the pads of his fingers over his lips.

“Is something wrong?” Fernanda asked. Clearly, she was aware of her brother’s tells, too. Carolina had to get away from these clever women.

“Your brother and I just kissed,” she admitted.

Both girls gasped.

Carolina let her chin quiver. “And now he feels as if it were a mistake.”

They gasped again.

“Is it because he is a sediento?” Nena queried.

Carolina shook her head. She pretended to dab at her tear-filled eyes.

“Is it because he has never kissed anyone?” Fernanda asked.

Carolina paused her performance. “Really?”

“Sí. Perhaps kissing was simply too…”

“I am right here,” Lalo deadpanned. “Please do not speak of me as if I do not exist.”

“I think Lalo and I have some issues to work out. You two don’t mind walking to the casa on your own so we can have some privacy, do you?”

“Of course not. Especially if it ends with passionate makeup kissing.” Nena puckered her lips and batted her lashes.

“Gross,” Fernanda said, but the corners of her lips curved into a smile.

“We’ll see you later.” Nena wiggled her fingers.

“Don’t expect us home anytime soon,” Carolina replied.

Fernanda and Nena squealed with glee. “Glad to see you finally living, brother.” Fernanda winked and shut the door in her wake, leaving Carolina and Lalo alone again.

Carolina wilted. That might have been the last time she saw her cousin, and she’d ended it with titillating half-truths and fake tears.

She hit the sidewall and hollered, “To Se?or Lea?os’s, Joaquín!” The coach lurched forward.

The small paletería dug into the ground was the closest building in Del Oro to the forest. Once Se?or Lea?os started adding other flavors into his creamy ice mixture of eggs, milk, and agave honey, everyone in Del Oro enjoyed their cool treats. His chili lime paleta was worth dying for.

“What is the plan?” Lalo asked.

She stuck her nose up. “I’d rather not speak to people who think kissing me is a mistake.”

“Has it happened before?”

“I haven’t had a complaint yet.” Not that she’d kissed many boys. Only two, and one was an insufferably handsome sediento. Most in town were too afraid of Papá to even try.

The coach jostled, but this time she did not fall into his arms. They were nearing the paletería. That divot in the road two shops down from Se?or Lea?os’s had been there for three years now.

They came to a slow stop. “Pretend you are ill,” she ordered.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Act sickly.”

The door swung open, and Joaquín’s large frame blotted out the sun.

“Carolina, we are…”

Lalo groaned and grasped his stomach, slumped against the wall.

“Are you unwell, Lalo?” the cochero asked.

“All this movement has given my poor beau motion sickness. You have seen that he is prone to ailments.”

She patted his thigh, trying to appear sympathetic.

“I’m certain he will be fine after he collects himself. Do you mind waiting in line for us, though? I know how long of a wait it can be.”

“Of course.” Joaquín snuck one last glance at Lalo before shutting the door.

Carolina counted to twenty, giving Joaquín time to disappear into the crowd of patrons.

She started for the door, but Lalo grabbed her wrist. “What are we doing?”

She jerked her hand free. “ We are not doing anything. I am.”

Hurt flashed across his face as if he wasn’t the one who had rejected her. “If this is about the kiss, I…”

“You are sorry for it. I understand fully well. It is evident on your irritating face. And don’t worry, it’ll never happen again.”

His mouth fell open.

Good, she thought. She hoped her words stung worse than nettle.

“Stay in here, and hold tight, because I’m hijacking this carriage.”