Page 63 of Chula
“And if I don’t want you to kill that man?” I turn my head to look over my shoulder at Damion before looking back at her.
“Then I won’t do it.” Her arms fly around my waist, and she rests her head on my chest just like she’s always done. Her tears wet my shirt as I hold her tightly in my arms.
“Thank you.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too,” she whispers, keeping herself pressed against me.
“Now that’s settled. What’s the plan? You can work for me anywhere in the damn world, Marco.” I pull away from Luna and turn to look at him.
“You’d let me? Even after everything?”
“Why wouldn’t I? We’re family. We help family. I know that I’ve fucked that up in the past. I know I messed up leaving you the way I did, and now I can make it right. Let me make it right,” he says in a pleading tone.
“You don’t have to do this to make it right. The fact that you looked out for her while I was gone is enough,” I admit.
“That’s because she’s family, right?” I nod my head as I look down at her, pressing my lips to the top of her head.
“She’s everything.” Now she looks up at me, and I can see how happy she looks in my arms. There’s no reason for her to be unhappy right now, and I want her like this. I want her to smile and have everything she wants.
“I’ve truly been thinking about it, and I would love to see California.”
“You would?”
“Yeah. I’ve never been there, and I hear the ocean is beautiful,” she whispers.
“I’d go anywhere with you, Chula. Any fucking where you want.” I lean down and press my lips to hers briefly before I pull back and tuck her back into my arms.
“I can work in California for you?” I ask Damion.
“Yeah. It’s all online, Marco. You were doing great before I don’t see that changing now.”
“You don’t know how much I appreciate that.”
“Yeah, I do, and this is something I need to do for myself.”
“You know I get it, right? The reason you left. Mom took something from us that night. She took a lot from us, actually.”
“Yeah, she did. And it was fucked up, and it was hard as hell to get over,” Damion says.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever get over it. Seeing that, seeing him …” Damion raises his hand to stop me from talking.
“You don’t have to explain, and I hate that you even have to relive it.”
“There are a lot of things I hate that happened.”
“We’re over it, right? We’re done now. You have her, you’re moving on. This is what you should be doing.”
“And you?”
“I’m doing it, Marco. I wanted to build a life, and I did that here. Besides, I have Kira.” Now I smirk. Iknew there was a woman involved.
“Yeah, you’re right. And we’re adults. We need to find our own way in life.”
“We can still have each other’s backs, Marco.”
“And we will.”
