‘I did warn you. Daddy made a soldier out of me.’

‘Your eyes went black, baby.’

‘They were hurting us. That’s all I could see. It’s like everything became loud in my head.’ I touched his lip. ‘Does that hurt?’

‘No, I’m good. I’m just thinkin’ ’bout you. What if he’d had a knife?’

‘I didn’t think about that. I would have killed for you tonight.’

‘I’d kill for you every night.’

And he held on tight to me – tight enough that I felt secure, but not so tight I couldn’t leave if I’d wanted to. When he pulled away, he removed the hair that had become stuck in the blood and looked me face on. ‘You know, my grandmother said something to me when she first met my ex-wife. She said, “Ella te debilitara, Rafael.” You know what that means?’

‘No.’

‘She will weaken you. You know what she said about you when she met you? “Ella te fortalecerà.” She will strengthen you. Abuela’s 98 and she’s never been wrong about anything.’

And we kissed so fiercely, blood trickling into my mouth, until I couldn’t tell whose I was tasting.

Sunday, 16 June – Holiday Inn el Agua, Rocas Calientes

1. Paco

I decided to go back to San Diego with Rafael and his family that Sunday evening – they had a flight booked for 8 p.m and I was going to join them to cement my fresh start. Raf had told them all about the men who’d attacked us and I’d won some major fam points for stepping up to defend him and Bianca had cuddled us both for the longest time, before clipping Raf around the ear for ‘starting a fight’.

‘I didn’t start it, Mom, they started it. We—’

‘—finished it,’ I added. Raf winked at me as his mother scanned his face, probably doing the X-ray thing for signs of internal bleeding.

‘She’s going to come back with us tonight, Mama.’

‘You are?’ said Bianca. ‘That’s wonderful! We will book your flight.’

‘No, it’s OK, I can do that, don’t worry.’

‘I insist, we pay for your flight. Nicolas can do it on his app. Let him know your passport number.’

‘I’ll have to get it – it’s back at the house.’

‘We have to be out of the rooms at noon, then we will go down to the beach for the afternoon until we have to go to the airport. You come, yes?’

‘Well, I should go back and spend some time with my uncle, I think, say goodbye. But thank you. I’ll meet you back here later.’

‘The cars will leave at six,’ she said before kissing me on both cheeks and grabbing a plate from the stack and reaching for the serving spoon in the scrambled egg.