“You told Alexei you’d be here by Christmas.” “You’re a little late,” she said, laughing through her tears. He eventually made his way through the Dominican crime lord’s lair, quietly picking off the soldiers one by one, until he found the man he was looking for in bed with two prostitutes and shot him point blank in the face with one of the guns he’d taken off his captors.īut at that moment, when Suro kissed Lacey under the light of the moon, his entire arm wrapped around her neck as if he couldn’t hold her tight enough, she would have never known. His bruised face had taken many hits during his days of imprisonment in a Dominican Republic stronghold before he managed to kill the two guards interrogating him with his metal dinner plate. His knee had been smashed and he was also nursing a few broken ribs. Later she would discover he’d dropped a cane in order to raise his arms to her like that. She ran into Suro’s arms, tears of happiness already spilling down her face by the time she crashed into him. “Don’t get your hopes up,” she thought to herself even as she began running toward him.īut whoever it was stopped in his tracks when he saw her, which made her stop, too.įor a moment they stood there in the brisk cold of the Texas night, too far away to see each other clearly.īut then the figure opened his arms, and she knew. She didn’t care about the cold night air. She walked out of the house in bare feet and without a coat. Was he real? And if he was, was it merely one of the guards who swept the premises every night? Maybe her mind was unraveling because she could swear she saw a figure coming up the moonlit path.

“Be strong,” she whispered to herself.īut then she blinked several times against her wet tears. She raised her head and wiped at her tears, refusing to let herself be overtaken by grief or self-pity.

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