"Whoa, what happened?"
I glanced over my shoulder, realizing the man I saw looked nothing like Angelo. My fear must have been playing tricks on me.
"You're shaking," he said, cupping his hand to my cheek, pulling my face toward him.
Our eyes locked, and time seemed to stop as he held me close on the busy sidewalk.
"I thought I saw—but I was wrong," I stuttered.
Running his fingers through my hair, he said, "It's normal. I'm going to keep you safe."
Slowly, I unwrapped my arms from his neck. "It's too dangerous to be around me. I'm sorry," I whispered, staring into his eyes.
"I'm not," he said before crashing his lips against mine.
I sank into the moment—our moment.
He broke our kiss when his phone began to ring. Pulling the phone from his pocket, he turned away from me, and said, "Hello."
Not wanting to eavesdrop, I shifted my gaze toward the street, and as the minutes ticked away, my mind drifted to my perilous circumstances. Fleeing Rez was going to reap repercussions I wasn't ready to face. Staying would have meant death for me and now for Hunter, as well.
I just needed to stay out of sight long enough to get to Phoenix. Then I realized that even if I made it there unscathed, Rez's wrath wouldn't stop at the California border. He'd bide his time until I messed up. He was probably counting on me messing up.
And if he ever caught me, I just knew he'd kill me in front of a crowd, sending a message that opposing him wouldn't be tolerated. Thinking about Rez made my stomach churn, and I was tired of my stomach hurting.
A strong hand pressed against the small of my back. "Are you ready?"
"I'm gonna need to hide in the shadows for the rest of my life, aren't I?" I asked, staring at my shoes.
He placed his crooked finger underneath my chin, shifting my gaze from the street. "Not if I have anything to say about it," he said.
God, where have you been all my life?
"You can just walk away you know," I said, hoping he would say no. "There is no way Rez is going to forget this humiliation."
"Fuck Rez," he said, leading me back to his car.
BIG PÀPI CHULO
HUNTER
Right when we got back from shopping, my work phone rang again. It was Riley, Citadel's ops specialist, texting me.
Riley: Hey, we need you to come in and look over next week's op.
Me: Can you give me an hour?
Riley: No. I'm not sending your boys in on a half-assed mission. Get your ass in. NOW!
Me: I'll be right there.
I looked up from my phone. "Hey, I'm gonna need to head into work. I'm gonna call Ari, and have him come keep an eye on you."
"I don't need a babysitter."
"I didn't say you did, but I trust Ari. He'll keep you safe."
She shook her head. I knew she was a little apprehensive about him, especially because of the way he spoke to her, but there was no one else I could trust, and I needed to get to work. Once Riley was pissed, it was all over.
I dialed Ari's number on my phone and waited for him to pick up. It went to voicemail. I dialed again, shaking my head as I waited. It went to voicemail again.
"This mutha…" I murmured.
"Everything okay?" she asked.
I dialed one last time. "Hello?"
"What the fuck," I said in a tight voice.
"Sorry man. My jàina was over, and she wanted some of her big pàpi chulo."
I shook my head. "I need you to keep an eye on Celeste. I have to run to work."
"I don't wanna be anywhere near that bitch, she's bad news."
"I wasn't asking."
"Fuck that. I ain't coming."
"Get your punk ass down here, or I'll come beat your ass myself."
There was a short pause before he answered. "Fuck! Fine," he yelled.
I could hear some rustling on the other end, a woman whimper, and then a door slam shut.
"Fine. Just know I didn't fuckin' get mine. That bitch's mouth was all up on my dick…you know how much fuckin' sweet talkin' shit I had to say to get her on her knees?"
"Just get your ass over here."
"You owe me a blowjob, Hunter."
"Yeah, yeah. Add it to my tab."
"Plus, how'm I supposed to get there? I don't have a car remember?"
"Borrow your mama's car."
ARI
"Fuck!" I yelled as I hung up the phone.
I could hear Hunter smiling from here. He knew how much I hated having to ask for the car.
"Ma', I need to borrow your car!" I yelled from my bedroom.
"Get a job, mijito," she hollered back from the kitchen.
"Just gimmie the keys! I need to help Hunter out."
"Oh, Hunter? If it's for Hunter then my keys are in my purse," she yelled.
I shook my head. Sometimes I thought she wished Hunter was her son.
"Oh, Hunter's this, and Hunter's such a good man, and Hunter's that," I mimicked under my breath.
I pushed my dick back into my pants and zipped up before heading out of my room to her purse.
After rifling through endless receipts and tissue paper, I finally found her car keys at the bottom of the massive gray pleather bag.
"Okay, ma', I'm leaving," I said, waving the keys in the air as I walked toward the door.
She peeked her wrinkled face out of the kitchen; her long gray hair rolled in a neat bun on top of her head. "You tell that nice boy, Hunter, to stop by anytime. I'll make him some homemade flautas."
I whipped around. "You never make me homemade flautas anymore, and you know that's my favorite."
"Well maybe if you got a job I would make you some flautas, too," she replied sarcastically.
"Ay, ma'!" I said. "I'm not Hunter."
"I know!" She shrugged her shoulders and disappeared back into the kitchen.
I hopped into her burgundy '87 Brougham Cadillac and screeched off toward Hunter's, waving at my jaina as I passed her at the bus stop. She flipped me off.
"She'll get over it," I muttered under my breath, staring at her yelling at me through the rearview mirror. "I hope."
HUNTER
"He's on his way," I said.
"Great," she said sarcastically.
"I know he seems rough around the edges, but I grew up with him, and when we were kids, he would beat up anybody who made fun of me. I was a scrawny little thing."
"You—scrawny? Hard to imagine," she said with an adorable smile.
"Trust me. I was skinnier than a toothpick, but Ari, he always took up for me."
"People change."
"Yeah, I know, but he's like a brother to me," I said, pressing my lips to her cheek. "Trust me?"
"I trust you, and if you trust him, then I will too," she said, cupping her palm to my jaw as I moved away from her.
"What about you? How did you get mixed up with a mob boss?"
She took a moment, twiddling her thumbs as she thought.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I said.
"No. No, I owe you an explanation—if not more."
"You don't owe me anything."
"But I do," she said solemnly.
I motioned for her to proceed.
"I met Torello at a party. That's when he was still charming. My parents didn't see it that way though, and they wouldn't let me see him. They said he was nothing but trouble. I should have listened. I was out one night drinking with my friends, and I guess someone slipped something into my drink because I woke up bound and gagged in a small room with three other girls."
"What the fuck?"
"They were human fuckin' traffickers. They lined us up like cattle, auctioning us off to the highest bidder. Fortunately, Torello was at the auction. He bid on me and made it clear with a simple look that no one else should. I was thankful at the time. I thought I had been saved by my Prince Charming. Boy was that a fuckin' mistake. In retrospect, the fact that he was at that kind of aucti
on should've tipped me off."
"You were young and scared."
"Stupid is more like it. Funny how youth makes you think you know everything when, really, you don't know shit about shit."
"So you've been with him all this time?"
She nodded.
"Do you love him?"
"I think I was with him so long; I eventually grew to care for him; but love?" she said, shaking her head.
"Got something against love?"
"Nothing against love. I read about it all the time. Just never seen it up close and personal before. Except, of course, my parents. They had been married forever."
"Had been?"
She shook her head, and looked down, trying to hide her face from me.
"What is it?"
"I think Torello killed them," she said, her voice cracking as she stuttered the words out.
I reached out and pulled her close. "I'm alone in the world too, you know," I confessed, trying to let her in.
"Maybe we can be alone together?" she asked, looking up at me with wide and vulnerable eyes.
God, how I wanted to say yes, but the wall I had built around my heart made me change the subject—quickly.
"I'm gonna keep you safe until I can get you to your aunt's."
"I know you will," she whispered, looking away from me.
There was a knock at the door. It was Ari, standing on my doorstep looking up and down the street nervously.
"Come in. I'm only gonna be a couple hours. Shouldn't be an issue since no one but you know she's here."
"Just hurry the fuck up," he said, looking around the house for Celeste, who walked out of the bedroom. "Hurry up…every minute I'm near this girl I'm in danger."
"Don't be such a pussy. You can handle yourself, can't you?" I asked.
"Get the fuck outta here, Hunter," Ari said, taking a seat on the couch.
She wrapped her arms around me. "Hurry up, please," she said in my ear.
"It'll be okay," I whispered back.
CELESTE
It had been an hour since Hunter left, and Ari had not taken his hungry eyes off of me once, making me extremely uncomfortable. I knew that look all too well. That was the look of an animal eyeing his prey, and, unfortunately, I was his prey.
I didn't want to go to the bedroom, as that would just send a signal that I wanted to take things further, so I decided to get out of his line of sight and head to the kitchen.
"Did you want me to make you something to eat?" I asked as he looked away from me and peered out the windows.
"Yeah, sure."
"Anything in particular?"
"Whatever you got in there."
I walked into the kitchen and bent over to look in the sparsely stocked fridge. I was startled by the graze to my hip, and I quickly straightened my posture to see what had brushed by me…but I already knew.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Nothing. Just noticing what Torello and Hunter see in you. You sure are a tight little thing, aren't you màmi? I bet that pussy's tight, too."
I crossed my arms, tightening the muscles in my thighs, as I shifted my gaze down to the large white square tiles that covered the kitchen floor.
He inched closer to me as I moved back, eventually running out of room, the kitchen wall impeding my escape. His left hand pressed against the wall, the other, running its fingers through my hair. I looked away, my face cringing in fear as the cigarette smoke from his breath drifted in my nostrils, the smell making nauseous.
Ari flashed a deviant smile as his fingers traced down the length of my hair, over my shoulder, and down the middle of my chest where the plunging neckline of my dress slightly exposed my cleavage.
I knew I should've changed.
"Please don't, Ari," I begged, trying to push myself up against the wall, praying it would give way to give me room to escape.
"But Hunter and Torello are good enough for you, baby girl. I promise I gotta bigger dick than both of them put together. I could make you just as happy. Hunter wouldn't have to know unless you wanna tell him."
"But I would know," I said, unclasping my arms, pushing him to the side as I tried to escape.
He gripped my neck, slamming my back against the wall. "I didn't give you permission to leave, bitch," he said in my ear, raking his fingers up my thigh.
I pushed his hand away. "Please," I begged as my eyes began to shine with tears.
He leaned in, grazing his lips to mine, his knee intruding between my legs. The lump in the back of my throat grew as the tears began to stream down my cheek.
He paused when his phone rang. Pulling away, he took the phone out of his pocket.
"Yeah," he answered with annoyance in his voice.
"Hunter—no—everything is fine here," he said, winking at me as he pressed his finger to his pursed lips.
"Yeah—I'll let her know," he said, hanging up the phone.
Ari looked at me as he stuffed his phone back into his pocket. "Well, it looks like your boyfriend is on his way back. I'll get at you later," he said, turning and walking away.
Silently, I exhaled a sigh of relief.
He turned back to me, and I instantly tensed up. "Oh, and make sure this stays between us. I'm not a good guy like Hunter. I'm willing to do shit to you."
I nodded.
It wasn't too much longer after that when I heard keys jangling at the door lock, followed by the door creaking open. I jumped up from the kitchen table, where I was watching Ari like a hawk, and threw my arms around Hunter as he walked in. I didn't know what it was about him, but he was my safety—the eye in my storm. With him, all my vulnerabilities disappeared, and without him, I was broken.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
I didn't reply.
Ari stood up from the couch and cleared his throat. "I'm gonna get outta here."
I looked at him sheepishly as he glared back a warning, which caused me to bury my face back into Hunter's chest. His heart began to beat a mile a minute, and the second Ari walked by, Hunter seized his arm.
"What the fuck happened, Ari?"
Ari yanked his arm away. "Nothing man. Nothing fuckin' happened. Ask the puñeta. She'll tell you."
I began to tremble as the telltale signs of a fight began to present themselves. It was like watching two pit bulls raring to go.
Hunter eased away from me, and looked into my eyes. "Tell me what the fuck happened."
I could see it in his eyes—he knew—he knew what Ari tried to do. He let go of me, sweeping his arm around to position me behind him. Grabbing Ari by the arm, Hunter rammed him into the wall, making a dent in the drywall. His forearm pinned Ari's neck down.
"I asked you for one thing. Keep her safe, and you do this?" Hunter growled through gritted teeth.
"She's a whore. What the fuck is the difference? My dick, your dick…it's all the same to her."
"She's not a fuckin' whore."
"Hey, you can try to wrap trash up in shiny wrapping paper…doesn't mean it ain't still trash." Ari chuckled, glancing over at me.
His words infuriated Hunter, who clenched his right fist, swinging the hard mass directly at Ari's jaw. Ari's eyes widened a second before the flesh and bone made contact with his jaw, causing his head to wrench to the left. He fell to the ground, holding his hand to his jaw, spitting a mixture of blood and saliva on to the pristine beige carpeting.
"Muthafucka', you hit me…over her?" Ari asked, pointing at me.
"Fuck you, Ari. You're a piece of shit leech. Get the fuck outta my house, and don't come back!" Hunter yelled, holding the door open for Ari.
Ari stood up, his lip bloodied, as his gaze shifted between me and Hunter.
"Over her?"
"Over a lot of things; she was just the last straw."
Ari looked at Hunter, his eyes red with anger.
"Enjoy your whore," Ari said, spitting on the floor at my feet before he walked out.
Hunter slammed the door behind him, shaking his h
ead. "That snake muthafucker."
I laid my hands on his shoulders, which were hot, shaking from fury. Grabbing his hand, I scanned his knuckles, checking for open wounds. Surprisingly, there was not one scratch. Rubbing my palm over his hand, I looked up at his face; his eyes were narrow and focused out the window.
I wrapped my arms around him. "I'm okay."
He didn't respond.
FURY
ANGELO
It was one of those really warm days in San Diego. The kind of day the Santa Ana winds made the city heat up like a sauna. I made my way through a stagnant crowd of soldiers, escorted by an associate of the Torello family, headed for the back office where Rez would be waiting.
I wasn't excited to deliver the news that I had failed to capture Celeste after giving chase last night, or about losing two Escalades. Luckily, a few of us made it out alive. Or unlucky for me—depending on how you looked at it.
"He's pretty mad today," he said.
"He's pretty mad every fuckin' day," I replied.
"You wanna closed or open casket?" he asked as he opened the double doors, motioning for me to proceed by myself into the small dimly lit office, smelling of smoke and old sex.
"Fuck you," I whispered as I brushed by him.
Rez was sitting behind his desk as usual; the seat faced the wall as a puff of smoke ascended toward the ceiling. The wall behind his desk had a massive painting of him with his sweet Celeste in a compromising position. Not a picture her parents would have liked to see if they were still breathing this polluted California air.
Rez was the king of the money laundering game in San Diego. Wanting all the money, power, and women to himself, he would kill anyone who gave even the slightest inkling of opposition, and Celeste's parents were two of those people. They should've just given her up without a fight. I tried to warn them, but when that didn't work, I had to convince them the old fashioned way. A bullet to the head…one and done, as they say. Or in this case, two.
I couldn't get their begging out of my head. I still remember the whole thing like it was yesterday. Now that I think about it, I don't think I'll ever forget. They were an older couple, and reminded me a lot of my parents, which sharpened the sting even more than a normal execution. I certainly wouldn't want anyone making my dear sweet mama get on her knees and face a wall, but that's what Rez ordered, and what Rez says, goes. It's as simple as that. Innocent. Guilty. I didn't have a say. Otherwise, it's my knees on the ground facing a wall, and that shit ain't happening. Even if God Himself forgave me for everything I'd ever done in life, He certainly wouldn't forgive me for them. I know I wouldn't.
Teach Me: A Bad Boy Professor Romance (The Me Series Book 1) Page 14