Chapter 37
Alonzo
Alex didn’t show up to my class this morning, even though her name still appears on the roster. Maybe she just hasn’t gotten around to dropping the class for good.
The next time I’ll see her will probably be at Jacob’s club tonight. I wasn’t bluffing last night. I’m going to drag her out of that fucking place, even if she kicks and screams. Just because whatever the hell we had ended doesn’t mean she is free to be with other men. Especially not Jacob.
Something in the back of my brain has been nagging me this whole time. I got the impression that Jacob was gloating that Alex and I are no longer together.
If she didn’t go back to work for money, then why is she back there? Is Jacob forcing her to work? How?
No, she would have told me something if that was the case.
She’s fucking him. She’s been fucking him this whole time, and they’re both laughing behind my back .
I laugh. I’m the last person to judge Alex. My reputation at the university precedes me. It’s little wonder I haven’t been fired yet. Little wonder to the public, that is, because some of the University staff owes me favors from my time at Nuestra Casa . That’s the only reason they allowed someone like me to teach here in the first place.
A knock at the door pulls me out of my thoughts. It’s almost six in the afternoon, well past my work hours, and I still need to take care of some things before I head to The Den.
“It’s open,” I say.
The door opens, and Josh pokes his head in. “Professor Alvarez, I know it’s late, but there’s a student here to see you.”
“Alex?”
“No, sir,” he shakes his head.
“Oh. Well, tell them I’m on my way out and to come back tomorrow morning.”
“Professor Alvarez,” a soft voice breaks behind Josh. Isabella appears behind him. “This won’t take long.”
I sigh.
“Come in, but make it quick.” Josh excuses himself before leaving and closing the door. “What can I help you with, Isabella?” I ask.
She sits on the chair opposite my desk.
“It’s about Alex,” she says.
I lean forward in my chair. “What about her?”
“I was just wondering if you had seen her today,” she says.
A heavy anchor pulls on my heart. It feels like a punch to the chest. “Why do you ask? Is something wrong with her?”
“Well, she didn’t make it to your class today,” she says. “So I texted her about it later. I thought maybe she was sick, but she never got back to me. I’ve sent her several texts throughout the day, and she hasn’t responded. That’s why I’m here. I thought maybe you might know if she’s okay since…”
“Since?”
“Well,” she pauses. Her face flushes. “I…I know you two have been seeing each other lately.”
“Not lately,” I correct her. “Besides, she said she was going to drop my class, which explains why she wasn’t there this morning.”
Although it doesn’t explain why she hasn’t answered her texts. I should go check her apartment as soon as possible to make sure she’s okay.
“She’s probably fine,” I say, rising to my feet. “I’m sure she’ll answer your texts when she’s available.”
“I think we should call the police,” she says. That pulls me back to my chair.
“Call the police? Why would you say that?”
“This is going to sound strange,” Isabella says. “but I think maybe she’s in trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?” The way this girl speaks is triggering the fuck out of me. Why can’t she just tell me everything she knows?
“Well, a few weeks ago, two bikers surrounded Alex’s car when we went to the movies. They just stared us down and left. It was weird. Afterward, Alex said it was fine and not to worry about it. But I’ve noticed those same two bikers following us around town. Alex said I was being paranoid, but I swear they were the same guys. They were wearing the same patch with the skull and flowers.”
That sounds like the reaper’s logo. Why would the reapers be following Alex?
Fuck. Did Jacob discover Alex is the person he’s been looking for this whole time? Then that means...
I rise and head for the door.
“Professor, where are you going?” Isabella asks, rushing after me. “Do you know what’s going on? Should we call the police?”
I turn around and put my hands on her shoulders. “Do not call the police. I’ll find Alex. Just go home and don’t tell anybody about this.”
“No, I’m coming with you,” she says.
“The hell you are,” I say, turning and running to the building exit. The staff parking lot isn’t far from the art building. I arrive at my car a short jog later.
“Wait, I’m coming with you!” Isabella yells as I open my car door. She drops her hands to her knees, panting.
“Go! Home!” I shout.
“No!” she shouts back and raises to her full height. “I’m coming with you!”
She steps in front of my car and puts her hands on the hood.
She’s just as stubborn as Alex. No wonder they get along so well .
“Fucking fine. Get in,” I say.
She runs and climbs into the passenger seat.
“Where are we going?” she asks as I zip out of the university parking lot. I swerve the car around college students, causing a few of them to jump out of the way and fall onto the grass and sidewalk.
Isabella stares out the window at them, mumbling sorry under her breath.
“Don’t worry about that,” I say. “I just want you to promise me you’ll stay in the car when we get there. Do you understand? Alex will kill me if anything happens to you.”
She nods and grips the seat beneath her, her eyes wide with terror. I dial Santiago, and his voice echoes throughout the car.
“ Hermano , where are you? Are you still in San Marquez?” I ask him.
“Yeah,” he says. “I’m about to be balls deep inside this girl. Are you calling to tell me how much of a fuck up I am?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Isabella’s cheeks burn red.
“Santiago, shut up and listen. Are you close to The Den? I think Alex is in danger.”
Santiago remains quiet.
“Santiago?” I ask. “Did you hear me?”
“Fuck,” he says. “Alonzo, I’m sorry.”
“What the hell are you sorry about? What’s going on?”
“I guess I should’ve told you earlier. It didn’t occur to me that anything bad would happen,” he says.
“Jesus Christ, tell me what?” I interrupt him. My mind is racing at a hundred miles an hour, wondering what Jacob is doing to Alex right now and how I’m going to storm into the club full of armed bikers to get her back.
“Well, she was at a shooting range earlier today,” he says.
“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me this earlier?” my voice turns into an angry growl. Santiago knows how important Alex is to me. He should’ve told me this sooner.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think much of it. Besides, I was busy with Melanie.”
“Where the hell are you right now? Are you near The Den? Can you get there before me?”
“I’m not,” he says. “But I can be there in a few minutes.”
“Okay. Hurry the fuck up and meet me there. I think Jacob is going to hurt Alex.”
Isabella gasps beside me. I don’t know if it’s because of what I just said or if she’s terrified that I’m driving like a maniac.
Five minutes later, I pull into The Den. An army of reapers is standing in fractured groups in the parking lot. They look like they’re waiting for something to happen.
“Stay in the fucking car,” I tell Isabella.
She looks at me with doey eyes and nods.
I get out and walk to one of the reapers in the parking lot.
“What’s going on?”
The reaper looks me up and down. “Who are you?”
“Jacob’s friend,” I say. “What’s going on?”
He eyes me again and says, “Jacob was shot. Sammy, too.”
Did Alex do that?
“Was anybody else hurt? Any of the dancers?”
“I don’t know, man. We’re waiting for Ben to give us an update. He’s inside Jacob’s office right now.”
“Where’s Jacob now?”
“He took off. That’s all I know.”
I walk past him and his friends. More reapers congregate by the entrance. When they see me, they step aside and let me in. Many more reapers stand inside by the bar, talking and speculating about what happened.
I hadn’t realized how big the biker gang had gotten recently. While Jacob was getting drunk at the club, Ben was out recruiting men and coordinating their drug operations.
I walk to the back of the club and notice the door to Jacob’s office partially open. Ben is speaking with a reaper. He leans down and points at a pool of blood on the floor.
Alex?
“Ben?” I ask.
I push the door open. It hits something hard, preventing me from opening it all the way. I look behind the door and see the body of the big fella who is always standing outside Jacob’s office.
“What happened here?” I ask him.
Ben straightens up when he sees me. “One of the reapers got pissed drunk and accidentally shot Sammy. We’re cleaning up the mess.”
He’s lying. The body on the ground has two bullet holes in his chest. “He was accidentally shot twice?”
“Yeah,” Ben says, scratching the back of his neck. “That’s how drunk the other guy was.”
Without breaking eye contact with Ben, I place my hand on the door and slam it shut, locking us inside. The reaper behind Ben pulls out a gun, but I shoot him dead before he even has a chance to point it at me.
Ben startles, fumbling back to a corner of the room.
“What’s going on, Alonzo?” he asks, terrified.
“You’re lying to me, Ben. What really happened here?”
“I—I’m not lying,” he says. He pushes himself as far back into the corner as he can, making himself tiny. I know the reapers outside heard the gunshot, and it’s only a matter of time before they break down the door.
“Where is she?” I ask, pushing my body up against Ben and pressing my gun to his forehead. He squeezes his eyes shut and puts his hands up.
“Who? Who?” he asks.
“Alex! Where the fuck is she?”
“Jacob took her!”
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” he says. “He never tells me anything. I don’t even know why Alex shot him or Sammy in the first place.”
His eyes tell me he’s telling the truth. Finally.
“Where did Jacob take her?”
“I don’t know!”
A lie. I flip the gun in my hand and smack him on the forehead with it. He lets out a sharp scream.
“Where, Ben!”
“What’s going on in there?” someone outside the door yells. “Ben, are you okay?”
“I’m only going to ask you one more time, Ben. Where is Alex?”
Loud bangs knock at the door as the men try to break it down. “Ben, are you okay?”
“Jacob has a ranch out in Wimberly,” Ben says. “That’s where he took her.”
“Okay. Call off your men and write the address to Jacob’s ranch,” I tell him.
“It’s okay! I’m fine!” Ben yells at the door.
The banging stops for a few seconds, then start up again.
“Write the fucking address,” I tell Ben, pushing him onto Jacob’s desk. Ben fishes for a nearby pen and scribbles the address on the back of an envelope. “Here, this is the address.”
Just as he hands me the envelope, the door slams open. I slide behind Ben as a large group of reapers point their guns at me.
“Wait, wait, wait!” Ben yells, raising his hands in front of him. “Don’t shoot! Drop your weapons, don’t shoot! Everything’s okay!”
“The fuck it’s okay,” a reaper says. “We heard gunshots!”
“Look!” another one yells, pointing at the reaper I shot a few minutes ago. “Jonas is dead!”
I slouch behind Ben, which is difficult because he’s a lot shorter than me, and point my gun at them.
“Please, put your guns away,” Ben says.
“He killed one of us,” a reaper says. “Jacob will not be happy about this.”
“No matter what happens here, Jacob is going to die tonight,” I tell them. “But it’s up to you what happens to Ben. Step aside, and I’ll let him live.”
“Don’t be an idiot,” another reaper says. “You have, what, maybe ten bullets in that pistol? There are hundreds of us out here. You won’t make it out alive.”
I grin at them. “This gun can carry fifteen rounds. I used one on your buddy over there. After I kill Ben, I’ll have thirteen bullets left. Which thirteen of you want to die first?”
The reapers look at each other. The ones standing at the front of their group step back into the crowd. That’s what I thought. The reapers like to act tough, but they are nothing more than petty drug dealers. I bet most of them have never fired a gun before. They are armed for show.
I push Ben forward, my gun still drawn at the crowd of reapers in front of me.
“Let’s go for the exit,” I say. “Once I’m in my car, I’ll let you go.”
“You’re just going to kill me anyway,” Ben says, planting his feet on the ground.
“I’m not going to kill you. Someone has to take over the reapers after I kill Jacob, for Nuestra Casa . Do you understand?”
“Okay,” he says. “You guys heard him. Back away, please.”
The reapers lower their guns and step aside, allowing us through.