Chapter 6
Marco
This girl is making me insane, and I barely know shit about her. She’s driving me crazy in all the wrong ways.
“Then initiate me.”
“What?”
“You heard me. I want in,” she says. I shake my head. She’s insane.
“You’re already in a crew.”
“Not here, I’m not, and you don’t even know half the shit about my crew.”
“Then tell me.”
“Fuck you.”
“I won’t even think about letting you in if you don’t tell me what I want to know.” We keep walking, but she becomes silent. When I glance over at her out of the corner of my eye, I see a tear running down her cheek. Fuck. This will be something I don’t want to hear.
“I was raped.” Now I stop walking and step in front of her.
“What?”
“I was raped. That’s how I got in. I didn’t ask to be in.
I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it happened.
Rafe isn’t a nice guy. He might just be up there with Pete.
” I lick my lips and blow out a breath, not knowing how to respond to that.
What the fuck do I say to that? Yeah, we’re assholes, but we’d never rape a girl.
That isn’t our style. We fuck them in front of everyone, just like Kim, but not rape.
“What kind of crew were you in?” I ask, more disgusted with what she just said.
“One a lot worse than yours.” Once she says that, she starts walking again. I turn and follow her, not knowing what else to say. What the fuck do I say? Sorry? Fuck that.
We keep going until we’re back at our corner, and I reach out and grab her arm, spinning her to face me.
“I’ll lie.”
“What?”
“I’ll lie for you. I’ll say you’re in.”
“No. I don’t do lies.”
“It’ll get you what you want. You can take care of your brother,” I tell her.
“No. I’ll hustle if I have to, but I won’t lie.”
“What’s with you? Huh? I’m willing to risk my own ass for you, and you don’t want it?” I snap at her. She turns to face me, stepping right into my space.
“I don’t know about you and your crew, but back home, we don’t take handouts. We don’t take what wasn’t earned, and it doesn’t matter how we had to earn it.”
“Even rape?”
“Fuck you, Marco.”
“You earned that right? Hmm? The right to be raped and dragged into something you never wanted to be in! How old were you, Chula?” I challenge her. I know she doesn’t want to have this argument with me right now.
“Leave me alone.” She turns to walk away, but I don’t let her. I grab the back of her neck and spin her back to face me before moving my hand and wrapping it around her throat. Fuck, it looks so goddamn good right there.
When she tries to fight, I walk her back and slam her against the outside of the apartment building. Her eyes stay on mine as I demand answers from her.
“How old? How fucking old?” I roar louder this time. Hock, Tony, and a few of the other guys all come out to see what the fuck is happening, but they don’t step in the middle of this shit.
“Leave me alone.”
“No. Tell me.”
“Why do you care?”
“I don’t fucking know! Just tell me!” I watch her swallow hard, feeling it against my palm as she holds her head high.
“Twelve.”
“Twelve? Twelve fucking years old?” Her eyes water now as she nods her head, and fuck do I feel bad for her. Tears cling to her lashes, but she holds them back, not willing to do it, not willing to cry in front of me.
“And you didn’t want it?” I ask this time. Her lips part before one word falls from her lips.
“No.” I don’t know what the hell I’m thinking or why I fucking do the things I do, but I lower my head and press my lips to hers. I kiss her. I fucking kiss this girl like our lives depend on it. I kiss her until heat courses through my veins and I can’t see straight.
I pull back as my chest heaves, and I look at her.
“Go home, Chula. Go be with your brother.”
“I need a job. I can’t just sit at home.”
“For now, you can. I’ll find you something.”
“Why?” she asks me quietly, and I have no fucking answer for her. I shake my head because I don’t fucking know why.
“Go home,” I tell her once more. I release my grip on her throat and step back before she moves. She walks toward the apartment door and goes inside as my cock strains against my jeans.
“What the hell was that about?” Tony asks in an amusing tone when he steps up next to me.
“She needs a job. She wanted Pete’s, but she has to be crew in order to do it.”
“That’s dangerous, Marco. Getting her in with Pete.”
“Yeah, I know it, but she needs a job.”
“Then put her ass to work,” he says.
“She isn’t crew, Tony!” I snap this time. I turn and walk away from her apartment and back across the street.
“So make her crew,” he says.
“You saw the tatt. She’s already crew.”
“Not here, she isn’t. And I’ll fuck Abby into covering that shit on her arm,” he says. Abby is a good tattoo artist, but she also charges money we don’t have. She’s basically in love with Tony, and if he gives her a little cock she’ll do whatever he asks, so that’s not out of the question.
“I’m not sure this is what she wants, man.”
“What do you mean?”
“She didn’t want to be crew. She was forced into it back home,” I tell him.
“How?”
“They raped her,” I tell him. Tony curses under his breath before he hits the brick wall.
I know exactly how he feels about that. My mom was raped, and that’s how my brother came to be in the first place.
Of course, we took care of the bastard that did it, but that doesn’t mean shit, and we all know it.
“Fuck!” He roars once more. I lean against the building and look up at her room. The light flashes on, and she walks past, pulling her sweatshirt over her head and tossing it aside, but for some reason, she doesn’t take off the clothes that I gave her to wear. She keeps them on.
“So what the fuck are we going to do?”
“I don’t know, Tony. We don’t go around forcing people to be crew.” He shrugs.
“Maybe we wouldn’t need to force her. She may want to join up. She needs the work, needs the money.”
“You’re right.”
“But?”
“But I don’t fucking know. If she didn’t want that life back home, why would she want it here?”
“Maybe we’re different than her old crew,” he says.
“I’m pretty sure we are. We don’t rape kids,” I tell him.
“Kids?”
“She was twelve, man.”
“What the fuck!”
“Let’s go inside. It’s too fucking cold for this shit,” I tell him. He nods his head and follows me as we walk into my apartment.
“Why is it so warm?” he asks, looking around. I walk over to the table and pass him the note she left me, and he immediately laughs.
“Oh fuck. She likes you.”
“Nah, I threw her ass in the cold shower and gave her dry clothes. It was a thank you,” I tell him through a laugh.
“Yeah, thank you for making me strip naked in your apartment.”
“Not like that, Tony. You hungry?” I ask as I head for the fridge and pull out some items. He nods his head, and I get to work making us something to eat when someone knocks on the door.
Tony and I share a glance before he pulls his gun and walks over there.
He pulls the door open slowly, only to find Kim out there.
He shoves the door open for her to come in, and she does.
“What?” I ask when she steps inside.
“It’s fucking freezing out there,” she says as she rubs her arms.
“You hungry?” She nods her head, and I wave her over. She comes and sits at the table while Tony does the same. I finish cooking and set out the plates, and the three of us eat. This is what we do when we’re not out fucking around. This is who we are. We’re our own little family.
“We have a decision to make,” I say, mainly to Tony. Kim’s vote doesn’t make a difference in this.
“Which is?” he asks.
“Let her in or not.”
“Who?” Kim asks this time as she eats.
“Luna.”
“No. She’s not one of us.”
“That’s the point, isn’t it?” I ask, looking over at her.
“We have plenty of girls, Marco.”
“And what’s one more?”
“How? How is she joining?” Now her eyes narrow on me. There are two ways in. The fuck in or the jump in.
“Jump in,” I say immediately. That seems to satisfy her even though it shouldn’t. I know that she thinks we’re something we’re not, and that needs to be handled soon, too.
“Fine. I’m all for beating her ass.”