Page 58 of The Love Language of the Cartel

My breath hitched as I clutched Ozias’s hand, giving it a tight squeeze. “I-I think I . . . is that . . . that’s impossible . . .” I whispered as my heart raced.

I tried not to let my mind run free with wild, impossible thoughts, but it was useless. Everything about the woman’s silhouette seemed familiar, including the way she stood with her weight resting more on one leg than the other. Iron bands tightened across my chest.Is it? No. It can’t. Can it?Without a second thought, I took a cautious step forward. My lips parted, and I called out with a tone laced with hesitance. “Samara?”

For a moment, everything went silent as if I’d gone completely deaf. But then the frame turned and began to move closer, revealing a face I assured myself I’d never lay eyes on again.

Samara—the one I hadn’t mourned adequately after everything that happened in Mexico. Yet there she was, in front of me, alive and in the flesh.

Instantly, my eyes misted over with fresh tears, and I let out a squelched sob. I slipped my hand out of Ozias’s and broke out into a sprint, trying to close the space between us as quickly as possible.

Samara’s arms opened wide, engulfing me in a hug as our bodies collided in an embrace so intense it seemed to erase all the grief that had taken over me since she’d been gone.

“A-are you r-real? I . . . I thought y-you were . . .” Tears garbled my words as I held the sides of her face, eyes soakingher in to make sure she was real and I wasn’t hallucinating from heartache.

“It’s me, Demi. I’m here,” she confirmed.

“W-where have you been all this t-time? What h-happened after Mexico? I thought you were dead!” I cried out as the words continued to spill off my lips between my blinding tears. I refused to let her go, afraid she might disappear again.

Samara drew in a trembling breath while looking over her shoulder at Ozias, who was slowly making his way toward us. “If I’m being honest, it’s really all a blur. After that morning yoga session, the next thing I remember is waking up in a private hospital room with a woman sitting next to my bed. She told me I was in Texas and said someone found me and brought me there unconscious. That’s when I found out what happened to my cousin . . . and h-her bridesmaids. I thought you were dead too, until I found out Ozias was the one who arranged for me to be spared because of my connection to you. I was so weak and so broken. I didn’t know who to trust or what to do. It took me a while, but when I finally accepted things for what they were, they arranged for me to fly back home if I delivered a message to your father.”

I twisted my neck back in the direction of Ozias, who was standing a few feet away. “What message?” I questioned, voice cracking.

“That you were his, and he was never letting you go. I’ve been laying low ever since. I knew things wouldn’t go well. I swear to God I wanted to reach out to you to make sure you were safe or even to warn you, but I was scared out of my fucking mind. I know he’s had people watching me this entire time.”

“Who?”

“El Diablo,” she said, the sound of his name sounding like more of a warning than anything else.

Still, her words seemed to go in one ear and out the other, refusing to register in my brain. The only thing I had the ability to absorb was the fact that my best friend was alive. I hadn’t lost her. All the other shit I could figure out another day.

“I thought I’d lost you,” I mumbled, pulling her in for another tight hug.

The heaviness in my heart that had once seemed eternal began to ease for the first time in what felt like a lifetime.

“You didn’t lose me, but you did marry the devil,” she warned, slowly pulling away and stationing her eyes on Ozias.

I turned back to face him, knowing some parts of her statement were true. But when I looked at him, I didn’t see the devil or a monster. All I saw was the man who’d spared my best friend and would slay dragons and burn down the world for me whether I asked him to or not.He’d shown me love by sticking by my side even when the world was crumbling around me.That hadn’t gone unnoticed, but I didn’t have time to explain every part of our twisted love story in detail to her.

“Listen, I know I had my doubts in the beginning, but he’s not all bad. We’ve been through a lot in a short amount of time, and he’s protected me through it all. And now, I can protect you, Mara. You don’t have to be afraid anymore.”

She shook her head. “I’m as grateful to be alive as the next woman, but I can’t fuck with this cartel shit, Demi. I-I just can’t do it,” she said, waving her hands in surrender.

I grabbed her by the shoulders. “Trust me, Mara. Everything is going to be okay now. Whatever hold you think Ozias has on you, it’s over.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” she replied in disagreement. “It’ll never be over.”

“I promise I won’t let anything happen to you. You have my word.”

Samara paused, truly considering my words. “Are you sure?”

“I swear. You have my word and his,” I assured her.

As Ozias and I departed from the cemetery, my brain churned with questions. He wasted no time calling his sister Maya and having her recall the men she’d sent to watch Samara back to Texas. He promised me she’d have her life back, even if it weren’t the same one she had before everything happened. The calm that settled over me had been replaced with a burning curiosity that I couldn’t hold back. I needed to knowwhyhe’d spared her and why he’d kept the truth from me until now.

I cleared my throat before speaking. “Why?” I questioned, my voice tight. “Why didn’t you tell me Samara was alive, Ozias? Especially after I asked you.”

Ozias’s dark eyes flickered with a shred of remorse. He parted his lips to respond but paused as if he were tiptoeing around landmines, trying not to say the wrong words to make shit worse. He moved half a step closer but stopped mid-stride, aware of the invisible wall I’d placed between us.

“I never meant to hurt you,” he stated earnestly.“This is why I wanted you to come to Chicago. She’s what I wanted to show you. To prove to you that I’m not always a monster.”

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