I found her sitting on the couch, still dressed in her Caliente uniform, mascara streaked down her cheeks as if she’d been crying. She had her knees drawn up toward her chest and her arms wrapped around them.
This wasn’t my Leighton.
This wasn’t my Star.
This was a lost little lamb.
Dropping to my knees before her, I took her face gently in my hands, wiping the dampness from under her eye with my thumb. The movement seemed to knock her out of the hypnotic trance, and her brows knotted together.
“Your lip is bleeding.”
“I went to see Emilio,” I admitted.
I waited for her to ask me why, but she held my gaze, her walls crumbling piece by piece.
“Me too.” Pulling away, she released her knees, collapsing against the back of the couch.
That was when I noticed it.
A purple bruise forming at the base of her throat—just the size of a thumbprint.
Emilio’s heated words came rushing back as that purple print made the black haze cloud my vision again. I touched it with a gentle hand. “Did he do this to you?”
Although she flinched, she didn’t pull away while nodding.
Fuck the code. He’s a dead man.
“I’m not the enemy, mi amor,” I promised her, doing everything I could to keep my voice even. “But I know who is.” Just as I promised myself, there had to be a clean slate between us before any more blood spilled. Taking her small hands in mine, I held them tightly, preparing both of us. “Remember those messages you said you sent me when you left?”
“Yeah.”
“I didn’t get them, but someone else did.”
All the blood drained from Leighton’s face. “Who?”
“Emilio.”
Immediately, she tried to pull away, but I anticipated her fear, and held on, refusing her.
“How do you know this?” she whispered, her voice shaking.
“Don’t worry about that right now. Just know I finally heard them.” As the last word left my lips, I looked up at her. The wide-eyed panic in her beautiful brown eyes faded, the corners turning down in understanding.
“You didn’t know,” she said, matter-of-factly.
“No. But now that I do, I want to hear it from you.”
She stuttered, starting and stopping at least three times before tilting her head back and letting out a gasping cry. My heart bled for her. My arms ached to hold her, but I didn’t move. This moment belonged to her, and she needed to be left alone to exorcize the demons on her own.
“I left almost four years ago, Matty, but I didn’t leave alone,” she finally said, her hands trembling even harder. “When I said I came back to look for you, I wasn’t lying. I wanted to find you, even though you never answered my messages. I thought you deserved to know that...”
“Say it, Leighton.”
She swallowed hard, and the trembling stopped. “I was pregnant.”
Releasing her hands, I sat back on my heels. “Show me.”
Reaching behind her, she pulled a worn photo from her back pocket. She stared at it lovingly before turning it around. The moment my eyes landed on the little girl in the picture, I grabbed my chest. If I’d been standing, the image would’ve brought me to my knees.
She wore a pink tank top and held a bunch of wildflowers in her little hands. Her long dark hair was swept over one bronzed shoulder, and her expressive dark brown eyes crinkled at the corner with obvious love for her mother. It felt like the breath had been knocked out of me. Staring at this picture was like staring into a mirror.
All except for her wide dimpled grin. The one that lit up her whole face. The one that screamed innocence and light. That was all Leighton.
“She’s beautiful,” I choked out.
“She has your eyes. You have no idea how confusing it is to love something so much who looks exactly like someone who destroyed you.”
I traced her face, still mesmerized. “How old is she?”
“She turned three in January.”
“What’s her name?”
“Stella,” she said, tilting her head to stare along with me. “Actually, her name is Estella. It’s a Spanish name. I picked it because it means—”
“Little star,” I finished for her.
She nodded, but she didn’t have to. Even through our separation, she’d found a way to keep our love alive.
“Estella...” I hesitated, not daring to hope.
“James. Estella James.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Not Harcourt?”
She shook her head, her expression darkening. “You weren’t the only reason I left Houston, Mateo. I’ve already told you, I’ll do anything it takes to protect my family. I wasn’t about to let Finn get anywhere near another young girl. My grandparents helped me through everything. They supported me, so I couldn’t think of a better way to honor them and protect Stella than using my father’s name.”
“And she’s why you came back to Houston without a fight?”
Leighton nodded again. It was as if unloading the secret she’d harbored alone freed her. “Alex promised to keep Stella and my grandparents in protective custody as long as I cooperated. After what happened with Luis, I couldn’t risk it, Mateo. We’d be on the streets if it weren’t for my grandparents. They saved us. I’d give up my life for Stella, but I won’t risk hers.”
Tucking the picture inside my jacket pocket, I rose to my feet, pulling Leighton with me. Running my fingers through her hair, I tilted her chin up. “You don’t have to give up your life for her. I’ll lay down mine for both of you.”
“You don’t even know her,” she said, glancing down.
“I don’t have to. She’s my daughter, and I’ll kill anyone who comes near her.” I’d never fail either of them again. “This isn’t over, Leighton. She’s in danger.” Taking a breath, I said the words I knew would devastate her. “You weren’t Luis’s target. She was.”
“I know,” she said without a trace of shock.
It was the last thing I expected to hear.
“You do?”
She nodded. A shadow clouded her eyes, and in them, I saw the wheels turning inside a changed woman. “I saw Emilio too, remember? He knows Alex is hiding her, but now I can’t get in touch with Alex. I’m tired of reacting, Mateo.”
“This is going to end,” I promised her. “When all this is over, no one’s going to take either of you away from me again.”
“Show me.”
“What do you need?” I asked, wanting to hear her say the words.
“Make love to me.” Pressing a hand against my chest, she turned her cheek into my palm and closed her eyes. “Make it okay—just for tonight.”
Picking her up, I carried her into the bedroom, tasting her lips the whole way. After what we’d just shared, it felt wrong to touch her any other way but reverently.
She was the mother of my child.
My everything.
After laying her on the bed, I divested both of us of our clothes as she watched me through half-lidded eyes. The hunger was still there—still violent to the point of having to take a few moments to calm myself so I wouldn’t drag her hips up and drive into her with the punishing force of the anger boiling inside me. My emotions were too tangled for that. I refused to allow her body to take the brunt of someone else’s sins.