Falling With Grace

Javier rushed out as Rafael and Emilio dragged Manuel by the arms towards the driveway.

“You let me handle that.” I stepped closer to Grace and slipped my hand around her elbow, my touch gentle, but firm, my fingers dimpling her depleted muscle. “And what were you planning on doing withGrace?”

She sighed and swiped her dirty hands on her garden apron. “I need her to learn the recipes.” She pinched Grace’s cheek, her eyes dropping to my hand on Grace’s arm, then glanced up at her and smiled. “Isn’t that right?”

Grace swallowed and bowed her head as she nodded, her pulse racing under my touch. Her arms pulled tight across her body, and my grip along with it, causing my knuckles to brush against her soft breast.

I turned into Grace. “How much Spanish do you understand?”

“Most of it.” She shrugged. “Jorge taught me so I could understand the men…”

A hardened chill rushed under my skin. “And who is that? Jorge, I mean.”

Grace ran her fingers across her brow with a wince as Mamá turned her back to us and picked some dried beans on the vine.

“He was the closest person I could call a friend while Andr—”

I pressed my finger to her pillowed lips and glared. “Do not speak his name around her.” My teeth gnashed together. “Is that clear?”

Her lips parted as she nodded, her chest deflating. “Sorry.”

“Grace needs to go, Mamá. Say goodbye.”

Grace’s bright eyes widened.

Did she think I wouldn’t send her back into the hole?

Why reward poor behavior?

“Oh? Where? I had things I needed her help with.”

Mamá placed the beans in the basket hanging from her arm, her back turned towards us as she disappeared in her activity.

Grace’s brows drew together, her cheeks sunken with deprivation.

Sometimes, it was too much for her mind to concentrate on more than one task at a time.

“Back to her home.”

“Okay, say hello to your father for me.”

I sighed, my shoulders sagging.

That moment didn’t last long.

Jerking Grace towards me, I walked her back to her shed where she’d rot, her feet tripping over one another as we stepped around the puddle of blood soaking into the grass. “Taking advantage of an elderly woman is low, Grace.”

“I… I didn’t.” She shookher head, her body turning sideways as we walked forward, her hands pressed together in prayer. “I’m sorry. She insisted I come with her. I couldn’t say no.”

I choked down a bit of laughter.

Ahh, the well-known ‘Rosa’ treatment. No one told her no, not even my well-trained men, armed to the teeth, which was why she could get through the guard sitting at the shed and now I had a man to replace.

Uselesscabrón.

We entered into her pitiful shack, the stench a stark contrast to her fresh strawberry mint shampoo. “Try not to prolong this any further.” I set her on the ground next to the old dog blanket and clasped the shackle around her ankle, the flesh a flaming red and purple hue.

My finger pressed into the damage, and she pulled back with a hiss. “That hurts.”