Alma’s brows squint at the opposing answers.
“Yes, we know each other. Ricky, what’s going on? Why are you here?”
“He doesn’t answer to you, darling. Ricky, get up. You’re fine.”
Alma’s head jerks toward me, her voice locked and loaded with a rebuttal. “He’s not fine. Ricky was shot recently.”
“And he’s healed since.”
Of course, they know each other. Ricky works with Thalia, and Thalia is Alma’s best friend. Ricky slowly moves to his feet, brows pinched together as his gaze flicks from Alma to me—then back to Alma.
“Right, okay, Bruno.” She chuckles and walks past me to a chest in the corner of the room.
“Bruno?”
I look at Ricky first. Did he hear her call me Bruno? Who is Bruno? Alma begins to hum an unrecognizable tune.
“We don’t talk about Bruno…no…no,” she sings, and I look at Ricky whose lips are rolled into his mouth as he tries not to laugh.
Who the fuck is Bruno?
I look back through the kitchen door and even El Carnicero is smiling. Do they all fucking know Bruno? His smile widens, and it’s freakishly terrifying. I look back at Ricky who’s also looking at El Carnicero, and he looks terrified.
Alma continues to go through Curtis’s personal items, grabbing and organizing them as she sings.
“Who the fuck is Bruno?” I ask Ricky again.
“Disney? Encanto?” Ricky responds with questions.
“I’m a grown man, I don’t watch Disney.”
“She’s basically calling you a shadow daddy,” Ricky replies.
“A shadow—” I ask, but Alma interrupts in protest.
“Bruno is not a shadow daddy!”
“Mmmm, technically, he hides in the shadows, so he’s still a shadow daddy,” Ricky argues.
“Why is he here?” Alma asks, her loyalty to Ricky surrendered.
“He works with me, and I’m protecting you. Now it’s your turn to answer me. What are you doing here in Curtis Anderson’s house, Almita?”
“He was my friend.” She smiles and turns back around.
“He was a customer, you mean.”
“Maybe more.” She smirks.
This little brat. I lunge to her side of the room and slam the doors of the large wooden cabinet shut. She laughs in my face, then tries to push into me despite being four foot nothing.
“You don’t fucking scare me, Efren. You never have!”
“What the hell are you looking for?” I ask again.
Her eyes narrow on me, and her jaw locks before she finally lets her walls down. She breathes out a long exhale through her nose.
“You wanna know why I’m here? Because someone lied to me. And if I don’t find out what really happened, I’m gonna lose my mind.”
