Page 116 of Explosive Prejudice

“Good.”

“Okay. The last time?”

“After I was released again, Iván and I went back to living with our dad in Cali. While I’d been to juvie, Iván was locked in jail for a few months, so when we got back home, if you could even call it that, we weren’t the same. School seemed pointless, so I skipped it and wasted my time going around town when, one day, I bumped into him.”

“Him?”

“The scum who raped Carmen and got away with it.”

My jaw went slack, and I stared at him with my mouth open.

Holy shit.

“What did you do?”

“I followed him the whole day. I’m still not sure why I did it. I guess I was curious to see how he was still able to walk around freely after murdering my sister in cold blood. And you know what I found out?”

“What?”

“That he did it easily. The whole time I followed him, there wasn’t even a second where he stopped and looked like he was holding on to some guilt—a bit of remorse. Since her death, there wasn’t a day that went by without me feeling pain and regret over what happened to her. There were times I even felt guilty. But the man who was responsible for it didn’t. He went to his classes in college, met with his friends, laughed, and ate like a pig. It pissed me the fuck off.”

Sadly, I knew exactly what Camilo was describing. I’d been living with two devils of the same kind my whole life. After my mom’s death, I often wondered how my father managed to pretend he wasn’t bothered by it until I realized—he didn’t have to pretend. He truly didn’t care. He had no conscience whatsoever.

“That day, he went to a bar, and I followed him there, too. On his way back home, he probably sensed he had a shadow because he turned around and pulled a gun.” Camilo laughed, but there was no humor in it. “You realize the irony? He was the one carrying a gun. Like he was the one who needed protection.”

That was often the case. Those who most needed protection were left unarmed, while those who didn’t carried a loaded gun.

“Anyway, the loser had no fucking clue how to hold a gun, and I got it out of his grip without even breaking a sweat. I then led him into an alley and forced him to his knees. I told myself that perhaps now, when he was forced to beg for his life, I’d see the remorse I sought so desperately. But there was none. His eyes were shallow and hollow, like the hell he came from.”

“Did you kill him?”

Camilo stayed silent for a moment, then shook his head. “No. But I shot his dick off.”

I jumped up. “Holy shit. Are you for real?”

Camilo’s smile grew. “Fuck yeah, I’m real.” He grinned. “He cried like a bitch, picking his dick up from the ground while screaming and puking all over the place until he was taken to the hospital.”

That was fucking insane.

“Did they quickly catch you?” I asked, eager to hear the rest of the story like a child watching a movie.

“Didn’t even try hiding. I stayed there until the police arrived and allowed them to take me. Turns out it was a good decision as it helped me with the trial.”

“How long were you sentenced for?”

“Luckily for me, this fancy-ass law firm took my case pro bono and gave it to a young lawyer who managed to reduce my sentence to only fifteen months.”

Out of words, I huffed. “Only fifteen months. You make it sounds like it’s nothing.”

Our bodies had become sweaty from being glued to each other, so I shifted only a little because I’d rather be sticky than be away from him.

“Well, yeah, it’s a rather short sentence, considering my crime. But even if I had gotten more, I didn’t care. Not back then. You see, Iván was in jail himself, so no one was waiting for me, and I had nothing to lose. Whether I was locked up in a cell or walking down the streets, it made no difference to me back then.”

Climbing up, I leaned closer. “What about now?”

Locking eyes with me, Camilo touched my face and pushed my hair out of the way.

“Now I’d be losing my freaking mind.”

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