“I want to,” he assured me quietly.
And it was that that had me glancing up at him again. His face was still red, his breathing was still pretty off, and he looked… furious.
For me?
“Go take care of your scrapes. We’ll handle this,” Rip said in that cool, cool voice, watching me with a face that I had never seen before. One that made the hairs on my arms stand up at the same time it made my chest tight.
There was an emotion behind his eyes that I didn’t know what to do with. That I didn’t know how to handle.
I nodded at him, knowing I was leaving my cousin to get his hand broken.
And all I could think was that he deserved it. After everything he’d done and had been willing to do, he deserved it.
But I knew there was one more thing I needed to do, and I glanced down at the man on the floor, thrashing by then, and said, “Tell my dad that if I ever see any of you again, if he ever calls me again, I’ll do more than call the cops and tell them there are drugs in the house. Tell him that I still remember a whole lot of things from ten years ago, do you understand me?”
“Fuck—” Rudy started to hiss before crying out loud when Rip took his hand.
“Remember what I said,” I warned him, taking a step away. It should have bothered me how okay I was about all this. I’d think about that later. Maybe. “I asked you to leave me alone, Rudy. Remember that. I warned you.”
“Grab your boot,” Rip said quietly. “Then go in, Luna.”
I nodded at him, looking at the big man crouched over my cousin, holding his hand in a position I knew well. I heard a moan from somewhere in the lot and I headed toward it, finding my boot just feet away from a man sitting between two cars, holding his forearm and looking at his hand, or wrist, with horror.
I wasn’t going to worry about him, I thought as I grabbed my boot. I knew Miguel and Rip could handle their own.
A little too well.
Or just well enough. Huh.
Reaching up to touch my now aching cheek, I couldn’t help but shake my head at the figure on the ground as I slid my boot on and headed back the way I had come.
“We got it,” Miguel assured me, still covering my cousin as I walked by them. His gaze was thoughtful and somehow mad at the same time.
“Thanks, Miguelito,” I said carefully, wondering just for a second what he was thinking right then. I’d worry about what those thoughts might mean to our friendship later.
I didn’t feel bad, I didn’t feel even a little bad, I thought as I walked away.
I was only feet away from them when I heard Rip strangely ask, “You remember me?”
Chapter 24
I had just finished strippingmy protective suit off when the knob to the door of the room jiggled. The knob and door shook once more as whoever was on the other side tried to open it again. I didn’t blame them for being confused that the door was locked. It never was.
But the fact was, I hadn’t seen Jason in hours. Not since he had walked past me into the building, leaving me out there, alone. Well, not technically alone.
It had taken me maybe ten minutes after washing my hands all the way up to past my elbows to put the pieces together. They didn’t make sense. Not exactly at least… but enough.
Someone had let my cousin and the other guy into the lot.
And it didn’t take a genius to know there had only been one other person in the lot. One other person who would willingly let someone who didn’t like me into it. At least that’s what my gut said.
The one and only person who had disappeared. I hadn’t had the heart to ask any of the guys who had wandered into the break room what happened or if they knew anything about Jason. By the time I had gotten done and Rip and Miguel hadn’t come back, I had gone to the back door and looked outside to find it empty.
What a mess. What a freaking mess.
What was my dadthinking? I didn’t think anything would surprise me, but he did. After all this time, he still did.
I wasn’t going to think about it anymore. It was done. I knew how things were for them. Even if Rip hadn’t… hurt Rudy… the point had been made. I would go to the cops again if they made me. But I knew, in my gut, they wouldn’t.
