Page 89 of Lourdes & the Mafia
Naomi Queen comes into view, her face pulled into tight lines of distress.
“Where the fuck is my best friend?!”
She’s in front of Kraken members and appears to be yelling at the one they call Wire. He looks uncertain and embarrassed. “I’m not sure, Queenie. We can’t find her or track her. There’s no whisper of her…” He looks towards the MC president, a big burly man with salt and pepper hair and a beard named Rock.
Something passes between them.
“Queenie,” Rock begins. “We heard whispers through the underground… There’s a price on Lourdes’ head. Someone wants her alive. That could explain the blood at her place—”
“No!” she screams. “She has to be okay!” She whirls, yanking her phone from her jacket pocket. She dials a number, presses it to her ear. “Julio,” she snaps. “I need you. You need to come now.” Then she hangs up.
“Babe, what the fuck?” Rock demands angrily, reaching for her.
Her fist snaps out against him and the silence that ricochets through the compound makes even me shiver.
“If you can’t help me find my best friend, then I’ll find someone who can.”
The vision fades in a whiplash and I gasp for breath as I’m pulled out of it. My head is pulsing in pain and Lorenzo is hovering above me with a worried look in his eyes.
“Ow…” I complain, pressing the heel of my hand to my forehead. “Joder, that still fucking hurts.”
“Amore, are you well?”
I let out a breath, my vision finally focusing on everything around me. On him. “No,” I answer honestly. “I… I need to let Naomi know I’m okay.”
I can’t believe days have passed. Days without a word. Days in which I left blood on the floor in my house and with no word to Naomi.
I’m here, spending time with these amazing demon men and forgetting everything else.
I do this every time. I get caught up in my own shit and forget about everything else. I need to talk to Naomi before she worries even more.
Before she blows up the entirety of Santo Domingo to find me.
She’s capable of such violence.
I know it with certainty.
“I need a phone,” I tell him, trying to sit up. He helps pull me to a sitting position. “I need to call her.”
Lorenzo shakes his head. “Phones don’t work in the Underworld, Amore.”
I feel the tears prickling. So they have magic dresses but not wifi? Figures.
“But,” he adds, “I think I can help you communicate with your friend.”
“You’re sure this is going to work?”
Lorenzo’s hand tightens in mine. “Of course. Just picture the Kraken compound and we will be transported there immediately. Not physically. We will appear in shadows, blurry if you will. But they will know it’s you.”
I swallow the fear in my throat. But determination replaces it. I give a single nod. I picture the compound like Lorenzo instructed. Every detail of it.
Then we are transported there.
We materialize in the middle of the compound, surprising the members into action. They shout, drawing their guns in our direction.
I flinch back, though I know they can’t touch us. We are nothing but shadows, not physically there. Our bodies are still in the Underworld.
“Naomi?” I search around for my friend.
