Chapter 19
NINETEEN
Estrella
Oro is one hell of a lover.
I’ve had other men before him, all of them swearing they would be able to rock my world. None of them even sent a tremble through me.
Oro, on the other hand, makes me feel like I may never walk again. I’m perfectly okay with that.
The two of us lie in his bed just breathing each other in. I don’t know what happens after this, and right now I’m not going to focus on it. I just want him to know that this is all real. I want him just as bad as he wants me, no matter what anyone may think of the situation.
“You’re going to be sore in the morning,” he tells me.
I chuckle and nuzzle closer to him. “The morning? I’m sore now. You’re not little, you know.”
“Sore now?” He leans up on his elbow, lifting my chin so I have to look at him. “Was I too rough? God damn it, Starlight, you’ve got to say something.”
I shake my head quickly and put a soft hand on his chest. “No, Oro, no. It was perfect. I promise if you ever do something I don’t like, I’ll let you know.”
He stares at me for a second before he grumbles and falls back. “You better.”
I let out a yawn and settle more against his chest. I don’t remember the last time I felt this safe.
It’s a fleeting feeling, because the second my eyes try to close so I can get some rest, there’s a banging against Oro’s door that has the both of us jumping out of bed.
“What the fuck.” He moves fast.
“?Bastardos! ?Muévanse!”
I don’t know who it is screaming out, but based on Oro’s face I can tell something serious is going on.
“What is it? What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. We’ve got trouble,” Oro snaps as he quickly throws some clothes in my direction.
I slide the clothes on and follow Oro out of his room.
I’m surprised when we get to the main area of the clubhouse.
Everyone is standing there. All the bikers, their ol’ ladies, the kids, the club bunnies— all of them looking out the front window at something in the street.
“What’s going on?” Oro asks.
Vado is the one to answer. “Seems like we’ve got the audience we’ve been requesting.”
I look outside, and my heart drops. It’s Sina.
She’s surrounded by at least two dozen other bikers and a slew of other women.
Amazingly, the Royal Bastards are outnumbered.
“You need to stay here.” Oro tries to push me back, but I don’t move.
“No, she needs to be with us,” Vado interjects.
“What the fuck…” Oro snarls.
“Don’t fucking question me. This is her problem; she’s going to be there when this shit goes down.
If she brought this storm, she stands in the rain with us.
We need to know if we can trust her.” Vado glares at me, and it only just registers that Oro may not have been the only person I should’ve been fighting to get to trust me.
“How did they get here?” Lobo turns to question me.
“I don’t know. I didn’t tell her where I was. I’ve been trying to get away from her.” Right away I find myself on defense.
“Trying to get away from her, and then all of a sudden you show up at our doorstep? That’s a big coincidence, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know anything about any coincidence. I had no idea Oro was here. Had no idea who you guys were. I was just trying to—” Coca comes to stand in front of me, cutting me off.
“This isn’t her doing, Vado. She can be trusted. The same way you can trust me. She didn’t do it.”
Vado stares Coca down for a second before he turns his eyes back to the crowd outside.
“Fine, we still need her out there with us. I need to know what I’m dealing with. I need to figure out the real problem.” Vado waves me forward.
Oro grabs hold of my hand. I can tell he’s not okay with this plan at all, but he doesn’t say anything. I walk to the head of the line, and we all walk out the door.
Sina puffs on a skinny cigar, working hard to look like a female crime boss.
It’s nearly comical how hard she’s trying to look like a leader.
On either side of her are bikers with the makeshift vests on the chest reading “juracanos.” These must be the Canos Oro was talking about earlier, the same crew they thought they had gotten rid of years ago.
“Ah, Estrella, the company you keep leaves a lot to be desired,” she jokes.
“What the hell are you doing here? You’ve got no business here.” I speak up and take a step in Sina’s direction. Oro has to hold me back. Suddenly, knowing that I have the entirety of the Puerto Rico chapter of the Royal Bastards at my back, I’m feeling much stronger than I’ve ever felt.
“Well, that’s where you’re wrong. It turns out that your new friends requested to meet with me. I don’t think I necessarily appreciate them breaking into one of my homes, but I understand. They thought the girls there were in trouble. They were just being concerned citizens.”
“You’re crazy. They are in trouble. I don’t care what you try and make yourself believe. None of those women there have a choice to be there. I don’t understand how you can do this. After everything I’ve told you… after—”
Sina surges forward, the skinny cigar discarded on the ground and her eyes locked on me with a crazed expression. “After all I know!” she booms in my direction.
It’s supposed to mean something, but I’m not sure what.
I look to Oro, and he seems as confused as I am.
When I look back to Sina, she’s shaking her head. “You really don’t remember me, do you?”
“Remember you? What are you talking about? Of course I remember you.”
“No, bitch, not from now. From before. Let’s say ten years ago. I would’ve been thirteen or fourteen years old.”
I scour my memory, trying to figure out what she is talking about. I don’t remember what she’s talking about.
“You’re going to have to be more specific. I met a lot of people ten years ago.” I keep my voice steady.
“I’m sure you did. You and your father were flush with little girls ten years ago. You pranced around like the fucking belle of the ball. Showed all of us a life that we so desperately wanted. You made it seem like the right choice. You made it look so damn easy.”
My stomach twists in my gut, and my head sways as I struggle to catch my breath.
“You were… you were one of the girls?” I whisper, and Oro stands behind me to hold me up. If he weren’t here right now, I’m sure I’d fall right on my ass.
“Yeah, I was one of the girls. I was one of the many who fell into your father’s clutches.
I was hungry, Estrella. My mother had nothing, and your father came around telling all of us how we could make some easy money.
How we could work for him and have everything that we could ever want.
I didn’t know it meant I was selling my soul to the devil.
Didn’t realize it would mean he would break me down and build something…
” She runs a hand over her own body. “Build this in its place.” She narrows her eyes at me.
“But you did. You knew. You knew what was waiting for us behind all those closed doors. What those men would do to us. You knew, and you did nothing to stop it. Then like a gift from the heavens, years after I ran for my life to get away from you and your father, you show up. Broken and depressed, oblivious to what you helped create. You cried about how hard you had it. About how you were able to save one.” She darts her eyes in Oro’s direction before focusing back on me.
“What about the rest of us, Estrella? Huh? What about us? You created this, now you’re going to have to deal with what you made.
You’re going to help me keep this going, or you’re going to die right here, right now. Make your choice.”
“You’re going to have to go through all of us to get to her,” Carina snarls, and AZ is right there to pull her back.
“She’s not her father’s choices. You should know that,” Angela speaks up this time.
Before I even have a chance to reply, all the women on this side are coming to my defense.
A show of force.
Force I don’t deserve.
Sina sighs, looking all the more uninterested. She turns and walks back to the bike she was standing next to when we first walked outside. “So be it.” She flips her hand. “?Mátarlas!” she orders, and all at once it feels like the world breaks open in front of me in a flash of lightning.
Except it’s not lightning. It’s gunfire.