Chapter Twenty-Four
I opened my eyes and watched him as he got up. "What, no cuddle time?"
That smile I only saw on the rarest and 'intimate' occasions was still stretched across his face as he disappeared into the bathroom only to reemerge a few seconds later without a raincoat on and a towel in his hand. As he passed the stereo, he turned down the volume and switched the station to classical.
Classical.
The sound was so unlike anything I'd heard before. I'd never really been a fan of classical music so as I listened to the strange notes as he walked across the room, I couldn't help the frown that appeared on my face. The melody seemed so unlike him but at the same time, an exact match as he sauntered without a care in the world.
"You're a cop pretending to be a gangster and you listen to classical?"
He collapsed on the bed next to me and pulled my one leg further apart so he could clean me up. No preamble, not even a questioning look to see if I wanted him to. He just did it. Exactly like he'd done everything since the moment I met him. It was then I realized Rey lived by no rational rules. There was no outline; he did what he wanted with an added air of superiority no one could match.
"I like classical." He looked up from what he was doing and smirked at me. "And you like classical." He sounded so sure of himself that it was insulting.
I shook my head. "I hate classical."
"Well then you're about to like it." He peeled the covers back and covered us both up. "Trust me."
"How..." My question was cut off as the towel was moved away and his hand replaced it. "Oh no. I'm not..." He kissed me again and that heavy feeling in my bottom half started building up again. "Rey." I turned my head so if my eyes were open I'd be looking at the ceiling and let out a breath. He moved closer to me, his side fully against me with the obvious evidence of excitement pressed against my hip. He moved one leg between mine, making it so my limbs were further apart.
"Now..." he murmured against my skin, stilling his hand between my legs. "We need to get something straight."
"Right this second?"
"I'll start again when you admit to me that I like you." I kept my eyes squeezed shut and shook my head. I wasn't going to give him that. I wasn't a hundred percent sure it was true even after he come here to stop me from doing the stupidest thing ever. "Look at me, Oranges."
I opened my eyes and turned my head so I was facing him. I was struck, yet again, with how perfect he looked to me. Even with his hair going in multiple directions from where I'd run my fingers through it and how red his mouth was from me kissing him, the fact that he was the most handsome gangster/cop wasn't lost. "What?" I said, trying to remember what he said.
He wasn't happy with that so he tried to jerk his hand away from me but mine instantly wrapped around his wrist, keeping it in place. No. I wasn't going to let him pull away from me.
"Tell me."
I stayed quiet for a couple of heartbeats, thinking it over as his command came back to me. "You like me."
His hand went back to resting on me voluntarily. "Which means?"
I breathed out. "Rey..." He rubbed a few times and then stopped, making me shutter and press against the back of his hand. "Why are you torturing me?"
"Because I need you to understand something."
"And what's that?"
"I care about you. I wasn't lying when I said it and I still do."
"Why are you bringing this up now?"
"Because I don't want you pulling this crap again. No more drugs, no more suicide attempts, no more leaving me wondering if the next time I see you will be in a body bag."
I moved his hand away and rolled so I was resting on top of him, my body flat against his with my chin resting on his chest. "Why me?"
His dark eyes were hooded, his emotions hidden from me. "Because I feel the need to protect you and whenever I get that feeling, I never fail. And you are more self-destructive than you should be." He pulled me up the length of his body and now that I was closer, I could see a strange fire in his eyes fueled by an even stranger emotion. "And because I like you. More than I should."
*
When I fell asleep, I was on his chest. When I woke up, I was on my pillow with his head resting on one of my shoulder blades. I stayed still for a few minutes, taking it all in. It registered briefly that I'd slept with another cop. A cop pretending to be a gangster. A gangster that was supposed to take over for my brother. A man who had lied to me from the beginning but I found it didn't really matter. What mattered was what would happen when this was all over. I was certain now I was falling for him, falling hard and fast. There was no safety net, not that there ever was but there was something different about this.
I didn't want to be left behind again.
There was a soft knock on the door accompanied by, "Ms. Elina?"
"Yeah, it's me," I called back softly, trying not to wake Rey up.
I heard her sigh with relief. "I'll put some coffee on."
"Thank you."
She walked off and I felt Rey lift his head. He brushed a kiss across my shoulder blade where a rather personal tattoo only I and the artist understood before he moved to the pillow next to me. "Morning, Oranges." His voice was heavy with sleep and it made my insides do a summersault.
I grunted in response. "I think I want to go back to sleep."
"After the night you had," he chuckled. "I would too."
"It was your night too. I pointed a gun at you."
"You never would've pulled the trigger."
"I did pull the trigger. Or did you miss the loud bang and the charges your friends filed against me?" I turned my head to look at him and opened my eyes. "You blocked all that out, didn't you?"
"You never would've shot me. You're not the type." The fact that he really believed that shinned out of his eyes and it crushed the rebellious part of me that wanted to put him in his place. We were both in such a good mood I didn't want to spoil it
I couldn't help but wonder...
"What now?" My voice was lower with the full weight of my question hanging on those two words.
"What do you mean?"
"Where do we go from here?"
He sighed, moving as close as possible, maybe even covering up part of me. I was afraid of what he was going to say and I even steeled myself up for the worst. Being rejected wasn't the worst thing I'd ever experienced but coming from him—he had the ability to shatter my world into a thousand pieces. I was so worried he would.
"Well, I have to take a piss and then I'm pretty sure I'm going to take you in the shower and then..."
I smiled and kissed him, cutting off his 'and then' speech. "I get it."
"Good."
"But I'm being serious." I opened my eyes and looked at him, my amusement over his little speech lost. "How is this going to work? You're a cop and I'm a gang member. It would never work, not really."
"For one, you're not a gang member. You've crammed that fact down my throat so much I'd think you'd know better than to call yourself that. If anything, you are a CI and a college student, home for the summer to visit her brother. But if you really need me to give you a mental picture then I will." He touched my face rather gently, his thumb running over my bottom lip while he stared at it with intent. "During the day, we go about life as if you didn't know I was a cop and I didn't know you'd slept with a dickhead like Gutierrez. And at night," his hand was suddenly withdrawn from my face and gripped my butt so hard I swore he probably left a couple of bruises, "I have my wicked way with you."
He didn't exactly answer my question and in the pit of my stomach, as well as in the back of my mind, I knew that wasn't good. I wanted to know what would happen after all of this was over, where we would be. But I put it off for now, reminding myself to think about it, question it, later and ask something else that was rather important to our situation. "Where?"
I meant it as where would we sneak off to because I knew my brother would have a hissy fit if we did this in his house and he heard us. Hell, if he found out I was sleeping with a cop period he might have my head.
But as a rather naughty look took over his eyes, I knew Rey took it in a more literal sense. He moved so he was on top of me, sitting up so he was between my legs and the comforter fell behind him. I strained my neck to look over my shoulder at him since I was still on my stomach but I couldn't see him perfectly.
"Hmm."
That single roll of his voice box made certain parts of me water and tighten. The urge to close my legs was so strong I tried even though he was between them. He knew what I was going to do and latched onto my right ankle to pin it to the bed. Why one and not the other, I didn't know but his other hand started to drift up my left leg. The fact that I was laying spread eagle on my bed at my parents' house didn't seem to bother him and only entered my mind for a second before he started talking.
"Ever since the car," his hand slipped between my legs and I gasped, "I've been having this dream." He ran his fingers down the length of my opening and then pulled my hips so I was resting on my knees. "Ah—yeah." He licked me and I groaned. "There it is. Just like I imagined."
He reached over me and got a fist full of my hair, pulling me up gently so we were both on our knees.
"Rey..."
"I love the way you say my name." He kissed my ear. "I never thought I would like it as much as when you say it."
His right hand cupped my breast as the other found its way between my legs. This was beyond insane but I didn't rightly care.
"Oh god, Rey."
"Baby, you do things to me you don't know. Now it's my turn."
He rubbed in fast circles, his middle finger going inside me. By the time I climaxed, I had one hand gripping the wrist between my legs and the other working with his on my breast. Although he let go to cover up my mouth so the maid wouldn't hear me all the way downstairs. I needed to grip something so my hand had fallen and was holding onto his leg behind me.
"I love it when you do that too."
I scoffed and giggled, a rather girly sound I hardly ever made, and rested my head back against his shoulder. "You're a giver."
"And you're a screamer." He kissed the corner of my mouth. "I like it."
"Come on." I took his hand from between my legs and moved off the bed. "Let's go shower."
He frowned, a little smile playing on his face. "Why?"
"Because you have to pee and I want to reciprocate. But I don't want you to piss all over me or the bed while I do it."
*
The maid, and yes that's what she wanted me to call her, didn't seem too perturbed that Rey was there. In fact, she looked almost happy both of us were present in the house.
"I swear it's felt like I've been cleaning this place for the past week for no one."
She made breakfast, which I hadn't expected, and when I tested my blood sugar, I tried to quietly excuse myself to take my insulin. Rey growled at me from across the island and she just smiled.
"Don't be embarrassed, dear. It's not like I haven't seen you take it before."
So in front of everyone, not that the combination of them both were a lot, I adjusted the dosage and took the shot. Rey was texting on his phone and drinking his coffee, not even paying attention to anything I did. I could probably fling a fork full of eggs at him and he wouldn't notice it before hand. The maid disappeared out of the kitchen, going about her business like we weren't there and humming a tune I was used to hearing from her.
"Your brother wants to talk to you. Apparently you slipped a rather scandalous note under his door last night and he's not happy about it."
I bit my lip and looked down at my coffee. "I was being dramatic."
"Well you definitely got his attention. He's unquestionably upset."
"He has no right to be upset with me. He's the one who went to the cops and then beat the crap out of me for appearing to do the same."
He looked up at me from his phone. "Pretenses."
"Oh that's rich, coming from you. How were you even able to report in that night? 'Yes, Chief, I watched Vincent De Sota beat the crap out of his sister. No, there was nothing I could do...'"
"There wasn't anything I could do. If I helped you, if your brother didn't do what he did, then everyone would've been suspicious. Your brother has powerful enemies and if they saw a weakness, both of you would be dead."
"So you both played cavalier with my life? Well aren't we off to a brilliant start."
"Oranges," he reached across the island and took my hand, "I didn't like doing nothing. I didn't like the fact that I had to stand in the other room while you lay broken in the kitchen just to keep my cover. It's not the type of man I am and if I could've protected you then I would've. Now, no one can touch you. Not your brother, not Gutierrez, no one. If they do, they'll have me to answer to and I won't stand idly by. You're mine and that's the end of it."
That declaration was supposed to make me feel better, be touching and heartwarming but it wasn't. There was still the problem of my ex-Thorn's brother, someone he hadn't mentioned on his list. "What about Rob? You're not Superman, Rey. You can't be everywhere at once."
"Mercedes will be tucked behind bars in no time. You won't have to worry about him much longer."
Our hands were linked together like we were about to go into a thumb wrestle battle. He gently lifted my hand and kissed the back.
"Stop worrying," he said in a softer voice than I'd ever heard him use.
"I can't. His brother died because of me. You'd want revenge too if the roles were reversed."
"Oranges, it'll be fine. You'll see. Eat something so we can go."
"You can leave now if you want. We did get here in separate vehicles."
"I'm not leaving you here by yourself. Not when there's a hit out on you."
"Then why don't you cage me? It's what you want, probably what my brother wants. Protect the assists right?"
He grunted, looking down at his phone. "You are definitely an asset." He typed something into his phone and then looked up at me, a very strange glimmer in his eyes. "Thank you for the idea."
Oh that couldn't be good.
*
Rey made me park the car in the same spot I got it from last night. Personally, I thought it was a little over kill but he said it would have to go back to one of the warehouses because people saw me drive it all over town. I rolled my eyes and climbed on the back of his bike. I wanted to get home and pass out but I had a feeling it wouldn't go that way. My brother would want to talk and there was no escaping it. I was at least hoping for a chance to change my clothes first since I was practically doing the walk of shame.
Dom was sitting at the kitchen table when we walked in. He shot us both a reproachful look and then went back to eating his breakfast, ignoring the lot of us. It wasn't a good sign if even Dom wasn't talking to me. Then again he hadn't said much to me since the whole incident with my brother.
"I'll go talk to him first," Rey suggested as we reached the top of the stairs. "Soften the blow a little."
"Are you going to tell him we slept together too?"
He shot me a look before knocking on the office door. It was fascinating. The undercover cop, who was pretending to be a gangster, was afraid of telling my brother he slept with me. After my brother told him to come in, he gave me another look that corrected my thoughts. He wasn't afraid of telling my brother; in fact, I highly doubted he was afraid of anything. He just didn't want to.
I rolled my eyes and disappeared into my room. A busy day was ahead of me. I had a meeting with Houston at two and then I had work from four to close...
If I wanted a nap I was going to have to take it now, screw Vince wanting to talk to me. He could save it for another day when I didn't feel like I'd been dragged through the wringer twice. I changed into some pjs and crawled into bed, praying sleep would come faster than Rey's explanations to my brother.
There was a knock on my door. That's what woke me up. Whoever had knocked apparently really wanted to talk to me because I ignored it the first two times and the third wasn't a knock, just the sound of the door opening. I pretended to be asleep, hoping they would just get the message and go away or in Rey's case just crawl into bed with me, but nope. It was my asshole of a brother.
"Elina..."
"Go away," I groaned.
He came in and closed the door, the bed sinking a little behind me as he sat down. "Come on, niña..."
I rolled over and stared up at him. "Don't you fucking talk to me." He closed his eyes and I seriously contemplated getting up and spitting in his face. "Usted casi me mata por hablar con la policía. Aunque no lo hice. Entonces usted se sienta allí y hacerlo tu mismo. No eres más que un gángster hipócrita que se le pega a su hermana." You ratted. You fucking ratted! And then you beat the shit out of me for pretenses. You're nothing but a god damn hypocrite who deserves everything that's coming to him.You almost killed me for talking to the police even though I didn't. Then you sit there and do it yourself. You're nothing but a gangster hypocrite who beats his sister.
"You don't know what's going on, Elina. Please let me explain."
"I don't want any explanations." I glanced over at the door thinking Rey would at least be within earshot to back me up or at least make sure we didn't get in a cat fight but instinctively I knew he wasn't. He wouldn't step in unless my brother was about to hurt me which meant he thought this needed to happen. I'd made my bed by slipping that note under my brother's door and I was now laying in it by dealing with the consequences. "Get the fuck out of my room so I can sleep. I'm pissed at you. I'll never forgive you for this."
"I did it for you."
"And I'm supposed to be what? Grateful? No, Vincent. That's not how this works. We are loyal to a fault and we don't talk to cops."
"It's exactly how this works. I joined for you so it should make sense that I would go to them for you. No matter what it cost me."
"I have nothing to do with this. You did it for yourself."
Vin closed his eyes for a second. "He didn't tell you?"
"He didn't have to tell me anything. The fact that you made a deal with the fucking cops tells me a whole hella lot more than him giving me your exact reasons. You're a bastard and I don't know why it took me this long to figure it out. I hate you."
I tried to roll over but he gripped my shoulder with some force, making me stay put. Thankfully it wasn't the one with the graze. I'd taken some Tylenol before heading home so the pain was dulled but still. The fact he was using force on me wasn't a good idea. I was really close to smacking him across the face and I only checked that impulse because I didn't want Rey to blow his cover in order to stop me.
"I'm a bastard that loves you and wants what's best for you."
I twisted out of his grip and sat up. "So you hit me? You swore on your life, on both of our lives, you would never hit me and you did. Look at my face, Vince. You did that. You're just as bad as Ford if not worse."
I turned away from my brother as tears were threatening to spill. They wouldn't help or solve anything. They would probably just make it worse but he wouldn't allow me to not look at him for long. My brother liked to be looked at when he was talking to you. If you didn't, it was a sign of disrespect and I'd seen him smack plenty of people for doing it. Since I was now on the list of people he smacked around, I was expecting the sting of skin against skin at any moment.
"Elina, please listen to me." I continued not to look at him. "I did this for you. I snitched for you." I continued not to look at him and finally he got tired of it. He gripped my chin and I batted his hand away, standing up so abruptly that my sheets got a little tangled on the way.
"Don't you fucking touch me or I swear, I'll narc on you faster than you can count to ten." Insult, I know but I was really in the mood to wound him any way I could. "Instead of whatever deal you have with them, it'll be your ass going to prison instead. You feel me, hombre?"
"This isn't a joke, niña."
"You think I'm joking? I'll tell them about Ford. I'll tell them about Michelle's creepy uncle. How about that car you stole when I was eight?"
"That was to get you to the hospital when we first found out you had diabetes. The cop who caught me let me go..."
"And I'm sure if he knew what you'd turn out to be, he would take it back."
He gritted his teeth at me, obviously frustrated. "Niña..."
"I own your ass, Vincent, and I swear, if you don't get the hell out of my room, I'll spill all the beans when it comes to you. I'm sure the DA would be more interested in what I have to say than whatever it is you're promising them."
"I did it to help you. After what Ford did, I knew if you stayed in this life, the next time you'd end up in the morgue."
"So you what? The second I checked myself into rehab, you checked in with the cops?" I shook my head. "You would never do that. Not even for me."
His shoulders slumped a little. "I'm getting older, Elina. This life, it's worn me down. I don't want it anymore. And I know you don't either. This is the best way for both of us to get out alive and be safe afterwards."
"Why didn't you just retire? It would be better than snitching. I know what you're doing has to be eating at you because it's still eating at me. It goes against everything we are."
"Retiring would've meant leaving you behind. You and I both know something would've happened to you the second I stepped down. I did this for us both, for you to be safe."
"You have a funny way of showing it."
"Elina. I'm sorry, ok?"
"That's not good enough," I mumbled. "It didn't just cost you my respect, it also cost you Michelle."
"Michelle left because I told her to. It had nothing to do with you. It was just a cover to say it was."
My eyes popped wide. "What?"
"I told her, niña. It was starting to get hairy and I sent her away. What I did to you was a cover. If I didn't do it, even if it was just a suspicion, someone else would have and it would've been worse. Even before you went to college, the well-oiled machine was crumbling. My control over this gang is slipping, Elina, and something needed to be done. I can't turn this gang over to someone else without knowing you would be ok so I did the next best thing."
"So you've been what? Working with the cops?" I shook my head. "That doesn't make sense."
"Who do you think tipped them off to the warehouse that night? The drugs in there weren't mine. I was loaning the building to Roberto for the month so he could store his shit. You weren't supposed to be there. It was only supposed to be Ford. But the slimy bastard got away while the cops got caught up with you."
"You were going to have Ford arrested?"
"He got you pregnant, Elina," he hissed. "And not even twelve hours after you found out and had told me, he was wrapped around some other girl. So I think I was completely justified in having him arrested."
"But he wasn't and ended up in the river instead," I commented. "Not to mention how he got there."
He took my face in both of his hands. "Elina, I did it to protect you. That's all I've ever done. If he was still alive when you got out of rehab...god knows what he would've done to you."
"At what cost, Vince?"
"That isn't your problem. It's mine. You weren't even supposed to find out about this, not yet. What the hell were you doing at his apartment anyway? You were supposed to be here..."
"Yeah and you were supposed to be keeping an eye on me. Instead you were trolling. What do you think Michelle would say if she heard about that?"
"Pretences. She knew I would have to do it. I talked to her about it. Tell me why you were in that building and why the hell you discharged a gun."
"He took me there, that's why. As for why I shot the gun, it was because I found out he was a cop. How the hell was I supposed to know you were working with him? You should've told me, Vin. I would've understood if you just told me instead of going through with this mysterious cloak and dagger shit."
"You never should've been in his apartment. He wasn't supposed to take you there. There were rules. You were to be left out of it. He never would've gone against them..."
"He took me back there because I didn't feel safe here. You were busy looking at some girl's ass and he was leaving. I didn't want to be left alone in a house full of drunk gangsters who tried to kill me two nights before."
"He's the one who held the gun to your head."
"He's also the one who shot the floor instead of my head. The others bounced me around like I was a ball, scaring the shit out of me on purpose. And you beat the living daylights out of me. Did you really expect me to stay here without him?"
"Alright, I get it. Again, I'm sorry. Please just...don't say anything."
"Like I would. That would be jeopardizing our lives along with Rey's. I'm not in the business to ruin someone's life. Who else knows?"
"No one. Just myself and Michelle."
"Not even Dom?"
"Not even Dom."
I glanced over at the clock and sighed. "I have to get ready. We'll finish this later."
I gathered up some clean clothes and headed for the door.
"Elina?"
I stopped and turned slightly to look at him. "What?"
"I love you, you know that, right? I never wanted to...I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry too."