Danica
After almost two weeks of working at Bad Boys and watching the baby, Danica had managed not to blow her cover. But she’d been close when Orlando had first expressed his annoyance about having missed out on the baby’s birth and first few weeks. She’d been too close to blurting out how sorry she was. It was only her fear of being thrown out on her ass and never seeing the baby again that kept her from doing so. Danica still didn’t understand it. Why it was so hard to lie to him. Lying about still being in a relationship was different. It felt harmless and necessary. She’d be damned if she’d get her time with the baby taken away because of an insecure girlfriend. It wasn’t as if her fake relationship adversely affected Orlando or her two new jobs. Other than it assured Danica that his girlfriend wouldn’t cause any trouble for her, there wasn’t any fear of getting in trouble for the white lie. Not like the fear of the other two much bigger things she was lying about by omission coming to light. Not since Nine had joked about her being a felon had that subject been raised, and her gut balled up at the thought of it ever coming up again, especially if was Orlando doing the asking.
After just two weeks around him, Danica had inevitably developed a major crush on the guy. She should’ve known she would. How could she not? He was so incredibly hot. He had this respectable and commanding way about him when it came to running the shop, but it was never in a domineering way. On top of it all, Danica now knew firsthand how amazingly sweet he could be. Almost from day one, aside from the angst of having such huge secrets she’d yet to spill, she’d been amazed at how easy it was to talk to Orlando. Already it felt like she’d known him for way longer than the relatively short amount of time she actually had. They’d spent countless hours discussing mostly baby-related topics, but they’d also gotten to know each other a little better each time as he told her about his tight relationship with Nine and Beast.
Despite the embarrassment of her epic fails at cooking at his place—more than once now—she’d been grateful for the sweet way he tried to act like the outcome wasn’t as bad as she knew it was. He’d referred to her second attempt of making something as simple as fideo “interesting.” She was almost grateful for Felicia now, because she could already tell falling for a guy like Orlando would be too easy and that was a big no-no. But it was the only reason she could think of why she couldn’t blatantly lie to him. Like with Felicia, telling him about her plans with Ted didn’t feel so blatant. It’d all been true at one point, and since it really wasn’t any of his business like the other stuff was, there was no reason to feel guilty about doing so. There was just something so mesmerizing about those penetrating eyes when he spoke to her. She found herself practically holding her breath sometimes when his eyes searched hers, especially when he touched on an unnerving subject.
“Danica?”
She glanced up as hearing her name broke her out of her thoughts. It took her a moment to recognize him, but then her jaw dropped. “Oh my God.” Instantly on her feet, she rushed around the counter. She’d been so lost in thought she hadn’t even noticed anyone walk into the lobby. “How are you? It’s been so long.”
Anthony wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace. “I’m great, and hell yeah, it’s been too long. How’ve you been?”
“I’m good,” she said as she pulled away to look at him.
“Well, you look great,” he said, sizing her up.
“Thank you, so do you. So, what are you up to these days?”
“Just working and trying to keep out of trouble. How ’bout you?” He eyed her with a smirk, taking her in again from top to bottom. “You must be married now, right? No way a hot thang like you hasn’t been snatched up yet. Damn, girl.”
She smiled, about to respond, when someone behind her cleared his throat loudly. She turned around to see Orlando searching for something behind the counter. He’d been upstairs on a call earlier, and she hadn’t even heard him come down. “Did you get a chance to make those copies I asked you to?”
“I did.” She leaned over the counter, surprised he hadn’t seen them. They were right in front of him, and she pointed at them.
“I’ll need more than these.” He picked them up and glanced up at her then behind her at Anthony before bringing his hardened stare back to her. Danica wondered about the call he’d taken upstairs. Had that put him in this odd mood? But then her thoughts were back to Anthony.
“Oh.” She turned around, feeling a little rude. “This is my friend Anthony from high school.” Motioning to Orlando, she introduced him to Anthony as her new boss. “It’s only my second week here,” she explained with a smile. Anthony smiled at Orlando, who was obviously in an uncharacteristically foul mood because he’d barely cracked a smile, but didn’t say a word before going back to searching for more behind the counter.
Turning back to Danica, Anthony smiled. “I work right up the street,” he said. “Maybe we can grab a drink after work one of these days?”
“Dani.”
Danica turned back to Orlando, who again didn’t look up because he was too busy with something on the counter, lips pressed a bit tightly. “When you’re done here, I’m gonna need you to make a few phone calls for me.”
“Of course.” She turned back to Anthony, stretching her lips, eyes wide because clearly Orlando’s phone call, whatever it was about, hadn’t gone well.
“I’m just here to pick up my car. If I can get my keys, I’ll let you be,” Anthony said, obviously interpreting her boss’s mood as him being none too pleased with her socializing on the job. Danica came back around the counter. After figuring out which were Anthony’s keys, she handed them to him. “I’ll call the shop and get your schedule,” he said, leaning in over the counter to hug her good-bye. Only, Orlando leaning in between them to grab a binder kept her from being able to, so she waved instead with a smile. “We’ll plan on getting that drink and catching up.”
“Sounds good,” she said, smiling big. “It was so nice to see you again.” As Danica grabbed one of the papers Orlando needed more copies of when Anthony walked out, Orlando turned to her with a probing stare.
“Your boyfriend didn’t strike me as someone who’d be okay with you having a drink with another dude, especially one who ate you up with his eyes the way this guy did.”
Danica froze because Orlando hit it right on the nose, and she knew why he’d be making this comment. Ted had been his usual asshole self the day they’d come in, and there was no way Orlando had missed Ted’s blatant possessiveness. Thankfully, Nine walked into the lobby just then with Alonso, another one of the shop’s young mechanics, before Danica could start pathetically spilling her guts about why she was free to have a drink with a male friend now.
“We got De La Hoya,” Nine said, clapping his hands loudly.
“No shit?” Orlando said, suddenly snapping out of his foul mood because he smiled big now.
“Just got off the phone with Beast. Nineteen seventy-six Cadillac Eldorado convertible. He wants all the upgrades and money’s no object. Ciao!” Nine did a little dance. “Break out the tequila!”
“Shit.” Orlando chuckled. “Too damn early for that and it’s Monday.”
“Man, you’re getting old.” Nine started to fake-punch Orlando in the gut as he walked by him. “I remember when we used to party no matter what day of the week it was. No matter what time.”
“I got a kid now I gotta get home to, ass.” Orlando said as he flinched back, avoiding Nine’s fake punch. “And unlike you, I don’t have the luxury of a wife to help me out all night.”
It was only as Nine and Alonso made it past them and into the computer room that it dawned on Danica and she turned to Orlando. “Is everything okay with Oreo?”
Orlando turned to her, looking confused. “He’s fine. With my mom. Why?”
Closing her eyes, Danica took a deep breath in an attempt to calm her alarmed heart. “You seemed weird there for a moment, and I thought it might be because of the call you’d been on, but then
it hit me just now. Maybe it was something about the baby that had you upset.”
His confused expression morphed into a sweet one as he gazed at her in that way that had begun to melt her too often now. “He’s fine. And uh . . .” He cleared his throat, glancing away before looking back at her again. “Yeah, those conference calls can get annoying.”
As the relief seeped in, Danica smiled. “What calls did you need me to make for you?”
Once again, he wore a confused expression, and then, as if it seemed to come to him, he shook his head. “Nah, I found what I needed. No worries. Just get me those copies but no rush.” Orlando went back to work out in the shop, and Danica busied herself getting those copies made for him.
About an hour later, Byron ambled into the lobby to start his afternoon shift. He slowed when she smiled at him, peering at her strangely. “I know you from somewhere. Every time I look at you, I have to do a double take, but I can’t place you, and it’s bugging the shit out of me now.”
From the first day Danica had met Beast’s younger brother, she also thought he looked familiar, but she figured it was because he resembled his famous brother. Only now that he was saying she looked familiar, the way he was eyeing her because of it, made her nervous. “I used to work at the Super ShopMart just a few blocks up,” she offered with a shrug.
“Nah.” He shook his head, walking up to the counter and leaning his arm against it as he continued to peer. “You ever hang out at Echo Park?”
Trying her best not to be too obvious about her sudden unease, she shook her head as both Nine and Orlando walked into the lobby. “What’s going on, Byron?” Orlando asked. “You just get here?”
“Yeah, I start at one.” Byron glanced down at his watch before looking up at Danica again. “Were you ever in a gang or hung out with the Echo Park Locos?”
Nine laughed as he came around the counter. “Echo Park Locos? What is this the eighties?”
“They’re still around, ass,” Byron retorted but smiled.
“Does she look like she’d hang with those losers?” Nine asked as he opened and sifted through one of the drawers. Danica shook her head, reinforcing what Nine was implying but dared not look at Orlando.
“They’re not all losers,” Byron said. “I used to hang with some of them.”
“My point exactly.” Nine laughed again.
As Byron brought his fist to his chin, leaning on it at the counter in front of Danica, and stared right at her, she felt her face flush and heart speed up. “You look so damn familiar, and every time I look into those sweet eyes,” he said with a wicked smile, “my brain goes back to Echo Park for whatever reason.”
“Alright.” Orlando shoved him playfully but sounded genuinely annoyed. “She’s got work to do. Get out of her face with your Echo Park gang shit.”
“It wasn’t all gangs,” Byron protested but laughed as he took a few steps backwards toward the shop. “Lots of people went there—still do—to just hang out.” Nine’s phone rang and he motioned to Orlando he was taking it outside then rushed out. “I’ll figure it out.” Byron pointed at Danica with a wink before walking out into the shop.
Danica had just turned to Orlando, about to comment casually on everything Byron had said, when he rushed back into the lobby, snapping his fingers. “Mayra, Mirna, what the fuck was her name? She had an older sister Janet or something who hung out at Echo Park with her friends all the time.” He brought his finger to his lips and tapped on them. “Juanita! That was her sister’s name. It’s where I’ve seen you before. You hung out with her and her friends, tough crowd, right?”
Feeling the blood drain from her face, she turned to Orlando, who did a double take because she was sure she looked ready to faint. “I uh . . .”
Orlando turned to Byron with a scowl. “Will you let it go already? What difference does it make anyway?”
Byron didn’t even acknowledge Orlando because he was too busy still pondering and staring out into space. “Maybe I’m thinking of someone else.” He brought his attention back to Orlando and Danica. “It’ll come to me.”
“Yeah, well, when it does, keep it to yourself,” Orlando said, glancing back at Danica, who was still frozen in her chair. “No one cares, so get back to work.”
As soon as Byron was out of the lobby, Orlando turned to Danica. “You okay?”
“Yes,” she nodded, realizing she’d nearly stopped breathing.
“Listen if his ‘don’t I know you from somewhere’ bullshit bothers you, I can talk to—”
“No, no.” Danica laughed nervously. “It’s okay. You don’t have to say anything.”
“I’m serious, Dani. I don’t want any of these idiots making you feel uncomfortable. I saw you just now. I’ll talk to him.”
That intense stare. There was no way to avoid looking in those eyes since he was standing right in front of her. His concerned eyes bore into hers, and they were doing things to her again. Weakening her. It wasn’t too late to talk her way out of this one. Lie. Go along with his assumption of why she likely looked ready to pass out. Anything but the truth.
“There’s something I have to tell you.” Jesus Christ, she was going to do this.
Chapter 16
Orlando
Bracing himself, Orlando waited for Danica to elaborate about what it was she needed to tell him. Based on her reaction to Byron’s annoying comments, he was beyond curious now why she’d look so uneasy about this. He searched her eyes, but she glanced away.
“You can tell me anything, Dani.”
“Um, outside maybe?” She chewed the corner of her lip, glancing around a bit anxiously. “It’s not something I want anyone else to hear.”
Orlando peered at her, now completely intrigued. Nine walked back into the lobby from outside at the same time Alonso walked in from the shop. “Alonso, cover the counter for a few minutes.” He turned back to Dani. “We can go upstairs.” Both Nine and Alonso looked at them in question. “We’ll be back.”
It’s all he gave them as he motioned for her to head up. Concentrating on what she could possibly want to say to him in private, it was a struggle not to get too distracted by the swell of that fine ass as he walked up behind her. They walked into the small front room of the apartment upstairs as a myriad of things raced in his head, wondering what this could possibly be about. “Have a seat.” He motioned to the sofa in the front room as he was hit with a maddening thought. “Is this about Byron?”
“No.” She shook her head then seemed to catch herself. “Well, yeah.”
God no. Could she possibly be crushing on the kid? He was several years younger than her, but then Orlando was a perfect example of how little age could deter you from being attracted to someone. So was her fucking boyfriend. “Sort of.” She looked so incredibly uncomfortable Orlando was sure of it now, and he was almost tempted to tell her he’d rather not hear it. “You know the day Nine asked about my criminal record? When he asked if I was a felon?”
Nodding, Orlando peered at her, lost now. “Yeah?”
“I am,” she said as her lower lip began to quiver and those beautiful eyes welled up. Struck with the instant panic just as he had the first day he’d seen her tears, he sat down next to her, placing his hand on her knee. “It’s okay, Dani.”
“I was gonna tell you,” she squeaked as Orlando stood up to get her tissue. “But I was afraid you wouldn’t hire me. It’s the real reason why I’m not a licensed therapist yet. I’m actually done with all the classes to get licensed. I was even in the honorary society, but the felony disqualifies me from being able to test.”
Her tears from before and what she’d been dealing with made sense now. Orlando had been working up the nerve to ask her about it, but it’d felt too personal. Handing her the box of tissue, he sat back down next to her. “What did you get it for?”
“DUI.” She wiped her nose with the tissue. “I hadn’t even had that much to drink. I felt fine. Even passed the field sobriety test with flying colors,
but they found other drugs in the car.” She paused when she saw Orlando’s raised brow reaction to that, and he could kick himself now. Last thing he wanted was for her to think he was judging her. He sat there trying to look as unphased by this as possible.
“They were my friend’s drugs not mine.” She shook her head adamantly. “I’ve never done drugs, and I would never dream of even drinking around the baby.”
“I believe you,” he assured her.
“Because of the drugs, they still administered a breathalyzer test. I was just over the legal limit, so they arrested me.” Her brows pinched tightly. “Please don’t fire me.”
“No one’s getting fired,” Orlando said, tempted to squeeze her knee again but had since decided putting his hand on it to begin with wasn’t the most appropriate thing for a boss to be doing to his young employee. So, he’d held back. “Hell, I’m not even gonna tell Nine or Beast about this. They don’t need to know.” He smiled, glad she wasn’t sniffling anymore. “You’re our receptionist. What do they care that you have a DUI? Maybe if you’d been pinched for embezzlement or something violent, I’d have a moral obligation to tell them, but not about this. And you don’t have to convince me that you’d never put the baby in any danger. I know you wouldn’t.”
She exhaled loudly, making Orlando smile even bigger. “You have no idea how relieved I was the day you said you wouldn’t be running a background check on me.” As usual, Orlando felt struck by those beautiful eyes as he got caught in them again for a few moments. “Because there’s more.”
Squeezing her eyes shut, Dani groaned before standing up. Confused by the groan, Orlando took her in from top to bottom as she began to pace. “Byron was right. It is me he remembers from Echo Park. That friend Juanita and the rough crowd he talked about, that was me.”
Orlando’s eyes widened and he almost smiled. “You were part of a rough crowd?”
Orlando: Boyle Heights #4 Page 16