R U L E S

R U L E 22

Lasandra

"Let's make another one." I frowned and gave Santiago a hard look. "What? No quieres?" He asked. I rolled my eyes.

"Not now, tu sabes es muy peligroso." I replied, he was quick to pull out the Spanish but I was quicker to reply.

"Your Spanish has gotten better. Who's been teaching you?" I almost opened my mouth to tell him that it was the sugar daddy who flew me out to PR for three months but I closed it abruptly. "Lasandra answer me."

"I've been, studying." I said getting ready for bed. If there was one thing I loved about Santiago's house it was his bed, it was so luscious, filled with many pillows and comfortable sheets. I could stay here forever.

"I hope you're not talking to any of the men you've encountered while you were stripping." I had two choices, be defensive, or play along.

"And if I was?" I asked tossing a couple of pillows on the floor.

"They'll be dead within the hour." He said, with more of a demanding tone.

"Calm down, I wouldn't bring those type of men around my child."

"Our child my love." He corrected.

"Yes, our child." I said getting in bed.

"So tell me more about him." He said, I sighed laying on my back and looking up at the ceiling.

"He's a lot like you. Smart, I got him to start reading at three, very polite and kind. He's seen a lot, unintentionally of course. He can connect the dots quite quickly so it's hard to lie to him, and he's so calm it's like no matter how upset I might be he's always helping me. He's a great child really, he's also really sensitive and emotional." I heard a sniffing and I turned to see Santiago wiping a couple tears from his eyes. "Why are you crying?" I asked confused.

"You raised a good child." I nodded.

"We grew up together, so yeah I guess I did. You don't have to cry, you'll get to experience these things for yourself."

"I know I just feel horrible for not being there when you guys needed me."

"Yeah." I brushed off. If only he knew the guilt I faced everyday. I was so indebted to so many people, most of all my son.

~*~
Tanya

I woke up with a smile on my face after our festivities. I promptly took a shower and put on something comfy, something told me I would be staying in the house more than what was normal because of what had happened with Evangeline. I went downstairs and decided to fix us a snack, a simply chili would do for dinner seeing as it was mid afternoon. James came down the steps looking for something.

"What are you looking for?" I asked cutting up some vegetables.

"You, why'd you leave me so quickly?"

"Leave? We were in that room for five hours."

"Might be in there for five more with the way you look."

"Aww, how cute, but I'm tired babe."

"You're always tired, you should get that checked out." I shrugged.

"I'll be fine. How's the search going?" I asked switching the mood quickly.

"We've got a couple of leads so far."

"What are you going to do when you find the person behind this?" I asked moving everything to a pot.

"Kill them." I nodded, I wasn't fazed by the violent behavior anymore. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. How are you? How are you feeling?"

"To be honest, I feel a little under the weather which could be why I'm sleeping so much. But I'm doing really well other than that."

"What's the next move for us?" James asked. It made me pause before I continued cleaning up my things.

"Where do you see this relationship going?" I asked.

"Relationship? We're not in a relationship." He scoffed. I frowned. "I think it's way deeper than that."

"Well we never actually put a label on it babe." I reminded him.

"You're my woman, I'm your man, everyone knows that." I chuckled.

"I obviously didn't, who said I want to be yours?" I asked

"You did when I was push-"

"Okay I get it. We're together."

"Great. I'm gonna do some work in my office, feel free to join me when you're not busy." I nodded and started on the dishes as he left to go work in his office. That man.