****
“Argh, we have been out here for hours.” Genie switched her weight for the umpteenth time, desperate to keep her rear end from falling asleep.
Rafa chuckled. “I take it you’re not a fan of surveillance.”
“Not boring ones,” she muttered.
He laughed. It resonated in the small space of their car and now ranked as one of the most pleasant sounds her ears had ever heard. A side glimpse at his profile showed the humorous curve of his strong jaw, the slight upward tilt of his full lips, and a five o’clock shadow complimenting his tan skin. The previous team reported no change. Flores Cera was last seen entering the residence around five p.m. and hadn’t been seen since. No visitors. Genie glanced down at her watch. Ten p.m.
“Rafa?” She looked at him fully.
“Yeah?” he answered softly, adjusting his glasses before picking up the night-vision goggles and scanning the area around Flores Cera’s residence. “I really need to get LASIK,” he muttered.
“Tell me about your life. In California.”
She could hear his breath hitch before answering. “You don’t want to know about that,” he said, his eyes still on the house.
“Yes, I do. No judgments, I promise.”
He faced her with searching eyes. When his gleamed with approval, Genie knew Audrey was right. The years had changed him. Every time they were together, he’d proved that. His eyes held hers and deep within her, she felt her soul stirring… responding to him. She wanted to know everything: what he did, what had influenced him to turn his life around. When had he become so important to her? Genie felt her cheeks warming, as their gazes remained locked.
“I’ll tell you about my life if you tell me who hurt you in the past.”
Genie’s gaze wavered but she nodded. Fair trade, she supposed. He had expressed interest in her pain before and she had managed to avoid discussing Jeff. Genie checked her watch again. Ten ten p.m. They had plenty of time.
“What do you want to know?” he asked, looking again at the house.
Genie dragged in an unsteady breath. What was he willing to share? “Everything?”
“We could be here for a while.”
Genie scanned the area. The dark street offered no activity. “I don’t think we’re going anywhere.”
Rafa nodded. He reclined his seat, rested the back of his head on his arm, his dark eyes gazing up at hers. “How about you ask a specific question and I’ll answer.”
Genie searched his eyes, unsure whether she could believe he’d answer anything. “You don’t mind?”
“I have nothing to hide.”
Genie nodded and settled back in her seat. Even when they were in school, he intrigued her. Who he was, what he liked, why he was such a rebel. Like any other girl, his bad-boy quality held a certain appeal to her. Now with the chance to perhaps be more familiar with him than anyone else, her mind blanked.
A slow grin spread across his brown features. “Can’t think of anything?”
She laughed briefly and touched a cool hand to her warm cheek, grateful for the darkness. “I guess I can’t.”
“Okay, then. You probably already know why I went to California. I was too much of a punk for my mother and the influence I had over my baby brother Ricardo was getting to be more than she could handle. I thought being the king of some group was everything, until I got to California.”
“Then you were a tiny fish in a big pond?”
He flashed those trademark dimples. Goosebumps marked her flesh. “Something like that. There, my cousin was the king and the court he held was…” He looked out the window, the moonlight washing over the tense muscles in his neck. “It was like a bad dream. In Springfield, I was Danny Zuko in Grease, but there, there it was—”
“Reality,” she finished. Genie couldn’t begin to imagine the difference. Rafa described the Snakes as a smaller organization compared to some, but it wasn’t one run by a bunch of high school misfits. Genie snickered. “I can’t believe you referenced Grease.”
He laughed heartily. “I may have been a punk, but I’m cultured.” His laugh faded and the silence lengthened. Genie waited, hoping he'd continue. “I was really naïve back then and it caught up to me.”
Genie leaned closer to the center console. “What happened?”
Rafa cleared his throat. “Well, me and a few of the other new recruits were given menial tasks to prove our loyalty and that we could follow orders. One day, we were committing petty vandalism, when I just stopped.”
“Stopped?”
“The others were defacing some property and I just stood there watching them, wondering what I was doing and why I was there.” His eyes were warm with the tumult of emotions he felt. “There had to be more to life, right?”
Genie nodded. Her heart pounded, anticipating Rafa’s next words.
“So when the cops drove up and everyone ran, my feet were like stone. I couldn’t run. I didn’t want to run. So, I was arrested.”
“And?”
Rafa narrowed his eyes but the slight smile on his lips told her he wasn’t upset. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
Genie heated. “Not in the way you are thinking.”
Rafa grinned fully and once again put the night-vision goggles to his eyes. “It’s okay. My arresting officer was a Christian. On the way to the station, he told me I could have a different life, and I had a choice to make. Of course, I acted like I didn’t listen. I had a reputation to protect.”
“Of course, but your reputation didn’t matter once you got arrested, right?”
Rafa chuckled. “I suppose not. What reputation did a punk have worth protecting? But regardless, the seeds were sown. After being granted probation, I quit the Snakes and I decided to move away, get a real job, and go to school. I went to another family member’s house in San Diego and started college. Not long after, I was contacted by the police and asked if I wanted to assist them with their investigations in the drug trade, which the Snakes were a part of, as were other petty gangs. Apparently, my arresting officer remembered me from the day I got arrested and passed my name along to narcotics.”
“You agreed.”
“I did, and if I did my job well, I was promised a potential shot at a seat in the police academy.”
Genie sat back in her seat, stunned. “Wow. That’s quite a story.” So it wasn’t long after his arrival in California that Rafa began to turn his life around. He had been a changed man for some time. Her heart stirred with affection. Genie picked a spot near Flores’ house and focused on it. She couldn’t have feelings for him. Jeff taught her a valuable lesson: men were duplicitous.
“A few years later, I ran into my arresting officer while working the beat. I could see the gleam of satisfaction in his eyes as he took in my uniform.”
Genie searched the side of his face. Rafa met her gaze.
“You don’t know how embarrassing it was for me then.”
Genie smiled. “Oh, I think I can imagine. In fact, I wish I could have been there.”
“Officer Mike Jones was his name. He congratulated me on my changed course and my life has been more than blessed ever since.”
“Do you have any regrets?” she asked after a few minutes of silence.
“I do — many, actually. It’s been hard reconciling my life now with what I was back then. How I’ve treated my mother…” his voice dropped, heavy with remorse. “She says she forgives me, but it’s still hard to believe. I want to do what’s right. I want to do right by people.” She heard him swallow what she knew had to be a huge lump. “I’d like to forgive myself.”
Genie bit her lip. Forgiveness. A word she’d heard more than enough times in the last several years. One she had tried to ignore and thought it was successfully extinguished from her vocabulary… until Rafa reentered her life. Genie’s gaze flittered over a man whom she’d never imagined would have turned out like this. He had her rethinking her whole outlook on life, the way she treated her cowor
kers, letting go of the pain Jeff caused her.
His gaze met hers and held. “I want to move forward with what the future holds.”
His voice was husky and the breath in Genie’s lungs stilled. A tingly feeling traveled up her arms. She saw his eyes drift down to her lips. Before she dared to drop her gaze to his mouth, Genie settled back into her seat and forced air into her chest. Then a movement in the darkness caused her to angle forward. A dark shape darted around the neighbor’s front lawn.
“You see something?”
She snatched the goggles from his fingers and pointed them in the direction of the target house. “That’s gotta be Cera!”
Chapter Eleven
Rafael (The Santiago Brothers Book One) Page 23
