I sighed and focused on flipping the tortillas with my free arm.
“Look, what difference does it make now? I’m not a kid anymore, Javier. You’ve shown me how to deal with dumbfucks, and I do.”
“Fuck,” he growled, shaking his head. “How am I supposed to trust you when you say that nothing happened in the future?”
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled, averting my attention back to the stove. “I just didn’t think you needed to hear howPedrofiloshoved his tongue down my throat—”
“What?” He shouted, cutting me off. If he wasn’t my brother, I’d be scared of the man. “I’m going to cut out his motherfucking tongue and staple it to his dick!”
“Just let me finish,” I said with a glare to match his own, as I gestured for him to lower his voice.
“Fuck, what else did he do?”
“Nothing. ‘Cause I kneed him in the balls. Then I cussed him out and ran back to Carlos. I warned him that if he ever sicced his pervy attack dog on me again I’d chop off Pedro’s balls and gift wrap them as a Christmas present. Then I returned to the crowds before anything else could happen.”
Javier closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths before opening them and speaking again.
“Good,” he said with a half-smile. “I hope he has permanent damage. That fucker doesn’t need any more spawns running around on this planet.”
I laughed and he dropped his hand from my arm, stepping back to grab his beer from the counter.
“Güerita, it’ll be over soon. This will all be a distant memory. You just need to keep fighting. And for the love of God, please stop running your mouth. You’re gonna give me a fucking heart attack one of these days.”
I blew out a deep breath and nodded before I joked to break the uncomfortable tension, “I didn’t realize you’d gone soft. You gonna start crying?”
“I might even hug you too” he chuckled, the atmosphere in the room suddenly shifting to something lighter.
“Ew,” I laughed. “Please don’t.”
“Yeah, yeah. Watch the damn tortillas. You’re gonna burn them again.”
I rolled my eyes and smiled.
The selfish part of me wanted to believe that Javier was going to help me get out of here and pay for college, but then reality kicked in. I’d have to leave him here alone. He probably wouldn’t stay in contact as much while training to become a jefe, we’d drift apart, and one day he’d end up dead and I wouldn’t even know it.
Four
October 3, Sunday
Shiloh
Banging and shouting on the other side of my locked bedroom door pulled me from the dream I was having, and I abruptly sat upright in my bed.
“Open the door, Shiloh!” a man’s voice boomed, making my heart race. It was slightly muffled, and I wasn’t sure who it was.
“Don’t do it, Shiloh!”
Javi!
“I swear to God, Shiloh, I will blow his brains out if you don’t open this door in five,” the original speaker threatened.Shit, I think that’s Carlos. “Four…”
I ignored Javier’s pleas for me to stay inside, and I quickly scrambled out of bed, unlocking the deadbolts just as Carlos counted to one.
I was immediately shoved out of the way as Peter bounded past me, flicked the light on, and began tearing the room apart. I took notice of the handgun that was pointed against Javier’s temple by a stocky man I’d never seen before. Javier had fresh cuts and swelling marking his face, his stitches had been ripped apart on his chin, and blood stained his shirt like they’d just beat him up. Again.
My heartbeat felt like it was in my throat.Javi was fine…shit, yesterday? Fuck, I don’t even know what time it is. Did he try to hurt Peter because of what I told him?
I wasn’t about to let my brother be killed because of me. Carlos usually held an aura of psychopathic calm, but right now he was livid, and I had no idea what he would do.
