“I need to keep you and your afternoon delight to myself? Why?”
“Because what I do in my spare time is none of anyone’s business. Least of all yours.”
“But why does it matter? I don’t get bent out of shape if people know who I’m fucking.” I look into his eyes and grin.
“You better not be fucking anyone,” he growls. “You don’t touch my sister, and for as long as she’s looking at you, you don’t fuck anyone else. Abigail is special, so if you break her heart, I’ll take you the fuck out.”
“Mmhm.” I move with my laptop and continue Nadia’s security while she hides in her living room and has a mini crisis, like fucking her boss’ brother is grounds for termination. Maybe it is. I don’t know. “I’m not breaking anyone’s heart, Rosa. Whatever you think you know, you’re wrong.”
“Abby isn’t a toy for you.”
He grabs my shoulder when I continue to ignore him. “You don’t see how different you two are? You’re a fucking thug, she’s pure. You look like… you. And she’s perfect.”
“You don’t like my ink, motherfucker?” I stop and square my shoulders. He’s not small, but not many men are taller than me, so I still look down my nose and scowl. “Should I not mention the chest piece I see under your crooked shirt, or the ink I saw on your girl’s belly when she was pretending everyone walks around with messed up buttons?”
“Don’t look at her fucking belly!”
He’s possessive of her. Interesting.
Smiling, I continue walking, but he stays on my heels like a little dog.
“I never said I was anything for your sister, Rosa. I never said we were fucking. I never said we were dating. I didn’t say shit. You boys assert yourselves on her, you gag her, smother her, and act like it’s all for her own good, and when she steps out of the lines you’ve carefully drawn up for her, you make assumptions and look like dicks while doing it.”
“How do you know we smother? If you don’t know her, how do you know what we do?”
I stop in the kitchen and set my laptop on the counter. “I never said I don’t know her. I’ve talked to her a time or two. We sat together at Bishop’s wedding. I’ve been into her shop a couple times–”
“She didn’t come home two nights ago!”
“Okay… well…” I tilt my head side to side and grin. “So we’re friends. But I know you smother her, because every time we’re in the same room, you or your brothers get in my face and act like I’m trying to make her my slave.”
“She is special,” he snarls. “She can’t cope with what you’re selling. She needs to be left alone so she can focus on her, not chased after by a man who will never be the Prince Charming she’s been waiting for. Twenty-five years, Serrano, and this is the first time she’s started clapping back at us. It’s the first time she’s copped an attitude, the first fucking time she’s been out all night and not taken our calls.”
“God forbid the woman grows a little spine and pushes her obsessed brothers back to where they should have been all along.”
“We’re not obsessed! We’re her protectors. We’re what stands between her and the cruel world. We’re the ones who pick her up when she falls. And you…” He steps closer and slams his fist against my chest. “You’re going to knock her down again.”
“How could you know what I’m doing? You don’t know me.”
“She’s not a one-night stand! She’s not a fuck and run.”
“But Nadia is?”
He blanches. “Don’t talk about her.”
“Don’t hide her. If you wanna fuck, fuck. If you wanna have a raging affair, have an affair and make it fun. But the fact you hide her makes me curious.”
“Don’t get curious.” His eyes are afire with more than the rage he felt about his sister. “What I do is none of your business.”
“Funny, I could say the same about you getting up in my business. I don’t know you, man. We aren’t friends, we aren’t brothers. We aren’t colleagues or penpals. I’m a messed-up motherfucker, and I’m not scared to get my hands dirty. I haven’t put you down yet because no matter how mad Abigail gets about you being in her face all the time, I know she’d still get upset if I hurt you. But make no mistake, what you call protection, she considers smothering. And the second she finds it hard to breathe, I’ll clear the way for her. Sit the fuck down. I’m here now.”
* * *
I headby the shop after Nadia’s place, but I don’t intend to mention what I know. I don’t consider my silence a lie, but minding my own business.
I walk through the front door, and smile when the bell above my head jingles. But I don’t find Abigail behind the counter like I expect. I find some young dude… eighteen or nineteen, skinny and into the trend of stretching his ears.
I’d have a problem with him being here, except for the fact he’s just a baby and super gay.