Seven
“Hunt,” Alv says from the other side while knocking twice.
“I’m gonna open the door for Alvi now, you can put that away,” I tell her while chin pointing to her knife. She doesn’t move to listen to my command.
Instead, she remains frozen in place. Her hands are trembling, and it shakes me to my fucking core. Seeing her defend herself, while feeling defenseless, has my heart in literal fucking pain and my voice crumbling as I tell her, “You can trust me.”
“Fuck you, I don’t trust anyone,” she hisses out. I swear this girl is ninety percent angry black cat.
“Me either, but I trust him.” I keep my circle small. My family and my boys. That’s it. I control who you are to me, how I feel about you, and where I let you in. No one gets full access to me. My siblings get the closest. Alvi, Max, Monroe, and Jake, too. That’s it.
And then there’s her, spreading through me like wildfire. She's torched everything that I thought I knew. There's no fucking way that I'm gonna be able to stuff her tiny ass back inside the box that I tried to keep her in. Not when she set it ablaze and turned it to fucking ash.
Edison Santos is a fire-breathing demon that won't be contained.
I think about her all the time. She lives in my head like a pretty little nightmare. And right now, she’s a dream that I don’t want to wake up from.
I’m watching her look at me and feel fucking blindsided by how much I want her to believe that she’s safe. I want her to trust me.
“I wouldn’t put you in harm's way again.” The strong tone of my voice and conviction of my words grab her attention and doesn’t let go.
“Edison, put the knife down.” I’ve never been a patient person. If I want or need something, I do it. I don’t usually wait on anyone. Yet here I am watching her, waiting for her to retract her blade. “It’s okay, I'm not gonna let anyone out there hurt you.”
“You keep saying that,” she snaps, and her dark eyes search me up and down as she scans for bullshit. She won’t find any. I know that she doesn’t when she raises her dimpled chin ever so slightly.
“And I’ll say it a million times, every day until you believe me.
” She’s still holding onto the knife. I track her tiny thumb as she hits a button for the out-the-front blade to retract back into the handle.
I can tell by her murder eyes that she’s primed and ready to press the spring release button if shit goes south, and I can't help but think she looks like a fucking beautiful badass.
“Ugh, there’s no way I want to hear your voice that often, so how about you just shut the fuck up and open the door?” Fucking sassy little shit.
“We’ll see about that,” I mutter under my breath before shouting, “We good?” to Alvi on the other side of the door, and to Edison to her pretty face.
She hasn’t stopped looking at me, and having her undivided attention like this is the equivalent of skating on fresh ice; it’s now one of my favorite fucking things.
“I wouldn’t be knocking and waiting for your ass to open the door if we weren’t. They’re gone.” She drops her black eyes from mine, breaking contact before exhaling out through her nose and whispering, “ Gracias diosas ,” to herself.
She looks relieved, and now I look away. I don’t deserve to watch her have a moment of peace. Not when I’ve caused her so much fucking misery.
“Open the door, Hunt. I need to talk to her.” He sounds serious. I flip the lock, and he pushes through the door. His face is tight, and he looks annoyed. This ain’t gonna be good, I can feel it.
He walks behind his desk and takes a seat before motioning for her to sit on the couch along the wall. She doesn’t. So I don’t either.
“What's your name, sweetheart?” Alvi asks to break up the quiet in the room.
Uncomfortable moments of silence like this throw me off.
It forces me to confront whatever it is that has me silent to begin with.
These internal check-ins are always so fucking loud…
and so is a quiet Edison. She's taking her sweet-ass time to answer, and all I want to do is scream her fucking name as loud as I can.
“I can tell you it's not that,” she mouths off like the cute little punk she is.
“No, I guess it’s not.” He’s smirking at her while she sizes him up. “I’ve seen you around. You stay at the shelter?” He’s testing her to see if she's lying to him.
“I stay where I can.” And she's calculating every one of her answers.
“I'm guessing that you’re not from here. You a runaway?” Is she? I gotta be honest, I know jack-shit about her past. All I do know is that she's brave as hell.
“No.” Her voice is steel-plated.
“You wanna tell me where home is?” She doesn’t have to say New York City for me to hear it in her voice.
“Nope.” She pops the word, and it sounds like a gun firing. I watch it pierce through Alvi’s patience. He takes a long pause, narrowing his eyes at her.
“You know who they are?” He asks her in a don’t-you-dare-fucking-lie-to-me tone.
“No, I don’t.” And she claps back with an iron-clad answer.
“They think you killed their guy.” He narrows his stare, but she doesn’t break under the heavy pressure of Alv’s eyes. “That true?”
The spark in her eyes dies off like a star fading out in the midnight sky. But I know what’s coming next, I can feel the energy radiating off of her. It’s like watching a supernova take place, and I brace for impact as she explodes all over the room.
“THESE MOTHERFUCKAS TELL YOU THAT I WAS OUT THERE MINDING MY OWN FUCKING BUSINESS WHEN THEY BEAT A MAN’S ASS AND STARTED POPPING OFF SHOTS? OR THAT THEIR MAN MADE A GRAB FOR ME? THAT HE THREATENED TO RAPE ME? DID THEY FUCKING TELL YOU THAT?!”
It sounds like she’s blaring an emergency fucking siren through a loudspeaker as she screams her words.
They detonate through me like a nuclear reaction, melting down all of my defenses while I realize just how shatterproof hers are.
Because clearly, you don’t fuck around with Edison fucking Santos.
She’s not afraid to go up against anyone. She’s got no problem dueling with the fucking Devil. She really is a demon. A pretty little demon that evidently unalives people who deserve it. And one who stamps her feet when she yells.
“Where are they? You just let them fucking go, Alv?” I roar out, but it’s not enough. Not when my fire-breathing dragon wants to burn these motherfuckers alive.
I’ve got a bad fucking habit of hitting shit when I get this fired up, and now is no different.
If I were on the ice, I’d be dropping bodies left and right.
But I’m not, and I don’t fucking think twice before I’m twisting my body around, winding my arm back, and punching the fucking wall next to the door.
I hit it so hard, my fist cracks through the sheetrock as my knuckles paint the wall red.
“ ?Qué chingado te pasa? (What the fuck is wrong with you?) ” She grabs my hand to inspect the damage before throwing it away when she sees that I only cut open my knuckles.
Her touch is stronger than my punch and splits off into a thousand different directions underneath my skin.
I feel her everywhere. “Are you stupid? Why are you punching shit?” Because someone hurt you, and I FUCKING HATE IT.
“Sit down, you fucking idiot. I don’t need you breaking your hand or the shop. Control yourself, Hunt,” Alv shouts while pointing at me. I can’t. I literally can’t. Someone tried to rape her. Someone put their hands on her. She had to kill him to protect herself.
SHE. HAD. TO. KILL. HIM. TO. PROTECT. HERSELF.
I’m legit screaming inside of my head, and fire shoots out of my fucking dragon’s flaring nostrils, as it all hits.
And it hits fucking hard. All these fucking pieces of shit men who go after fucking women should be tied to a fucking skate sharpening machine for their dicks to be sliced open and their nuts to be cut off. Fucking bet.
“I’ve already got a tail on them, I need to know who the fuck they are and why they’re stepping out like this before I do anything, alright?
You get me?” Oh my fucking god, what is happening right now?
Why are they both not freaking the fuck out over this?
And why are they looking at me like I’m the crazy one here?
“Walk me through what happened, tell me everything because they sure as fuck didn’t admit to anything. Although I did hear the gunshot,” he says to her. She scowls as she stares him down.
“I don’t know you, I’m not saying shit about shit,” she sasses back at Alv. I wanna spank her ass for giving him fucking attitude. All that shit is for me and me alone. Bad girl.
“Well, here’s what I said and what we’re gonna roll with until I can get to the bottom of this. I told them that you work for me and that if they saw you outside in the back, it’s because you went to throw out the garbage and got locked outta the shop. That’s your cover.”
“Are you stupid or something? You told them I was here like that, and what? A bunch of gangbangers just believed you?” She looks Alvi right in the eye and challenges every fucking word that he just said.
She either doesn’t know or doesn’t give a fuck that she’s questioning Alvino Rossi and his family name.
“It’ll fit into what I want them to believe, especially if they’re being honest about the guy you stabbed wearing a bodycam.”
“A what? Why would some gangbanger be wearing a bodycam out here? That shit sounds crazy. I didn’t see him wearing a vest or nothing.”
“Could’ve been an initiation, blackmail, or some task for him to move up a rank. Either way, I’m hearing there is one. Which means there’s footage.” Which means she can get arrested. Which means she can be taken away. Even if she is innocent.
“Then I gotta get the fuck outta here, now.” She reaches for her giant bag, and I grab the handle at the same time she does. You’re not going anywhere. Your ass is staying right here with me.
“No, you stay. Some new thugs have moved into the neighborhood and are starting up shit in the wrong fucking place. You’re not running, we’re gonna make them run instead.”
“Why would you do all that? You don’t even know me.” Her surprised look makes me wonder if anyone’s ever done anything nice for her before. Even a little nice. I sure as fuck haven’t.
My sister is the nice one. Our brother, too.
But not me. I’m not a nice guy. I can be decent, but that’s as good as it gets.
I don’t go outta my way if I don’t absolutely have to, and even then, very few people get anything more than the bare minimum from me.
I’m not good at being nice and make it a rule not to do shit that I’m bad at.
“I may not know you personally, but I’ve heard a few things.” His eyes shift over to me, and I tap the spot on my chest that he just tattooed. He lifts his chin as I confirm everything that he put together earlier. There’s no use lying about it or trying to hide it anymore, not after all this.
“You should know that I don’t tolerate violence against women under any circumstance.
And someone tried to assault you tonight behind my fucking shop.
They will be dealt with.” I’m not surprised Alvi threw his weight around and backed her up behind the Rossi name.
He doesn’t turn away strays. He takes us in.
“Thanks… you didn’t have to do that.” That looked difficult for her to spit out. She seems the type not to want to owe anyone anything. Alvi isn’t like that, though.
“You’re right, I didn’t. But you do have to tell me what happened. Every fucking detail. And no lying to me this time.”
“I didn’t lie to you. You asked me if I knew something. I don’t.”
“Then what’d you see, sweetheart.”
“I didn’t see shit, I heard someone getting fucking beat, and then the gunshot.”
“Which was where?” Look, I can’t help you if I don’t know,-“
“?Carajo, wey! I don’t need you to help me, I appreciate you giving me an out, but it’d be better if you tell this pendejo to move outta the way so I can go.
” She chin points to me while her hands slice through the air as she talks.
She stomps her combat-booted foot, her warning to the world that her patience is running dangerously thin. So is mine.
“Are you for real? It’s not safe for you to be out there,” I breathe out with flared nostrils.
“Te cagarías si supieras toda la mierda que he visto. Los chicos guapos como tú no pueden soportar lo feo del mundo. (You'd shit yourself if you knew all the shit I've seen. Pretty boys like you can't stand the ugliness of the world).”
“What the fuck does that mean?” I have no idea what she said, but I sure as fuck know it’s about me. I can tell by the smirk on her face. What a fucking menace.
“That she thinks you’re pretty.” The fuck? What?
“Fuck you, you said that you don’t know Spanish,” she spits out at Alvi as he shrugs his shoulders. “It means you couldn’t fucking handle it.” Her words shoot heat through me like a bullet wound. Shots. Fired.
She just hit me harder than any fucking d-man I’ve ever gone up against. Her words burn through every exterior layer of protection I have and leave gaping holes in my chest.
I’ve built who I am on being able to handle shit. Shit from my family. Shit from my team. I can handle anything. And I sure as fuck can handle her and her fucking attitude. As soon as the sting wears off.
“I fucking can. I’m not as pretty as he is,” Alv starts. “The neighborhood’s gotta look out for its own, so if there’s a fucking problem, I’m the one who handles it.”
“I don’t belong to your neighborhood.” That mouth of hers is full of venom. I wanna suck it off her tongue.
“Listen, little girl, I just got rid of three assholes who were looking to drag your ass outta here. At least have the fucking decency to stop fighting me every step of the way.”
“Then let me leave.”
“Over my fucking dead body.” I breathe out fire with every word.
The dragon inside of me is ready to burst outta my chest, pick her feisty ass up, and fly far away.
She’s fucking crazy if she thinks that I’m letting her leave outta here.
I let her walk into trouble once and did nothing to stop it; I’m not letting it happen again.
“ ??NO ME PUTAS PONGAS A PRUEBA, HUNTER!! (DON’T FUCKING TEMPT ME, HUNTER!!) Oh, little demon, you’re one test I can’t wait to take.