by Trina Lane
“And that’s the best part. But, seriously I can warm something up for you? I made myself some pozole earlier.”
“Hmm, I might not be ready for pork, chili peppers, onion and garlic.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing I also made a bland vegetable-only variety.”
Malaki looked away and sighed.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. It’s just it’s been a long time since I had someone around to take care of me in any way and…I forgot how good it felt.”
Javier smiled then made his way around into the kitchen. He’d kept the soup simmering on the stove, and pulled a bowl down from the cabinet. The scent of the soup suddenly made an old memory surface and he was transported to his abuela’s kitchen. Javier probably hadn’t been more than five or six, judging by his perspective and her smile. It wasn’t until after his father had walked out that the smile had left her face. She’d stood near the stove ladling soup, and when Javier had turned around, he’d nearly gasped at the vision of his father sitting at the table. The man had pulled out the chair next to him and held out his arms. Javier had started towards his papi, but just before his felt his father’s arms around him again, the memory faded and it was Mal’s frown that came into focus.
“Hey, are you okay? You’re breathing really fast. Maybe you should go back to your place. I don’t want to spread any more germs to you than I already have.”
Javier shook his head. “I’m fine, but thank you for asking. Just an old memory snuck up on me. Besides, I’m sure your germs are already multiplying by the millions inside me. It’s up to my immune system now.”
He set the bowl in front of Mal and crossed over to the fridge. He pulled open the door and the cool air swept across his flushed cheeks. He hadn’t even been sure he remembered what his father looked like, but apparently an image had been locked in his subconscious somewhere. His pulse was racing and he couldn’t seem to focus on the items inside to find what he’d gone there to search for to begin with.
“Turn around,” Mal said softly.
Javier shifted and looked up. He didn’t know why such an old memory had him all twisted up. He literally hadn’t thought about his father in years. But it wasn’t important. Mal was there in front of him, loving him for the man he’d become, and it was more important that Javier nurture the relationship that had healed his heart than chase a ghost.
“I mean it, Javi. I would feel a hundred times worse if I get you sick.”
He wrapped his arms around his lover’s neck. “We take care of each other, yeah? Some days I may need a little more help and others you, but that’s part of figuring out this whole relationship thing together. It’s the balance that makes us work.”
“Look at that—you’re not just a pretty face after all,” Malaki said.
“Shut up, and now I’m going to risk my life and kiss you.”
Because he needed Malaki’s kiss more than anything in the world. And what were a few germs? Javier brushed his lips against the dry, warm skin of Malaki’s cheek. He could still smell the soap Mal had used in his shower a few hours ago. Javier slid his lips against Malaki’s, wishing he hadn’t drunk the beer earlier so he wouldn’t have any taste on his tongue but Mal’s. He took his time, lingering over the slightly parted lips, licking at their curves, feeling Mal’s gasping breath wash over his moist lips. Mal traced lines across his back and the mixture of his lover’s hot touch and the cool air created a storm inside Javier that couldn’t be controlled. He crushed their mouths together, invading forcefully, using his arms to encircle Malaki’s waist and pull their bodies together tightly.
Mal moaned into Javier’s mouth and gripped back of Javier’s neck with one hand while using the other to pull their bodies closer together. They collided with the fridge door, and something rattled, bringing Javier to his senses. He tore his lips free and rested his forehead against Mal’s chest.
“Sorry, I know you said you weren’t up to sexual gymnastics.”
Mal rubbed their groins together. He was just as hard as Javier, and it made Javier’s cock twitch.
“Clearly, my cock has other ideas.”
He didn’t give Mal a chance to get out that infuriating ‘but’. He captured his lips again in a continuation of the torrid kiss. What was it about Malaki’s kisses that plugged the holes that life had ripped out of him? Javier wasn’t a praying man, but if there was ever something to plead to a higher power it was that his love had the same ability for his man. Pushing his tongue into Malaki’s mouth, Javier explored and stroked as the heat tumbled through him, ratcheting up the tension and anticipation in the air around them. He released Mal’s neck, combing down the other man’s back and pulling the T-shirt free of his waistband so he could touch the bare, warm skin at the base of his spine. Malaki took a couple of steps back, drawing Javier with him. Javier turned them so he could press Mal against the countertop, letting the fridge door swing shut.
He grabbed a handful of strongly muscled ass. Mal moaned and dove back into the hot, wet kiss with enthusiasm. He arched under Javier’s hands as he sucked on his lower lip.
They were interrupted by a rather ominous growl coming from Mal’s stomach. Javier backed off and looked down, unable to hold back a smirk. “I guess that means we should feed you after all.”
Mal pulled him in against his body and Javier sighed at how such a simple gesture was able to even out the conflagration of emotions rioting inside him.
“Come on, big guy, let’s get you rehydrated and fed. Then depending on how you tolerate anything in your stomach, maybe we can pick this up later.”
He got busy getting a can of the Black Cherry Zevia that Malaki preferred when he wanted some bubbles from the fridge, and ladled a fresh bowl of soup from the pot on the stove.
“Hey, Javi?”
He carried his goods over to the table where Mal sat. “Yeah?”
“I love you.”
The words were simple but carried with them the power to change worlds, and he respected that power. He treasured it even, and vowed to return it full force until it became inhumanly possible.
Chapter Fourteen
Javier stood near the counter at the place he liked to occasionally treat himself to for lunch. He was already anticipating the grilled chicken and brown rice wrap he’d ordered. He considered himself fortunate that the virus that had struck down Malaki last week had never made its effects known to him. Poor Mal had ended up being laid low for several days and had only made it back to work today. The man still looked at food with some trepidation. But Javier was starving and, now that he could eat without feeling guilty, planned to indulge in something totally decadent.
“Javier?”
He looked up at the kid behind the counter. “Thanks,” he said, accepting the bag held out to him.
It was a short walk back to work and when he opened the front door, he saw a woman sitting on a waiting room chair. He didn’t have any patients scheduled for another forty-five minutes and, as far as he knew, none of the other clinicians had appointments at this hour. He didn’t see the clinic coordinator at her desk, which was unusual as they made it a policy to never leave it unattended.
“Can I help you?”
The woman stood, grasping the strap of her purse.
Javier did a five-point mental assessment and didn’t notice anything immediately obvious about her posture that made it clear she was a patient.
“Are you Javier Alde?”
“Yes, do you have an appointment?”
“No, I’m not here for therapy. I’m here to see you.”
She reached into her purse and Javier froze. When she pulled out an obviously tattered envelope, he nearly let out an audible breath.
“I found this letter when I was cleaning out my father’s house. He’s um, not well, and well, that’s not important. Sorry. Um, let me start over. My name is Cecelia Pesano.”
Javier dropped the sack and he was lucky he didn’t have anything in his stom
ach, because he suddenly felt very ill. He started to back away towards the front door.
“Wait! I’m sorry I don’t mean to bother you, but I’m hoping you can help me find my brother.”
Javier stopped. “Help you find? Are you fucking with me? Leave me alone! What did you do with all the staff? Are you just like him?”
Cecelia looked around. “Like him how? Aren’t the two of you, like, married? What staff? The place was empty when I came in.”
He didn’t even know how to respond. All he could do was stand there and shake his head. His brain unfroze and he looked down to realize he still had his phone in his hand. He kept his eyes on Cecelia and tried to unlock the screen at the same time. Her gaze moved down to his hands and she took a step forward.
“Don’t come any closer. We never leave the front desk unattended.”
“Okay. Okay. So I get the feeling that you and Luca aren’t together.” She held up the letter again. “This letter is a couple of years old, but he spoke of you with such love I just thought—”
“I’m going to be sick!” Javier pointed to the chairs “Sit.”
He realized he’d barked quite loudly and the woman jumped. He tried to slow his breathing and tamp down the nausea.
“Please. I’m going to make some phone calls. Depending on what I find, I might be willing to talk to you.”
She mouthed “what the fuck” as he moved over to the reception desk and put a barrier between him and the woman. He looked around for Kelsie and when she came around the corner from the hallway leading to the private treatment rooms, he sighed in relief.
“Who is that? There’s nobody scheduled for another forty minutes. I had to use the potty.”
“She’s here to talk to me, but she’s not a patient. Do me a favor, keep an eye on her while I make some calls?”
Kelsie gave him the side-eye. “Is everything okay?” she whispered.
“I’m not sure.”
Javier dialed Agent Yang. When she picked up, he started talking right away. “Do you know if Vincent, sorry, Luca, had a sister? You never mentioned her as part of your investigation, but there’s a woman sitting here in my waiting room claiming to have a letter from him addressed to their parents or something and wanting to talk to me. And part of me is compelled to listen in case there’s some kind of clue why he fucked my life up so bad and the other part wants to run away screaming for the cops.”
“Whoa, slow down, Javier.”
“Sorry, sorry.”
“It’s okay. Now go back. You want to know if Luca Pesano had any siblings.”
He nodded mutely, but realized that Agent Yang couldn’t see him. “Yes.”
“And I imagine you also want to know if this person claiming to be his sister may or may not have any criminal record?”
“That would be a good question too.”
“So given that you are not law enforcement of any kind, I can’t reveal any details we may have on an individual, but if you give me her name and general description, I can provide information about your reasonable safety.”
“That’s government speak for ‘I can’t tell you jack but I’m going to anyway’, right?”
Agent Yang was silent and Javier accepted that as her acknowledgment. “She said her name is Cecelia Pesano. She’s about five foot five, brown hair, dark brown eyes and average weight. Her accent is not Texan, but I couldn’t tell you where it might be from. I could snap a photo and send it to you.”
He did and received a slight frown from the woman sitting across the room, but Javier couldn’t have cared less if she was offended that he was covering his ass. He messaged the photo to Agent Yang and heard the clicking sound of a keyboard.
“As far as I can tell, she matches the description of a half-sister on their father’s side. But I’m afraid that’s all I can say.”
“Okay. I appreciate it. Listen, I don’t want to seem overly paranoid, but can I text you in a little while if everything’s okay? If you don’t hear from me, send some kind of cavalry.”
“That’s fine. Also I would suggest you have someone nearby watch over the two of you. You don’t have to talk to her, you know.”
“I know, but at the same time, if she can provide any insight behind the why, it might help close the circle.”
“I understand. It’s one of the most elusive and heartbreaking questions we get asked. But I want you to prepare yourself for the possibility that the question may never be answered.”
“I understand. Thanks for taking my call.”
“Anytime.”
Javier made another call to his therapist and they discussed the same possibility. Dr. Cappello said he would be available to see him later that evening if needed. He crooked his finger at Kelsie and she came towards him quickly, obviously having kept one ear on his side of the conversations.
“I’m going to take her into the office to talk. This is about something personal, but not exactly pleasurable.”
“Say no more. I’ll keep an eye out on the two of you and if your patient shows up early, I’ll let you know.”
“Thanks.” He took a deep breath and let it out then walked back into the lobby. “Okay. I believe you are who you say, but I won’t leave this building with you. My co-worker knows where we’ll be.”
Cecelia stood and held out the bag that Javier had dropped. “Here’s your lunch.”
Intellectually, he knew that it was unlikely she’d contaminated the food, but his gut wasn’t willing to risk the possibility. Besides, he’d lost his appetite anyway. It didn’t take long before Javier found himself sitting across a desk from the sister of a monster. It wasn’t as though he wanted to assume she was just as evil. In fact, she seemed perfectly normal, but then again, so had Luca when they’d first met.
“How did you find me?”
She looked down at the crinkled letter and opened the flap. “I found this when I was cleaning out my father’s house.” She scoffed. “Father. That would imply that I had a relationship with the man, but in reality until a couple of weeks ago I hadn’t seen him in twenty years. Anyway, it had your name and was postmarked Dallas, Texas. Google did the rest.”
“Jesus. I both love and hate that thing. Agent Yang said that you were Luca’s half-sister?”
“Agent who?”
“Yang. She’s the FBI agent who led the investigation into your brother.”
Cecelia’s eyes went wide and she sat up straighter. “You called the FBI and told them I was here? Wait, what investigation?”
“Yes. And the investigation that focused on him being the prime suspect in the deaths of five people and the attempted murder of one more. Me.” He could have been a little less cold, but he wanted to judge her reaction. Even if there was some slight condensing of the chain of events.
“Oh, holy fuck. Now I’m going to being sick.” She let out a breath and looked away for a moment. “I just thought you might know how I could get in touch with him. To see if he wanted to get to know me. I had no idea…” She looked at Javier. “Now I get it, and I’m really sorry to bother you. I’ll go.”
Cecelia stood up and gathered her purse, but her hands shook as she gripped the strap. Unless she was the greatest actress in the world, the woman did not have a sinister plan to pick up where her brother had left off.
“Wait. Sit down.” He stood and moved over to the other side of the desk. “Please.”
Cecelia nodded and collapsed more than sat in the chair. Javier looked around for some tissues, but the best he had was a napkin from his lunch sack. He held it out to her and waited while Cecelia tried to catch the freight train he’d just sent her way.
“Tell me about what you do know and maybe we can help fill in some gaps for each other.”
“Um, okay. Are you sure?” Javier nodded. “Luca and I share the same father, but different mothers. I was an accident. The byproduct of an affair. When my mother told Franco that she was pregnant, he said he would leave his wife and marry her. But that never happ
ened. Instead his wife also happened to get pregnant with Luca around the same time.”
“Sounds like a stellar guy.”
Cecelia shrugged. “He ended up paying my mother to go away. When I was about ten, she took me to his work. I don’t know if she was trying to get more money or actually get us to form some kind of relationship, but he acted like he didn’t even know who she was. I saw a picture of Luca on his desk. That was basically the last time I saw him until recently. We never even spoke to each other.”
“So how did you end up being the one to clean out his house?”
“I got a call from a case worker who’s been helping him with his day-to-day stuff. She’d found contact information for me in his home office. I didn’t even know he’d kept track of me all these years, but she said she found all kinds of stuff and a few photos. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if it was a sign of some kind of repressed love or just creepy.”
“That could definitely go either way.”
“The case worker said he’s been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and apparently his decline has been rather rapid. His wife passed a few years ago, and I just thought Luca was off the grid or something. I wanted to give him the chance to give input on what to do with the man. I’m certainly not capable of caring for him. I had no idea Luca was in prison.”
Javier sat back in his seat and sighed. “He’s not in prison.”
“But you said…the FBI…and you. If he’s not in… Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“When?”
“May twenty-first, 2017.”
“You were there?”
“I was there. Do you want to know?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. If what you say is all true, I think I’m better off not knowing anything more about him than I already do. He obviously was not the kind of person who I would have ever wanted in my life. I do have one question.”
“Only one? I’m shocked.”
A slight grin appeared and her eyes, which were eerily the same color as Luca’s, twinkled.
“Do you know why? I mean was he sick? You know, like mentally ill or just a raging psychopath?”