“I got you covered,” she mouths with a wink, then gets up and leaves the room.

Santiago watches her go, then closes the door. “She’s something else.”

“She is. Would you mind explaining how she came to be here?”

“Would you prefer she wasn’t? I can send her home, but considering your brother is still out there, I didn’t think you’d want that.”

“Did you kidnap her?”

“Kidnap is a big word. I…” He considers. “Borrowed her.”

“Hm.”

“And I’ve treated her with kid gloves.”

“She thinks you’re sweet.”

His eyebrows rise high on his forehead.

“Exactly. Where’s my brother, Santiago?”

He comes to sit on the bed. “You don’t have to worry about him. He won’t hurt you again. He won’t get near you ever again.” His expression darkens.

“Did you do something to him?” I ask when I remember the scene I glimpsed as he carried me out of that house.

He sets his jaw and studies me. “I’m going to ask you something, and I want the truth.”

I nod.

“Did you run because you wanted to get rid of the baby? Is that why your brother arranged for that idiot doctor?”

“What?”

“I know how you feel about me, and honestly, I don’t blame you. Having my baby inside you—”

“Our baby. It’s our baby. Stop calling our baby yours!”

“Fine. Our baby. It doesn’t change the fact that it’s not what you wanted.”

I stop to consider this. He’s right. I wouldn’t have chosen a pregnancy, not right now. But I am pregnant. And things are different. Everything is different.

I reach out and touch his arm only to feel his muscles tense when I do. “I never wanted to get rid of our baby. Not for a minute. That was Abel. And I don’t know. Maybe he thought he was helping me in his warped mind. Maybe I gave him the impression even—”

“Don’t you dare take the blame for what your brother did and do not make excuses for him.”

“I don’t know. I mean, when I called him, I was scared. But Santiago, I already love this baby. It was never my intent to hurt him or her.”

He remains silent, face unreadable.

“Did you hurt Abel?”

He shakes his head. “Not yet.”

I’m relieved. Should I be? I mean, maybe Abel did get that doctor thinking I wanted it. But the zip ties? Those men? I can’t think about that right now. “Did you mean what you said?” I ask Santiago before I can stop myself.

“What did I say?”

“That you came for me? Not just for the baby.”

He studies me, a momentary flicker of emotion in his eyes, a single second of something I can’t quite name there. “You would rather have died than stay with me.”