Page 124 of The Slayer
“’Cause we gotta go to Miami.” Tino gestured to his door pointedly. “We gotta get lost before you end up in handcuffs. I appreciate that you think you’d go down to protect my family, but I don’t want to test it. Do you?”
Chuito shook his head. “Not particularly.”
Tino got up and dumped his drink in the sink. Then he jerked Chuito’s out of his hand and did the same thing. “You get the couch. We’re gonna sleep it off; then we’re gonna leave.”
Chuito frowned at him. “You’re coming with me?”
“Of course I’m coming with you,” Tino said as if it were obvious. “If you tell me we got to whack this motherfucker Angel, I’ll help you whack him. Then we’ll figure out what to do next.”
“That’s it?” Chuito was shocked. “I didn’t even tell you why I need to whack him.”
“Do I need to know why?” Tino shrugged. “You say he needs to die. I believe you.”
“No details?”
Tino shook his head. “No details.”
“Wow.” Chuito pulled back at that. “I’d need details. Even for you, I’d need details.”
“Let me tell you something,” Tino said cynically. “The first thing I learned about Cosa Nostra is not to ask for details. If a motherfucker’s gonna die, they’re gonna die. If the old man put out the hit, they’re already dead. Why do I need to get my ass beaten asking questions? If I didn’t do it, someone else would.”
“Can we thank your father for that?” Chuito asked sadly.
“You can thank my father for most of my baggage,” Tino agreed. “At least someone’s benefiting from it.”
“I don’t want you to come.” Chuito winced at the idea of Tino being brainwashed by pain like that. “I wish I could’ve killed your father. He sounds as bad as the motherfucker who made me, and that’s saying something.”
“Yeah, take a number, but if it makes you feel better, no one wanted to kill him more than Nova did. He deserved that honor.” Tino rolled his eyes. “Couch, now, asshole. I’m going to bed.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Alaine cried for a long time after Chuito left. Just really sobbed her heart out for so many different reasons, but mostly because he left and she let him.
It felt like a death.
She could feel it, the dream dying as she sat there in his bed, with the marks of sex on her body. More so, she could feel how naive she had been for believing it had ever existed to begin with.
He had waited five years to touch her, and there had been a good reason for it. It wasn’t something silly and ridiculous. It was very real. His reasons were more than valid, and why had she ever doubted them?
Chuito wasn’t one to waste things for nothing.
He wouldn’t throw this away unless the sacrifice was worth it.
Alaine fell down on his bed. She rested her head on his pillow and lay in his sheets that still smelled like a sensual combination of Chuito’s aftershave and sex. She looked at her wrist, seeing the mark of his kiss still there.
She touched it as the tears ran down her face.
He had loved her enough to walk away.
She felt it down to her core, something undeniable and excruciating because of it. All he had ever wanted for her was a happy, peaceful existence. He’d paid for law school because he wanted her to have what he couldn’t have.
A normal life.
A happily ever after.
And he’d known all along he couldn’t be the one to give it to her.
He would never have that. He knew it, though he wanted it as badly as she did. So Chuito made sure she could have it, even if he wasn’t part of it.
