Emma stands and reaches for me, and I grab her hand, pulling her into my side. We extend our hands to Mateo, and he looks at us with red-rimmed, swollen eyes. We smile at him in adoration of the boy who protected us, despite being denied thefamily he should have had all along. We each hold out a hand to him as he rises and takes them. We form a complete circle. Our family.
Emma speaks, looking straight up at Mateo. “We are here for you always, Mattie. You are our brother, and we love and support you no matter what. We will finish this.”
I nod and squeeze both of their hands. Mateo goes to hug Emma and rests his head on her shoulder. He runs his nose along her collared shirt, and my hand rises to my mouth as I stifle a laugh. Emma visibly tenses, slowly releasing Mateo’s embrace, and her head shoots to the side where Mateo has left a slimed trail of mucus along her blouse. Her eyes narrow and shoot over to him accusingly. He wipes his face with his hands, and a smile is left on his face as they lower to his side.
“You did that on purpose, Mattie.” She pretends to be angry.
He smiles. “Must run in the family, sis.”
She laughs with her head thrown back. “Touché, bro.”
I let out a laugh, as does Mateo. We hear the door open, and Eduardo peeks his head in. His eyes go to each of us, and sensing the mood in the room, he motions outside to his entourage to come back into his office.
“Everything okay in here?” Eduardo looks to Emma, and she saunters over to him. His expression is guarded. It pains him to see Emma angry, and he would do anything to prevent her from feeling anything other than happiness.
He pulls her into him and kisses the top of her head. Her arms are wrapped around his lower back as she snuggles into his embrace and sighs in contentment.
I look over to Jameson, who is watching me keenly. I shrug, and he comes over to sit in one of the chairs, pulling me on top of his lap.
Mateo clears his throat, breaking the silence. “So what do we do with this information, Eduardo? What’s the plan?”
Eduardo looks at my brother and studies him for a moment. “What do you want to do, Mateo? Do you want to confront him?”
He seems to think about it and eventually nods. “Yeah, I think I do. We are meeting next week at the café. I plan on asking him there.”
Jameson looks over my shoulder at Eduardo. “I think that is a good idea, and maybe this week we will find out something else from the camera feed.”
I glance quickly over at Mateo and his jaw clenches. I can tell he isn’t too keen on the idea, but it must be done. I think he recognizes this and nods.
“Yeah, okay. Sounds good.” With that he stands. “I think I have had enough excitement tonight. I’m going to head home. You need a ride, Evie?”
I stand and pull him into an embrace. “No, but I will meet you back at home tonight.”
Emma comes over to hug him goodbye, and he waves as he leaves the office. No one says anything for a while, but Eduardo looks over to Emma, who is biting her lip with worry.
“Don’t worry, babe.” He grabs her hand. “It will all work out.”
I stand and pull Jameson’s arm to bring him to an upright position. “Let’s go. I’m so tired, and I need to think.”
He nods, telling Eduardo to call him if he needs anything else as we leave not much after Mateo does. Climbing into Jameson’s truck, we pull out into the bustling traffic.
“Your place or mine?” he asks me because I know, after all that went down at Eduardo’s office, he doesn’t want to leave me alone tonight. That was a lot to take in, and his need to make sure I’m okay is palpable.
“Mine. I want to make sure Mattie is okay.” I turn my head to look out the window, and after the bomb that was dropped, my mind is a whirlwind of rising emotions.
Chapter Twenty-Three
EVIE
“I Just Wanna Run” by The Downtown Fiction
We get to the apartment to find Mateo isn’t home. I check his room and find it just as he left it earlier, which means that he never came home after leaving the club.
I hate to admit that I am worried. I have never seen Mateo cry. Not even after our mother died, when he learned about Emma and I being his siblings, and even when he learned about our mother giving him up to be raised by her grandparents. None of that had the reaction that I saw from him today in Eduardo’s office, when he cried over the news about Ramón that was difficult to watch.
Is he really that close to Ramón? Maybe it was just that last scoop added onto the heaping pile of shit that is our life. Maybe it was just too much for him to handle—the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back and all. The last Jenga piece placed haphazardly that caused the whole tower of emotions to come tumbling down in one fell swoop.
I return to the kitchen where Jameson is standing with his hands in his pockets watching me with a myriad of emotionsdisplayed on his face. I walk over and stand in front of him with my arms crossed over my chest. He looks into my eyes, and I keep his stare, but it is hard to return it. I want to break like Mateo did, but I can’t. I won’t let myself be weak any longer. I made a promise to myself years ago that no one would ever break me again. I guess we all go through shit, and some things just tip us over at some point.
