“Mamita,” Hector murmured gently when I stopped. He didn’t touch me but he was close enough I could feel his heat.

With nowhere else to go, I turned my head away.

“Sadie?” another voice called.

I opened my eyes and peered around Hector’s body. I could see both Ralphie and Buddy standing just inside the door.

Hector stepped to the side and I saw them fully.

Ralphie was carrying an overnight bag. Buddy was carrying a huge vase of exquisite white calla lilies, my favorites.

They were staring at me and they looked pale (yes, even Buddy, I didn’t know black people could go pale but he did).

“Sweetie?” Ralphie said hesitantly.

Even though he called me “sweetie” (and he’d never called me “sweetie”), Ice Princess clicked into place.

“I’m okay,” I said immediately.

One second Ralphie was across the room. The next second I was in his arms.

“Oh Sadie, sweet ‘ums. You didn’t have an accident, did you?” he asked, his voice whisper-soft, one arm around my waist, the other hand stroking my back.

“Ralphie, I’m fine.” I held my body rigid and spoke to his throat.

He leaned back and looked down at me. “Sweetie, you are not fine. I can see, can’t I? I didn’t go blind in the night like a bad Jodie Foster movie. And I just got back from your apartment. It’s a disaster. What on earth happened? Who did this to you?”

This was not working well for me. It was all coming at me. Everyone was talking about it. How could I set it aside to deal with it later when people were talking about it?

“I’m gonna break his f**kin’ neck.” Buddy was now at our side.

I turned my head and looked up at Buddy, he got a close look at my face and I saw his teeth clench.

Then he repeated between his teeth, “I’m gonna break his f**kin’ neck. Who did it?”

“I’m fine,” I said again.

“You have a cast on your wrist,” Ralphie pointed out and I looked back at Ralphie.

“I’m fine,” I repeated.

“You have a bandage on your face,” Ralphie went on.

I could take no more and really, could you blame me?

So I screamed, “I’m fine!”

Ralphie had never seen me lose my cool, never, therefore at my scream he winced. Then for some reason, he ignored my Chill Factor. His arms got tight and he pulled me close.

And no one had held me like that for as long as I could remember.

And I couldn’t bear it anymore.

I shoved my face in his ultra-elegant shirt and clenched his uber-stylish suit jacket in my good hand and I cried.

I didn’t care who saw me. Not even Hector.

Fuck it. I could take no more.

It was not wracking, sobbing, loud crying. It was silent, body-jerking, soul-wrenching crying.

Through it all, and it seemed to last a long time, Ralphie held on.

“Get it out, sweet ‘ums, give it to Ralphie,” he muttered finally.

“I have to go home,” I said into his shirt.

“You can’t go home,” Ralphie replied.

“I have to go home. I have to get out of here,” I said back but I didn’t take my face from Ralphie’s shirt.

“You’ll go home,” Buddy said from close to our side and I felt another hand slide around my waist as Buddy got closer and affected a group hug.

“Thank you,” I whispered, not looking up, not looking at Ralphie or Buddy and definitely not Hector or Daisy.

“You’ll go home, Sadie,” Buddy said. “You’ll go home with us.”

Chapter Three

I Waited

Hector

Hector sat, leaned forward, elbows on his knees, his left hand dangling, his right hand holding a Jack and Coke.

Actually, he’d started out the night adding Coke but he hadn’t bothered with it for the last two drinks.

“Hermano, you gotta talk,” Eddie said to him.

Hector looked at his older brother. Eddie was sitting across from him in Hector’s living room.

The living room was a pit, he’d been working steadily on the house now for months but there was a lot of work to do, he’d barely scratched the surface. The living room was a jumble of unpacked boxes and furniture most if it covered in heavy, plastic sheets. Hector was refinishing the floors in the study and dining room. He should have started with the living room.

Hector looked back to the floor and said, “I f**ked up, I know it and I’ll fix it.”

Then at the thought of “fixing” Sadie, unwanted and disconnected memories flashed through his brain.

Her standing at the sink in the bathroom at the hospital.

Her crying silently into her friend’s chest.

Her saying she wanted to take a walk instead of admitting she had to use the bathroom.

Her bloody face, bloody legs and the limp body he held as she told him there was no one to care if she woke up.

He lifted his glass to his mouth, threw back the Jack, draining it dry. He leaned forward and tagged the mostly empty bottle which was on the floor by his boot. He poured another heavy measure and then set the bourbon back down.

He was drunk, he knew he was drunk and he didn’t give a f**k.

“Tell me how you f**ked up,” Eddie prompted.

Without hesitation, Hector replied, “I waited.”

That was it. He’d waited. He’d waited for Sadie to come to him.

After that night in her father’s office, he should have taken what he knew was his.

And he shouldn’t have f**king waited.

* * * * *

At first, when Hector Chavez started to get close to Seth Townsend, he thought Townsend’s daughter was a useless rich bitch, a beautiful one but still useless.

Then, because it was his job, he watched her and her father. And he saw that Townsend didn’t hide anything from Sadie. He wasn’t concealing how he was able to give her a very good life. She knew all about it. She seemed to have no problems with that which made Hector wonder if she was somehow involved in the operation.

Hector looked into it and found she wasn’t involved.

She was clean. Squeaky clean.

In Hector’s experience, no one was squeaky clean. This made Hector suspicious. So he watched her closer.

And watching her and her father (but mostly her) made him uneasy.

Being from a big, loud, loving and in-your-business Mexican-American family, he’d never seen anything like it.