15. Deck - Age 18
Chapter fifteen
TWELVE-AND-A-HALF YEARS AGO
I parked my parents’ car a few blocks away from Chi-chi’s.
We always rolled with Cruz, so I didn’t think anyone would recognize the old beaten-down Subaru, but it didn’t hurt to be careful.
The late afternoon light shone too brightly to provide any cover, so I figured my best course was to walk into Chi-chi’s like usual.
Folks were used to seeing me there, and I doubted Chi-chi had spoken about our disagreement with too many people.
As I reached the porch, two girls I vaguely recognized stumbled out of the house.
“ Hola , Deck,” one of them said, holding the door open for me.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, squeezing past her into the entryway.
Four guys sat on the couches in the living room with controllers in their hands.
Some cartoonish-looking game was up on the flat screen, but none of them were playing.
One had his head lolled back on top of the couch, and the other three were staring into space, eyes glazed over.
They were there, but not really. I’d gotten used to the look of a heroin high since I’d started hanging out here, but people this messed up were usually in the basement.
It was rare for Chi-chi’s living room to be full of people yet so…
lifeless. The bong on the table wasn't uncommon, but this time, I also saw white powder, needles, spoons, and a lighter.
“Hey. Anyone seen Chi-chi? Or Bash?” I asked.
One guy turned his head my way but didn’t say anything. Dios , they were really gone. This was why I almost never went in the basement, why I was so pissed with Johnny and Eliazar for messing with this shit. These vatos were fucking zombies.
Unfortunately, they were zombies I needed to get information from.
Eliazar’s phone said he was in this house, but where?
I realized now my plan to rescue my friend had some flaws.
I’d been so eager to find him that I hadn’t really thought about what would happen once I did.
It wasn’t like I could fight everyone in this house, although I thought maybe I could handle the vegetables on the couch.
I had a vague idea to negotiate with Chi-chi.
Now that Cruz had agreed to pull the big job, Chi-chi couldn’t complain.
If he wanted us to keep working for him, I needed to convince him not to fuck with our friends.
Not that I wanted to keep working for Chi-chi, but I needed to buy time.
“Hey!” I tried again, a little louder. “Chi-chi or Bash around?”
I’d search the place if I had to, but a heads-up would be handy.
“Stop shouting, guapo .” One of Chi-chi’s girls, a woman named Nadia, approached me from the hallway.
“Chi-chi’s not here. Left yesterday and said he’d be gone a few days.
That’s why these idiotas”— she jerked her neck toward the couches—“thought they could bring their downstairs business upstairs.”
I tried to keep my voice level as I asked, “What about Bash? Seen him?”
Nadia’s forehead lifted. “Sure. He came in with your friend. The little guy. They went downstairs a while ago.”
Rage pumped through my veins. “They’re in the basement?”
Nadia gave me a puzzled look. “That’s right.”
Again, I kept my tone even. “I need to talk to him.”
Lighting a joint, Nadia took a deep inhale before holding it out. I was anxious to find Eliazar but didn’t want to give it away. Or go in totally blind. I took a quick hit, not enough to affect me.
“I know Bash is pretty quiet,” Nadia said, “but don’t mistake it. He’s just as dangerous as Chi-chi. I wouldn’t want him as an enemy.”
I blinked at her blunt words.
She kept her gaze on me as I asked, “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I like you, muchacho . It made me a little sad when Chi-chi brought you guys in. Not that anyone turns him down for anything.” She took another hit.
“And those guys on the couch over there know Chi-chi wouldn’t like them shooting up in his living room.
But they were a lot less afraid of pissing him off than they were of Bash when he ordered everyone out of the basement half an hour ago. ”
“He what?”
“I just said. He went down there with your amigo . Told them to fuck off. He didn’t want to be disturbed.”
I glanced at the door to the basement before staring back at her. “Eliazar’s one of my best friends.”
She nodded. “Your funeral.”
I took a deep breath and began walking through the kitchen.
Nadia called after me. “Deck—”
“Hmm?”
“When you get to the bottom of the stairs, there’s a metal baseball bat propped up in the corner.”
I dipped my chin. “Good to know.”
“You didn’t hear it from me.”
“No. I never even saw you today.”
I crept down the stairs one by one, gritting my teeth at every creak and groan of the old wood.
The bat was exactly where Nadia said it would be. I reached for it carefully.
The basement comprised one large main room and two walled-off corners that passed for small bedrooms. An old almond-colored washer and dryer were shoved up against the back wall. By some miracle, the dryer was running, which helped disguise the sound of my footsteps.
Mismatched couches and recliners were crammed into the main room, along with a scratched-up dining table Chi-chi used for “business.” I’d always assumed that meant cutting product, but since I didn’t spend much time down here, I didn’t know for sure.
The room was empty, and I could imagine Bash ordering people out exactly as Nadia described.
The zombies may have moved their most important stuff upstairs, but cans and bottles covered the coffee table.
Smoke swirled up from a giant ashtray in the center, where cigarettes had burned down into long, slender fingers of ash.
My heart thumped in time with the tumble of the dryer. I gripped the bat tighter.
Both bedroom doors were closed, but there was noise coming from behind one. As I neared it, I heard the crying sound clearly. Specifically, Eliazar crying.
“No… Fuck… Please.”
Everything in me wanted to barrel in there and put a stop to whatever was happening. But I had to be smart. I’d only have the element of surprise once. Bash had done me a favor by dismissing the potential audience from our encounter, so I needed to use that to my advantage.
Assuming I wasn’t too scared to use the bat.
I’d been in a few fights, but I didn't think of myself as a fighter. I punched when I had to, but didn’t love it or seek it out the way some guys did. My friends and I were more talkers. Well, maybe not Cruz. He loved to fight.
But Cruz wasn’t there, and I was. And I would fuck Bash up for hurting Eliazar.
“ Bash…pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease .”
The anguished whine strengthened my resolve, along with the loud slap that followed it.
Lifting the bat with my right hand, I threw open the door with my left, standing back.
Bash and Eliazar turned their heads toward me and froze.
Eliazar lay stomach down on the bed. Bash was on top of him, shoving Eliazar’s face into a dingy pillow while he fumbled to pull down Eliazar’s pants.
Bash’s jeans and boxers were already down to his knees.
The sight of Bash’s hairy ass in the air while he pushed Eliazar into the mattress had me seeing red.
“Deck, help,” Eliazar cried softly.
Everything happened in an instant. Before Bash could make a move, I raised the bat and brought it down forcefully over his back. For a split second, I thought about going for his head, but I had enough awareness to remember it would be a bad idea to murder the guy.
Even if he deserved it.
The hit across his spine was enough to have him screaming and crunching over onto the floor. I could have done without the flash I got of his tiny limp dick as he keeled over, though.
As soon as Bash fell off him, Eliazar hurried away from the bed like it was on fire.
“I’m sorry, Deck,” he rasped, reaching up to touch his throat. “He jumped me on the sidewalk.”
“Yeah. Chi-chi told Cruz that he gave him the okay.” I pulled Eliazar against my side. “And you’ve got nothing to be sorry for.”
From the floor, Bash groaned. “Chi-chi’s not gonna like this,” he snarled roughly. “There’s no place you’ll be able to hide.”
I lifted the bat and brought it down hard across one of Bash’s ankles. There was a satisfying crack of bone. “? Pedazo de mierda, violador !”
Bash opened his mouth as though to scream, but no sound came out. His face went sheet-white, and a moment later, he doubled over and went still. I assumed he’d passed out from the pain but wasn’t interested in making sure.
“Are you okay?” I asked Eliazar.
His answer was a silent tear falling from one eye. “I’m just glad you came,” he murmured.
“Me too.” I glanced at the floor by the bed and saw a bottle of lube. “Did I make it…in time?”
“Mm-hmm. It would have been better if I didn’t have to feel his prick against my jeans, but the pendejo wasn’t able to get it up to do anything. No telling what sort of whack shit he has in his system. He was getting pretty pissed right before you showed up.”
It was then I noticed red and purple marks on Eliazar’s face and arms. “You fought him?”
Eliazar shrugged. “As much as I could. Bash has like a hundred pounds on me… Oh, he also had a gun earlier. I don’t know where it is now.”
That surprised me. With as much as I’d been around Chi-chi, I knew he didn’t keep too many guns in the house.
Probably safer with all the randos and addicts coming and going.
I’d seen dozens of them tweak out and lose their fucking minds.
His guys took guns out on jobs. He’d loaned them to Cruz before, but I’d never known Bash to carry regularly.
“Where’s your phone?” I asked.
Eliazar pointed at a denim jacket flung over a bedpost. “Bash’s pocket. He took it away from me first thing.”
I reached into the coat and grabbed the phone near where Bash remained curled over.
“Are you okay to walk out of here? We need to leave before Bash can get up or make noise. I don’t know if the guys upstairs would help him, but I don’t want to chance it.”
“I’ll be fine.”
Eliazar seemed different. I realized it was the first time I’d seen him sober in a while.
We walked up the stairs. Even though it was a bit of a risk to keep it, I didn’t dare put the bat back down.
Nothing seemed amiss. The same four guys were still on the couches, the same video game still blared on the TV.
On our way through the kitchen, I caught Nadia’s eyes as she sat on the counter, sipping from a coffee mug. She looked down at the bat in my hand. Then she hopped off and walked into a back bedroom, shutting the door behind herself.
After we got to my car, I drove Eliazar to Burger King.
I knew he’d been running on adrenaline back at Chi-chi’s and wasn’t sure if he’d collapse as the night wore on.
He seemed out of it, but in a different way than when he was high.
He kept tugging on his shirt. Finally, he grunted in annoyance and pulled the tee off over his head, chucking it onto the floorboard of the car.
“Smelled like Bash,” he said.
I nodded. It was quiet between us until he popped the last bite of Whopper into his mouth and said, “Just so you know, Deck, I would have been okay if Bash had…done it. I’ve been through worse shit and come out okay.”
My stomach clenched. He said it without inflection, like him being able to power through getting raped was a casual topic of conversation.
I didn’t want to imagine what worse shit he’d been through, although I could guess.
He was so deep into the drugs now, same as Johnny.
I’d been trying to convince myself that someday, I’ll fix them , but everything kept getting worse.
I could blame the drugs, blame the app assholes, blame his parents, but really… For the billionth time, I wished I’d never met Chi-chi in that park.
Pulling out my phone to check in with Cruz, I saw a text from Cori letting me know Johnny had made it out alright. But then her next text said she was staying at the trailer. Something about her mom.
What the fuck?
ME: The trailer’s not safe. You can’t stay there.
She didn’t reply. I texted again.
ME: Hey I need to know you’re alright.
When Cori still didn’t message back, it set my senses on edge. She wouldn’t leave me on read. Not with everything going on.
“Eliazar, we need to go to Johnny’s.”
Eliazar released a hollow laugh. “You remember I’m homeless, right? I don’t care where we go.”
I gave him a meaningful look across the console. “You’re not homeless, hermano . Unless we all are, you’ll never be.”
He turned his face to the car window. “Thanks, Deck.” A beat later, he asked, “So I guess this means Cruz is pulling the job for Chi-chi?”
“Tonight.” I could barely spare a thought for that. At least, of all my friends, I trusted Cruz to handle himself the most.
“Think he’ll be okay?”
“I guess he’ll have to be. Chi-chi is a real fucking live wire lately. He never used to be so reckless.”
“Just like he and Bash never used to carry,” Eliazar said. “Now they do. Chi-chi wants to be big time. Or at least act like it.”
“You think that’s all it is?”
“I know so. He’s not complicated. You don’t spend much time in the basement, but I—”
“Eliazar, I can’t talk about how much time you spend in that basement tonight.”
He hung his head. “I know. I’m only saying that sometimes Bash and Chi-chi talk down there, because they figure everyone is so far gone. A few months ago, I heard Chi-chi explain to Bash how he wanted to pull bigger scores. Make real money.”
Eliazar shivered as he spoke. Meanwhile, I felt hot enough to erupt. I pulled my shirt off and handed it to Eliazar. He didn’t hesitate, slipping it over his head and burrowing into the fabric.
“Well, apparently his ambition has fried Chi-chi’s brain,” I said. “Because now he’s throwing people in dumpsters and letting his henchmen rape them to prove a point. He’s fucking loco , acting like we’re the enemy.”
Eliazar sighed his agreement. I was sure that, like me, he wondered how the hell we were ever going to get out from under Chi-chi’s thumb, especially after what I’d just done to Bash.
But that was tomorrow’s problem. For now, I needed to find out why Cori wasn’t texting me back.