by J. L. Drake
“You going to sit there, bitch? Or are you going to get me a drink?” Antonio barked, then slapped the ass of a blonde who was leaning over a table. “Lazy-ass piece of shit.”
Slipping behind the bar, I poured him a whiskey and slipped a double dose of powdered laxative in just for fun. There was nothing more comical than watching his eyes get big as he hurried off to the bathroom, and with what was being planned for this afternoon, it would be doubly funny. I really shouldn’t temp fate, but I couldn’t resist.
I sat it in front of him and wished him good luck.
“Where the fuck is Spit?” Will came rushing into the room. “I haven’t seen the little bitch all day.” He looked hard at me. “Probably in his room licking his wounds like a dog. Little shit doesn’t pull his weight around here, anyway. Waste of space.”
Umm. “Isn’t it Elliot’s day to visit the cemetery?” It wasn’t, but I was banking he wouldn’t remember. I turned to Antonio. “His eye is really hurt, Antonio, and he is my brother. I wish you would go a little easier on him. He may have needed to visit our parents.”
He looked over at Will, whose cocky stare honed in on me, and I knew he was about to be a dick. “You know they’re dead, right?” He moved closer as I held my ground. I did notice Gordon rise out of his seat, but he stayed put. “Worm food, fertilizer, box of bones.”
I couldn’t help my reaction as I drew my arm back and punched him hard in the left eye.
Damn! That felt amazing! I fought the will to do it again, but I needn’t have worried, as I was brought back to reality with sickening results when Antonio charged at me like a bull. Gordon started toward us but came to a sudden halt.
Suddenly I was turning around like a spinning top, and everything went blurry.
“Antonio! What are you doing?” Keith yelled, keeping me behind him. “You’re going to kill her if you punch her in the face again.”
I peeked from out behind his arm. This was not good.
Antonio and the rest of the club looked like they were about to pull their guns on Keith.
“Move,” Antonio hissed, his nostrils flared. “The bitch hit one of my men and, she needs to be put in her place for that.”
“He disrespected her parents.” Keith lowered his voice, but it was still laced with authority. “You hit, why can’t she?”
“You’re out of line, Keith.”
“Do I need to remind you I don’t run with your crew? I am doing you a favor by babysitting your club while you’re out. I’m risking my future for you.”
“She doesn’t belong to you anymore.”
The way Keith’s back stiffened made me nervous what was to come next.
“No, she doesn’t, but she’s beautiful, and it would be a shame to alter that. You made your point before when she broke a rule and left. That’s clear. Will is a dick, and you can’t deny that. Let it go and focus on the fact you soon get to beat the shit out of a Devil’s Reach clubhouse.”
Someone whooped from the bar, and the mood instantly changed. Even though Antonio gave me a scary look, he backed off and grabbed his shot of whiskey, downing it. I almost smiled. Drink up.
“Let’s move!” He turned and stared at me. “You leave, and I’ll make sure you look worse than your brother does right now.”
“I heard you the other night.” I carefully stepped forward and let him kiss me. He held my arm tight for a second, pressing his fingers into my skin to make his point. Ouch.
About fifty members rushed out the back door, leaving me with shaky legs and a throbbing right hand. Gordon looked at Keith, and something was exchanged between them. I wanted to ask, but now wasn’t the time.
“You have a death wish, sweetheart,” Keith muttered at me, referring to Will.
“It was worth it.”
He shook his head, but I saw a tiny smile.
“Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
It wasn’t until the freeway that Keith seemed to relax again. I, on the other hand, was a nervous wreck. I couldn’t help but stare out the side mirror to see if anyone was following us.
Keith’s hand dropped to my thigh, pulling my focus elsewhere. I moved it back to the gearshift, not wanting to feel that emotion right now.
“I track people for a living, Lexi. I promise you, no one is following us.”
I gave him a little nod, but my eyes stayed glued to the mirror.
“You want to know where we’re going?”
Ah, yeah, that might be good to know.
“Sure.”
“Charlotte, North Carolina.”
“Why?” I shifted to look over my shoulder. I was sure that car moved over to our lane at the same time as we did.
“I’m meeting up with my boss and some of my buddies from the safe house where I work.”
This caught my attention. I looked up at his face, which was lit up by the car in front of us.
“Oh.” I hated it when he mentioned his life with the Army. I went back to watching the car.
“Cole is my boss, and his wife Savannah will also be there.” Oh, that’s who Savannah is. “Mark, another guy from our team, is also coming with his pregnant girlfriend, Mia. I have to do a few things with the guys, and I’ll leave you with the girls. Is that okay with you? They are really nice. I’m sure you’ll like them.”
“Sure.” I shrugged, feeling uneasy. Army wives. Great. I’d probably get to hear all the bad shit they’d want to share about their lives and hate it even more now.
Keith rolled his head back and let out a long sigh. I knew he was trying, but I was used to freezing out any feelings when it came to him.
I scrambled to de-ice my emotions to try to match his effort. “What kinds of things do you do there at the house?”
“Our objective is to find hostages and get them out, while trying not to get killed in the pro—” He suddenly stopped when he realized how that sounded. “We use the analogy of being like a shadow. You know. We get in and out without being seen. It’s not always easy, but it’s so worth it when we reunite people with their loved ones.”
“Where is the safe house?”
“I can’t say.”
Oh.
“Who have you saved? Anyone I would know who’s famous?”
“I can’t answer that either.”
Okay.
“Do Savannah and Mia live at the house?”
“Yes and no.”
I picked at a piece of thread on my bracelet. “All pretty vague.”
“Yeah, it is, but for a good reason.”
“If you say so.”
The rest of the way to the airport, we stayed quiet while my stomach twisted in endless knots. Keith carried my bag in one hand, while his other kept a tight grip on my hand as we pushed through the sea of people.
I settled into the seat and stared out the window while mindless chatter buzzed around me. If Antonio got wind of what I was doing, I was dead. I wondered how the attack was going. I prayed everything would go as planned, and the guys would be picked up by the police. What if anything went wrong? This whole trip hinged on the fact that Antonio would get arrested. My palms went cold and goosebumps made me uneasy. Elliot better be okay. I was nervous for him. Nervous that he would arrive home from the hospital before me and start to ask questions. It would draw attention to the fact I was not there.
“Drink?” Keith interrupted my thoughts and handed me a glass of red wine.
“Yeah.” I downed the entire thing in a matter of seconds. He replaced my empty with his full glass and ordered another.
My stomach fluttered as the wheels lifted off the ground and we were officially airborne. Once we leveled out and the captain announced we could move about, I handed my empty bottles to the flight attendant as she did a quick sweep of the rows.
I eyed Keith as he opened a magazine. He was so calm it bothered me.
“You hungry?” he asked.
“No.”
“You want some water?”
“No.” I glance
d out the window, watching the puffy clouds breeze by the window. I wondered how far away the other planes were from us. It was all a bit trippy if you thought about how many steel tubes were in the sky at this very moment. How many people were looking in the same direction I was.
Keith tucked the magazine away and removed his hat, running his hands through his hair.
“How about this? I’ll answer your questions if you answer mine.”
Hmm, that was sort of appealing. “We get two passes.”
“Deal.”
“Okay, I’ll start.” I went small first. “Have you ever had any feelings for Savannah?”
He tossed his head back and let out a little laugh. “No, she reminds me of Two too much to ever go down that road. She’s pretty, and I love her, but like a sister. Besides, she is married to my best friend, and they have a little girl.”
“Had to ask.”
“Fair enough.” His smile changed. “My turn.” Oh no. “When I was away for my first tour, did you sleep with Juan?”
“No,” I blurted without even thinking.
“Good,” he puffed out. “Why not?”
“I waited for you, Keith.” I wanted to shut down and close off those feelings, but I fought the urge. “I was hurt, but I would never do that to you. I still hoped you would change your mind and come back to me.”
He nodded, and I could imagine I saw some small amount of old stress drop away from him.
“How many girls have you been with since we broke up?”
He held my gaze. “Two.”
“Did you love any of them?”
“I wanted to, but no.”
My chest grew tight.
“Why the gang? You were always so scared of them.”
I looked out the window, then down at my hands. I didn’t like talking about this—it was hard. “I felt so lost after my parents died. You were gone, and your parents were wonderful, but they had their own family.” I cleared my throat. “All I brought to them was sadness. Elliot latched onto a girl who turned out to be a part of the gang, Antonio’s cousin. At first they were great to him. Antonio’s uncle took to him. One moment he was there, and the next he was gone. I had no one.” Pausing to control the anger that began to seep in, I went on. “That’s when Juan took pity on me. We started out as friends, and he showed me we could have fun doing things I wouldn’t have even dreamt of. Oddly enough, I started to like not caring about the consequences. We had fun.” I entwined my fingers. “Then, like every other Almas Perdidas member, he did a one-eighty, and one day I got the fist to the stomach.”
I suppressed a shudder at the recollection. “I should have expected the same from Antonio, but he was good at making me feel like I was something special. The only thing that kept me going was his secret.” I paused, wanting to share this, but it still felt strange.
“The fact he can’t get an erection?”
“Yes. I guess he got raped a few times in prison, and now he can’t get…you know…an erection. Not that there aren’t other ways he gets satisfied, but at least I didn’t have to, well, you know. The Garcia brothers have some issues. Lucky me.”
I brushed by his discomfort and let that topic drop. I’d said it, and that was all that mattered.
“Poor Clark. I’m sure eventually I’m going to give him a stroke. He bailed me out so many times, more than he should have. “
“Umm, I heard.”
“Heard, as in you asked him on this trip home, or did you have Clark watching out for me all this time?”
His guilty expression gave him away. He’d been watching over me this whole time. Wow. Okay. I decided to keep going so he understood.
“Antonio and Juan were like oil and water, and when Antonio wanted something, nothing would get in his way. He killed some junkie and pinned it on Juan. The next day, I was ordered to move my stuff in his room and have been there ever since.” I flipped my hair out of my face, needing to move. “Not exactly a fairy tale, but it is what it is.”
His face scrunched up. “Then why are you there? What do you hope to accomplish?”
“Pass.” I rushed the word.
“So you won’t tell me why you won’t leave?”
“Nope, I can’t go there. Sorry.”
My heart beat against my chest at a rapid pace. I hated this.
“My turn.” I wanted off this subject. “Why did you leave so quickly when you came back four years ago? I heard you were in town. I thought, well, hoped…”
He took a moment and stared toward the front of the plane. Just when I thought he wasn’t going to answer, he cleared his throat. “I came back for you. I needed to know if there was even the slightest chance we could be something. I wasn’t able to move forward with anyone because all I’d do is compare them to you. It was a horrible feeling pushing away good people. So, I came back, and that morning I ran into Elliot at the cafe.”
“You did?” Why didn’t he ever tell me this?
“Yes. I told him why I was back, and he told me you had gone through such a rough time, and you were finally happy with Juan. He begged me not to screw it up for you. To let you go and move on.”
“What?” He must have misunderstood Elliot. “That was the lowest point for me. Are you sure he said that?”
“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I didn’t want to believe him, but later that night I saw you with Juan outside of Mavis’s Place. You reached up and touched his shoulder, and you smiled and said something to him. You…you looked so happy. I knew I had to leave you alone then. I packed my bags and left that night. Barely said goodbye to my family. I was so crushed I needed to be back at the house. I dove into my work and tried to push you out of my head.”
“And did you?”
His hand moved to mine and squeezed it tight, then raised it to his mouth and kissed the back. “Never.”
I sagged into my seat feeling all kinds of mixed emotions. Why would Elliot do that? Then something hit me.
“If I had decided to be with you four years ago, how could we be together? You can’t tell me much about your life, and there doesn’t seem like there’s room for me and the Army.”
A little smile appeared; it was one I hadn’t seen before.
“I would have left my mountain and worked as a civilian. I love my job, Lexi, so much, but I—” He stopped himself. “I wouldn’t have gone back.”
“Wow,” I whispered, not sure what to make of that. I would never ask him to pick me over something that made him so happy. But he went back, and I had moved on.
“Mountain?”
He closed his eyes briefly. I could see he didn’t know he had said it. “We like to be up high to see when things are coming.”
With a slight smile to let him know I was happy he shared something with me, I went back to looking out the window.
I shifted and let out an unexpected moan. My shoulder was sore.
“What’s wrong with your shoulder?”
“Landed on it funny.”
I saw him put two and two together, but instead of calling me out, he opened his bag and removed two little white oval pills. “Here.” He handed me his water, and I took them, not caring anymore what they were.
Soon after, I felt sleepy and my eyes grew heavy. Keith lifted the arm rest and leaned me against his chest.
“I’m fine,” I protested.
“I know.” He leaned me down to his huge chest. “Let the pills ease the pain.” He wrapped his jacket around me and kissed my hair. “Just sleep now. I got you.”
“Yeah…okay.” Too tired to fight, I gave in. Thankful we had the row to ourselves, I kicked my feet up and let my troubles float away for a while.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Something warm brushed over my face. “Lexi, we’re here.”
My eyes slowly opened, and I looked up and saw Keith staring down at me with a soft smile.
I jolted up but cringed at my stiff neck.
“You talk in your sleep, you know.”
&nbs
p; “So I’ve been told,” I muttered, thinking about the time I spoke about Keith when I was asleep. Antonio was less than impressed. “What did I say?”
He didn’t reply, just handed me my bag and moved me in front of him as we shuffled out of the plane. We grabbed our stuff and headed to the car rental place.
An hour later, we were on the road heading to Ashville. Charlotte was beautiful. Everything was green and lush. Weaving through the high hills on one-lane highways was incredibly peaceful, and just what I needed to let go of a ton of pent-up stress.
Every once in a while, Keith would take my hand and rest it on the gearshift underneath his. Every time I felt strange and pulled it back to my lap. I was so confused inside right now. I could not let this man inside my head. He brought so much with him. I was too far gone into my new life to handle any more pain and confusion. I actually felt a strange pull for the life I’d been leading with Antonio, and that was hard to get my head around. Wow, I was so fucked up.
“What are you thinking?” He pulled me from my wallowing.
“Things.”
“Like?”
I looked over and shrugged. “Things.”
“Believe it or not, Lex, you can let your guard down with me.”
“I did,” was all I said. I knew he’d get the rest.
He let my hand go. I felt a little bad. Here he was taking me on a trip, and I was acting like an ice cube. I was so twisted up I barely knew where I began and where I ended.
“It’s just been a long time since I’ve been on a trip.” There, that should be enough.
“Hope you have fun. You could use a little of that.”
Yes, that’s true.
His phone rang, and someone named Carlos came up on the ID. Glancing at it, Keith turned it over.
Instead of checking into the hotel, we drove straight to the restaurant where we were meeting his friends.
To say I was nervous was an understatement. I almost wished I had declined this offer. I was, after all, “the girl who broke Keith’s heart and left him for a gang.” Oh my God, I was a fucking wreck!
