Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Ihaven’t been able to go back to my apartment for a week. Instead, everyone has been staying at the Lopez estate. I haven’t even been to class and, honestly, I know the drill. It’s for my safety and all of that, but I’m going out of my damn mind being cooped up in this compound.
I know the family is still looking for whoever it is they’re after.
They don’t know where they went, or what they’re going to do next.
Emilio told me they brought one guy back from the house they breached, but the fucker didn’t know anything.
I didn’t ask how they figured that out. I didn’t need those details.
My phone buzzes with a message, and I smile when I see Kevin’s name. I’ve been avoiding talking to him too much over the last week. I don’t know what to say to explain my absence.
Kevin:
Class is boring without you. Also, check out the hot new TA.
There’s a photo attached. I zoom in because, well, why the hell not? I’ve never seen the guy before. He’s kind of cute, I guess. I type out a quick reply.
Me:
Not my type. But he’s okay.
Kevin:
He’s Hispanic. I thought that was your type.
Me:
Nope, Emilio is my type.
Kevin:
Emilio is everyone’s type.
Me:
True.
My boyfriend is hot. Speaking of, I look around his room. He left about twenty minutes ago to get food. I wonder what’s holding him up.
I climb off the bed and slide on one of Emilio’s hoodies.
It falls down to my mid-thigh, practically a dress, and it’s so damn cozy.
There is no way he’s getting this one back.
It also has that faint scent of his aftershave.
Citrus. I bring the neckline to my nose and inhale as I walk out of the bedroom door.
“Ew, did you just sniff that?” Eliana asks me.
“I did.” I smile. “It smells like Emilio. Want a sniff?” I offer her the fabric.
“No, gross.” She shakes her head. “There is something seriously wrong with you two.”
“It’s called love,” I tell her in a sing-song voice.
“No, it’s called kissing cousins.” This comes from Esterio.
I roll my eyes. The kissing-cousins thing is getting real old.
“Don’t be salty. You’ll find some poor, unsuspecting woman to love you one day, Esterio.” I pat his chest as I walk past him.
“Don’t jinx me,” he calls to my back.
I make my way to the kitchen, stopping just outside the doorway that leads into the massive eating area. I can hear Emilio arguing with our fathers.
“We can’t keep her here forever. She needs to go to school,” Emilio says.
He’s talking about me. I complained to him about missing classes and how I’ll probably have to repeat the semester if I don’t go back soon. There is only so much I can do online.
“We can keep her here forever. It’s not safe for her to be out there yet,” my dad replies.
“She’s going to have to repeat the semester if she doesn’t go back soon,” Emilio tries again.
It’s on the tip of my tongue to storm in there and tell them that “she” is right here. That she doesn’t need men deciding her future for her. But the fact Emilio is going to bat for me, even though I know he doesn’t want me to leave the house, means a lot.
“What if we go with her?” Elias asks.
“You gonna go to college, Elias?” Tío E laughs.
“Not me, but Emilio can. Esterio can. They both can pass as students.”
I don’t agree, but I still don’t go in there.
“If you two go with her, I’ll send Hudson too. But she is never to be left alone. Remember, she’s your weakness, Emilio. They will use her to get to you,” my dad tells him.
“I’m aware,” Emilio grits out.
“Hey, I was starting to waste away from starvation. Are you slaughtering the cow out here?” I ask as I walk into the kitchen.
“I’d slaughter a cow for you, Frankie,” Emilio says.
“And they say romance is dead.” I laugh. I look around the room. “What’s going on? Why do you all look more grouchy than usual?”
“You’re going back to school,” Emilio announces.
“Really?” I smile wide. “Is it over?”
“No,” my dad says. “The threat is very much still out there, sweetheart. You’re going to take your brother with you and your… cousins.” Dad pauses, and I roll my eyes.
“Okay.” I shrug.
“Okay?” My dad and Tío E look at me with puzzled looks on their faces.
“Okay,” I repeat.
“Just okay? No argument about how you don’t need babysitters or bodyguards?” Dad raises a brow.
Usually, I would argue, but Emilio went to bat for me. He made this happen. I’m not going to bicker over the terms. The point is, I’m going back to school and getting out of this house.
I shake my head. “No argument.”
“Good. Make sure you stick with them. Don’t go wandering off alone,” Dad says.
“I won’t. So who is coming with me today? I can be ready in half an hour and make my afternoon lecture,” I ask.
“Me.” Emilio smiles. “Always wanted to see what the college fuss was about.”
“You went to college,” Tío E reminds him.
“Yeah, in Mexico. I want to know what American college is all about.”
“It’s boring,” I grumble.
“But you’re there. It would be impossible for it to be boring,” he says.
“Okay, I’ve got shit to do that’s not watching this crap,” Dad groans and walks out of the kitchen.
As soon as he’s gone, Emilio wraps his arms around me and pulls me up against him. “Go get dressed. I’ll make you a sandwich to go.”
“Deal.” Leaning up on my tiptoes, I press my lips to his and whisper, “Thank you.”
Kevin is waiting at the lecture hall door. He looks from me to where both Emilio and Hudson are towering beside me. “You bring your own entourage?” he asks.
“Something like that. Just pretend they’re not here,” I say. “And tell me everything I’ve missed.”
I follow him into the lecture hall. We fall into our usual seats towards the back of the room. Emilio sits next to me and Hudson sits behind us.
“You do know they’re not easy to ignore, right?” Kevin whispers.
“I know.” I glance around the hall. A lot of female heads have turned in our direction. “You need to look uglier,” I tell Emilio.
He chuckles. “How would I do that?”
“I don’t know. All the women are staring at you.”
Emilio wraps his arm around my shoulder. “There is only one woman’s eyes I care about being on me.” He moves in and kisses my forehead.
Hudson leans over us from behind. “Leave room for Jesus, you two,” he says.
“Shut up,” I groan.
It wasn’t as easy to focus on the lecture with Emilio right there next to me. But I did manage to get some notes down and the new TA isn’t bad. The lecture ends and I’m packing up my things when the guy calls out my name.
“Miss Giuliani, can I see you for a minute?”
“Sure.” I set my bag on the chair, and Emilio and Hudson stand as if they’re going to follow me down. “Wait here,” I tell them. “Be right back.”
“I’m coming down there,” Emilio insists.
“I’m not leaving the room.” I frown and walk past him. When I get to the podium where the TA is waiting behind the desk, I offer the guy a polite smile. “You wanted to see me?”
“Yes, you’ve missed a fair few classes. I’ve got some notes for you somewhere here,” he says, shuffling a few papers around on the desk.
“Oh, okay, thank you.” I watch his hands randomly picking up folders and books, but he’s not really looking at them.
He is, however, looking up towards the seats that are now empty.
Everyone gone, except Emilio and Hudson.
Kevin waves at me from the door. I wave back but my hand finds the blade I have tucked into the belt of my jeans.
I’ve never been one to carry weapons. Emilio insisted on it.
He tried to give me a gun, and I told him I had no need for one because he and Hudson had plenty.
“Hold on. I think it’s in my bag,” the TA says.
He steps to the side, walking past me to reach over to where he has a bag on the coat hook. Except he doesn’t keep walking once he’s behind me. That’s when I know my mistake. His arm wraps around my shoulders, locking my back against his chest.
I look up and see Emilio and Hudson already making their way down the stairs. My palm grips the knife in my right hand, something this asshole doesn’t know I’m holding.
“Emilio Lopez, I’ve been looking for you.”
“Yeah? Guess you found me. Let her go.” Emilio has a gun trained on the fucker’s forehead.
“Not going to happen. You killed my brother.” The TA grips me harder.
“You want to have a go at one of mine? I’ve got three. Let her go, now,” Emilio says.
“Nope. I think I’ll have a go at this pretty little thing first.”
Hudson looks to my hand. He nods slightly, and that’s when I jam the knife into this asshole’s leg.
His grip on me loosens and I spin around out of his hold, pulling the knife out as I go.
I bring my arm up and then I jam the tip into the side of his neck, just like I was trained to do in all those self-defense classes Emilio made me take when we were sixteen.
I complained about them, insisted I wouldn’t be stupid enough to get caught in a trap like the one he’d found me in that one time in the alley. But he insisted I needed to know how to fight back. Now, I’m really glad he did.