How did he find out—
My dad had found my number. How hard would it be to find out my job in that case?
Had my dad put him up to this?
“We told you not to go back to San Antonio!” Rudy had the nerve to yell in his raggedy but pained voice. “We told you what would happen if you did!” he tried to use as an excuse, but all it did was make me freeze. “Should have gotten you outside your fuckin’ place—”
He was here in retaliation for me going back there? For Grandma Genie’s funeral? Was he for real?
This terrible sensation of dread hit me right then. Should have gotten you outside of your fucking place. Something clicked inside of me, and I looked down at my cousin and wanted to kick him in the balls as hard as I could. I didn’t want to believe it, but this was him. Them. None of this should be surprising.
“Rudy, did you break into my house?”
I saw his hand jerk. Saw him flinch.
“Did you break into my house?”
“Am I gonna get kicked again if I answer that?” he had the stupid nerve to ask.
He’d done it. This little asshole, sack of shit had done it. It hadn’t been random burglars.
It wouldn’t even be the first time I’d overheard about him going into someone’s house to rob them. He’d been doing stuff like that since we had been kids.
I was too busy staring at him to look and see who kicked him again, but I knew it happened because he cried out again, “Goddamn it!”
He had been the one to break into my house.
He’d gotten onto private property to jump me. To hurt me. And it wasn’t the first time.
If I had thought things had gone red a minute ago, I would have been mistaken, but things definitely went red then. Anger surged through me. So strong, so piercing, I couldn’t breathe.
But somehow, some way, it also calmed me to know it had been him.
It calmed me to know I knew exactly what I was going to do.
And so it wasn’t so hard to stand there, staring down at him. It wasn’t hard to say, “Rudy, my dad never told me not to go back to San Antonio. He told me never to go back home. If you want to play the specifics game, he never said San Antonio.”
Because it was true.
Maybe my cousin hadn’t come to kill me, but he had come back to wreck my life. To wreck me. To hurt me.
I wasn’t okay with that. I was never going to be okay with that.
A Miller never went back on their word, and maybe I was an Allen now, but I had been a Miller first. My cousin reminded me of that. Unfortunately for him.
“Fuck off, you stupid bitch,” Rudy kept venting, stupidly.
But I was past it.
“Do you remember what I told you at the funeral?” I asked him, calmly, knowing I wasn’t going to get a response. He didn’t let me down. So I crouched by him, not close enough to be within striking distance if he was dumb enough to try and get another shot in, but close enough so I could speak more quietly, so he would know I wasn’t talking irrationally. Rip had taught me how much more effective that was than yelling.
And just in case he had forgotten, I answered my own question. “You came and you tried to hurt me, and I’ll live with that. But I told you at the funeral if you ever put your hands on me again, I was going to break your hand.”
His entire body froze, and I heard a noise from Miguel, but I didn’t turn to look at him. I was too focused. I was in this zone I had forgotten how well I was familiar with.
“And you know what that means, don’t you?” I asked him again.
“Oh, fuck,” I heard Miguel mutter.
But I didn’t look away as I asked my boss and my friend, “Will one of you hold him for me?”
Miguel didn’t hesitate. He dropped to my cousin and kneeled over his curled legs, pressing his hands down on the arm Rudy had closest to the ground. If he was a little too good at that, I was going to ask him later about it.
Just as I reached for Rudy’s hand, another one landed on my shoulder, and Rip’s voice was clear as he asked, “Let me do it.”
I didn’t look at him. Instead I took in my cousin’s face, pained and angry and furious—a reminder of a time in my life I never wanted ever again after this. “I can do it,” I told Rip.
“I want to,” he assured me quietly.
And it was that that had me glancing up at him again. His face was still red, his breathing was still pretty off, and he looked… furious.
For me?
“Go take care of your scrapes. We’ll handle this,” Rip said in that cool, cool voice, watching me with a face that I had never seen before. One that made the hairs on my arms stand up at the same time it made my chest tight.
There was an emotion behind his eyes that I didn’t know what to do with. That I didn’t know how to handle.
I nodded at him, knowing I was leaving my cousin to get his hand broken.
And all I could think was that he deserved it. After everything he’d done and had been willing to do, he deserved it.
But I knew there was one more thing I needed to do, and I glanced down at the man on the floor, thrashing by then, and said, “Tell my dad that if I ever see any of you again, if he ever calls me again, I’ll do more than call the cops and tell them there are drugs in the house. Tell him that I still remember a whole lot of things from ten years ago, do you understand me?”
“Fuck—” Rudy started to hiss before crying out loud when Rip took his hand.
“Remember what I said,” I warned him, taking a step away. It should have bothered me how okay I was about all this. I’d think about that later. Maybe. “I asked you to leave me alone, Rudy. Remember that. I warned you.”
“Grab your boot,” Rip said quietly. “Then go in, Luna.”
I nodded at him, looking at the big man crouched over my cousin, holding his hand in a position I knew well. I heard a moan from somewhere in the lot and I headed toward it, finding my boot just feet away from a man sitting between two cars, holding his forearm and looking at his hand, or wrist, with horror.
I wasn’t going to worry about him, I thought as I grabbed my boot. I knew Miguel and Rip could handle their own.
A little too well.
Or just well enough. Huh.
Reaching up to touch my now aching cheek, I couldn’t help but shake my head at the figure on the ground as I slid my boot on and headed back the way I had come.
“We got it,” Miguel assured me, still covering my cousin as I walked by them. His gaze was thoughtful and somehow mad at the same time.
“Thanks, Miguelito,” I said carefully, wondering just for a second what he was thinking right then. I’d worry about what those thoughts might mean to our friendship later.
I didn’t feel bad, I didn’t feel even a little bad, I thought as I walked away.
I was only feet away from them when I heard Rip strangely ask, “You remember me?”
Chapter 24
I had just finished stripping my protective suit off when the knob to the door of the room jiggled. The knob and door shook once more as whoever was on the other side tried to open it again. I didn’t blame them for being confused that the door was locked. It never was.
But the fact was, I hadn’t seen Jason in hours. Not since he had walked past me into the building, leaving me out there, alone. Well, not technically alone.
It had taken me maybe ten minutes after washing my hands all the way up to past my elbows to put the pieces together. They didn’t make sense. Not exactly at least… but enough.
Someone had let my cousin and the other guy into the lot.
And it didn’t take a genius to know there had only been one other person in the lot. One other person who would willingly let someone who didn’t like me into it. At least that’s what my gut said.
The one and only person who had disappeared. I hadn’t had the heart to ask any of the guys who had wandered into the break room what happened or if they knew anything about Jason. By the time I ha
d gotten done and Rip and Miguel hadn’t come back, I had gone to the back door and looked outside to find it empty.
What a mess. What a freaking mess.
What was my dad thinking? I didn’t think anything would surprise me, but he did. After all this time, he still did.
I wasn’t going to think about it anymore. It was done. I knew how things were for them. Even if Rip hadn’t… hurt Rudy… the point had been made. I would go to the cops again if they made me. But I knew, in my gut, they wouldn’t.
“Hold on,” I called out as I wiped at my face with a paper towel.
Taking in the face on the other side, I turned the lock and then pulled it wide.
“Luna,” Owen peeked his head inside the door.
“Hey.” I turned my back to him, needing to sit down so I could pull the rest of the suit off. “What’s going on?” I asked just as I made it to my desk and pulled out the rolling chair so I could take a seat.
“Mr. Cooper asked me to tell you to go to his office,” my coworker answered, sounding a whole lot more serious than usual.
I pulled the suit off from my feet, glancing up at him to shoot him a smile that made my cheek ache. I had iced and smothered ointment on it afterward, so I knew it hurt less than it would have if I hadn’t. I needed a freaking break. A nice, long break, and if things could go right for just a little while, well that would be nice too.
But I wasn’t going to hold my breath.
Especially not when one sister still wasn’t answering my calls and another one was being weird too.
“Okay, I’ll go up there in a second.”
Owen hesitated. “You okay?”
I shrugged. “My cheek hurts and the cuts on my hands sting, but I’ll be okay.”
My longtime friend looked at me in a way that said he believed me, but it didn’t make him feel any better. He hadn’t been around when I had been upstairs, but the guys at the shop were nosey. They knew something had happened, but I hadn’t said exactly what. I’d bet within three minutes, they had come to some conclusion and were just giving me space now.
I appreciated it. There was something really messed up about a family member trying to hurt you, especially when it was your dad who had put it into effect.
But luckily none of that was anything new for me.
And if I got some pleasure at Rudy getting hurt… well, I wasn’t going to feel bad. I could feel nice after everything that had happened. It was the least he deserved.
“Luna…”
I couldn’t even find it in me to muster up a smile. “Yeah?”
His dark brown eyes slid from one side of the room to the other, and his voice dropped so I could barely hear him as he said, “You want us to deal with it?”
“Deal with what?” I asked him as I stood up.
He was still looking around the room. “With the kid.”
I stood there.
He looked at me and let his stare stay. “We looked at the video. He was the one who let them in,” he told me solemnly. “You want us to teach him a lesson?”
I don’t know what it said about me that I felt more loved by my coworkers than ever before right then in that moment.
You didn’t offer to beat up someone unless they meant something to you.
And that’s what Owen was in here doing, being the representative. That was what Miguel and Rip had done for me by running out into the lot to help me. That was what family did.
And even though I shouldn’t have smiled, I did. I probably sounded way more chipper than I should as I answered back, “That’s one of the nicest things anyone has ever offered me, Owen, but it’s okay.”
His eyes narrowed. “Are you sure? Because nobody messes with one of our own.”
I had always known I was one of theirs, or they were one of mine, but to hear it…
Well, that took care of the pain more than anything else ever would.
“I’m sure, but thank you. And tell the other guys I said thank you too. I’m touched, honestly,” I told him.
“You change your mind, tell us.” Owen took another step back and then said, “It doesn’t have to be us that do it either, I know people. Miguel knows people.”
Miguel had known how to hold Rudy down… but that was something to ask him about later.
All of my coworkers had some shady pasts apparently.
It was nice to know I wasn’t the only one. It was so nice that I grinned at Owen even though it stung and said, “I’ll tell you if I change my mind, but I’m all right. He isn’t going to get to me.” More than he already had at least.
“We’ve all tried calling him, but he’s not answering. It looks like he took off right after Rip and Miguel did.”
Wait. Wait.
Did they watch the cameras… and see what had happened? Wasn’t that literally what he’d said a minute ago? We looked at the video?
“Fucker. He better not ever think about trying to come back.”
I appreciated what he said, but I was too focused on one thing. “Did you watch the security footage?”
Owen grinned… and he nodded. “All of it.”
Well.
Then backed out with that sneaky, and in some way, a strangely pleased, expression on his face.
Well, if I had been worried that they wouldn’t like me once they found out I wasn’t always Nice Luna, I would have been reassured they were okay with it.
Now, I needed to go talk to Mr. Cooper. He had never asked me to his office before, and I wasn’t delusional enough to think this time would be meaningless. He hadn’t been around while I had been upstairs. He had left for a long lunch.
I figured he wanted to talk to me about Jason, but…
Why wouldn’t he come downstairs then?
I realized now I could have prevented most of this by not sucking everything up. If I would have told Mr. C about how rocky things had been the entire time the younger man had been stuck with me… well, I wouldn’t be here, with my busted cheek and torn up forearms. Or if I would have just told Rip straight-out that I couldn’t stand the weasel….
It was my fault. The only person I could blame was my own freaking self.
Maybe if I would have genuinely tried to be nicer to him, we could have built a better working relationship.
Then again, probably not.
Rubbing at the spot between my breasts where the fox necklace I’d put on that morning was, I made myself head toward the door and pull it open. I waved at the guys on the main floor and gave them a grim smile when I made it to the main floor. I got a mix of a couple of head tilts, a couple raised hands, and one thumbs-up in response.
But it was Miguel standing in the middle of the room that had me pausing. “You’re good,” he mouthed with a slow smirk that seemed really pleased.
“Thank you,” I mouthed back, getting an even wider grin in response.
I shook my head at him before I turned around and headed back up the stairs.
At the office, I knocked on the door. “It’s Luna,” I called out, shoving my hands into the pockets of my jeans.
“Come in,” Mr. Cooper yelled back.
With my elbow, I moved the handle down and shoved the door open. Sure enough, the man who had raised this business from an auto body repair shop to include a successful restoration business was sitting behind his desk, clicking away on his computer with a concerned expression on his face. He tried to muster up a smile, but it fell off as quickly as it had come on.
“Little moon,” he breathed, shoving his chair back and getting to his feet… mostly. It was more of a stoop as he looked me over.
“I’m okay, Mr. C. I promise, sit down.” I gave him a smile I knew was strained as I took one of the ancient chairs across from his desk. Taking my hands out of my pockets, I pressed my palms together and then stuck them between my thighs. I didn’t miss the tight nature to Mr. Cooper’s movements as he sat back down in his chair and shoved it forward to settle down. In a gray Polo shirt and black khakis, he was dr
essed the exact same he always was since Rip had come, and he’d stopped working on the floor.
“They didn’t tell me about your face,” he murmured quietly, his mannerisms becoming more and more concerned by the second.
“It’s just a little cut,” I told him, shooting him a small, tight smile that only slightly made my cheek hurt. It was probably about time that I put more ointment on it.
He shook his head, his eyes glued on what I knew was the cut on my cheek. “I’m sorry, honey.”
“You don’t have anything to be sorry over,” I told him, honestly. “It’s all on my family, Mr. C. I’m sorry it happened here.”
My boss’s expression told me he didn’t believe me, and the way his shoulders curled and stooped confirmed it. “Rip is on his way. Let’s wait for him, okay?” he asked me, still speaking gently.
“Okay,” I agreed, flashing him an expression that hopefully said I didn’t want him to feel even a little bad about any of this.
It was my fault.
And Jason’s.
And Rudy’s.
And my dad’s.
But I could and would take responsibility for my own actions.
“You mind talking about something else until he gets there?” I asked.
Those green-green emerald-colored eyes watched me. “How’s the house coming along?” he decided to go with.
I had forgotten I hadn’t had a real conversation about my place getting broken into. The only person I’d gotten around to telling was Lily. What I hadn’t told her was that I hadn’t been staying there alone.
Much less that Rip and I had shared a couch and a bed those same times.
I wasn’t surprised he hadn’t blabbed about sleeping in my bed to Mr. Cooper either, but I tried my best not to even think about it in the first place. Then again, why would Rip tell him anything about me?
“Okay,” I told him, feeling like even more of a liar than usual. “My house got broken into a few days ago. The insurance is going to cover a lot of the things that got messed up. They didn’t actually steal anything but my laptop and my tablet.” They. My cousin and whoever else had helped him. Maybe the man I had thrown my boot at.
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