Until Tomorrow Comes: A Dark Mafia Romance (Beauty in Lies Book 1)

by Adelaide Forrest

  I didn't know where I was.

  Plain white walls stared back at me, not a single decoration or poster so much as touching them. The bedding was nice, softer than what I had at home, but gave away nothing with the simple grey color. A single dresser was on the opposite end of the room, clothes piled on the top as if the owner hadn’t had time to put them away.

  Touching my chest in a panic, I confirmed that all my clothes were still on. Nothing felt sore or violated. Heaving out a breath, I fought to search through my fuzzy memories of the night before.

  The water, and my sister helping drug me, stood out amongst a sea of blurry shapes and faces I couldn't quite grasp.

  A phantom in the night, tendrils of darkness threatening to wrap me in their embrace.

  I swung my legs out of the bed, standing and looking around the floor for my shoes. I found them tucked neatly against the wall, standing and stumbling over my feet as vertigo crashed over me and threatened to send me to the floor.

  A sharp knock came at the door, and I spun with a shocked gasp as Hugo opened it slowly. The unmistakable sense of relief struck me in the chest at the sight of him. I didn’t know him well enough to be relieved to see him, but the familiarity of him was a comfort in the sea of unrecognizable surroundings that threatened to swallow me whole. "You're awake. We were starting to worry."

  "We?" I asked.

  "My brothers and I," he said. "How are you feeling?"

  "Like you saved me from being raped." I sighed, hanging my head between my hands. Hugo ducked out of the room, coming back with a sealed bottle of water and a fresh bottle of aspirin.

  I smiled my thanks as the seal cracked on the water when I twisted the cap off. Pressing in the cap on the aspirin as I twisted, I pulled the cotton from the bottle and shook out two. I downed the pills with a hard swallow of water.

  "Don't worry about it. I don't like guys who take advantage of vulnerable girls," he said, reaching out to pat my hand as tears stung my eyes. I would never be able to thank him enough for intervening.

  The thought of what might have happened to me if he hadn’t been there was one nightmare I never wanted to think about again.

  "Want me to take you home? My brother can take his car so we get your Mom's car home, too."

  "Thank you. That would be amazing. My family must be freaking out. I always get Odina and I home before they wake up."

  "Ah," he said with a sheepish grin. "I had you unlock your cell last night." He gestured to the phone on the nightstand. "I texted her that you were okay and with Chloe."

  "Thank you," I said, furrowing my brow as I read my text message to my mom. She'd replied with a thank you early this morning, saying she was off to work, but we'd talk when she got home. At least I wouldn't have to deal with the questions about why a boy brought me home if I was supposed to be with Chloe. Dad would be at work too, and my grandmother would already be at the community center.

  "Come on," Hugo said, nodding to the living room. "You can meet my brothers officially. Joaquin helped me get you here last night."

  I followed slowly as I thought about the blank face in my memory, almost dreading the moment I saw my phantom in the flesh. How could a real person ever compare to the fictional one I'd made up in my drugged state?

  "This is Gabriel," Hugo said, pointing to a man in his mid-twenties. "And this is Joaquin. They came to stay with me while we're away from our parents so I wouldn't be all on my own in the windy city," he said with a mocking tease.

  My eyes landed on Joaquin's cold brown stare, feeling none of the spark I'd assumed would be there, given the hazy memory I had of him and the way he’d made me feel the night before. Disappointment struck with the realization that it must have been the drugs in my system that made me imagine my reaction, and that he couldn’t have been the same man who watched me across the street earlier in the week.

  That it was nothing but a coincidence, my mind playing tricks on me and creating connections where there were none.

  "You mentioned," I said with a brittle smile as I turned to his brother. "Thank you, for helping me last night. I don't know what I would have done if—"

  "No more trying to help your sister," Joaquin said with a sharp reprimand. "She wants to fuck up her own life? That's on her, but don't let her drag you down with her."

  I sighed, nodding as the reality of it settled over me and knowing he was right. I'd spent far too many years trying to make up for Odina's selfishness and pull her back from the brink. I'd wasted my childhood being determined to make up for a single mistake that hadn't even been entirely mine.

  The time had come to give up on saving someone who didn't want to be saved.

  It should have felt like a part of my soul tearing in two. Isn't that what they said about twins? Instead, it felt like a breath of relief to not have to worry about her anymore.

  To be fair, Joaquin's gaze on me proved to be a distraction from the things I didn't want to feel. It would come later: the feeling of grief I'd never let myself have. For the bond that had ended when Odina and I were too young to understand the consequences of a simple accident.

  I didn't understand why I felt nothing but disappointment meeting the man who'd helped me get out of a really bad situation. But the feeling was there nonetheless.

  I missed a man who didn't exist.

  How could you miss someone who didn't even have a face in your memory?

  11

  Rafael

  The brothers came home after dropping Isa off at her house. The closed curtains likely served as a stern reminder of what waited for them when they stepped inside. Still, like dutiful soldiers, they didn't blubber or beg as they moved in and closed the door behind them.

  A week.

  Less than a week they'd been responsible for watching my princesa, and they'd allowed her to be drugged by her bitch of a sister and nearly raped. To be fair, none of us could have expected the depth of her sister's hatred for her, but that didn't mean Isa ever should have been at that party to begin with.

  I'd take care of that, after I took care of the first of the Cortes brothers.

  Hugo dropped to his knees in front of me, hanging his head as he waited for his punishment. "I should put a bullet in your head for what you let happen," I snarled, standing from the chair I'd occupied while they brought Isa home. "But Isa has already grown to trust you. I can't just replace you with another friend." I strode around him, moving to his brothers, who bowed their heads respectfully and waited for my verdict. "Very clever of you to introduce Isa to your brothers, offering them the same protection. She would question them disappearing so suddenly. I can't have that. Can I?" I asked, turning a glare back to Hugo. I'd underestimated the boy's cunning, and he raised his head to meet my eyes and showed me just what I knew I'd see.

  The move had been very deliberate. He would either be an excellent ally, or eventually there would come a day when he tried to reach too high, and I put him down like a dog in the dirt.

  "She doesn't need to see them with no shirt, however," I said, stripping off my suit jacket. The fireplace in the corner burned with the branding iron as I rolled my sleeves up. Both Gabriel and Joaquin swallowed, but stripped the shirts off over their heads. They'd bear the mark of their failure for the rest of their lives. Such was the way of the Ibarras. Grabbing the brand from the fireplace, I held it up and inspected the straight tally mark that would mark their chests.

  Moving to Joaquin first, I held his eyes as I pressed the white hot metal to his flesh next to the sole mark that already occupied his chest. Skin sizzled, popping beneath it as he gritted his teeth and clenched his eyes closed. I knew better than most the feeling of your flesh melting.

  My father had been fond of reminding me of my failures.

  When I drew back and placed the brand in the fire once more, Gabriel gagged around the smell of burned flesh that filled the room. Hugo watched with horror-filled eyes as I took the brand to his other brother.

  One failure. One mark.<
br />
  Hugo was fortunate to get away without one, simply because I couldn't have her see it and match it to mine later on.

  "I'll owe you your mark in sixteen months," I said to Hugo as I pressed the brand to Gabriel's skin. Hugo swallowed but nodded, accepting the fate for what it was.

  Inevitable.

  The anticipation of the event would be even worse than if I'd just gotten it over with. Hanging over his head for over a year. His brothers had a more merciful punishment. "If you fail me again, I will kill your entire family and wipe your legacy from the Earth," I told Joaquin, stepping back and unrolling my sleeves. As I slipped my jacket back over my shoulders and buttoned it up, the three men observed me. "I do not care that your mother is alive and breathing. I will slaughter all of them. There isn't a line I won't cross for Isa. Remember that, and you'll earn your places back with me when you return. Understood?"

  They nodded solemnly, and with that part of my day out of the way, I slipped out the front door without another word.

  When I slipped inside two weeks later, every light was on in Wayne’s home, as if he truly thought it could keep the devil away. He sat on the couch, a knife in his hand, while his parents slept soundly upstairs. The drugs on the coffee table showed just how far his fear had driven him in the weeks I’d left him to look over his shoulder in fear.

  Watching and waiting for the phantom that would come and put him out of his misery.

  He was barely aware, high off the dirty heroine he'd injected into his own body in his desperation to escape into a high. I leaned over him, slapping his cheek until his eyes rolled open. Terror filled them, even through the haze that must have been so similar to what Isa had felt, that night he’d tried to touch what was mine.

  "Where are your witnesses now?" I asked, watching as he prepared to yell for his parents. But I'd already ensured they'd sleep through the night, courtesy of roofies from the same dealer that had supplied the ones used on Isa. "They won't help you."

  "What the fuck," he asked, his words trailing off. "I'll call the police."

  "Go ahead," I said. "You'll be dead before they can get here, and I don't have to do a thing to make that happen. You killed yourself, you see?" I asked, tapping the empty syringe on the coffee table. "An overdose. Heroin laced with fentanyl. I'm told it's quite common when you buy the cheap shit."

  "What?" he whispered, eyeing his trusty stash like it had betrayed him. Perching on the edge of the coffee table, I watched as he fumbled around to find his phone. But I'd watched and waited just long enough for the drugs to have already taken effect, making his movements uncoordinated and sloppy.

  When I’d found his phone on the floor, I kicked it under the edge of the couch so he would never find it in time. I watched his movements fade altogether, his eyes drifting closed. "You never should have touched Isa," I said finally as I waited for his heart to stop altogether. When his chest no longer rose and fell, I took his wrist in my hand and checked for a pulse I already knew wouldn't be there.

  My only regret was that I couldn't make him bleed. That he hadn't screamed in agony as he died.

  But Isa could never know my role in his death, and an overdose was so easily explained in a teenage boy.

  Emerging from the house, I hurried to my car, unseen. I pulled the Ferrari from where I'd parked a few houses down, turning toward the Bellandi estate. The time had come to tell Matteo exactly what my plans for Isa entailed.

  Her photo sat on the passenger seat next to me, and I picked it up and sighed.

  All that was left was to wait.

  Part II

  Until Tomorrow Comes

  Rafael

  I came for war. I left with an obsession.

  With one look, Isa captivated me. She consumed me, drawing me into her world without ever knowing the dangers of mine.

  I intend to make her mine, no matter what lies I need to tell to manipulate her into falling in love with El Diablo. It should be simple enough, but secrets lurk in the depths of her multicolored eyes, and I’ll do anything to understand what broke her before I had the chance.

  Because she’s mine to break.

  Isa

  Rafael Ibarra tore through my life like a raging inferno.

  Consuming every part of me he touches, he promises to show me passion and the real Ibiza. Though our tryst can never be anything but temporary, I never want to leave the man who makes me wish things were different. But there’s a nightmare hiding within his multicolored gaze, a phantom rattling at the cages who wants to devour me, to take me and claim me as his.

  He’s temptation, pushing me toward sin with his wicked touch. But the sins of the flesh are different from the sins of the mind, and as much as I hate his secrets...

  I will never tell him my own.

  1

  Isa

  Whirlwind adventures weren't for planners. They weren't for the meticulous list-makers who couldn't function without order in their lives.

  They weren’t for girls like me.

  "Where the hell did I put my packing list?!" I groaned, looking around the room in search of the worn slip of paper I’d abused over the past week. Moving to the desk in the corner with the stack of books about Spain I'd borrowed from the library, I shoved them to the edge frantically.

  "Language, nōhsehsaeh," my grandmother warned, poking her head into the room. The lines on her face were lighter than I could remember them ever being. The circles under her eyes had faded after she'd been selected for a medical grant and had the bypass heart surgery she needed.

  "Sorry," I said with a wince, finally finding the paper with my notes all over it. The edges were torn from all the nights I'd spent agonizing, ensuring that I wouldn't forget anything I needed for my trip to Ibiza. "What if I forget something?"

  "I am sure Hugo will make sure you have everything you need," she reassured me, stepping in and wrapping her arms around me. "He wouldn't allow you to visit his country without making sure you're prepared. He cares for you," she said, pressing her lips to the top of my head.

  "It's not like that," I explained, and my grandmother nodded her head in response. My family adored Hugo and had practically adopted him as we grew closer after Odina's betrayal left a void in my heart. But my grandmother was the only one who didn't think we'd end up together.

  "It is good that it's not. Hugo still plans to stay in Ibiza when your trip is over, yes?" she asked. I nodded, trying not to think about the loss of one of my best friends. Both of them really, since Chloe would go off to college in Philadelphia while I stayed in Chicago to be close to my family. "It will be strange, not having him to look out for you."

  "I can look after myself," I reassured her, stepping out from her arms as I looked over the packing list one last time and tried to heave my suitcase closed. My breath caught in my chest as I turned to face her, remembering how weak she'd been after the surgery a few months prior. I couldn't shake the thought that something bad was coming for us, and nothing could be worse than losing my grandmother. "Are you sure you'll be alright while I'm gone?"

  She scoffed. "I don't need my granddaughter to babysit me. I'll survive the twelve days without you, my darling girl." She sat on the edge of my bed, patting the mattress for me to join her. I did, willing to give my grandmother anything. She sighed. "Promise me you'll have fun. A girl should live a little on vacation. Real life will wait until you get back. Try not to worry so much."

  "I'll try," I said, even knowing it was probably a lie. I'd explore with Hugo and Chloe at my side. I'd enjoy my time with my friends while I had it, but I didn't know the first thing about actually living.

  My eyes caught on Odina's empty bed and the lack of mess on what had once been her side of the room. "You're not your sister," Grandmother said, reaching up to touch my cheek. "You can let go a little without being lost." I nodded, even if I doubted the words. There'd been a time when Odina and I were exactly the same, before the accident changed everything.

  Before she hated me enough
to ruin her life just to make me miserable.

  "Okay," I said, instead of arguing. The same demons that haunted Odina plagued me. The same nightmares called to me from the depths. I just believed that I had a family that loved me to keep me from succumbing to their temptations, where Odina had lost that.

  My grandmother stood from the bed, leaving me to grab my suitcase and lug it down the stairs. My parents greeted me, wrapping me in their arms the second my foot touched the first story. The knowledge of my trip and the suddenness of it couldn't have come at a worse time.

  I'd never told them about our entries when Hugo encouraged Chloe and me to apply for the contest, because the odds of us winning had been so slim with the number of applicants. The Appreciation Program was only in its second year since being created, offering American students who made their Spanish friends feel at home the chance to explore the city of their birth in Spain.

  When they’d notified Chloe and I they’d selected us, there'd been nothing but shock. A shock that had come the day after graduation and the day after Odina turned her back on us for the last time. In the week since, I hadn't seen her or heard from her once.

  My life was far more peaceful without her in it, and that only made my guilt worse.

  "Promise me you'll call us when you land," Dad said, hugging my head to his chest. They'd set me up with an International Calling plan despite the expense, needing that ability to contact me in case of an emergency.

  "I promise," I said with a tight smile to prevent his shirt fabric getting caught in my mouth. His face was too thin as I pulled back, too affected by the absence of his other daughter to eat a decent meal. I had to hope that my being gone would help.