by Jessie Cooke
“So what are you doing tonight little brother?”
“I don’t have any plans. I’ve got a big fight coming up. I’ve been kind of lying low.”
“We have to go out and catch up.” He looked at Alicia and said, “Just us guys.”
Alicia set her lips in a pout and Cruz said, “I’ll give you some money and you can hit the stores inside all these casinos. Shop to your hearts delight.” I was surprised to see how happy that seemed to make her. The Alicia I used to know was never interested in material things. I let my eyes take in the jumpsuit she was wearing. It looked expensive and fit like it was made for her. At first I thought she was taller than I remembered her. On further inspection I saw she was wearing a pair of designer shoes with a six inch heel and carrying a purse that said, “Gucci” on the little gold tag in front. I guess people change.
“Okay then,” I told my brother. “Just give me a bit to shower and I’ll meet you back up front when I’m ready.” I looked at Alicia, “It was good seeing you, Alicia. Welcome to Las Vegas.”
She gave me a dazzling smile and then hooked her arm through my brother’s. I headed for the shower and I could feel those big eyes watching me. As I stood under the spray I couldn’t help but wonder if her hooking up with Cruz was some kind of revenge for me leaving her, or if that was just plain and simple arrogance and wishful thinking on my part.
5
Kane
It wasn’t exactly the way I had envisioned a reunion with my brother, but that was on me. Since I know my brother, I should have known he’d want to go to a strip club. I guess in my naïve little brain I thought since he happened to be walking around with the most beautiful girl in the world on his arm; he shouldn’t need any other female intervention. But again, this was Cruz I was talking about. Really nothing he did would surprise me.
I was sitting underneath the strobe lights not far from the stage; nursing a beer and watching a very hot black girl take off her clothes. When I first got to Vegas, I bought a fake I.D. just so I could get inside of these places. Now here I was six years older and two years past the legal drinking age, wishing my brother wanted to have a nice quiet dinner and catch up. We’d barely even talked about what had been going on in our lives before he said he’d be right back and took off. That was over half an hour earlier.
I sat in the booth alone, feeling like one of those perverts who sits in the dark and masturbates while he watches the girls dance. I kept both of my hands above the table to make sure people knew that wasn’t what I was doing as I wondered where the hell my brother had disappeared to.
“Hey gorgeous, are you looking for some company?”
I looked up into the unnaturally blue eyes of a blonde in very little clothing. She was a working girl, I’d been in Vegas long enough to be able to tell at a glance. I took another pull off my beer and let my eyes travel from her platinum blonde hair down to her hot pink toes. She was what might be known as voluptuous. My dick was instantly hard, but as much as I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on all of that, I drew the line at paying for sex.
“Thanks, but I’m waiting for someone.” She wasn’t going to take a simple no for an answer. She slipped into the booth next to me and ran a long, hot pink fingernail down my arm.
“Does he look like you?”
“Who?”
“The guy you’re waiting for, or is it a woman?”
I took another drink of my beer. My mouth was dry. I was calculating how much money I had in my wallet. “It’s a guy. He’s my brother, so yeah he looks a bit like me.” The truth is that although Cruz and I have some of the same features, he doesn’t look even a little bit Mexican. He’s got sandy brown hair and dark blue eyes. It’s one reason the women in Mexico were so crazy about him even though he had a tendency to treat them like shit. He looked so different from the rest of us. My shoulder length brown hair and dark eyes didn’t do much to set me apart from the other men in Mexico. The fact that I was six four and over two-fifty helped matters, but back in those days I only had eyes for Alicia. Since I’d been in Vegas it was the lighter skinned white girls who came on to me. After sex I’d lay there and look down at their light hair and skin against my dark chest or thighs and I could appreciate the contrast. When I’d looked into Alicia’s eyes again it was apparent to me that contrasts were way overrated.
I felt the blonde hooker’s hand drop to my upper thigh. She raked her fingernails up and down over my jeans, going higher with each stroke. My cock was aching. I looked around again for my brother. I couldn’t just ditch him and go off with a hooker. I felt her lean in close to me and press her lips against the lobe of my ear. I shuddered. “I have a room upstairs baby. Give me an hour and I’ll take you to heaven.”
I smiled. “I’m sure you would, but I’m here with my brother.”
“Mm, invite him too. That would be hot.”
The thought of fucking the same woman as my brother took my mind back to Alicia. I had a sudden visual of her and Cruz together. That took care of the throbbing erection in my jeans. It was gone, just like that. I grabbed the hooker’s hand just before she laid it down over my cock and put it up on the table. “This isn’t going to happen tonight baby. I need to find my brother.”
She sighed heavily and pouted. I had scoot her out of the booth to get to my feet.
“I’ll be here all week,” she said as I walked away. I chuckled, only in Vegas.
I looked around in the dark, crowded club but I didn’t see Cruz anywhere. I decided to check the bathroom and if he wasn’t there I was leaving his ass there and going home. I wandered around for a good ten minutes before I found the bathrooms in the back.
There was a line for the women’s bathroom which wasn’t surprising. I was surprised to see three college-looking guys standing in front of the doorway of the men’s room. One of them had his ear pressed up against the door. I stopped behind them and said,
“What’s going on in there?”
One of the guys turned around and said, “Uh, I’m not sure.” The other guy laughed and said,
“Some big ass dude is getting his knob polished by one of the strippers.”
Fuck! “Excuse me.” I moved them out of the way and pushed open the door. My feeble-minded sex addict brother hadn’t even thought to lock it. When I stepped inside I was greeted by the sight of a round naked white ass and a lot of dark hair with my brother’s fingers wrapped up in it. He was leaning up against the wall with his eyes closed and encouraging her in Spanish. “Jesus, Cruz!”
He opened his eyes. The chick on her knees didn’t even flinch. She just kept right on slurping. He smiled at me and said, “Give me five more minutes and then you can take your shot Pappy.”
Feeling sick to my stomach I turned around and pushed my way back through the crowd. The smell of stale sweat, beer and whiskey assaulted my senses and made me even sicker by the time I hit the front door. Once I made it outside I sucked in the fresh night air. Fuck! Everything in my life had been going so well, but now Cruz Diaz had entered the building and I was certain that things were not going to be the same.
After the nausea had passed I made my way to the SUV and climbed into the driver’s seat. I sat there arguing with myself. Part of me wanted to go straight to Alicia and tell her my brother was making a fool of her. What the hell was she doing with him anyways? The other part of me wanted to say that if he’d been with anyone other than Alicia, I wouldn’t give a damn if he was screwing around on her or not. Did the loyalty to the first woman I had sex with years ago trump the loyalty I felt for my brother? As I pondered that thought, the passenger door opened and my brother jumped in.
“Hey Pappy, why’d you take off like that?” His speech was slurred. I didn’t think we’d been in the club long enough for him to be drunk already. I wondered what else he was using.
I shook my head at the mess he still was. “Are you kidding? I walked in on you having sex with a stripper.”
“She was just relieving some pressure for
me, bro. She would have sucked you off too. Maybe that’s what’s wrong with your attitude.”
“My attitude, do you hear yourself? Do you know what a pervert you are?”
He rolled his eyes. “Jeez, growing up with that old hypocrite really messed you up kid.”
“Don’t call me that. I’m twenty-three and you’re twenty-four. I’m no more a kid than you are. I’m not messed up either. My Papa is not a hypocrite. He taught me how to treat a woman. It’s about respect, Cruz. You’re supposed to be with Alicia, aren’t you?”
He rolled his eyes. “Oh, I see what this is about. You still have the hots for my girl.”
It pissed me off to hear him call her his girl. “I don’t have the hots for her, but the Alicia I knew was a good girl. She didn’t deserve to be treated like this. No woman does, actually. That is what our father taught me. You love to call him a hypocrite for a mistake he made twenty years ago, but look at you. You seethe with hate for him over screwing around on your mother and leaving her for mine. You blame him for everything bad that happened in your life because of that. I never doubted that you had a reason to be angry with him about that, but now here you are doing the same thing to Alicia.” I stepped out of the truck and started to walk away. I heard the passenger door open and then close. In seconds he was behind me.
“It’s not the same. He was married to my mother. He had a kid. He didn’t just cheat on her. He didn’t just fuck her life up. He didn’t care enough about his kid to keep his old dick in his pants. He took my father and my mother away from me.”
“He didn’t take your mother.”
“Do you even know what happened to my mother? Do you know where she was when she died?”
I turned around and looked at him. “She died in a car accident. I was five years old, so no I don’t know where she was. I’m sorry you lost her Cruz.”
“She died in a fucking car accident on the way back from Mexico the day she found out about you and your fucking whore mother.”
I clenched my fists at my sides. I wanted to defend my mother, even though what Cruz said about her was the truth. Instead I said, “No, she never knew about us.” That’s what my Papa told me later in life when I asked him. He was remorseful when he talked about it. He told me that being with my mother had been a mistake, but when he found out about me, he couldn’t walk away.
“She did know! He’s a fucking liar if that’s what he told you. She found out that day. The day she died. We were living in Texas and Papa had gone off on another one of his business trips. She got a call from someone who told her about your mother. I don’t know who it was, but I heard her crying and I heard her tell the neighbor that she left me with, that she was going down to Mexico to find out for herself what was going on. I was too young then to put it all together. All I knew was that my mother never came home and my fucking father came and took me to a strange fucking place on top of a fucking mountain and told me it was my home. He introduced me to a little brown boy that he fucking doted on and told me he was my brother. But I figured it all out when I got older and I confronted him about it. He admitted that she’d been there that day. There had been a big scene. She was driving home, back to me when she ran off the road and flipped her car. She’s dead because that motherfucker couldn’t keep his dick in his pants and I will never forgive him for that.”
“If everything you’re saying is true…”
“It is!”
“Then why can’t you see that you should treat women with more respect? You’re just like him, Cruz.”
He drew his fist back so quickly that I didn’t see it coming. I felt the impact of it as it slammed into the side of my face and I was knocked to the ground. I was so pissed and the fight instinct in me was so strong that when someone took a swing at me I didn’t stop to consider the fact that it was my brother. I scrambled to my feet and launched myself at him. I caught him with my fist underneath his jaw. He called me a motherfucker in Spanish and wrapped me up in his big arms and threw me back on the hood of the truck and began pummeling me. I managed to lift my right foot up and get off a kick. I planted my foot in the center of his chest and he was propelled backwards. Blood was pouring out of my nose as I stood up and watched him struggle to his feet. A crowd was gathering. It suddenly dawned on me that someone was going to call the police. He stumbled towards me with his own blood streaming out of his nose and down his chin. I could already hear sirens approaching in the distance. He swung on me again and I ducked. I came back at him with a right hook to his ribs. While he was doubled over trying to catch his breath I opened the car door and said,
“Cruz, la policía. ¡Entra!” He heard police. He stumbled over to the truck and clumsily pulled himself up into it. I jumped into the driver’s side and before he’d even closed his door, I barreled out of the lot.
6
Kane
“Hey Buddy! Can you hear me?”
I opened my eyes. There was a face above me that I didn’t know and the night was screaming with noise. Something inside my chest hurt like a son of a bitch. Was it a fight? Did I get knocked out? I squinted and tried to lift my head and look around.
“Sir, can you hear me? You need to keep your head still. I’m going to put this brace on you, okay?”
I could hear him, but for some reason I couldn’t seem to remember how to respond to him. There was suddenly another face looming over me. This one was older and wearing a different uniform. A cop maybe?
“¿Puedes escucharme? ¿Cómo te llamas?” Yes, I can hear you in both English and Spanish. My name is Kane Diaz. Shit! Where is Cruz? Cruz was just with me. We were fighting in the parking lot and running from the cops. Why can’t I fucking talk?! “I need you to blink if you can hear me,” the cop said and then he repeated it in Spanish, “Blink si puedes oírme.”
I blinked. It fucking hurt. I thought my nose was broken. Cruz broke it. Shit! Where is Cruz?
“I need to get his vital signs,” the man in the blue uniform moved the cop out of the way. It was making me dizzy looking up at their faces. “My name is Jeremy. I’m an EMT,” he said as he wrapped a cuff around my arm. “Do you understand me?” I blinked. “Good. You’ve been in a car accident. We’re going to take you to the hospital, okay?”
I blinked again. I felt the hard board I was laying on being raised up and sat back down on a stretcher. As I was being wheeled to the ambulance I saw my truck. It looked like a tin can. The passenger side of it was destroyed. Jesus! Where the fuck was my brother? The cop was looming over me once more. “Is your name Kane Diaz?” Brilliant, he finally checked my I.D. I blinked. “Have you been drinking tonight Mr. Diaz?”
“You can ask for blood at the ER,” the EMT told him. “I’m going to need you to step back right now Officer Davis, we need to get him to the hospital.” Was I drinking? Yeah, we went to the strip club. I remembered that. I only had a beer or maybe two. Cruz and I got in a fight and the police came and we ran. Why couldn’t I remember anything else? Where was my brother?
I felt the gurney being lifted up and into the ambulance. I opened my mouth and with a lot of effort I asked, “Wh-wh-where is my brother?” It came out as a whisper and at first I wasn’t sure if they even heard me. The back end of the bus was slammed shut and the EMT, Jeremy, I think, shushed me and said,
“Don’t try to talk right now. You have a head and neck injury. Just lie still. We’re going to get you some help.”
He was sticking a needle in my arm. I fucking hate needles. “Wha-what is that?”
“Just getting the IV started so when you get to the ER they can give you what they need to give you. I’m going to start some fluids for now just to keep you hydrated.” I wanted to ask about Cruz again but I waited until he finished starting the IV and I felt the rush of cold fluids course through my veins.
“My brother.”
“Mr. Diaz, relax.” The siren suddenly came on. I’d never been inside of something that was wailing like that. It was super fucking loud and my head fe
lt like it might explode. We had to be doing a hundred miles an hour. I could feel every bump and grate in the road. How fucking badly was I hurt? Where was my brother? I wished I could scream it out and make them listen to me. Where was he? I felt the panic welling up inside of my chest as I remembered what the passenger side of the truck looked like.
“Please, where is my brother?”
“I don’t know Mr. Diaz.”
“The man with me. The passenger in my truck. My brother!”
“You need to calm down Mr. Diaz. Your blood pressure and heart rate are both way too high.” I was talking again but he was on his phone. I could hear him say they were five minutes out. He reported my blood pressure and pulse and I heard him ask for an order for a sedative.
“No! Please, I don’t want anything. I want to know where my brother is. Where is my brother?” I watched as he put a needle into the IV tubing in my arm. I tried to reach up and stop him, but I couldn’t move. They had me strapped down like a mental patient. “Please don’t do that. I need to know where my brother is.”
The EMT was still on the phone. I felt the burn of the medication going into my vein. I closed my eyes and tried to remember what had happened. I couldn’t remember anything about an accident. The last thing I remembered was leaving the parking lot of the strip club as the police were pulling in. Cruz was with me. I didn’t think I was drunk. I was sure I only had two beers.
The sirens stopped and suddenly the door of the ambulance was pulled open and a whole slew of new faces and bodies dressed in colorful medical scrubs hovered above me. I was pulled out of the ambulance and I could hear the EMT giving them the scoop on my injuries and vital signs. I was wheeled into the open double doors of the hospital and parked in a cubicle. I was being poked and prodded and every fucking thing hurt.
