Page 25 of Outcast

"I can't." I gulped.

"What do you mean, you can't?" The question was a cry all on its own. She didn't understand. I didn't know how to make her understand.

"It would undo everything I've done for you. For them. I can't." My own eyes misted over. I couldn't fall apart. I needed to be strong for Rita until I could get her on a plane.

"You're really doing this?" It was almost a plea. "Come back with me." A desperate order.

"I can't." My fingers flexed against her back.

Then she lost it. Tearing out of my hold, she was a tornado, destroying everything she could get her hands on.

The cheap paintings on the wall. The glass on the table. The wooden chairs.

"I wasted the last three days getting here! I wasted the last precious hours with mypapáforyou? For nothing?" Her voice was so deep with grief, the boom of it echoed in thecramped space. Even the furniture crashing against the floor wasn't enough to overshadow it. "You're not worth it. You never fucking were. I–I can't stay here."

She raced for the door.

I had words stuck on the tip of my tongue.Don't leave. You can't be by yourself right now. I need to help you get to the airport.

Yet, I was glued to the floor, and my mouth sealed tight. She was better off without me.

Wasn't that the lie I'd been telling myself for years?

6

ESTEBAN

"I'm staying." I raised an eyebrow at Ricco and dared him to argue with me. He was Javier's oldest friend and second-in-command of the Dirty Dogs. Not that that meant shit with how we ran, but it was what the world saw.

"Kid," Ricco sighed, shaking his head at me.

"Ricco," I warned.

"He's passed out. He's doing fine. He won't wake up until morning. Javier will feel like a little bitch if he thinks we have to babysit him. It will fuck with his head. Make him worse than he actually is."

"Don't give a shit. I'm staying. If Rita can't be here, I will." She loved Javier more than herself. It was fucked she'd even leave to get Matías, but something Javier said made her think that he wanted him here.

He probably did. It was no secret that Javier viewed Matías as a son. But Rita needed to be here with her father, not tracking down an asswipe who went to extreme lengthsnotto be here.

"Suit yourself. But Esteban..."

I already had one foot in Javier's private room when Ricco placed a hand on my arm. Glancing back, I met his stare with a cool gaze of my own. He wasn't going to talk me out of this. No fucking way.

Take Rita out of it. I cared about Javier too.

"We all know you fucked Rita–" I sucked in a sharp breath. "But it was just that. Fucking. Everyone but you, knows that."

My top lip curled. This was what he wanted to say? Right now?

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" I stepped back out of Javier's room and let the door close.

"Listen, you're a fucking fantastic Dirty Dog. You have been from the very beginning, but you're still a kid–"

"I'm twenty-four years old, Ricco. I'm not a fucking kid."

"And Rita is twenty-seven." He let that settle between us like his words would flip a switch in my head.

I scoffed and turned for the door. "Doesn't matter. We're not together, and it goes against everything in the Dirty Dogs for you to stick your nosey ass in my sex life."

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