Falling With Grace

Not even God loved Andrés Ortiz.

There was a seething hatred I felt for the man that burrowed in my bones and spread like a sickness throughout my flesh. Andrés could die an excruciating death, and I’d smile while he screamed.

“Andrés, a vile man who tortured and killed so many people. How could I ever love someone like that?” A scowl pressed my lips as he moved back from me, a muscle beneath his eye twitching.

“Then why?” He sat in the chair I’d tried dismantling for a weapon to no avail. “I’m tired of this game.”

I touched my throat, my tongue like sandpaper in my mouth. “Do you have any water?”

He gave a lopsided shrug. “I’ll give you whatever you need when you give me an answer.” He shifted his shiny shoes in front of me.

They don’t belong in a place such as this.

“So tell me.” He rested his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands before him. “Why are you protecting him?”

Protect…

A sharp pulse punished my temple as I ground my molars together. “I’d never protect him.” I stood, my chain sliding against the ground like the Ghost of Christmas Past as he sat back in the chair, his legs wide. “I’d never love him.”

My chin trembled as my fingernails pressed into my palms. “How could you say that? How could you think I could ever protect him—after everything he did to me?”

I turned my back to him, swiping at the tears rushing down my cheeks, and sniffled. “All I ever wanted was to go home and find Jorge’s sister—to give her this.” I turned back around, the rosary in my palm. “But instead, you’ve kept me here, forcing me to think about Andrés every single day.”

His eyes darted to the rosary swinging beneath my palm, and his lips pressed closed as he tilted his head to the side.

“All I want is to find a peace I haven’t had in three years. I want to move on, Elias. Do you understand that? Or are you so blinded by whatever this chase is…” I tossed my hand into the air. “That you can’t see beyond your nose?”

He stood and invaded my space, my toes touching his shoes as his brows raised. His gaze swept over my frail frame. A softness struck his features, then disappeared in a wave of hardness as he drew a slow breath through his nose.

What was that?

Elias raised his hands with hesitation, halting his touch, and then placed them on my shoulders.

A twinge of residual aches formed, causing me to flinch.

He removed his hands as though he’d touched a hot potato. “It still hurts?”

My dislocated shoulder? “It’s better than before, but still sore.”

He gave a slight nod and stepped away from me, pulling his spicy scent, which covered the odor, with him. “I’ll have Doctor Navarro look you over.”

I shook my head, my brow raised. “Why?”

He took a deep breath and scrubbed his hand down his chin as he spun away from me, his face pointed toward the ceiling. Turning back, he swept his gaze up and down as though he didn’t get a good enough look every time he stepped inside. “I have a proposition for you.”

“No.” I shook my hand in front of me, my head mimicking my hand. “I’m not sleeping with you or any of your men.”

“That’s not…” His jaw pulsed as he glanced out the door and then back to me. “I haven’t sent anyone in here, have I?”

“Then why threaten me?”

He growled as he closed his eyes and exhaled. “Tell me why you refuse to help me, and I’ll let you out.”

I scoffed, my chain dragging against the floor as I walked back to the faux safety of my corner and leaned into it. “This could go so many ways.” My head tipped to the side as I studied him, my arms folded across my chest.

“How so?”

“I tell you what you want, and you leave me here to ‘entertain’ your men because that’s all I’m good for, right?”