Page 188 of Plunge into Obsession

“No.”

I looked at her. “If you need a way out of the country—”

“Asking the head of the Michoacán Cartel isn’t going to help me, not when Raphael works for him.”

My eyes widened in surprise. I hadn’t told her what I’d found out about Gabriel, so how did she know?

Her eyes went soft. “Is he good to you?”

I bit my lip, pausing slightly before I nodded. “Yeah.”

“You didn’t have a choice in marrying him. I know that now. Not when you’re carrying the heir to the Michoacán Cartel, but… he’s good to you, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, Kaia. He is.”

I thought about all he had said the night before. The way he had held me so reverently in his arms, the soft kisses he’d placed all over my body.

If Gabriel was like his father, he would have lured me into a false sense of security. Then he would have thrown away all pretense as soon as I said “I do.”

“We always talked about leaving this place, and I had wanted to take you with me…”

She trailed off when I shook my head.

She shot me a sad smile. “But I need to leave. Okay?”

I nodded and stood. I didn’t know what it was about Raphael that had Kaia running scared, but if she said she had to leave, then she had to leave.

And I had to help her before Gabriel got home, which could be any time.

“You need money,” I said.

She stood and nodded. That was why she’d come here, though judging by the look in her eyes, she hadn’t wanted to ask me.

“Hey,” I said, grabbing her hand and waiting until she looked up at me. “You have been the only one who’s been there for me all along. You think there would ever be anything I wouldn’t do for you?”

“Thank you. What I’m asking is a lot, but I don’t need much. Just enough to help me get settled.”

“Where will you go?”

“Spain.”

I hadn’t expected her to have the answer right away. “Why Spain?”

“Because that’s the one place he can’t go,” she said quietly. “And I have citizenship there based onjus sanguinis.”

I nodded. That was right. Her grandfather on her dad’s side was from Spain, and while studying a semester abroad in Spain, Kaia had applied for citizenship there throughjus sanguinis—the right of blood.

But that didn’t explain why Raphael couldn’t go into the country. Was there a warrant out for his arrest in that country?

I blanched.

That was a very real possibility, considering what my Gabriel did and that Raphael worked for Gabriel.

I didn’t know Raphael all that well. And I didn’t know exactly what he did for Gabriel.

“You’ll contact me once you get settled?” I asked.

“Of course. And I’ll explain everything.”

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