Until Forever Ends: A Dark Mafia Romance by Adelaide Forrest (free children's ebooks online TXT) 📕

had been verbal about his interest in keeping me protected like I was made of glass.

I wasn't, and I was sick of being treated like it.

"I did. He forbade it," I said with a shrug.

"As expected. You could get hurt kickboxing," Joaquin said in reprimand. "Let's not forget that it's only a matter of time before you're pregnant and need to think about those things."

"Well, I wasn't actually asking for kickboxing lessons. Just for him to teach me how to defend myself a little in case of emergency."

He hung his head, pinching his nose between his thumb and finger in aggravation. "You suggested that Rafael can't keep you safe. No wonder he tore out of here like there was a fire up his ass," he laughed. "You insulted the devil's manhood and lived to tell about it. Congratulations, mi reina. I think that might be a first."

I stuck my tongue out at him, not even bothering to argue the fact that I hadn't insulted him. Men were stupid and impractical and apparently their egos were more important than common sense. "What do you think?" I stressed, looking to get his opinion rather than just Rafael speaking through his mouth like the puppet master he liked to pretend to be.

"I think I like my tongue inside my mouth, so I'm not about to speak out against Rafael," he said.

"So you disagree. You think I should be able to protect myself just in case, because that's the sane thing! Why wouldn't he want me to be safe?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"It might have something to do with the fact that you've already stabbed him once. Just a thought," Joaquin argued, but he twisted his lips to the side and came to stand directly next to the daybed. His eyes drifted over to the house in the distance where I'd seen the brothers emerge on the day I first spotted them, and my heart clenched in my chest at the reminder of my friend's betrayal.

Well, I supposed he'd never really been my friend in the end.

"He's not coping well, Isa," Joaquin said, wrapping his hand around the post that held up the canopy on the daybed. "He misses you."

"He has no right to miss me when he lied to me the entire time I knew him," I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest in defiance. It felt childish even as I did it, but I couldn't control the bitterness I felt at the very mention of Hugo. All the while he'd pretended to be so outraged over my sister's betrayal and the fact that she'd broken my trust in such a profound way, he'd been lying to me like an asshole.

Using me for a job.

"So did I," Joaquin pointed out, perching on the edge of the daybed. "You have to understand that Hugo, Gabriel, and I had no say in what happened with you. Rafael summoned us to Chicago because there was a security issue he needed us to handle for him in the long term. We didn't even know you existed until we were already on the plane."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" I asked, glaring at him as my throat stung with the tears of betrayal. I wanted to hate them. I wanted to cling to the fact that they'd all hurt me, because I needed to rage against something.

Rafe was the appropriate object for my anger, but the feelings I had for him complicated that. He'd betrayed my trust before I'd ever even met him, and yet I couldn't hold onto the anger I should have felt with him for that.

"What would you have had us do, Isa?" Joaquin asked, glaring at me as he pushed me to admit the truth. I knew it down to my bones, even if I didn't want to acknowledge it.

They'd been just as trapped by the circumstances of Rafael's plan as I had been. They'd been sent to a strange city to watch over a girl they didn't know all because of his twisted obsession with me. "You could have told me the truth," I said.

"What would that have accomplished? You would have fought. You'd have tried to find a way out of it and only put your family at risk in the process. This way gave you time. I'd hoped that his interest in you would fade after he left Chicago and he didn't have to live with the knowledge that you existed in the very same city as him, but he never wavered. So we all waited. We kept you safe. It was all we could do."

"I don't know that it makes much of a difference," I sighed, curling my knees into my chest. "I'm here. I'm not going anywhere, but I have no interest in trusting the people who hurt me."

"Just talk to him, Isa," Joaquin pleaded. "Let him explain his side of things. If you can do that, then in the rare moments when Rafael is off the island and we have the opportunity, I'll take you to a clearing nearby and teach you some very basic moves to protect yourself."

"What about Rafael? Won't he punish you if he finds out?" I asked, staring up at him in shock.

"He'll punish both of us when he finds out, so you need to be certain you're ready to deal with whatever that might look like. I can handle the pain. Can you?" Joaquin asked, standing and holding out a hand for me to take.

It was so similar to the night that Rafael had asked me to go to bed with him, the first moment I'd accepted that the devil would be mine for even just a moment, that my heart caught in my throat. But the need to do something just because I wanted to was tangible, and despite knowing the potential consequences, I accepted Joaquin's hand and let him pull me to my feet.

He released me as soon as I stood, turning on his heel