Page 29 of Come Alive
“I need someone to drive me back into town. Steve wanted to meet with me tomorrow afternoon, hopefully I will know what’s going on by then.” James deflated.
It was clear Kazi held the cards, that there wasn’t any point to argue. He would follow their lead, and he would trust them…if only for Yara. If only to see his daughter again.
“There’s a car waiting for you,” Mateo spoke from behind him before marching past them towards the direction Yara went. “You are lucky she explicitly told me not to hurt you. When you are to meet with Steve, alert us. I will trail you so that we can determine his role in all of this.”
“Go,” Kazi advised. “We will take care of Yara until you are ready to return. We will reunite you with your daughter, you have my word.”
James didn’t like the power imbalance, didn’t like that he was leaving Yara behind, didn’t like how she was clearly distraught. But he needed to figure out Steve’s role in this. Why he had owned an apartment above Yara. What his connection was to her. And he needed to reunite with Isobella.
My daughter. I have to do anything I can to find her.
Mind made up, he inclined his head before turning on his heel and marching back from whence he came.
Chapter 14
Yara
The bathroom I had found upstairs was mysteriously lacking mirrors, but it did nothing to dispel the turmoil that rolled through me in painful waves.
“Mija?” Mateo’s voice was distant, barely reaching my ears.
I ignored it, choosing to turn on the shower.
Rejection.
James is leaving. He can’t deal with me. I am a useless person. A broken do—
I didn’t let myself complete the thought, working instead on counting each of my breaths.
When I hit thirty, I stripped my clothes and got into the shower. The hot water steamed up the space, but I barely even felt it on my skin. My body ached in a way I was not accustomed to.
Maybe it was the nonstop traveling the last few days. Perhaps it was the anxiety of Izzy’s disappearance. Perchance it was the fact I was pregnant with afuckingbaby.
Letting my head fall back, I washed some of my anxiety out of me, and just when I began to feel better, pain hit me out ofnowhere, forcing me to my knees and I let out a startled grunt. Waves and waves of it, cramps and stabs mixing chaotically. Stemming from my lower belly but spreading out from its source.
This isn’t right.
Less than a second after that thought, the water below me turned red.
“Mateo! Something’s wrong!”
I didn’t have a chance to truly understand what was going on before Mateo was kicking the door down. He took one look at the situation and cursed.
“Fuck! The books I rea—” Mateo cut himself off as he shut the water off and gathered me in his arms. “Kazi, get the car ready! NOW!” he shouted behind us.
Mateo threw his shirt over me before readjusting, forcing my face into his now bare chest. “An ambulance will take too long. We will get you to the hospital.”
His scent enveloped me, rugged and woodsy. “I’m going to bleed on you,” I argued weakly as the pain continued to rock through me. I bit back a scream as a particularly strong cramp chomped down onto me.
“Shush, I’ve got you.”
***
I didn’t exactly pass out, but time passed in a whoosh of whirling nauseating scenes.
Mateo cradling me into the car.
The sky spiraling around outside.
