CHAPTER16
JAX
Istifle a yawn as Alejandro drives us through the streets of LA. It’s two a.m. and I’ve already done a full day’s work with Lucia but we needed to collect on a debt that he was owed and this is the kind of business I much prefer. It’s been a long time since we’ve handled something so trivial ourselves, but sometimes one of us needs to blow off some steam and beating up people who have fucked him over is a good way to do it. Tonight, it was him who called me, but I can’t deny that I’ve been feeling a lot of pent up frustration myself these past few days.
“I forgot to ask, how did Lucia do today?” he breaks the silence.
“With Toni?”
“Yeah.”
“She was great,” I reply, rubbing a hand over my jaw. Fuck, she was better than great. She was incredible. She is always incredible and I am going to burn in hell for all eternity for the things I think about doing to her—and for the things I’ve already done. And now all I can see is her face when I told her I regretted what we did a few nights ago. I should have told her the truth, which is that I don’t regret a single fucking second of it, but how do I do that to her? Isn’t it kinder to let her hate me and move on? I have nothing to offer her and she deserves everything. “She knocked Toni on her ass,” I add.
“What?” Alejandro laughs out loud. “My girl knocked Toni Moretti on her ass?”
No, my girl knocked Toni Moretti on her ass.“She sure did.”
“She’s something special, isn’t she?” he says, his face full of pride and I feel a fresh wave of guilt washing over me. What the fuck have I done?
I don’t have a chance to answer him because his car is filled with the sound of his cell phone ringing and Lucia’s smiling face appears on the screen on the dash of his car.
“Speak of the devil,” he says as he frowns at the screen. What the hell is she doing calling at this time of night?
“Hey,mija,” he says when he presses the button to answer.
“Papi!” Her voice trembles and my heart almost stops beating. “I’m sorry it’s so late.”
“It’s never too late for you to call me. What’s wrong?” He glances sideways at me, the worry on his face matching mine.
“Somebody just tried to get into the apartment.” She sucks in a breath as though she’s desperately trying to hold it together. “They picked the lock. The only reason I heard them was because I was up late reading.”
“Where are you now? Are you and Matthias safe?”
“Yes, we’re okay. Whoever it was has gone and Mr. and Mrs. Cates from next door are here with me. They wanted to call the cops, but I—”
“We’ll be right there,mija. I’m five minutes away. Okay?”
“Okay.”
He ends the call and then curses in Spanish. “I knew I should have made her stay at the house until she found a proper place to live,” he snarls.
“She needed her independence, amigo,” I remind him.
“What if someone had got to her, Jax? To both of them?” he whispers and I recognize the fear in his voice because it’s the same fear I feel in my bones. The thought of anything happening to her and Matthias makes me feel like I can’t breathe.
Alejandro drives to Lucia’s apartment as fast as his old Mustang will take us, cursing the fact that he’s not driving his Bugatti. As soon as he screeches to a stop outside her apartment building, we jump out of the car and to the door as her neighbor buzzes us in. I have never taken stairs so fast in my life as I do running up to the fourth floor where her apartment is. Her door is open and her neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Cates are waiting in the hallway. Alejandro nods to them in greeting and appreciation but rushes past them. As soon as she sees him, she falls into his arms, as though she’s been holding everything together until he got there.
“Papi,” she breathes and he hugs her, smoothing her hair.
“It’s okay,mija. We’re here now.”
“Thank you for everything,” I tell her neighbors. “We can take it from here.”
“If there’s anything she needs at all…” Mrs. Cates says, worry etched on her face. “We should call the police.”
“Mr. Montoya is handling it, dear,” Mr. Cates says as he puts a reassuring arm around his wife’s shoulder.
As soon as they’re gone, I inspect the front door. There is clear damage to the lock where someone has tried to pick it, but none to the rest of the door. I close it behind me and walk inside. Alejandro looks at me over Lucia’s shoulder, a frown on his face.