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She clung to me, shaking and sobbing. The troubled angel embraced with the devil.
For her, I'd gladly turn in my horns.
I pressed my lips to her forehead and stroked her hair. Even in her melancholy Nina was absolutely breathtaking, despite the fact that she looked and felt as if she hadn't eaten in days. Mentally I intended to feed her as soon as possible. I couldn't have her wasting away.
Nina pulled away from me. "Take me home, baby."
" 'Baby'?" One of the Soldiers repeated her endearment with confusion and disgust.
My eyes snapped up, looking for the offender, but he was hard to find in a sea of hate. Los Soldados stood surrounding me, all mirroring the same expression of malice and plotting. Their grief was fast to turn to anger at the sight of me.
I didn't have my Beretta on me, knowing what risk I was taking. I told myself that should this whole thing end in a beating or my death, I just had to see her again, especially on this day of all days.
As I held the best damn thing that ever happened to me in my arms, I knew that whatever happened next would be entirely worth it. It wasn't until now that I got damn near every single romance story we'd read about in English, that I could understand the mess and risk that was the story of Romeo& Juliet. I could understand what it was like to care about something and to want it so bad that even if it caused your death, it would be worth it just to have for just one second, because that second would be infinite.
Showing my hand in front of Los Soldados was suicide, but I couldn't think of a greater reason to die than for Nina Ortiz.
Some of Los Soldados were as big as Tito, Jax, hell even Alec, and their wrath was probably far more lethal as I stood holding one of their own in my arms. Not one of them looked happy about what was unraveling before their eyes. The only one who didn't seem as upset or as angry, was the one who'd been holding Nina and helping her walk.
Hector.
He wasn't at all what I thought he'd be. Neither huge, nor scrawny, neither friendly nor menacing, neither old or young, just in between. He wasn't my height, probably five-ten at the most, but staring him in the eye, he was a lion willing to do whatever it took to protect his family.
He looked incredibly like Nina in one way, and in another he didn't look like her at all. He was a nice looking guy and under different circumstances, maybe I'd shake his hand, but for the time, I wasn't removing myself from Nina, not an inch of me.
I returned to her. "Rowland?"
"My house," she said softly.
Whether I was welcome or not, I would take her home and I would be by her side.
