Page 1 of Her Passionate Hero

Chapter One

“He’s ours. You interfere one more time, and I will gut you, bitch.”

Sweat trickled down Aliana’s back, as blood trickled down her neck. Her arms ached from being held from behind. Whoever had her, must’ve wanted to dislocate her shoulders.

“Tell me you understand.”

“Yes,” she said in Spanish. “I understand.”

The knife dug in deeper. More blood gushed. She knew Mateo, he wasn’t going to kill her. She’d known him for six years. She’d taught him how to write an essay. Okay, maybe she had only gotten through how to write a strong opening sentence, but still, she’d gotten through. He wouldn’t kill her. Hurt her, yes, kill her no.

“Stop filling his head with worthless dreams.”

“They’re not worthless. Your brother has potential. He can get a scholarship and go to college.”

“Goddamn right, he has potential. He has potential right where he is, with Los Demonios. That’s where he needs to stay.”

The knife was sharp and hurt as it slid downward along the skin of her throat. She needed to be quiet. Maybe he would kill her.

“Let us play with her first. Please, Mattie. She’s got great tits,” a weasel-faced teenager said from beside Mateo.

The man behind her jerked her arms harder, thrusting her breasts into prominence.

“I want to fuck her before you kill her,” weasel boy continued.

Her sweat turned to icicles.

“Back off, Berto.” She recognized the voice, but she couldn’t see the face of the gang member. At least he wasn’t suggesting she be raped.

Please God, say someone was monitoring the security cameras for once and had called the police. But then Aliana shut her eyes, remembering that her townhome’s parking lot cameras had all been vandalized two days ago, and they hadn’t had time to repair them. Was it possible Mateo had planned it?

“Both of you shut up, this is between me and the bitch,” Mateo said.

She looked at the three males who surrounded her and thought about the male behind her who was intent on breaking her arms. They were still teenagers, okay, maybe Mateo was twenty or twenty-one now, but she needed to think of him as a teenager. The only way she could cope mentally was to think of them as boys. She couldn’t think of them as men, she had to pretend they were her students.

“Mateo,” she said crisply, using her Vice Principal voice. “This doesn’t have to go any further. I know you’re doing this for your family. I won’t tell anybody about this incident if you’ll leave now.”

“You listen to me, whore. You convince my little brother he’s better off with his posse.”

Never. Never. Never.

The words were on the tip of her tongue.

“Be smart.” She zeroed in on the voice and finally made out the face. Rafael Lopez. He’d hardly said a word in her class, but when he did, it was on point. Like now. She kept her mouth shut.

“You gonna do what I tell you? You gonna stop giving my baby brother ideas?” How could these two be related? They didn’t look alike, and they had nothing in common, it was like they were two different species.

“Answer me. You gonna do what I say?” Mateo asked again, his voice soft and deadly, his foul breath blowing in her face.

Now that the knife was gone, she could nod.

“Goddamn right, you won’t, not unless you want your Mama carved up into itty bitty little pieces.”

Aliana’s head jerked, the knife dug in deep, before Mateo pulled the blade away from her neck.

“You stupid bitch, I’m not ready to kill you, yet. What are you doing?”

Her whole body started to tremble. “What do you know about my mother?” she demanded. She tried to keep her voice firm, but it came out weak.