Page 59 of The Love Language of the Cartel

I scoffed, feeling the sting of betrayal carving through me. “Why did you allow me to think the worst? To think that everyone I loved was gone knowing I’d already lost my cousin, my baby, and my father? Do you have any idea what that did to me mentally? Emotionally?”

He clenched his fists at his side. “At the time, I thought I was protecting you.”

“Protecting me from what?”

“I didn’t want to give you false hope when shit could’ve gone differently at any moment—what if she tried to call the police? What if she tried to sell me out to your father? What if I had to make her disappear again? I thought it was best to wait until I knew for sure where she stood and that she knew the consequences if she chose to switch sides. I swear, it was never about keeping anything from you . . . it was a business move. I did what I felt was best.”

I pushed out a sour laugh as hot tears of rage began to sting my eyes. “Best for you, clearly. I thought you did, but maybe you don’t give a fuck about protecting me.”

“There you go saying shit you don’t mean when you know I’d die a thousand lives for you.”

“I thought I was supposed to be your queen. Well, a queen is supposed to know what the fuck the king is doing, right? And yet, you kept me in the dark just like my father used to! It’s triggering for me, Ozias. Can’t you see that?”

“Look, I know I hurt you, and I can’t take that back. But believe me, I thought I was sparing you more pain. I see now . . . I was wrong.”

I scoffed again. “Dead fucking wrong! Samara was shaking like a leaf on a tree when she could’ve been feeling safe with me all along. You caused that!”

His expression hardened. “I sent her to Texas to heal and had Maya watch over her. Would you rather I’d had her buried in the fuckin’ desert like everyone else?”

I scoffed again as my eyes burned with tears. Burying bodies in the desert was the one grim option he hadn’t given me when I’d originally asked what happened to the bodies. “Wow. There he is. There’s El Diablo. At first, I thought it was a mask—something you could take off and put on when necessary, but no. This is who you are, Ozias.”

His baritone voice softened. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“You meant it exactly how it came out of your fucking mouth. We both know that,” I said with an exaggerated eye roll. “Do you know how much worse I feel now knowing that you had every opportunity in the world to tell me, and you still kept it from me?”

His broad shoulders crumpled inward as the heaviness of my words weighed down on him. “Whatever I broke between us, I wanna fix it.”

I snapped my neck in his direction as my ears homed in on his unexpected response. “What?”

“I might not like it, but I know how to admit when I’m wrong,mi amor,” Ozias admitted, his voice barely above a whisper.

For a moment, the only sound between us was the whistling of the breeze through the air. I no longer knew what to feel or how to react. Every emotion I felt didn’t feel appropriate for the moment. Had I allowed Samara’s words to get into my head and take root underneath my skin? On the one hand, I felt like I had every reason to smile again, knowing my best friend was still alive, even if it meant our friendship was never the same. On the other, the man I’d secretly given my heart to had lied to me and omitted the truth every time I asked. How could I trust him when he was so quick to keep a secret from me, even if his intentions were good?

I turned away and wrapped my arms around myself in a comforting embrace as if I were trying to keep all my emotions from spilling out at once. I slowly twisted my neck to face him again, stationing my eyes on him. I instantly sensed the vulnerability radiating from his body—from his tensed posture to his emotion-filled gaze.

“You should’ve told me,” I reiterated. “Maybe I would’ve spent less time hating you.”

“Do you hate me now?” Ozias inquired, his gaze brimming with remorse.

My chest deflated with a hard sigh. “No, but you should’ve trusted me enough to let me decide how to handle that situation. I could’ve helped. I could’ve—”

Ozias cut me off with a wave of his hand. “I’d rob the sky of the sun and moon if I knew it would make you smile, Demi. If it’s trust you want, you can have that. I’ve already given you my heart, and I’ll spend the rest of my days making sure you feel like my equal. You’re the only queen on my board, Demi. Without you, the game’s not even worth playing.”

My gaze shied away, falling down to my balled fists in my lap.“Do you really mean that?”

He dipped his chin without hesitation. “I do. When I told you I loved you, I meant it. Ain't no half-stepping with me,mi amor. One hundred is the only percent I’ll give and the only one I’ll accept.”

“Then never, ever give me a reason to question you again.”

“I’ll never lie to you again.”

The unexpected trip to the cemetery had unleashed a storm of emotions I hadn’t been prepared to endure, but as I sat there, listening to Ozias spill his feelings while sorting through my own, I started to feel like I could finally shed the back-breaking weight I’d been carrying around like a second shadow. For the first time in weeks, I experienced a wave of clarity and peace I hadn’t experienced before. It was as if I’d unlocked a new level in the game of life.

I turned my entire body to face him as my heart galloped at the reins inside my chest. There were no more secrets, no more enemies to slay, and no bodies to bury. It was only us, the truth, and our feelings about it. My lips parted, then paused as if temporarily paralyzed. It was only for a fleeting second, but it felt like forever.

“I love you,” I finally admitted. Those three words spilled off the tip of my tongue as if they’d been biding their time until I wasready to confess the secret I’d been holding back from him. “I know I didn’t say it back when you told me how you felt before, and I know you might’ve taken my silence as a rejection, but it wasn’t that. It was far from it.”

“Then what was it?”

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