Thin Skinned, Margo Collins [recommended reading TXT] 📗

“Please,” he said, “feel free to change—your form, your clothing, whatever you desire.” He paused, searching for the right words, maybe. “You are in no danger here. I fully intend to have you returned home, should you wish to go.” He blinked, seeming to second-guess his own comments. “You are also welcome to remain as my guest as long as you like.”

Okay. So maybe he wasn’t as unflustered by me as he appeared.

I didn’t want to leave him waiting too long, but the dressing room had a bathroom attached as well, and I had been in a casket with a dead woman earlier in the day.

I quickly shifted into my human shape, then took the fastest shower I’ve ever had in my life—too bad, too, because it was a beautiful space, a giant square room with several showerheads all pointed toward the middle. I could have stayed in there for days.

Instead, I pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt in my size—both much higher quality than anything I’d ever owned before. He even had a pair of cowboy boots that fit me.

The whole thing hadn’t taken more than twenty minutes. When I stepped out of the room, Antonio was waiting patiently, leaning against the wall.

He led me to another part of the house, a giant space somewhere between a living area and a patio, with two walls open to the jungle outside, where he deposited me in a chair in an enormous wicker chair with soft cushions.

The rest of the entourage—still minus Phil and Ron—was waiting there. Antonio gave a few instructions to his men, who led Hale and Lori away.

“Please,” I said, watching them go, “don’t let anything happen to that baby. I’m ... well, I’m kind of responsible for her.”

Antonio tilted his head. “Are you? Is she why you are here?”

And with that, I found myself telling him the whole story.

My entire life story, actually, since he kept asking questions designed deftly to draw information from me. He would have made a good counselor.

“So you know of no others like you?” he asked. I shook my head. My parents would have conniptions if they knew I was giving a total stranger all this information. But it was like I was in another world altogether. And something about Antonio Lobo made me want to trust him, even though I knew better.

He’s a drug lord, Lindi, my inner voice scolded.

And I’m at his mercy. Better to be honest and hope he keeps his word, another part of me shot back.

When I got to the part about the diamonds, he flinched.

“Those are yours, aren’t they?” I asked.

“Yes. But do not fret.” He leaned forward and patted my hand, and part of me wanted to coil around him and soak up all his warmth.

Just then, two other men came into the room. For an instant, I assumed they were Antonio’s brothers. But then I realized that their features were completely different from his. Still, there was a similarity among them. They moved with a kind of feral grace, fluid and predatory all at once. Like the wolf Antonio’s name proclaimed him to be.

They whispered to him for a moment, then withdrew from the room when he responded in kind.

Antonio frowned and turned to me. “The child’s parents have requested to be supplied with drugs. Do you wish this?”

Did I wish it? No. Of course not.

“No,” I said automatically. But then... “I don’t want them to be in pain, either.”

Antonio tapped his lower lip with his forefinger. “Tell me, Lindi”—I liked how he said my name, the i-sounds especially Spanish and elongated—“if it were up to you, how would you untangle this dilemma?”

“Which one? The baby? The Beaumonts? The near-gunfight on the airplane?”

He threw his head back to laugh aloud. “All of it, my beautiful Lindi, mi serpiente.”

Ah, hell. I was developing a crush on a Central American drug lord with a secret jungle compound.

This is not a smart move, Lindi.

But he was still my only way out of here. And I had totally lucked out that he was interested in making sure I got what I wanted.

“Well,” I said slowly. “I guess if I could have anything I wanted out of this mess, I would want...” I paused to think for a long moment, lining up everything as carefully as I might a wish to a genie from a bottle. Somehow, I knew I needed to be that specific. “I would want to go home, and I would want to take Baby Paige with me. I would want her parents to go to rehab, and to agree to hand over custody of Paige to Lori’s sister until they got clean and proved they could stay that way. They could have supervised visitation until then.”

I thought about what else I should add. “Oh. And I would want to leave the diamonds with you.”

“What of Phil? His assistant? Those who threatened you?”

I huffed out a sigh, then shook my head and watched my hands twisting in my lap. “I can’t. That’s not...not my jurisdiction.”

I glanced up at Antonio to find him watching me curiously. “You don’t wish to punish them?”

“No. I was a surprise to them. I’m probably lucky they didn’t shoot me. I just don’t want them in my life any longer. Or in Baby Paige’s. I guess I wouldn’t want them in a position to hurt more children’s parents.”

Antonio tapped his fingers on the wooden arms of the broad cushioned chair he sat on. “You, Lindi, are something of a wonder.” He nodded as if coming to a decision. “We shall arrange for it to be so.”

Chapter 14

I don’t even want to discuss what I had to do to be able to give the diamonds back.

But other than that, it was all simple. Easy. Straightforward. Almost frighteningly so.

I don’t know what Antonio promised the Beaumonts—or threatened them with—but they gave up their only child with an alacrity that startled me.

And