“I doubt it,” Dante said.
“She’s probably going to kick me out herself, but I want to give her the chance.”
“You’ve done enough to this family, cabron. I’ll be damned if I let you hurt any of them again. I protect what’s mine. That’s what a man does. He protects his family. I know you don’t understand that. You ran out on your son, and you left your mother.”
“I left my mother to be there for my son,” Val replied, his voice tight.
“You left my son on his deathbed. He’s walked with a limp all his life. He can hardly hear out of that ear. You did that. I don’t care what bullshit story you want to tell. And damn if I’m going to let you feed this delusion of Mina’s.” He scoffed. “As if you really had nothing to do with whatever she got into. Whatever you said to make her believe this is all her fault—”
“It is my fault!”
Mina had been scooting down the stairs one by one on her ass. With her pronouncement, she stood. Well, she tried to anyway. She’d barely gotten it out before her knees buckled.
All of them bolted for her, but Val got to her first. He caught her as she crumpled and guided her down gently to sit on the second from the bottom step. “Mina,” he whispered, looking a touch frantic as he took her face in his hands. “What are you doing? Christ, look at you.”
It felt so good to have his hands on her, so tender, that Mina whimpered. She put her feeble hands to his chest, wanting nothing so much as to melt into his arms.
Before she could, her foster father came at them like a bull with rage in his eyes. He grabbed Val by the arm. “Get your hands off her.”
Mina found the strength to push Dante away. “You take your hands off him.”
She could see Dante’s features twist, but he got control of himself. He took a breath and looked her in the eyes. “Mija,” he began in that placating voice. “I’ve heard what you said about the things you did, but I wasn’t born yesterday. He was involved. I don’t know how much you’re lying for him or he’s lying for you, but it doesn’t matter. Whatever else he did or didn’t do, he still got you shot.”
“No.” She wheezed in a breath, and Val tightened his arms around her. She shook her head, steeling herself against the pain. She forced herself to look at Dante, the only father she’d ever known, in the eyes. “You were there when I spoke to the police. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you. What I did was my mistake. It was my bullet to take in the first place.”
“Mina—” Dante started, but Cora interrupted.
“Enough is enough, Dante. Whatever you think Val’s done—”
“Momma Cora.” Mina took another shaky breath and raised her head to meet Cora’s gaze. “This isn’t your fight.”
“He’s my son.”
Mina nodded. “But he’s my man.” She swallowed hard and braced herself against Val. He sucked in a breath, and she didn’t look at him. She kept her eyes on Cora and Dante. “I’ve been letting him take the blame for my mistakes for a long time. He’s good at that—taking on other people’s mistakes. But not mine. Not anymore.”
She looked directly at Dante, ignoring the pain and the way she was trembling. “I was involved with some bad people. That’s what got me shot. I’m not an innocent angel. I never have been. I listened to the wrong person, my asshole best friend, not Val.” She gritted her teeth. “That’s what got me shot. I’ve made a lot of bad choices in my life.” She closed her eyes, shaking in earnest now. “I got a boy killed.”
Cora and Dante gasped. A wave of dizziness hit Mina. She hadn’t meant to say that. Not that it wasn’t true, but her thoughts had gotten tangled in her head. Her skin had gone all clammy, what little energy she had disappearing. “Sorry,” she said. The word felt thick in her mouth. “Not now. Not…” She shook her head. “The point is it was my bullet to begin with. You don’t want to listen to anything else, listen to that.”
And on that dramatic moment, Mina swooned. She slumped, all of her weight going slack against Val. She heard Cora and Dante exclaim, but their words didn’t quite permeate the haze that had moved back in over her mind.
She did hear one voice clearly, though. Val’s lips were near her ear, his arms warm around her. “Mina,” he said, the back of his hand against her cold cheek.
Then she was weightless.
“What are you doing?” Dante asked. Some of the volume and fury was missing from his tone.
“I’m taking her upstairs to rest.”
“I can do that.”
“I’m sure you can,” Val muttered. He didn’t stop, which was good, because she had no intention of letting him go. Not right now.
Footsteps followed them, and she heard Momma Cora fussing. “I’ve got her, Mom,” Val said, his gait never faltering as he made it into her room.
“She has pills for the pain there on her nightstand.”
“I got it. I promise.”
She heard the sound of the door’s soft click, and a moment later, he laid her down on the bed. Mina fought to open her eyes. Before he could pull away, she caught the front of his shirt. For a few beats, she stared, all the unsaid things pricking the air between them.
“I’m still mad at you,” she said, her words a whisper.
The corner of his mouth tugged up. He brushed his fingertips ever so gently through her hair. He traced the shape of her face and brushed his thumb over her lips. “I know,” he said. He took her glasses off and pulled the blankets up around her. “But if you’re going to fight with me, you can’t be collapsing, huh? So go to sleep.”
He pulled back, but she grabbed his hand before he could get away. She licked her dry lips. “Stay.”
Tilting his head, he studied her, twining their fingers together. “Are you sure?”
Out of energy, she only looked at him. He climbed back on the bed and, so carefully, stretched out in the space beside her, behind her. Mina let out a shaky breath as he put a tentative arm around her.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he whispered against her ear.
In response, she snuggled backward, putting her hand up to cover his. She took several deep breaths. “I missed you,” she murmured as her eyes closed.
There was the barest brush of a kiss against the back of her hair, and she could swear his breath went ragged. She could’ve sworn he said “I love you” over and over as she gave in to sleep.
Chapter 29
As Mina’s breaths evened out into sleep, Val ducked his face into her soft hair. He breathed in her scent, willing his body to stop shaking lest he jostle her awake. He moved his hand carefully to place it over her chest, feeling her heartbeat.
A shudder passed through him. It was a miracle to be here holding her. He’d given up his rights to this in the hopes choosing the exact opposite of what he wanted would turn out better than every other choice he’d made in his life.
Worse than that were the days he’d spent believing her blood on his skin would be the last touch he’d ever have. He’d thought watching her limp, colorless body being loaded into a waiting ambulance would be the last time he would lay eyes on her.
Eventually, the shaking subsided, and she was peaceful in his arms. He didn’t know what to think about the fact she wanted him in her bed. He didn’t know what to think about what his mother had told him, how Mina woke up proclaiming Val’s innocence. He especially didn’t know what to think about what she’d said downstairs.
He’s my man.
He didn’t see how she could’ve meant it, but Val had long ago lived his life from day to day, if not minute to minute. The future didn’t matter. What mattered right then was that she was content to have him there. He could see her, feel her against him, and listen to her breathe.
Knowing this reprieve had to be only temporary, Val didn’t want to sleep. His body, exhausted by sleepless nights and the anxiety of this messed-up situation, had different ideas. Lulled by her even breaths, the blackness took him.
“Wake up. Don’t be so damn lazy.”
Val thought it was a dream. He had no intention of opening his eyes. Her voice in his dreams was all he had left.
Someone delivered a sharp smack to his ass that made his eyes fly open. He heard someone laugh.
No, he heard Mina laugh. She reached back and rubbed the spot she’d just smacked. “You’re poking me, jackass. I already told you I’m still mad at you, so you’d better get that thing away from me.”
It took Val another beat to realize he was hard and his cock was nestled up against Mina’s ass. He quickly disentangled his arms from around her and rolled onto his back. “I’m sorry,” he said as he sat up.
“You can be sometimes. A sorry excuse for a boyfriend, for one thing, but I’m not all perfection myself, so whatever.” Mina let out a low hiss as she tried to push up with her arm braced against the bed.
“Mina—” Val tried to get her to lay back down, but she grabbed his hand instead.
“Help me sit up so I can yell at you.”
In spite of his worry at the obvious strain, Val laughed. He braced his arm around her, supporting her as she brought herself upright. He helped her get her pillow behind her back and waited, pulling his legs up to sit cross-legged in front of her as she closed her eyes and caught her breath. She rested her hands on the blanket in front of her, palm up. Tentatively, he put his hands in hers, ready to pull back if it wasn’t what she wanted. She linked their fingers instead, holding onto him with reassuring strength.
A minute later, she opened her eyes, and Val felt like he could breathe for the first time in days. He licked his lips, finding his mouth suddenly dry, and brought her knuckles up to kiss them. “Before you start yelling at me, there’s something I need to know first. Are you in danger, Mina? Are they going to come for you again?”
She shuddered, her eyes pinched at the corners, but she shook her head. “No. No, that’s over.”
“What happened?”
“A bunch of drama.” She shuddered again, her mouth pressed into a thin line for another few moments before she explained. “It was Celeste, her girlfriend, and Patrick. No one… big. No one important. It all just got out of hand. It all happened because I broke it off with Celeste after the thing that night. You remember.”
Now it was Val’s turn to shudder. He nodded, his jaw clenched tight with the memory.
“Long story short, she just wanted to prove I wasn’t any better than she was. I’m sure it didn’t take much to get that Patrick guy in on the whole thing. You know he was always convinced I was going to tell the cops something, as though there were anything for me to tell.” She rolled her eyes. “They arranged it for friends of theirs—drug dealers, I guess—to set me up. Not to take a fall, but to have that shit in my car so I’d get my hands on it. I walked in, and the guys acted like I was there to give them their product.” Her lip curled at the word. “Of course, I didn’t know what the hell they were talking about. They were leading me back to my car because they said they knew that’s where I kept my stash.”
“You mean they were trying to manipulate you into completing a drug deal?” Val asked. “That’s—”
“Fucked up? Stupid as hell? All of the above?” Mina shrugged and winced. “Celeste wasn’t trying to get me killed or even land me in jail, though I’m sure Patrick wouldn’t have minded if I ended up dead.” She crossed her arms over her chest, shrinking in on herself slightly. “It’s all surreal. A guy came into my hospital room one day with a cryptic message that, as far as I can tell, was a message from the man you’re worried about.” She eyed him to make sure he was following.
The maybe-mob boss she’d told him about, the one who’d broken Patrick’s arm without hesitation when he hit Mina. He seemed ruthless and was exactly the person Val had been worried about.
“Like I said, it was cryptic, but the gist was that he has no beef with me,” Mina stated. “And right after that, the police caught up with Patrick and Celeste. That’s how I know what happened. I don’t even know what charges they got them on, but I might have to testify later.”
Val exhaled. “Jesus,” he muttered under his breath.
“I know. It’s some soap-opera bullshit. What kind of jackass accidentally gets involved with criminal underground, huh? God. Retrospect is a hell of a thing.”
“Yeah.” Val chuffed, ducking his head. “I’m too familiar with that one.” He eyed her again. “And how about legal trouble?”
For the space of a heartbeat, she looked so young, almost childlike in her fright. He knew what it was like to be young and on the wrong side of the law. He squeezed her hands, and she let out a breath before she spoke. “My lawyer thinks that’ll all be fine too. They questioned me for a long time, but I really don’t know anything. The most they could dredge up would be that I didn’t report the illegal gambling, but that’s a hard one to prove. They’d have to prove that I knew what was going on—the money changing hands and all that. He says they’ll probably keep an eye on me for a while. You know, I might get hauled in as a person of interest when things happen, but they can’t do much.”
“Good.” Val scooted closer, pressing his leg against hers. He wanted to gather her into his arms, hold her close so nothing would ever hurt her again. Touching as much of her as she’d let him would have to do for now.
“Yeah.” She eyed him with a wary expression. “Turned out a lot better my way than yours, huh? I don’t know why the hell you preferred to rot in a cell insisting you’d done something you hadn’t. Christ, Val. What the hell were you thinking? Were you just taking any charge they threw at you?”
He ducked his head, heart beating hard as the memories hit him. A cold chill ran down his back as he remembered the cop holding him back, stopping him from getting in the ambulance with Mina.
“You know how good I am about thinking things through,” Val said, trying to keep his tone light though he felt anything but. The act faded almost instantly as he felt the blood drain from his face. “You were dead. You know that? You stopped breathing.”
“They told me. They brought me back at the scene and again in the ambulance.” She flinched.
“Yeah.” He raised his head, looking up at the ceiling. “I tried to get in with you. They had to push me out. Said they needed the room to help you.” His throat was so tight, the words came out strangled. “A cop held me back. He said it was better to stay at the scene, let him take my statement, and then I wouldn’t have to think about talking to them.”
His hands went clammy, and he let go of Mina’s hand to rub the back of his neck. “But hell if I could string two words together. I was sure you were dead, I couldn’t think, and everything had happened so fast. I didn’t get very much out before they found the drugs in your car.”
“You couldn’t put two words together, but you could throw yourself under a bus?” Mina demanded.
Val closed his eyes against the sting, remembering how helpless he’d felt. He had no words for that kind of powerlessness. Mina was dying, if not dead. It wasn’t something he could accept. He would do anything, fight any battle, give anything to fix it. But he couldn’t.
“I got there too late to protect you.” He swallowed hard. “I couldn’t make you stay. I couldn’t do a damn thing but make sure you died innocent.”
Her breath came in ragged gasps, but he couldn’t bring himself to look at her. Not until he felt her trembling hand against his cheek. “I’ve never lived innocent, Valentin.”
Before her hand could slip away, he caught it and held it against his cheek. He opened his eyes slowly, looking into hers. They shone with tears, but she didn’t let them fall. She tilted her chin, her gaze hardening. “Okay, there’s something I need to be clear about before we say anything else. You didn’t leave me because you wanted to be rid of me, right?”
“What?” Val flinched in horror. “Didn’t you believe me? Of course I didn’t want to leave.”
She nodded. “I did believe you.” She took her hand from his and let it fall to her lap. “I hated you for a little bit. I thought you were making decisions for me, taking away my choice, but that’s not what you did.
“The more I thought about it, the more I realized what a hypocrite I was being. How many times have I lied to everyone else? I never let them choose whether they could love me if they knew who I really was. And part of it was wanting what was best for Momma Cora and Dante. They wanted a daughter so badly—a perfect princess—and I made them happy.”
Her features softened. She took his hands and used them to pull herself off the pillow. Val was perplexed, watching as she tried to move. When he realized what she wanted, he helped guide her so she was sitting with her legs on either side of his, his arm around her, supporting her. They were face to face now, her nose just an inch or so from his. He searched her features, letting her lead this conversation he sensed could make or break him.
“What I’m trying to say is I get it. You let yourself think you could have this thing for a fraction of a minute before…” She blanched and waved a hand. “…that whole terrible thing happened.”
“Caught with my pants down,” he murmured, trying for a touch of humor.
She nodded. “You’ve lost everything. I think you grew up scared. I know what Momma Cora’s life was like before she met Dante. She had it rough—you both did—but before life could get better for you, you lost your innocence, your freedom, and the adoration of your baby brother.” Her look turned tender, and she traced the line of his cheek with a finger. “Your son. And I didn’t stop to think that after Dante and Momma Cora walked in on us, you thought you probably lost your mother too. She wasn’t speaking to you.”
Val shook his head. “Don’t make it sound like I was some pathetic soul. Maybe some things shouldn’t have happened the way they did, but I’m not an angel. I made things harder on Mom, and I didn’t even want Dante to like me. Maybe I didn’t try to kill my little brother, but I didn’t do right by him. And I messed up a lot with Emile.”
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