“I’m staying with Alessa for the next couple of days,” I tell him and close my eyes.
Please don’t say something to get me killed. Please don’t say something to get me killed.
He chuckles. “Are you now?” I hear him relay the message, knowing he just told Mateo.
Mateo’s voice filters through the line. “Damn. Pussy that good?”
Fuck.I look over at Alessa, and she raises an eyebrow.
“Shut up,” Evander growls to Mateo, and I could fucking kiss him. “Keep in touch, brother.”
“Will do,” I tell him and hang up, laying the phone in Alessa’s outstretched hand.
“That’s all it took?” she asks skeptically.
“I’m not a prisoner there. I told you they aren’t like Frankie.”
“That remains to be seen,” she retorts, jamming the gun into the back of her jeans. “You have a bathroom, and I brought you some of Gage’s clothes because they’re the closest to your size.” She walks to the door and opens it.
“Alessa,” I say softly before she can step through. “I’m not lying to you. I do love you.”
She turns back with sadness in her eyes. “I wish I could believe you.”
She walks out, shutting the door behind her. I can hear the lock click into place from the outside.
I flop back onto the bed in my newly found jail cell. It’s a standard room, except there are no windows or way of escape. It could be worse. They could have left me in the cold basement.
Small favors.
Now I just need to find a way to make herbelieve me. I already decided I’m not letting this girl get away from me, even if she just had me tied up in a basement.
Of all the scenarios we ran through when we made this plan, this wasn’t one of them. Evander talked to someone and got some makeup to keep my tattoo covered until we were ready to tell her. I got the tattoo almost a month before I met her; we all three had them now. It was our way of embracing the change in the Perez family. I had been helping out at one of the restaurants today and lost track of time, leaving just enough time to shower, get dressed, and run out of the house.
I have never seen so much hurt and betrayal in someone’s eyes before. I wasn’t the type of person who went around purposely hurting someone. Seeing that in Alessa’s eyes with whatever haunted look came along with it broke me. I’ve been begging my brothers for a month to let me tell her the truth, and they kept saying it wasn’t time.
It looks like it was time, after all.
It also looks like it might be my time to leave this world.
Violently.
Chapter 3
Alessa
What a clusterfuck.
I showered as soon as I got into my room to get Leo’s scent off me. His cologne and something just him was clogging my nose and hurting my heart. After I shower, I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling.
How could I have been so fucking stupid?
Someone knocks softly on the door. “Come in,” I call out, and Gage sticks his head through the door with a smile. He walks in and lies on the bed beside me, one arm behind his head, staring at the ceiling like I am.
“This isn’t your fault,” he tells me. “We’re running checks on him now that we know his real last name and everything by the last name he gave you before checks out. He was with his mom.” He looks at me. “You like him, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” I answer honestly. “But it doesn’t matter now, Gage,” I reply.
“Les, look at me,” he says gently, and I look over into his blue eyes. “He’s a fucking idiot,” he declares, causing me to laugh. “No, seriously. He got to see you naked, and he fucked it up.”
