Page 2 of Bear

“He’s being charged with car theft and battery.”

I bowed my head with a heavy sigh. Carlos was a good kid, but he refused to see that. I didn’t blame him for his temper. Our dad was in jail and our mother packed up and married someone else on the other side of the country, leaving my younger brothers, Carlos and Pedro, in my care when I was barely nineteen years old. I wasn’t a father figure by any stretch of the imagination and when Carlos reached his teen years, he became aggressive, lashing out at anything within range. I was doing my best to keep him out of prison but he certainly wasn’t making it easy for me.

Sheriff Dalton spoke again, interrupting my thoughts.

“Bail has been posted at three thousand dollars.”

Fuck. I bit my tongue hard enough to taste blood. I’d bagged half of that money tonight from the fight’s winnings, but coming up with the other half would mean eating macaroni and cheese for the rest of the month. I knew my MC brothers would front the cash for me if I asked them too though.

“I’m on my way.”

***

When I picked up Carlos from the police station, it felt like looking into a mirror. We had the same tight, black curls, the same dark brown eyes. And now, we had matching bruises.

I paid bail and herded Carlos into the car. I took a breath to speak when he cut me off.

“You don’t get to say a word.”

“Why?” I countered

“You’re even more beat up than I am,” Carlos pointed out. He sank deeper into his seat, crossed his arms, and turned his head to stare out the window. “So don’t tell me that I need to shape up when you’re doin’ the same shit.”

I sucked in a sharp breath to steady myself.

“First of all, watch your language. Second, I’m not out there stealing cars and getting arrested by the cops.”

Carlos snorted. “Sure. That’s why your face looks like hamburger meat.”

I sighed and rubbed my palm against my right eye. A headache was beginning to throb to life.

“Come on, Carlos. You’re better than this. I know you are.”

“Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do.”

I glanced at him. Even though he was seated right beside me, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was a hundred miles away. In a few months, he would turn eighteen and I was sure he would slip right through my fingers after that. I was running on borrowed time and if I didn’t get Carlos on the straight and narrow, I would lose him forever.

“What about your college applications?” I asked. “Are you having any luck?”

Carlos shook his head. “Don’t worry about it.”

“That’s my job,” I replied.

“Actually, that job belongs to my parents. And since Mom and Dad aren’t here, it’s none of your business.”

For the rest of the drive back to my apartment, I didn’t say anything more. Carlos was hurting and upset and he needed time to cool down. I could tell we were flirting with the edge of a yelling match and that certainly wouldn’t help.

When I pulled into the parking lot, Carlos was out of the car before I had even stopped.

“Hey, don’t forget to put some ice on those bruises!” I called after him.

Carlos disappeared inside the apartment building without any sign of acknowledging that he’d heard me. I groaned and dropped my head back against the seat. I didn’t know how to get through to him but I needed to figure out a way. Soon.

The small, thin cry of a baby went up nearby. I turned to see a woman two parking spaces over, wrestling to get her stroller out of the back of her van.

I’d lived in this building for ten years and I knew nearly every tenant by heart, but I’d never seen this woman before. And I definitely would have remembered her. Even though her baggy gray sweatpants were fraying and stained, I could still make out the generous curves underneath - her soft, thick thighs, her wide hips. Her chocolate-brown hair was a frizzy knot at the base of her neck but she still looked cute.

Judging by the way her car was packed to the top with stuff, I recognized the look of a woman on the move. I had a hunch everything she owned was in that van. The stroller still wasn’t cooperating and I found myself climbing out of my car and clearing my throat. Maybe I’d completely fucked up everything with Carlos tonight, but at least I could do something good right now.

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