Chapter 269

Lafayette, Louisiana

Laila woke groggy and disoriented. Her head felt fuzzy. How long had she been out? She had no idea. She wasn’t even sure where she was except in a moving vehicle with the sun beating through the windshield, blinding her sensitive eyes. Every one of her limbs seemed to weigh a thousand pounds.

“You awake?”

That voice…it was familiar. She’d heard it in her sweetest dreams. But it also haunted a nightmare that tugged at the edge of her consciousness.

Instinctively, her heart beat faster. Her breaths came quicker.

It took all her concentration and most of her strength, but she turned her head and found the man who stopped her heart. “Trees.”

The last time she’d seen him, at her condo in Mexico… It all rushed back. “Where are you taking me?”

“Right now? To Valeria. We landed in Louisiana about twenty minutes ago. She and Jorge are eager to see you.”

Panic filled her. She tried to swim through the thick cotton wrapped ar