Her Passionate Hero

by Caitlyn O'Leary

That stopped her short. She looked at him in confusion. Good. At least he didn’t need to hear her trotting out the same old shit. He picked up her hand and placed it back on the side of his head.

  “Go back to what you were doing. You were giving me comfort, remember?”

  She gave a shy nod.

  “Now, can I hold you?”

  “You’re a devious bastardo, you know that, don’t you?” she said as she melted into his arms.

  “All’s fair, Cariña. All’s fair.”

  Chapter Nine

  Aliana was awake from her nap, looking at an email from her insurance company when her phone vibrated with a text. It was Hunter. He and Dalton were outside, he’d seen her light come on, and wondered if he could give her an update on what he’d learned. She told him to give her ten minutes, and she’d open the door for him.

  By the time he knocked softly on the front door, she had cocoa and coffee on the stove along with the fixings for a ham sandwich and more of her grandmother’s Marlenka honey cake.

  “You got all of this done in ten minutes? Just what all do you get accomplished in a day at your job?”

  “What can I get for you?” How could his words embarrass her and make her happy at the same time?

  “Definitely coffee and please God say you don’t make it like Beatrice Price.”

  “What are you talking about? She makes good coffee.”

  “Oh yeah, she said she made it special for us because we’re sailors. Never let her make the sailor batch. It won’t just put hair on your chest, it’ll put hair on your palms.”

  She giggled. “What else do you want?”

  “Load me up.”

  “Do you always wear a gun?” she asked. She saw the butt of it under his jacket as he sat down at the table.

  “I have a permit to carry a concealed weapon. I kind of feel naked without it. It comes in handy even at the most innocent events imaginable. I’ll tell you the story about a friend’s wedding sometime.”

  “A wedding? You needed a gun at a wedding?”

  “It’s a long story,” he said, taking the mug of coffee she offered.

  “You’re joking me.”

  “Oh, Cariña, I wish I was. It was a scary twenty minutes.”

  “Scary?”

  “I hate it when women and children are involved, and this time there was a newborn.”

  “Are they okay?”

  “We had one fatality, but not the ladies or the baby.”

  She went to him, and put her arm around him, resting her cheek on his silky hair. She could tell that even the one death still weighed heavy on him.

  “But you saved so many.” She still didn’t understand how they needed guns at a wedding, but if he wasn’t sharing, she wouldn’t probe.

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  She kissed the top of his head and straightened.

  “How big of a sandwich?”

  He looked up at her and winked. “I’m a growing boy.”

  “Big sandwich coming up.”

  When she set the plate in front of him, he raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you going to have anything?”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “Did you eat anything when you came in earlier?”

  “No, I went to bed. I wasn’t feeling well.”

  “When was the last time you’ve eaten?”

  She thought about it. “I had a snack before you picked me up.”

  “What?”

  “A banana.”

  “No wonder you’re so slim.” He got up from the table. “Do you want a mug of cocoa?”

  Now that she thought about it, that sounded good. “What about a piece of cake?”

  “No, that’s too sweet.”

  “Some toast?”

  She started to push up from the table. Toast sounded really good, especially with peanut butter. Peanut butter toast with hot chocolate. Heaven.

  “The lady wants toast,” he chuckled. “Don’t you dare get up. Sit your tushie back down, I’m making it.”

  “I want peanut butter on my toast,” she called out.

  “Done.”

  She watched him putz around the kitchen, he was very efficient. He only had to open two cabinets to find the peanut butter and bread. He had the toast up in no time.

  “Here you go,” he said, placing the cocoa and toast in front of her. He sat back down beside her. Up was down, and black was white. She was being an idiot because after spending twenty minutes in the car trying to push him away, she was happy they were sitting so close, their legs were touching. She definitely needed Lottie’s professional services.

  She watched as he took his first bite of the sandwich.

  “Avocados, this is fantastic, Alia. Do you cook?”

  “Yep. Mom taught me. I make a lot of Czechoslovakian dishes, but when I was in college, I shared an apartment my senior year with a girl, and she and I experimented with a lot of Italian and good old-fashioned meat and potatoes types of food. I think we got good at it. Of course, when Maminka came to live with me, I started cooking Czechoslovakian again.”

  “Would I like that?”

  “I don’t know. We use a whole different spice pallet than Mexican food.”

  “Will you cook for me?”

  “Sure, I guess.”

  “Great, it’s a date,” he smiled.

  “You don’t let up, do you?”

  “Giving up is not an option, it’s in the SEAL rule book.”

  She needed to change the subject.

  “Tell me what you found out from Nicolas, after you dropped me off. Did you find Darla?”

  This time Hunter blew out a breath. “We’ll get to Darla. First, let’s talk about what we found.”

  “How bad?”

  “I’ve seen better, I’ve seen worse. He offered us both a snack, and the fridge was full. He suggested we sit down at their dining table, but Zed and I were sure if we sat in the chairs, we’d break them.”

  “That bad?”

  “These weren’t second-hand. The table and chairs had to have been picked up from the street, but there was a cheery tablecloth on the table and a chipped vase with wildflowers. Even a sunflower.” Hunter grinned up at her when he mentioned that last item.

  Aliana chose to ignore him. “You can tell his mom makes sure her children are dressed well for school though. That kind of thing is important to her. Even Mateo was always well dressed. Did Nicolas tell you anything about him?”

  “Mateo hasn’t been around much anymore. Nicolas thinks Mateo might actually marry his girlfriend because he didn’t crash at their place the last few months like he used to.”

  “I wouldn’t have thought coming home to Mama would have been Mateo’s style,” Aliana commented.

  Hunter motioned for Aliana to eat. They munched in silence. Aliana savored her treat, she hadn’t realized how hungry she’d been. Midway through her toast, Hunter got up and retrieved her empty mug and refilled it.

  “Here,” he said as he sat back down.

  “Do you want another sandwich?” she asked.

  “I’m good.”

  She finished her toast and cocoa. “Thank you so much. This was just what I needed.”

  “You don’t take care of yourself.”

  “You sound like Lottie.”

  “I like your friend. Zed made a play for her this afternoon when we were asking about Nicolas. She turned him down, said she was dating Ernie. Just made him want her more. We both admired her loyalty.”

  She was relieved not to be talking about herself. He put his hand over hers.

  “I’m glad you have a friend who worries about you. You have too much responsibility and not enough people watching out for you.”

  “Hardly,” she dismissed. “I take care of myself just fine.”

  Hunter just gave her a considering look. She took advantage of it and continued.

  “Let’s get back to Nicolas and his living conditions. Not only does his mom keep him in clothes and food, he plays an instr
ument. The rent on those things isn’t cheap.”

  “You’re determined not to talk about yourself, aren’t you?” Hunter sighed.

  “Yes, I am,” she said firmly. “Tell me about their apartment.”

  “Three small bedrooms, one bathroom.”

  “How did you find that out?”

  “I said I had to use the facilities.”

  She should have realized that. “Go on.”

  “While Zed kept him talking, I peeked into the rooms. One room had two bookshelves and a pretty old computer. It was clearly Nicolas’ room. The mom’s room is exactly what you’d expect. Neat and tidy, a crucifix over the bed. But Darla’s? It was damn near all black. Is she a goth chick?”

  “She wasn’t when she went to Bertrum.”

  “Yeah, I didn’t think so. There was a family picture on the wall, and she was wearing pink. Nicolas doesn’t look much like his brother or his father. It looked like it was taken two or three years ago and he was already about his father’s height.”

  “What are you talking about? Nicolas is nowhere near Mark’s size.”

  “Who’s Mark?”

  “Nicolas’ father. I met him about four months ago.”

  “Nicolas said his father is dead. He specifically pointed to the man in the picture and said he’d died two years ago.”

  “Then he wasn’t Nicolas’ father. I met his father. He stood in the back of the auditorium when Nicolas got the Clancy Bertrum Award for his paper on Climate Change.”

  “Are you positive he was his dad? Then who was in the photo?” Hunter asked.

  “I don’t know, but there was no doubt the man I met was Nicolas’ dad, he was the spitting image of him. I went up and introduced myself to him. Mark even smiled like Nicolas. It was funny, from a distance he seemed like bad news, but he was nice as can be when I talked to him. He was really proud of Nicolas. That day I told him Nicolas had a real shot at getting a scholarship to college.”

  “How did he respond when you told him about the scholarship?”

  “He told me that I shouldn’t fill his son’s head full of dreams that couldn’t possibly come true. I told him he needed to come to my office to discuss this because I had statistics to show him. I also wanted to go over Nicolas’ records with him.”

  “Jesus, were you going to show him a fucking PowerPoint presentation?”

  “Just a printout of one,” she defended. “It doesn’t matter. He told me college wasn’t on the horizon for Nicolas, then I explained how I thought it was possible that with the right effort, he could get a full scholarship. I could see that Mark was getting angry, so I chose to back off. I suggested we meet the following week. I gave him my card, but he never called.”

  “I wonder who the guy at the apartment was?” Hunter muttered.

  Aliana thought it through. Neither Darla nor Mateo looked anything like Nicolas. Nor did they have any of his acumen or personality traits.

  “So, Mrs. Garcia cheated on her husband? That doesn’t sound right.” Aliana tried to work it through her head. She’d met Ana Garcia on multiple occasions. She was deeply religious and hard-working. She cared deeply for her children. She got up from the table and started pacing. “This is so not adding up. There is no way Ana Garcia would have cheated. I would bet my 401k.”

  “Okay, so she doesn’t cheat. Mark’s the dad. What else you got?”

  “When I really think it through, I can believe she’s Darla and Mateo’s mom, but not Nicolas’. You saw the wedding picture, does she look like Nicolas?”

  “No, they don’t look alike. Are you thinking he isn’t her kid? You’re thinking this Mark guy gave him to Ana to raise?”

  “If I have to guess, Mark’s probably not more than your age.”

  “Great, babies having babies.” Now Hunter stood up, walked over to Aliana, and looked her in the eye. “There’s one more piece to this fun little puzzle, Alia.”

  “Shoot.”

  “The name of Los Demonios gang leader is San Marco.”

  Aliana felt her eyes go big. Was he kidding? It couldn’t be, but she remembered back to the day in the office when Nicolas said he was born into the gang that it was his family. Is that what he meant. Maybe he meant someone more than just Mateo.

  “God, this would explain so much.”

  “Sure as hell would,” he agreed. “Mateo is going pretty hot and heavy trying to bring his supposed brother back into the fold, and they’re using a lot more gang resources than normal.”

  “Hunter, I think that Nicolas knows. I think he knows that Mark, I mean San Marco is the leader of the gang, and he’s his father.”

  “Come sit back down and tell me why you think that.” She sat next to Hunter, their knees once again touching. Hunter grabbed her hand, smiling into her eyes. “Now tell me.”

  “It was something Nicolas said in my office. He said he was born into the gang that they were his family. At the time, I thought he was referring to Mateo, but now I think he might have been talking about his real dad.”

  “I need to track down San Marco, and the only way I can think to do this is to find Mateo. Nicolas thinks that Darla might know who his girlfriend is.”

  “Great, it’s like we have to keep pulling the string—find Darla to find the girlfriend to find Mateo to find San Marco. This is crazy,” Aliana huffed. “Does Nicolas have any idea when Darla is going to be home.”

  “Add one more person to the string. We have to find her friend Ynez. According to Nicolas, Mateo and Darla got into a big fight, and Darla’s been MIA ever since. He thinks she’s with Ynez. He says that Ynez is crazy, and he never knows what she’s going to do next.”

  “Oh, for God’s sake. I know her from school. She is wild. This just gets better and better.”

  “Alia,” Hunter grabbed both of her hands. “Stay with me for a moment, okay?”

  “Sure, what?”

  “Did Darla have many boyfriends at school?”

  She thought about it for a moment. “No, I’m pretty sure she didn’t. Why are you asking?”

  “It’s pertinent.”

  “She hung out with another girl, not Ynez, a real mean girl, and they made life hell for other the weaker girls. She hated boys, that was how she ended up in juvenile detention, she attempted to stab a boy. She said he accosted her, but his buddies were there and said it was unprovoked, so she ended up locked up for eight months. But Hunter, she’d been bad news from the day she entered Bertrum. I talked to her middle school counselor, it was the same thing there. She was the school bully.”

  “She never dated?”

  “Not to my knowledge.” She said slowly. Her mouth went dry. She didn’t like where this was going. Not at all. She tried to pull her hands away, but he held firm. “Hunter, what aren’t you telling me?”

  “Darla had two additional locks installed on her bedroom door. Both of them were broken.”

  Images exploded across her mind.

  Broken.

  Broken.

  Like the lock on the bathroom stall that had been broken.

  Hunter’s face wavered. She couldn’t breathe.

  Ping, the button hit the cement.

  Ping. Mateo cut another button off, his foul breath blowing in her face.

  Darla fighting with her older brother.

  A broken lock.

  A broken girl.

  “How long?” Her voice sounded far away. Tinny.

  “This isn’t for sure.”

  “Tell me, Hunter. Tell me. How long has this been going on?”

  “I don’t know, mi Cariña.”

  Suddenly, the toast and cocoa were roiling around in her stomach.

  “But how would that be possible in such a small apartment?” Had she just asked such a stupid question? “Scratch that. Monsters always find a way.”

  She sat there in silence as pictures went through her mind. Dizzy, she walked out of the kitchen and went into her bedroom. She picked up her cell.

  “Call Lottie Rodrigue
z,” she said into her phone. She waited for the four longest rings imaginable.

  Lottie answered, “Are you okay? Why are you calling so late, Aliana?”

  “Did Darla’s brother rape her?”

  There was silence on the phone.

  “Did he?” she asked softly.

  She knew what the silence met. Tears froze in her heart. Keep it cool.

  “When did this start, Lottie?”

  “You know I won’t answer that.”

  “I asked you a question,” she said politely.

  She was met by silence.

  “When did this start?”

  She remembered the first time she pulled the girl into her office, the thick eyeliner, the bright red lipstick that went with the sneer. The foul language. “Was it happening that first time I wrote her up?”

  “Aliana―”

  “Tell me!” she shouted.

  Warm arms circled her. She didn’t want that. She didn’t deserve that.

  “You didn’t know, Honey. You couldn’t know,” Lottie said softly.

  “I was tormenting this girl when she was being abused. I was adding to her abuse.”

  Lottie was silent. “You didn’t know, Honey. You would never knowingly hurt anyone.”

  She felt a tear fall. She dropped the phone on the bed. Hunter picked up the phone and said something, she didn’t know what. She was lost in her own head. Remembering every fucking time she had run into that girl in the hall. Every single time she’d told her to straighten up, or that she was watching her.

  She didn’t even realize she was crying until Hunter pulled her into his arms.

  “Ah, Cariña, you’re breaking my heart.”

  She pictured Darla and that evil, twisted, sick brother of hers forcing her to have sex. He was a demon. He needed to die.

  How many other children had she misjudged over the years?

  “Aliana, talk to me.”

  She couldn’t. “Hold me.”

  “Always.” She burrowed closer. He’d always been her talisman.

  “Láska?” her grandmother asked from the doorway. Aliana looked up from Hunter’s arms. Babička was in her robe. “What happened?”

  “I’m fine. I just heard some bad news about one of my students. It happened a long time ago.” She cleared her throat and swiped at some of her tears. “Go back to bed.”