The drinks were flowing at a steady pace, but Mina decided she needed to get off her feet, if only for a few minutes. She called out to the others that she was going for a bathroom break.
“The kitchen bathroom is down for the count,” one of the bartenders said with a sympathetic smile. “Go ahead and go upstairs. First hallway on the right, second door down.”
Insatiable curiosity quickened Mina’s step. Frank’s house was frickin’ gorgeous. Tucked far up on the highest peak of Anaheim Hills, Mina figured the best views had to be from the top story. Plus, who didn’t want to roam the house of a person who was that rich?
Since she couldn’t be too long, she walked slowly to take everything in, craning her head to see all the art on the walls and what books lined the shelf in the hallway. The first door down on the right of the hallway was cracked open. Hoping to catch a glimpse of the view, she gave the door a soft push.
Indeed, there was a fantastic view of the sparkling lights of the city below, but that wasn’t what caught Mina’s attention.
It was a bedroom. There was a cedar chest at the foot of the bed and, kneeling before that, a hulking man who had leered at Mina earlier that evening. He was just finishing snorting a line of white powder up his nose. As he did, he threw his head back, making a noise of contentment. He spotted Mina and grinned. “Well, hello.”
“Uh… Hi. Sorry. I’ll—”
The man had already gotten to his feet. He was over to her before Mina had taken more than one step backward. “Hey, don’t run off,” he said silkily, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and propelling her into the room. “Just looking for somewhere to hide for a minute, huh? I remember that.” He leaned toward her, his tone conspiratorial. “Everyone needs an unscheduled break sometimes.” He’d herded her over to the bed and sat, bringing her with him. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell.”
Mina was having a deer-in-headlights moment. She was flustered. For one thing, she’d never seen anyone do a line of what she assumed was coke outside of the movies. She knew people at these parties were doing drugs, but it hadn’t ever looked like that. For another thing, she was where she wasn’t supposed to be—in a very powerful man’s house, seeing things she shouldn’t have. She’d seen this movie. It never ended well for the character in her part.
Not to mention, this guy was big. Not wide, so much as tall and muscular. Intimidating.
Mina tried to get her bearings. Though he was sitting next to her, he wasn’t on top of her. In fact, he was wiping at his nose, not even looking at her. He was just being nice. He was high, so that was probably why he was a little grabby. That was all.
“How about a hit, huh? That’ll take the edge off.” The man waved a baggie in her face, waggling his eyebrows.
“No. No, thanks.” That cleared her mind a bit—not because it was a little surreal to be offered hard drugs, but because drugs pissed her the hell off. She stood. “I’ve got to go.”
“Where are you going in such a hurry?” The man grabbed her by the wrist. “Trust me. I’m an expert in goofing off just the right amount. If you’ve never done it before, you got a few more minutes at least before anyone gets annoyed at you.”
“No. I’m the one who’s annoyed.” Mina snatched her hand back. She had to remind herself she was working. “I’m out of here, sir.”
Again, he proved to be a quick bastard. He got between her and the door. “Come on. Take a hit with me.”
She looked at the man—who should’ve been so classy in his sharp, expensive suit—and felt nothing but disgust. “What’s the matter with you? You can’t take a hint? Drugs are illegal, anyway.”
They were just the words that popped out—naive words. Of course, the word “illegal” was like a trigger for the man. He grabbed her wrist again, this time hard enough that she cried out. “Illegal, huh? A man wants to do a thing to his own body. What business is that of yours?” He shook her, and she cried out again, trying to yank her arm away. “You a snitch, little girl?”
Normally, Mina didn’t have any problem taking care of herself. Regular guys she could handle. This guy was not a regular guy. He was powerful, and that really was a gun in his pocket; he wasn’t happy to see her.
He repeated his question, and Mina found her voice choked in her throat. When she couldn’t get a word out, he smacked her hard across the face. “You a snitch? Huh?!” he demanded.
Before she could get her wits about her, there was a clamor. Suddenly, there were more people in the room.
“What the hell’s going on here?” Frank demanded. He grabbed the man by the wrist, yanked him away from Mina, and twisted. There was a sickening crack, and the man was down on his knees, screaming in agony.
Mina stumbled backward. She watched in mute horror as Frank stood over the asshole with a twisted, furious look on his face. “What the hell’s the matter with you, Patrick? You think you can touch one of my girls? Huh?”
“It’s not like that, Frankie.” The other man, Patrick, sounded pained. He didn’t try to get up but looked up at Frank. “She’s going to rat us out.”
“I never said that,” Mina demanded, finally finding her voice. Her heart was threatening to beat out of her chest. She was surrounded by people now, and she knew she’d never get out of there if any of them thought she was trouble. “I just said I didn’t like drugs. Like I care what he does to himself. He was just in my face about it.”
“You—” Patrick started to say, but Frank cut him off.
“I don’t give a good goddamn what the hell you thought you were doing. Even if you caught a wire on her, you should’ve come to me.”
“I don’t have a wire,” Mina protested.
Frank looked up and smiled at her patiently. “I know that, sweetheart.” He turned back to Patrick and hauled him to his feet, making the man give a little yelp of pain. His wrist was definitely broken. Frank paid him no mind and started grabbing at his coat. He pulled out a wallet. From that, he took five crisp hundred dollar bills and handed them to Mina. “Mr. Clark would like to offer you a tip for your exemplary services and apologize for the distress he might’ve caused you.”
Mina knew better than not to accept the money, as uncomfortable as it made her. She took it, folding it into her fist since she had no pockets. Goddamned dresses. “That’s very generous.”
“It’s the least he could do, seeing as he marked up your pretty face.” Frank grimaced and turned back to Patrick. “Isn’t that right, Patty boy?”
Patrick made a face but nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, that was… I just get a little paranoid sometimes. My brother got sent up last year, you know? Someone he trusted.”
Mina didn’t say anything to that.
“Patty’s going to go home and sleep it off.” Frank nodded somewhere behind Mina, and an alarmingly large man came forward. He grabbed Patrick by the arm and led him out of the room.
Frank’s expression then changed entirely. He smiled that wide, smooth, oh-so-charming smile she’d seen many times before. He stepped toward her and offered a hand. Mina took it with the hand that wasn’t holding a wad of money. He drew her forward gently. He clucked his tongue as he looked at her smarting cheek. “I’m sorry about that, sweetheart. That’s not the kind of thing I tolerate, as you can see.” He tilted his head, looking in her eyes. “We police our own here. If a broken wrist isn’t enough—”
“No!” Mina cleared her throat, trying to swallow around the painful lump. This was all way too surreal. “No. It’s fine. I’m fine. It’s, uh, no big deal.”
“There’s a good girl.” He patted her unbruised cheek. “Why don’t you let Jake take you home, hmm? We’ll be fine from here.”
Mina let Jake, another big-bruiser sort, lead her out of the house. She thought about going back for Celeste, but she was fine. Celeste’s girlfriend, Aubrey, was a “friend” of Frank’s. That was how they’d gotten the job. Beyond that, Mina did her best not to think about what that meant. Regardless, Celest
e would be fine.
The ride home was awkward. The farther they got from Frank’s house, the more pissed off Mina became. This couldn’t possibly be real life. Things like this just didn’t happen. It was all so ridiculous. Really? If she didn’t want to do drugs, Patrick’s automatic reaction was that she was going to run to the cops?
Why shouldn’t she, anyway? Some asshole hauls off and hits her, and she couldn’t see him arrested? She was supposed to be happy that Frank had broken his wrist? Because seeing people in pain was somehow better justice?
“Can you let me off here?” she asked when they were in the right neighborhood.
“Sorry. Gotta see you to the door,” Jake said.
Mina hunkered down in her seat, her arms crossed, doubly pissed off now. She felt on the verge of a temper tantrum—an honest-to-God, kicking-and-screaming, three-year-old tantrum. She took a shaky breath and tried to calm down.
They pulled up at the same time Val did, which was really just the cherry on this shit sundae of a night. If Val was home, that meant it was 2:00 a.m. again and she had to be up in a few hours. That and she just knew he was going to ask irritating questions.
Mina got out of the car without saying anything to Jake. She slammed the door and stalked past Val into the house.
There was no way she was going to be able to sleep, so she didn’t bother going to her room. She went to the kitchen instead. She needed something. Maybe some Abuelita to drink. Or not. She didn’t know. She was just so mad.
“Whoa.” Val caught a cabinet door before she could slam it shut. “You trying to wake up the whole house?”
Mina turned away, but not quickly enough. Val twisted her back. “Get off.”
“Mina… Fuck.” Val’s fingers were so tender on Mina’s face, but she still winced. “Who the hell did that? Was it the bastard who dropped you off? Fuck. What were you doing with that monster?”
“It’s nothing.”
“It’s not nothing. Tell me—”
“Tell you what? What are you going to do? That guy’s twice your size. You gonna beat his ass for me?” Mina laughed, the sound bitter. “It’s been a long time since I needed you to protect me. I’m fine.”
He looked dubious to say the least, but to his credit, he didn’t try. “Are you okay? I mean, you’re not hurt anywhere else?”
“I’m fine,” she repeated and turned to the fridge. She tried to pull it open but failed. “Fuck.”
Val took her hands. “Mia, you’re freezing. Your hands are ice cold.”
“I’m fine,” she insisted. She tried to take her hands back but admittedly didn’t try that hard.
Val said nothing. He raised their clasped hands to his lips, cradling his hands around hers, and blew hot air onto her skin. Mina shivered. Emotion threatened to overwhelm her, and Mina pressed her tongue to her cheek hard.
“Mia?” Val tilted his head so his face was so close to hers. She was startled by how close she was when she looked up. “Really, are you okay?”
She nodded, or she thought she did. She really wished he would stop saying her name that way. Her eyes stung. She was shaking. When had that started? Val rubbed her back, and Mina struggled to find her irritation. She should push him away.
Instead, she melted against him. He wrapped his arms around her the instant she did. He cupped the back of her head, rocking back and forth on his heels. She wasn’t crying, but she was shaking. She’d been scared. Now that his arms were around her, she knew that. He was so perfectly big. This was how he’d felt when she was young. The safest place in the world was right there in his arms.
But that was so long ago.
“Hey, I bet the other guy looks worse, right?” Val murmured against the top of her hair.
“Yeah, he really does.” She laughed, the sound jittery. He’d taught her to throw a punch when she was ten and wished sorely she’d gotten one hit in herself.
Mina raised her head and found his face an inch from hers. His breath was hot on her skin and somehow sweet. Hazelnut coffee and mint gum. Familiar, and yet, it made her dizzy. She swayed forward, and just like that, her lips brushed his.
He took a sharp breath, but he didn’t move. She didn’t either, but her eyes fluttered open. His eyes were dark and hooded as he looked at her. She sighed and kissed him in full.
His breath shuddered, but his lips responded. It was a soft kiss, sweet. For as small as it was, it had the power to right her world. Bizarreness faded away to something steady and powerful.
Val pulled away first, though he didn’t go far. His eyes searched hers, confusion mixed with want. Mina’s brain snapped on. This was Val. What the ever-loving hell was she doing?
Her flight instinct kicked in, as though she remembered she was just a little kid. She’d always been a little kid to Val, and she’d made a fool of herself.
She hadn’t gotten four steps away before he hooked a finger into the belt loop of her jeans and hauled her back. She spun around, ready to lash out in anger if he was going to yell at her, but he caught any words she was about to say with his mouth.
Mina tensed for only a moment. Then she gave in with a whimper. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing up onto the balls of her feet, surrendering all of herself to this kiss. His arms wound around her, bringing her against his body.
Oh, hell. Val was a good kisser. Better than she’d imagined.
Because she had imagined it. A lot. When she was sixteen. When he…
Mina pushed him away and turned, clapping a hand to her mouth as she stumbled a few steps away. For long moments, as her thoughts reeled, there was only the sound of their heavy breathing in the quiet house.
She heard him swallow hard and take a breath. “Mia,” he began, but she shook her head.
“I told you not to call me that,” she said through clenched teeth.
He sighed. “Mina, don’t be mad at me.”
“I’m not mad,” she lied. She wiped at her lips, wishing she couldn’t still taste him.
“Sure. Okay.”
She glared, but she shook her head. “What’s the point of being mad at you? You’ve never been anyone but who you are.” She wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing at her shoulders. “I’m the stupid little girl. The one who believed you when you said you’d be there for me. I guess I needed to believe that for a second tonight, that there was someone I could count on.”
He didn’t say anything at first, and she had no idea why she didn’t just head to her bedroom. Shouldn’t that have been a mic-drop moment?
“Are you ever going to tell me what the hell I did to you that was so damn awful?” He sounded so defeated, and Mina’s heart ached.
What must it be like to be him? To hear everyone tell him over and over what a failure he is? He worked hard. Maybe it wasn’t always the smartest way, but anyone could see he was trying. He hadn’t let her down in a long time. Then again, that might’ve been because she hadn’t given him the chance to.
Mina went to the table and sat down. After a long moment, Val walked slowly to the opposite side and sat across from her. He folded his hands on the table.
“So you don’t remember how you were up in my business all the time when I was a teenager?” she asked, interrupting the heavy silence a minute later.
He snorted. “I remember you getting snarky about it a time or two.” He eyed her, wondering if she was in the mood for humor. “It wasn’t my fault you were so bad at lying.”
“Couldn’t have been that bad. Momma Cora and Dante hardly ever figured it out.”
Val was quiet at that, and Mina could fill in the blanks. Cora and Dante saw what they wanted to see more often than not.
“Anyway.” She crossed her arms and rubbed her shoulders, looking away from him. “So, you don’t remember what was happening in my life right before you left? That you figured out I was hanging out with some older kids?” She still didn’t understand how he’d known. He’d asked her frequen
tly about her friends, and she remembered so well the surprise she’d felt when he reacted badly when he learned the group she was hanging out with was college-aged.
“Yeah, of course.” Val gave a small smile. “I told you I’d call every day.”
“You did.” Her lip twitched. “For the first week.”
He tilted his head. “You can’t possibly be holding that against me.”
“Not now, anyway.” Mina supposed it had always stuck with her that Val had left her in the first place. “And it was all right for a while. You talked me through a lot of things when I was younger. But when I was sixteen, you remember you figured out I was hanging out with some older kids?”
“Vaguely.”
A rush of irritation coursed through her at that. Vaguely. The whole thing, from beginning to end, was so fresh and large in her mind. He never remembered the important things. “They invited me to a party. You remember that?”
“Oh.” Val straightened up again. “Yeah, I think so. That was the one you really wanted to go to, right? End of the world if you couldn’t go.”
Mina clenched her jaw. She heard the words he didn’t say. Silly, stupid teenager. “You said you’d go with me. Do you remember that?”
He was quiet.
“You forgot all about me when you disappeared after Johana. The party was three days after you left.” To this day, she still couldn’t figure out why he couldn’t have left after he’d kept his promise to her.
He stared at her. “That can’t possibly be it. You’ve been pissed at me for six years because you couldn’t go to a party?
She laughed, the sound bitter. “No. I went to the party. I snuck out, so no one knew.” She glared at him, old anger and guilt flushing through her. “It was supposed to be you there with me. You, Valentin, not Mateo.”
Val blinked, obviously confused. “Mateo? That… I don’t understand.”
“You don’t remember my friend who died?”
“Mia, the details of your life, your friends’ names, they’re all a blur to me,” he replied, his lips set in a hard line. He was annoyed but trying not to show it. “I had a lot going on. You know that.”
Never Enough Page 7
