Chapter 30
Sol
I stand at the door with my hand on the frame.
He smiles like someone who knew he’d already won something.
“Rainey…or is it Sol?” he says mockingly.
“Can I come in?” When I don’t answer him, he trails on.
“I just got off a call with Max. He said you two were back together. It seems you two can’t separate.
For years, I told him to move on before you two met at the cabin.
He would speak of you so often that it became an annoyance.
I never thought you two would find one another, but here you are… ”
“Why in the hell do you dislike me so much? It’s not your damn business what we do with our lives. You’re just a man who taught him how to box to benefit you. You might have been there for him, but you’re not his father.”
“No, I’m not his drunk-ass father who’s out there dead somewhere.”
Oh, Max, didn’t tell him about his dad.
“It’s not that I don’t like you. It’s that you’re not what Max needs.”
I laugh. “And you know what Max needs? He would disagree in a heartbeat.” God, this man is crazy. From the corner of my eye, I see Hector standing with his arm crossed over his chest. His slitted eyes reveal just how angry he is.
“I do know what he needs. I’ve known Max longer than you think. He comes from generations of fighters. It’s in his blood. I trained him to be the best.”
My brows come together. Longer than sixteen? Max had said he was sixteen when he broke into the gym.
“Ahh, you didn’t know. Well, that story is for another day. What I need is for you not to distract Max.” His gaze slides to my bump. “I see you’re pregnant.”
I cover my stomach—Protecting it.
“Listen, it’s obvious you haven’t told Max anything, so let’s keep it that way. Because you wouldn’t want something to happen to your child or Leo,” he spits out.
“Fuck you, Carlos. I swear, if you come close to my baby and me, I’ll kill you myself.” I don’t give a shit if I spend a lifetime in jail as long as he’s far from my Max and our child. I’ll do what it takes to protect our family.
The asshole’s laughter falters and fades when Hector positions himself between us. I swear he gulps. Hector stands with his shoulders squared. He definitely has more height than Carlos.
Hector’s lips curl into something between a smile and a snarl.
“Hello, old friend,” he says, and the words hang in the air like smoke.
Months ago, when he yelled at me to leave, it was just noise.
But this—this is different. His voice has dropped to a low, dark, measured tone.
Hector stands at the doorway, blocking Carlos from entering the house.
I’m starting to piece it all together like a puzzle. These two had crossed paths, and it must have been years ago—before Max turned sixteen, like Max has mentioned—because there is an odd jarring to their interaction. And—“old friend” says it all.
“Hector, what are you doing here?”
“I live here with my son.”
“He didn’t say anything about you being here. He said you’ve been missing.” If we didn’t know he was a sleazeball, we would think his dipped brows meant he was saddened by Hector’s disappearance.
“I’ve been in rehab, but let’s cut the chit chat, Carlos. What’s this you’re doing…threatening my daughter-in-law and my unborn grandson?”
“How enlightening.” Carlos looks him up and down. “You show up out of nowhere. You’ve been out of his life for years. Then you go to rehab and return as a doting father.”
“I’m doing what I should have done, and now I’m sober and clear-headed. Come to find out, you are using my son as a weapon.” Hector laughs. “You were a shitty fighter. One of those who like to run their mouth but can’t hold it up in the ring. Were those wins pure luck, or did you fight dirty?”
Carlos’s nostrils flare.
“You’re one of those who likes to play dirty, so I have no doubt because how else would you have been kicked out? You kept it quiet,” Hector says.
Carlos juts his chin. “Who told you?”
My gaze keeps volleying back and forth between them.
Hector shrugs nonchalantly. “You’d be surprised what I’ve figured out.
That’s why you’re after my son. You want the fame of training Luis Gonzalez and Oscar Cano’s grandson.
You want to be a ‘famous trainer.’” Hector makes air quotes.
“The trainer who is sought out. The one who is so famous he’s shitting out money. ”
Carlos is tongue-tied, and so am I. I’m waiting to hear how they know one another.
“You know, trainers make dimes, and boxers make pennies. No, not Max. He has been challenged to fight. I see his name everywhere. It’s big. And what does that mean if he wins? He keeps moving up, and who will follow? You, Carlos. The more money Max makes, the more you make.”
Carlos grinds his teeth. “That’s right. I want money. Who doesn’t? But more than anything, I want what belonged to me. You took her from me. She was supposed to be mine.”
Hector chuckles, shaking his head. “You dated my Marabel once. That was it. Nothing happened between you two. She felt nothing for you. Decades later, you’re still infatuated with a dead woman and want her son. Why? To pretend he’s yours?”
The room goes quiet. I look at Hector. Hector looks at Carlos with an expression I can’t name—not surprise exactly. More like a man who had suspected something for years and was watching it be confirmed.
What the actual fuck? My hand goes to my mouth. Carlos hadn’t been mentoring Max. He’d been collecting him.
Carlos leans his hands on the door frame. “He already sees me as his father.” He shrugs. “I taught him everything he knows.”
There it was. It wasn’t only about money and fame. He wanted Max to be his. Because Max was hers. He didn’t get the woman nor the fame. Max was everything wrapped in one.
Hector shakes his head. “That’s where you’re wrong. You might have trained him, but Max is skilled because he’s gifted. I knew that at a young age when we roughhoused.”
“Then why didn’t you teach him early on?”
“When Marabel’s father, Luis, died from a blow to the head, she was terrified of losing me the same way. I quit. I didn’t want Max following me into it either.” Hector stands like a statue, his focus on the predator.
I’m frozen in place, then I slowly move to sit on the sofa. My head is spinning with all this information.
“I heard. You were the talk at the gym. That’s where Max gets it from—he’s pussy whipped. I would never let a woman control me like that. If Marabel had been with me…”
“She was never yours. You’re wrong again… It’s not about control. It’s about respect. I always respected my wife’s decisions. I loved boxing, but I loved my family more.”
Carlos laughs. “You loved your family more, but you beat your son and sent him to the streets.” Carlos is trying to get him where it hurts.
It’s not like Carlos cares about Max. It’s all about money and being in the spotlight.
And if he’s still infatuated with Max’s mom, who’s no longer here, he could now be obsessed with Max. God, I’m so confused.
“My faults are between my family and me.”
“Very well.” Carlos steps back. “As a reminder, this all stays between us. If you want your grandchild to be born, then I suggest you shut the fuck up. And keep the bitch quiet. I don’t need her convincing Max to quit, just like your wife did to you.”
I don’t see Hector move. One minute he was near me, then the next he was at the door. I gasp and stand up. Hector’s forearm presses into Carlos’s windpipe, Carlos’s toes barely touching the ground, his fingers clawing at Hector’s sleeve.
“Watch your fucking mouth. Don’t you dare talk about my son’s future wife with disrespect, and don’t come here with your threats.” Hector drops him. Quiet. Measured. Exactly like his son.
I’m surprised he didn’t fight back. Carlos just adjusts his shirt, looking perplexed. He turns his gaze at me. “Remember, keep your mouth shut, or something will happen to Leo.” He walks off with the threat slicing through the quiet morning.
Hector closes the door with a deep exhale. Damn, first day out of rehab, and he can’t catch a break. I only hope this doesn’t tip him over and make him want to drink.
“You know Carlos?” I ask the question that’s looming over my head. “You didn’t tell me.”
“Unfortunately, I do. And I hadn’t really had time to chat about it.
” He sighs. “I knew Carlos could be an ass, but threatening you and Leo crosses a line. The way he’s fixated on being power hungry makes me uneasy.
I can’t help wondering what else he might do.
If his threats carry truth. Or is he all talk like he’s always been? ”
I’m not sure what to think myself, but I have to be cautious. I can’t play Russian roulette with my child’s life…and Leo’s. “I don’t want to risk telling Max, and what if Carlos does something?” I hug my stomach protectively.
“Okay…we’ll think of something.” Hector runs his hands over his stubble. “It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t been such a screw-up and failed my son, none of this would be happening. Now he has a fight coming, and if we tell him, it could ruin his chances.”
“I don’t understand. Was it all a coincidence that Max landed at his gym?”
Hector shrugs, still pacing nervously. “I don’t know.
I think it could have been. When Marabel and I dated, he backed off.
I still went to the gym to hit the bag and help train, but Carlos was there.
We spared so many times. He took his aggression out on every hit for loving a woman who was never interested in him.
He claimed he saw her first. He didn’t. I never told him I met her at a party. ”
“Were you and Carlos good friends?”
He huffs. “I wouldn’t say good friends. We met at the gym.
We shot the shit here and there, but once I started dating my wife, he stopped talking to me, and when I asked her to marry me, Carlos packed up and moved away.
I never heard from him again. So, I don’t know if anyone mentioned Marabel’s passing.
But how Max ended up at his gym,” Hector says slowly, “is beyond me.”
He looks at me. Neither of us says what we’re both thinking. That nothing about it was a coincidence at all.
“This is wild,” I admit. Here I thought my story was so twisted, and Max’s is just as bad, only he didn’t lose his memory. Thank god one of us stayed sane. “You know you’re right. Max is gifted, but he tells everyone he’s good because of Carlos.”
Hector sits across from me. “Carlos is only a teacher. Max has always been a natural. I just wish he would see it for himself instead of giving the credit to a man who uses him as a bank.”
Hector and I sit on the sofa, processing it all in. The house is quiet. Daisy lies beside me, her ears up like she’s part of the discussion. Then I stand. “I need to bake something,” I tell Hector.
He nods like it makes complete sense. To keep my mind off things, I throw myself into baking and reach out to Leo to see if he’s heard from Carlos.
Then I want to get him over here before breaking the news to Max.
If Carlos decides to retaliate, at least Leo will be under my roof, out of harm’s way.
The pressure in my chest tells me he will.