Page 36 of The Slayer
“What if you have something to stay here for?” Alaine asked the question in a raw, pained voice laced with unexpected determination, which was the exact opposite of what he was hoping for. “What if you find something better here than drugs and stealing cars?”
“I won’t,” he promised her, thinking Alaine was nothing if not surprising. “Everyone likes their own poison, chica.”
“That’s not true. I didn’t like my own poison. My daddy wanted me to get married to a man like him and have a buncha babies and be a good church wife who made casseroles for Sunday potluck. I wanted something different.”
“Now you’re sleeping with me.” He gave her a pointed look. “You should’ve stuck with Sunday potluck.”
“People can change, Chu.”
“No, they can’t,” he argued. “I was born un diablo, and I’m gonna die one. Devils don’t change, just like angels don’t change. You shouldn’t be in my bed, mami.”
“You’re here because you have heart,” she said so earnestly he almost believed her. “Devils don’t feel guilt. They don’t tell women to get out of their beds either.”
“You keep believing that.” Chuito snorted and rolled over. “Now go to sleep before I decide to test your theory and jack your halo.”
Chapter Twelve
Chuito woke up to the sound of a phone ringing, old-school, like something big and heavy and attached to a wall. He blinked, knowing it was important, but his body didn’t want to cooperate. He hadn’t had much sleep, but he also hadn’t had any more nightmares either. Just one dream about Marcos being Marcos. That was amazing when he had so much worse shit to dream about. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d closed his eyes without having nightmares.
In the background he heard, “Hello— Oh.”
He rolled out of bed and groaned, because every muscle he had hurt, and his body didn’t want to move. He saw that he was still in his jeans but shirtless, and he rubbed at his chest as he looked around, because it was cold as fuck.
Giving up on the quest for his shirt, Chuito walked out of the bedroom and found Alaine standing there in her nightgown, holding the portable phone to her ear.
“Is it from a prison?”
“I assumed you wanted me to accept the charges,” Alaine said and then jumped. “Oh, hold on, please.”
She held out the portable to him, her eyes on his face rather than his bare chest. He took the phone and then turned, glancing over his shoulder to watch her look lower, taking in the length of his bare back.
“Who was that?” his cousin Marcos asked in Spanish. “She sounds very white. Like country whitewithoutthe crust.”
“Sheisvery white,” Chuito assured him, also speaking Spanish. “She’s my neighbor.”
“Is she hot?” Marcos asked, still sounding amused.
“Hell, yes, she’s hot.” Chuito glanced at her over his shoulder again as Alaine went back to cooking something. She met his gaze and then turned back quickly, as if she knew she had gotten busted looking. “So hot it’s a problem.”
“You got a hot woman in your house, and that’s a problem?” Marcos didn’t sound amused anymore. “Motherfucker, I have been down for six months. I would fuck Luis’s grandmother right now. I don’t want to hear about it.”
Chuito felt like shit, but he couldn’t help but laugh. “I miss you, Marc.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Marcos didn’t sound convinced. “Miss me so much you move to wherever the fuck you’re moving to.Garnet.” He made his accent thick onGarnetas if trying to prove a point. “With the extra-white gringas. Why is she answering your phone?”
“I thought you didn’t want to hear about it.”
“Does she have big tetas?”
“No.” He turned around and looked at her again, letting his gaze drop for one brief moment while she stood at the stove. “She’s got little perky ones. They’re nice.”
“Eh.” Marcos groaned, not sounding impressed. “Anyway, what’s wrong with you? You sound off.”
“I’m sick.” He sat down at the kitchen table as he said it. He ran a hand through his hair and fought the misery when it crashed back over him.
“Sick?” Marcos asked him harshly, like getting sick wasn’t an option, but then he paused as if something occurred to him. “What? They don’t have fucking cold medicine in Garnet?”
“I haven’t looked.”
