Chapter 14
CHAPTER 14
MARIA
I rub the spot on my face where Rayo struck me, and it smarts. I’m sure it’s going to leave a mark, and I hate the thought of carrying a reminder of what he’s done to me right there on my face.
I hear his footsteps walking away from the room, and I sink down onto the edge of the bed, trying my best not to let the tears start to fall. Not because it hurts, no—because of the knowledge that I’m going to have to go another day without speaking to my father, without being able to tell him that I’m doing everything I can to get him out of there, and bring down the evil people who are keeping him from me and forcing him to use his skills for something so twisted.
The closet door opens behind me, and Malo sinks down onto the bed beside me.
“Hey, you want me to take a look at that?” he asks, reaching out to touch my face.
I brush his hand away quickly. “I’m fine,” I reply. Truth be told, I’m worried that any kindness from him is going to set me off into floods of tears, and I don’t want to do that here. I need to hold myself together, no matter how difficult it is to force myself forward.
“No, you’re not,” he replies. “I can’t believe he did that to you.”
“Really?” I reply, lifting my head and looking at him, giving him a wry smile. “You know they’re capable of so much worse than that, right?”
“I know,” he mutters, shaking his head. “But putting his hands on an innocent woman like that…”
“I’m not an innocent woman, not to him,” I point out. “I’m guilty of being related to my father.”
My voice cracks when I talk about him. Shit, I hate this. I’ve never thought of myself as a hugely emotional person, always focused on my work and my studies, but it’s impossible to control myself.
“I’m sorry, I’m just… frustrated,” I admit, and I quickly wipe away the tears that are starting to form in my eyes before he can see them. I can feel his gaze on me, concerned, and I know it’s not what I need right now. I need action. I need someone who’s going to help me get my father free.
“I know,” he replies. “All of us are.”
“It just feels like… it feels like I have to play along with everything they ask of me,” I continue, the words spilling from my mouth before I can stop them. “And I can’t, no matter what I do, it’s never enough. They never let me speak to him. I just saw that video of him, working, with that gun.”
I trail off, squeezing my eyes shut, trying to banish the image from my mind before it can take hold again. I’ve been doing my best not to think about that, but it’s still as fresh in my mind as the day I first saw it.
“I just don’t understand why they’re so intent on taking you guys down,” I continue. “Like, why they had to send me out here to do all of this, when they already have so much going on in Mexico.”
“Greed. They want free rein and we are the only ones standing in the way of them doing anything they want,” he replies.
I shake my head.
“We’re going to end them,” he promises. “With your help, I know we can.”
My shoulders slump. I want that to be enough, and it should be, given what I know these people are capable of and what they’ve already done, but right now, I am feeling selfish. It’s hard to think about the big picture when I know how much danger my father is in. I just want him out of there. I want him back at home. I want to walk through the door of our house and hear him humming in the kitchen.
The tears begin to fall, and I put my head in my hands, my shoulders shaking. Malo slips his arms around me and pulls me in close for a moment. I need whatever comfort I can get, even if it’s from a gang member like him. I never thought I would be turning to someone like Malo for support, but in this mess I’m trapped in right now, it’s not as though I have much of a choice.
“I don’t care about bringing them down,” I confess. “That’s not why I’m doing this, I mean…”
“Then why are you doing it?” he asks me, his voice gentle. Not something I’ve come to associate with him, but maybe there’s more to him than I’ve given him credit for.
“I want to help you guys sure,” I admit, rubbing my hand over my face, trying to draw in a deep, shaky breath. “I know how much damage they’re doing. But I want my father back, that’s all I can think about. I can’t even imagine what he’s going through right now, out there, all alone.”
I look up at him, hopeful beyond belief right now. I know they haven’t agreed to help me with this, exactly, but I need someone on my side at this moment, or I am going to lose it.
“Beast will never agree to it,” he warns me. “We’re stretched thin enough as it is. When we take down the cartel here, we can start looking at what’s going on in Mexico, but I don’t know how long that’s going to be.”
I gaze at him, unable to hide the emotion in my eyes right now. I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing this, how much longer I can keep pushing forward, when everything feels this against me, when the one person in my life I care about is being held God knows where, forced to use his hard-earned skills for whatever evil they have him working on. I know he’s not stupid, and he’s probably aware of what they’re going to use his new discoveries for, and I’m sure it’s tearing him apart inside. He wants to make the world a better place, and if he has to create something that’s going to make it worse, it’s going to destroy him.
Something shifts in Malo’s expression as he gazes back at me. He curses under his breath, in Spanish. He sounds like a native to me, and I wonder if he has his own family back in Mexico. Or, maybe, if he used to, and that’s how he ended up here.
I reach over to take his hand. I don’t know why. I feel like my heart is going to beat right out of my chest, as I sit here opposite him. Can he feel it, too? This tension hanging in the air between us? Like there’s an opportunity here for him to do the right thing.
“I’ll help you,” he tells me, and I close my eyes, breathing a long sigh of relief. I know it’s a whole hell of a lot away from actually making a difference yet, but it’s something—it’s the support I need to actually start to believe I can get through this.
“I don’t care what it takes, I’ll get your father out of there,” he continues, and I tighten my grip on his hand, making sure he can tell just how grateful I am for that.
“Thank you,” I breathe, though those words don’t feel even close to big enough for what’s going on inside me right now.
He shakes his head, clenches his jaw, and glances away from me. “Don’t make me regret it,” he mutters back, but there’s something in his eyes that tells me he doesn’t regret this. Not yet, at least.
In fact, there’s a whole lot going on in his eyes right now, a whole lot more than I ever expected when we first met. I can still remember slipping out, around the back of the bar, to intercept him, seeing him racking up that line on the dumpster. Not the sort of person I would have thought would ever be willing to help me with the nightmare my family is dealing with right now, but I can tell there’s more to him than I imagined.
I draw my hand back quickly, suddenly aware of how close we are sitting on the bed together. My cheek still smarts from the hit Rayo gave me, but the tears are beginning to dry up a little now.
I can see a way to my father, with Malo offering to help me like this. I can see a way to get him out. Alone, I knew I didn’t stand a chance, but with the help of the Kings by my side, Malo, I know it’s going to be different. It has to be.
At least, that’s what I have to keep telling myself, if I’m going to keep myself from going crazy.