His Woman (18+)

Chapter XXX

THE NECKLACE

Don't let anyone tell you who you should be, honey.

***

CHAPTER XXX

*****

"WELL, FIRST OFF... what the fuck were you doing out in town?"

I snapped my gaze up at Pablo's harsh tone, my eyes widening in fear as he glared at me and only me.

"I don't... Why wouldn't I-" I stuttered helplessly, looking up at Pablo with tears brimming my eyes.

He sighed and closed his own as he rubbed his forehead with his hand. "I warned you. On Saturday, I warned you and told you to come home."

"I didn't know what was going on, Pablo! You didn't tell me anything!" I yelled, getting defensive. He couldn't possibly blame me for this when it wasn't my fault. He should've been clearer.

"You were supposed to use your brain and realise that something probably wasn't right."

"Hey, don't get angry at her!" Celeste suddenly butted in, making everyone turn to her. "I was the one who made her come to town with me. We were shopping for my wedding dresses."

The room stayed silent and I turned to Daniel to gauge his reaction, but there was none. He just stared at her blankly before a smirk made its way onto his face. "Completely overlooking the fact that you went shopping for no reason because I'm not marrying you, what does Araceli have to with your wedding?"

Celeste rolled her eyes, completely ignoring his first comment and only addressing his second one. "She's my bridesmaid."

Daniel snorted, but quickly covered it up by turning the other way in his seat and hid the rest of his laughter as she looked at him suspiciously. "What? What's funny? Why are you laughing?"

"That doesn't matter right now," Emma butted in, casting her brother a bitter glare before looking at me. I almost forgot that she was completely aware of what was going on between Daniel and I. "You guys need to tell us what happened out there and why so many people ended up dead."

Daniel cleared his throat and fell into his seat as Pablo rolled his eyes and looked to all of us. He pinned a hard glare on Celeste. "You put this girl's life in danger because you wanted to go dress shopping."

"Me?" She looked genuinely offended before the frown fell from her face and a confused look came over her features instead. "Wait. So you're telling me that those people out there weren't after me?"

"No," Daniel answered. His eyes met mine as they danced with humour, I guess still finding my bridesmaid situation funny. "They're after that one."

"Why?" we all seemed to ask at the same time.

Pablo scoffed. "You women always ask too much questions."

He sat down on the front of the desk and looked at all of us before finally beginning to explain everything.

"When we went on the business trip to meet Vincent, you all know that we brought Araceli along." Emma was the only one to nod, but neither Celeste nor Rachel made any noise to say otherwise. "As you know, the deal didn't fall through and Vincent shot at us, hitting Daniel in the shoulder." The only person that nodded yet again was Emma. I was too busy wondering about whether or not the scar was still on Daniel's shoulder. "Obviously, we had to get back at him. We did that with Araceli's help."