Chapter 40
Alex
I hug Isabella as soon as I see her. She’s standing next to Santiago, who leans against Alonzo’s car. He tugs at a bloody tourniquet on his leg.
“What are you doing here?” I ask her.
“Alonzo brought me,” she said. “I wanted to help.”
I glance at Alonzo.
“I know, I know, I shouldn’t have brought her,” he says. “She could’ve gotten hurt, but she is stubborn.”
“Don’t underestimate her. She’s tougher than she looks,” Santiago says. “She found me lying next to my car and helped me over here.”
“It was nothing.” Isabella’s face brightens as she straightens beside Santiago. Even though Santiago is leaning against the car, he still towers over Isabella’s petite form.
“Now that everyone’s okay, we can call some of the guys to clean up this place and get that bullet out of your leg,” Alonzo says.
“Yeah, let’s get the fuck out of here,” Santiago says between grunts. As he limps to the backseat, Isabella rushes to help him.
I ride in the front with Alonzo, every so often glancing at the backseat, where Isabella keeps inspecting Santiago’s tourniquet to make sure he’s okay. He smiles at her, and she smiles back. It reminds me of when Alonzo saved me from Jacob a few minutes ago. Alonzo kept inspecting my bruises and asking me if I was okay. I smiled and told him I was okay. Most of the blood on me belongs to Sammy.
The bruises still hurt, but the pain will be gone in a few days, and with it, the last of Jacob’s cruelty.
“Are you still afraid of me?” Alonzo asks in a low voice. He turns to look at me for a few seconds before glancing back at the road.
“No,” I say. I knew all along that Alonzo is a dangerous man, and there was a small possibility things could turn for the worse if he discovered I was trying to rob his money. But deep down, I knew it was unrealistic. Alonzo may be dangerous to monsters like Jacob, but the man I know would never hurt somebody like me.
Alonzo threads his fingers into mine and rests our hands on his lap. “I need you, Alex. More than I’ve ever needed anybody in my life. Eres mi vida.”
My face and ears warm up.
I don’t understand what he said, but the words sound sweet to my ears. It may have started as a fling for him, but he fell in love with me. At least that’s what he says.
“I need you, too,” I say. “I’m sorry if I hurt you.”
“You could never hurt me,” he says. I know he’s lying to make me feel better. I saw the hurt in his eyes the night I ended things. “Can I ask you one thing?”
“What is it?”
“Why did you go to the police all those months ago? Did Jacob do something?”
I glance out the window, unsure how to respond. Do I tell him the truth? Maybe I’ll feel better once I do…
“I went to them after Jacob forced me to sleep with him for the first time,” I confess. “There wasn’t much else I could do, so I punished him the only way I knew how. It didn’t do much good, though. It only turned him into an angrier person. It was stupid, just like what I tried to do today. Going after him by myself, God, what was I thinking?”
“You were under incredible stress,” Alonzo says. “You were thinking about your mother.”
I was thinking about her, but does that make things any better? I could have died, and there wouldn’t have been anybody to look after her.
“Why are you crying?” he asks.
“Huh?” I wipe the tears from my face. I didn’t even realize I was crying. “It’s been a long, emotional day. And I can’t wait to see my mom again.”
“You will,” he says. “From now on, both you and her will be under my protection.”
A few minutes later, we arrive at The Den. The four of us stand at the entrance, talking to Ben. He tells us the doctor who works for the reapers can remove Santiago’s bullet.
“Might as well get this over with,” Santiago says. He follows the two reapers to a room at the side of the club. I’ve never stepped in it before, but I’ve heard reapers screaming in there. It’s their medic room.
“I’ll come with you,” Isabella says.
Why is she so invested in Santiago? She just met him.
“You’re not my mother,” Santiago grunts as he leaps to the reapers. “Stay with Alex.”
As they head to the medic room, Ben tells us to follow him to Jacob’s office. He says he’ll call off the reapers from there.
He and Alonzo begin to walk, but my body is frozen, anchored to the ground. I keep thinking that Jacob and his two enforcers will suddenly appear and take me again.
“It’s okay,” Alonzo says, holding my hand. “This will be the last time you set foot in this building, and I’ll be by your side the entire time.”
I squeeze Alonzo’s hand in mine, borrowing some of his strength. Isabella follows us into Jacob’s office, where a dark stain on the floor remains where Sammy’s body used to be.
As soon as Ben calls off the reapers at Mom’s house, I call her from my phone and tell her everything will be okay now.
“Are you sure, Alex?” she asks. “Are you sure those men won’t come back?”
“I’m sure, Mom,” I say. “I promise. And I’ll come visit you first thing tomorrow.”
“What about school?”
“It’s fine. School can wait. There’s someone special I want you to meet,” I smile, turning to Alonzo.
He smiles back at me.
???
It’s Tuesday morning, and I’m eager to see Mom.
Isabella arrived at Alonzo’s cabin a few minutes ago to do my makeup. We are trying to conceal the bruises on my face so Mom won’t freak out.
Santiago lingers in the room, exchanging glances with Isabella.
“Can we help you with something, Santiago?” I ask, looking in his direction.
Alonzo appears behind him and puts a hand on his shoulder. “The ladies are busy. Let’s go.”
With a scoff, Santiago disappears into the living with Alonzo. He limps as he walks away. Santiago got shot helping me, and I’m very grateful to him—which I already expressed verbally—but that doesn’t make him any less of a player. I saw how he treated that girl at the shooting range. I don’t want Isabella to end up as his next bootycall.
“You don’t have to worry about me,” Isabella says. She applies powder to my cheek. “I can look out for myself.”
“You’re not the one that worries me,” I say. “It’s men like him.”
“Made men?” she asks with a smile. “That’s what men like him and Alonzo are called. I spent all night researching the mafia.”
“Alonzo is not in the mafia anymore. He retired from that life years ago.”
“Good,” she says. “That lifestyle is dangerous. Just look at what happened last night.”
“Last night wasn’t Alonzo’s fault,” I say. “I’m the one who went to work for Jacob in the first place. I should’ve known better than to work at a biker gang club. Jacob was the dangerous one. Alonzo is nothing more than a college professor now.”
“Are you sure about that?”
No. I’m not sure.
Last night, when we were back in his cabin, Alonzo told me what really happened to Esmeralda. I was surprised when he admitted to killing the Romero brothers. Even so, I’m not afraid of him and it doesn’t change my feelings for him.
Regardless of the life Alonzo decides to live from now on, I want to be there by his side.
???
A few weeks later, Alonzo and I stand in the kitchen of my new apartment. We watch Mom tell the movers where to place her furniture in the living room.
“I still can’t believe you convinced her to move in with me,” I say.
“I can be very convincing,” he says.
Alonzo and I have spent almost every waking minute together in the past few weeks. We draw, cook, and make love all the time. He even tags along to visit Mom with me most Sundays.
Mom took a liking to Alonzo. She said he’s very smart and handsome. I haven’t told her Alonzo is my college professor. Some things are better kept secret. At least for some time. I’m sure all this will make a funny story one day.
Last week, when we went to drop off her groceries, Alonzo convinced her—the most stubborn woman I know—to move in with me. I don’t know how he managed to do so. I went to the restroom, and by the time I returned to the living room to join them in the sofa, the matter had been settled. In a matter of weeks, Alonzo accomplished what I couldn’t in years .
Alonzo helped me get this bigger apartment so my mom and I can have enough space for both of us. He paid a large sum of money to the apartment management to expedite our application and move-in date.
“Now that my mom is here, I may spend a little more time in my apartment and less at your place,” I tell him.
He smiles. “Enjoy your time with your mom because this will only be temporary.”
“Temporary? What do you mean?”
“Yeah, just until you graduate. Then we’ll move to my larger house in Austin. All three of us. If you want.”
“Wait, what? You have a house in Austin?” I ask. “Since when?”
“I have several houses,” he says nonchalantly. “The Austin house is the largest. There will be plenty of space for the three of us there.”
“You want Mom to live with us?”
“Why not?” he asks. “She can have her own wing of the house.”
“Her own wing?”
“Yeah, it’s a big house with plenty of housekeepers. It’ll be great for when the family grows.”
His warm gaze falls on mine.
When our family grows . My cheeks burn red when I realize what he means. If he wants to have kids with me, does that mean he wants to get married, too?
“Of course, we would have to get married first,” he says, as if he just read my mind.
“You’re speaking as if you’re confident I’ll say yes,” I tease.
“Will you say yes?”
“Alonzo, we’ve only known each other for a few months,” I say. “What if a year from now, you realize you made a mistake marrying me?”
“You’re the one,” he says, piercing me with his beautiful brown eyes. The pain I had seen in them when I first met him is gone. He is different now, but is it really because of me? “But if it makes you more comfortable,” he says after a brief pause, “We can wait a bit longer. I’m a patient man. I’ll wait for you until the end of the world if I have to.”
I smile and rest my head on his chest, watching the movers finish the job. This is the beginning of something great.
I can feel it!