All three pairs of eyes glanced in my direction and I returned it with my deadliest stare, daring them to try again.
They turned back to their food without another word. Mia returned to me with a grin twisting up the one corner of her mouth.
“What’d you tell them?” I asked when she regained her spot on the other side of the counter.
“That you were my brother and have been super overprotective since you had to kill my last boyfriend.”
I would have believed her if it wasn’t for the twinkle in her eyes and the laugh she was failing miserably to conceal.
“Liar,” I mumbled.
Mia broke in a fit of giggles. “I told them I was already taken by you, so they were out of luck.”
She swung away and set a torn slip from her pad on the pickup window. The meaty hand I occasionally saw dragging receipts in and food out, snatched the piece of paper and disappeared with it.
“I can’t wait to finally get out of here,” she said once she’d returned. “I just want to take off my shoes and curl up on the couch.”
“You want me to take you home?” I offered.
She thought about it for a full two seconds before giving me a shake of her head. “Not unless you want to take me home.”
I didn’t. I’d been hoping to take her back somewhere quiet and get lost in her. But if she was tired, I could wait.
“Up to you,” I replied.
She seemed to think about that for a long moment before responding. “Do you know any quiet places we could drive to?”
I knew several. The city may have been an ocean of people and buildings, but there was always an isolated location if someone was looking for one. Only, the majority of those places were used to … discard, of certain problems. Something told me that wasn’t what she meant.
Some freckly brunette with enormous tits and lips so plump she might have been having an allergic reaction to a bee sting, replaced Mia. She gave me a few sidelong glances I ignored as I led Mia out the door.
“Where do you want to go?” she asked as I pulled open the passenger side door for her and watched her slide into the seat.
I closed her in and made my way to my side before answering, “Thought we could head back to my place.”
She snapped her belt into place across her lap with a resounding click. “Is Nero okay with that?”
I shoved the keys into the ignition and pulled the car onto the road. “He’s going to have to be.”
I was still fuming. Part of me, a part I was keeping stubbornly slathered with the greasy remains of my anger was still terrified. It was a jumbled mess of confusion packed tight with irritation and brewed with anger, so much fucking anger at everything. At Nero for his stupid and careless mistake, at myself for not having the guts to free us of the quicksand pulling us under, but mainly at Mia for whatever voodoo bullshit she had us under. That was the only explanation I could come up with to justify why I wasn’t removing her from our lives forever. It was the only thing that explained why the thought of anything happening to her had my hands trembling. I concealed it by tightening my fingers around the wheel.
“Why are you still here?” I blurted before I could stop myself.
Mia’s chin turned from the passing rush of buildings and faces to tilt in my direction. I didn’t have to look to see the question in her eyes; her curiosity seemed to echo in the heat that crawled up into my cheeks.
“What do you mean?”
There was no taking it back now.
“Why are you here?” I repeated, gesturing with one hand to the filth and misery that made up our part of the city. “We both know you don’t belong here with the rest of us. You deserve better.”
“What’s better?” she countered.
Her oblivious response fueled my irritation. “Better than all this. Better than working yourself to death, better than getting shot in the street just because you took a wrong turn. Your parents used to tell everyone about your AP classes, all your awards and honors, and all the schools that wanted you. You were supposed to get out of this dump. You were supposed to—”
“Merry some rich guy, buy a two story with a picket fence and have two perfect children?” she finished for me.
“Yes! No!” I smacked the leather pad over the horn, releasing a blare that startled even me. “But you could be doing anything you want. Why didn’t you go to school somewhere far away in some fancy city?”
She snorted a laugh. “What’s a fancy city?”
I ignored her snark. “Why did you stay, Mia? You could have had a free ride to any school you wanted.”
I caught her shrug from the corner of my eye. “I know I could.”
It wasn’t arrogance in her voice. It was the quiet murmur of someone who had something just inches from their grasp before losing it.
“Where did you get accepted?” I hedged.
She jerked up the same shoulder again. “Columbus, and a few others.” It was pure luck the light took that moment to turn red, forcing me to stop when my head snapped in her direction. “I know what you’re going to say,” she interrupted before I could open my mouth. “Why didn’t I go? Why am I still here?” Her brown eyes met mine with a wisdom I knew I wouldn’t like. “I was going to. With me gone, Eduardo’s monthly payments would have gone down, taking some of the pressure off my parents. But then Dad had that work accident and pulled his back. He was in bed for months, and mom got diagnosed with Avascular Necrosis. I couldn’t leave them. Eduardo wasn’t going to give them a break, give my dad a chance to get better when he couldn’t work, so my mom had to take two jobs, nearly killing herself in the process. So, I stayed. I got a job and here I am.”
“That’s…”
Insane! I wanted to snap.
Stupid.
Selfless.
Kind.
Of course she would give up her own future for them. It didn’t surprise me at all, yet I was pissed.
“But you can still go back,” I pointed out.
Mia nodded. “I might one day. Right now, I have a family who needs me. School will be there when I’m ready for it, and before you say it, no, I don’t feel like I’m missing something. Would I like for my family not to have to live the way we do? Yes. Would I like for them not to have to pay Eduardo once a month? Absolutely. But we don’t always get cupcakes and rainbows in life.”
I couldn’t think of anything else to say. Instead, I focused on driving the rest of the way in silence.
Chapter Nine — Nero
I heard the keys in the front door a split second before it was opened and footsteps echoed down the hall. I stayed seated on the edge of my bed, clammy palms mashed together between my knees as if I’d been praying.
I hadn’t been.
Religion and I had parted ways years ago and we’d never made up. I didn’t expect that to change just because I fucked up and needed divine intervention. I knew I would need to face the music, face what I’d done and accept whatever punishment fate saw fit. It was facing Dav that terrified me. It was the knowledge that I had screwed up so royally, there was a chance I could have lost my best friend forever. To most, it would have seemed ridiculous to be so crippled by something seemingly inconsequential, especially given that I killed people for a living but those people would never understand the bond Dav and I shared, the years of brotherhood. I knew I had to make things right, no matter what I had to do.