5. Everything I Have Is Yours
5
EVERYTHING I HAVE IS YOURS
Dahlia
The Present
T he tension is almost suffocating.
Alejandro and Rian stand on opposite sides of the kitchen, Alejandro leaning against the wall near the pantry, and Rian using the island as support while I bandage his arm. It was only a flesh wound, nothing a bit of peroxide can’t cure. For now, he should consider himself lucky his life was spared. Alejandro caught himself at the last second but I don’t doubt he’s choreographing a million different ways to strangle Rian to death in his mind. Indiscriminate murder is a favorite pastime of his.
I manage a glance at him over Rian’s shoulder. He’s twitching like an atomic bomb with seconds left on its timer. On cue, he finally explodes.
“You’re dating Rian O’Neil.”
I drop the gauze on the counter and meet his gaze head on. “More like fucking. Hard, well, and often.”
Rian’s head snaps around. He narrows his eyes at me, conveying his displeasure.
Alejandro opens his mouth, presses his lips together, then blurts, “What the fuck is wrong with your hair?”
Feeling defensive, I touch one of the strands. “This is my natural color.”
“It looks like shit.”
I slam the first aid kit shut and step out from behind the counter. “What the fuck are you doing here anyway? Why didn’t your plane crash in the Atlantic?”
He makes a flippant gesture in Rian’s direction. Disgust and disbelief flicker across his hardened features. “?Esto es lo que has estado haciendo todo este tiempo? ?Coqueteando con cualquier Fulano que se cruce en tu camino? ?En serio?”
Rian turns to him. “Narvaez?—”
“Lo que hago con mi vida no es asunto tuyo. Ya no estamos juntos, ?recuerdas?” I fire back. “Ahora sal de mi casa o te saco yo.” I snap my fingers with quickness. “Out. Now.”
“ English, ” Rian blurts. “Please?—”
“?No me voy de aquí hasta que hablemos tú y yo!” Alejandro argues. “Así que dile a tu maldito juguete que se largue, antes que le ponga una bala en la cabeza.”
“? No me hables así !” I scream, our voices overlapping. “And slow down, you know I can’t understand you when you talk that fast!”
Rian interjects. “ I can’t understand you. Either of you?—”
Alejandro and I nearly lunge on him. “ Shut up! ”
He startles and seals his lips.
“I cannot believe you shot my boyfriend. Are you out of your mind? You could’ve killed someone.”
“?Novio? ?Tu novio ?” he mimics, voice dripping with disgust. “Primero muerto . Dile a tu güerito mocoso que salga para que podamos hablar.”
“He’s bleeding.”
“He’ll survive,” Alejandro fires back.
I almost tell him to fuck off. To jump in front of a moving train, take a gander at breathing under water, eat a bullet from his gun.
Almost.
My jaw clenches and I turn to Rian. “Are you all right getting home?”
There’s an edge to his voice when he says, “Are you serious?”
“We need to speak and we can’t do that with a third person in the way,” I reply.
Rian’s tone is practically lethal. “ In the way ?” he annunciates.
I give him a pleading look. “Rian.. . ”
I know he sees this as me prioritizing Alejandro, but we haven’t seen each other in person since I left last year and there’s a lot we need to talk about. I had intended for most of our correspondence to go through our lawyers from now on but seeing as he’s already here, we might as well take care of things in person. Gino said he emailed Alejandro’s lawyers late this afternoon to let them know we were accepting his offer on the Barcelona house. Alejandro has a nonexistent sleep schedule so it wouldn’t surprise me if he was working around the clock and found out somehow. Which means it took him less than ten hours to jump on a plane and fly over here…
I try not to think of how my heart flutters at the thought.
I swallow the lump forming in my throat. “Please do this for me. I promise I’ll explain later.”
Rian’s gaze travels between Alejandro and me. Resigned to the situation, he must decide it isn’t worth a fight, especially not in front of Alejandro. Rian picks up his suit jacket and coat and leaves.
How do they know each other? And why didn’t I know this before?
An awkward silence ensues so I busy myself with cleaning up the counter and Alejandro makes himself comfortable. I hate that.
He takes off his coat and drops it on the back of one of the kitchen stools. Then his blazer to reveal the turtleneck underneath and he pushes the sleeves all the way up to his elbows.
This is my house. My private, sacred, sanctuary and there he stands, getting undressed as if he’s home for dinner.
“You accepted my offer.”
So, he does know. “Yes.”
“And the other properties?”
“I’m selling them.”
“Why?” The word leaves him short of breath.
I rest my palms on the counter and meet his gaze. “Alex. It’s been a year.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means being financially supported by an ex-boyfriend while I’m in a different relationship isn’t normal. I’m not yours to take care of anymore and?—”
“You are always going to be mine to take care of. Whether you’re with me or not.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose and take a measured breath for patience. “Look, this is my fault. At first I was angry and I was acting out. I shouldn’t have spent months going on spending sprees just to piss you off. It was excessive and unnecessary and?—”
“You can do whatever you want. Todo lo que tengo es tuyo.”
“We’re separated. You understand that, don’t you?”
He gives a light shrug.
Irritation fizzles through my blood stream. I mimic his indifferent shrug as my eyes shoot daggers at him. “What is this? What does this mean?”
“It means whatever you want it to mean, Dahlia.”
“For once, I need you to listen to me and absorb what I’m saying. We are over. I’m dating someone else now.” I tap my temple. “Is it permeating that thick skull of yours or do I need to get a hammer and nails?”
“Mira Dahlia, I think I’ve indulged you for long enough.”
I scoff in disbelief. “ Indulged me?”
“I let you be for the last year because I know you’re angry. It’s what you do. Every time I piss you off you throw a temper tantrum to punish me. I indulged the traveling, the spending, turned a blind eye to the drinking and the partying. But I draw the line at a fucking boyfriend, Dahlia,” he says. “Now go upstairs, pack your shit, and wrap it up. Because we’re going home.”
I wish I had words for the insanity I’m witnessing. I can’t describe it. “Oh, you’re out of your mind. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
“?Basta, Dahlia! Me tienes harto con tus estupideces. I’m not fucking around with you.”
If not for the fact that I truly believe he’s had some sort of mental breakdown, I think I’d strangle him to death with his own belt. “I’m going to say this very slowly and you need to listen to me.”
He swears under his breath.
“You and me? We’re done. Over. Have been for a year. I’m returning everything to you, including this house,” I gesture around us. “I don’t want anything from you. Not anymore.”
He drags a hand down the length of his face. “You’re making a mistake.”
“My mistake was going back to Spain with you after Karina’s wedding,” I answer calmly.
His head snaps up and he takes a sharp intake of breath. His pupils expand until they nearly swallow the irises whole, turning his otherwise light eyes midnight black.
“Why are you here?” I ask him.
“Dahlia…don’t do this. We can fix?—”
“Fix what? Did you think coming here after a year was going to make me love you again?”
A moment passes. “I wasn’t aware you ever stopped.”
“You need to leave.”
“I’m not leaving until we fix this.”
“There’s nothing to fix. You show up here, wait in my bedroom in the dark, shoot Rian, make outrageous demands. You’re fucking crazy!”
“ Yes! ” he exclaims. “Yes, I am fucking crazy! And you’re even fucking crazier if you think I’m letting you go! Much less for the likes of Rian O’Neil, ese maldito traidor. Te conozco, Dahlia, y sé que esta vida te da asco. You thought living with me was bad?”
I clench my teeth, resisting the urge to scream from the top of my lungs, but curiosity gets the better of me. What does he know about Rian that I don’t?
“Barcelona is child’s play next to New York and Rian’s their ringleader. There are no twelve families here, no code of honor, no ethics. Rian won’t protect you from his world the way I protected you from mine. He’ll expect you to either assimilate or die trying.”
“Well…it’s my problem, isn’t it?” I extend my hand to him. “Key. Now.”
There’s no way he got in here without one. Do?a Ana is asleep downstairs and Lyss is staying over her cousin’s house in Long Island which means neither one of them let him in. Lyss sure as Hell wouldn’t—I’d have gotten a phone call the second he showed up at our doorstep.
Realizing he doesn’t have another way out of this, Alejandro digs into his pocket and produces a silver key. He stretches out his hand, the key resting in the center of his palm, and when my fingertips brush against his skin, a bolt of electricity runs through us both. He stills and we look down, our gazes catching on the scars that formed and never quite healed.
Our eyes meet and in an instant, I know we’ve both been thrust back into the same memory.
The fire.