The Slayer (Untamed Hearts #2) (16 page)

“Yes, it’s dirty.
Very dirty
.”

“You dance with me to this song,” Alaine pointed out.

“Yes, I do. Remind me to stop doing that.”

Alaine closed her eyes again, listening to the music, imagining dancing with Chuito in his apartment. That was their new thing. Dancing. He was a better dancer than her, which was a surprise, because Alaine wasn’t a bad dancer. She’d been going line dancing with Jules over in Mercy since she was eighteen, but Latin dancing was much faster and more complicated.

It was almost like sex, or at least what she imagined sex to be. Sweaty and breathless, with Chuito’s body pressed against hers. More often than not, it left her very frustrated, and when she went to bed, she would touch herself to no avail.

All it did was leave her more frustrated.

Even when she imagined it was Chuito’s hands on her, it only left her on the edge of bliss. Just like loving Chuito—so close, but not quite there.

When the song ended, she pointed to the radio, her eyes still closed. “I want to hear it again.”

He turned it back to the same song. For the first time, she really listened to the words, because she loved the way Spanish sounded.

“He says
mami
,” she observed. “He says it the way you say it.”

“Did you think I was the only one who said that?”

“But you said he’s singing to his woman.” Alaine lifted her eyebrows, still listening to the words. “And it sounds the same as when you say it. Like he means it. Like it’s a love story.”

“It’s not a love story,” Chuito reminded her.

“Does he love her?”

“I don’t know.”

Alaine gestured to the radio. “Does he say it? That he loves this woman he’s dancing with until the sun comes up.”

“Alaine—”

“Does he say he loves her?”

Chuito hesitated before he admitted softly, “Yeah, he says it.”

She opened her eyes, giving him a long look. “So it
is
a love story.”

“A dirty love story,” he said with a glare, as if he sensed they weren’t talking about the song anymore. “With a man she should probably stay away from.”

“But still a love story.” She smiled as she went back to listening to the music. “A beautiful love story with a happy ending.”

“Ay, mami.” Chuito sighed, but he played it eight more times before they got to the Cellar.

He parked in the back corner of the lot, far from the other cars, which was odd. Alaine reached for her phone, deciding to text with Jules while he did whatever he had to do.

Chuito reached to the backseat, grabbing his gym bag, and Alaine asked without looking up from her phone, “You’re not working out?”

“No, I’m not working out,” he said as he searched through his bag.

“What are you getting here?”

“I forgot something in my locker.”

“Can’t we get it after?”

“Give me this.” He took her phone out of her hand and set it on the dash. Then he replaced it with a card. “This is for you. Open it now.”

“You got me a card?” She looked at the envelope, seeing the word
mami
written in Chuito’s messy scrawl. “That was thoughtful.”

“You think you can graduate from college, and I wouldn’t get you a card?” Chuito asked incredulously. “After I’ve watched how hard you worked for it?”

“Thank you,” she said as she opened it. “I’m going to keep it forever.”

The card itself was simple, with
congratulations
written across it, but before she looked inside, something slipped out and fell onto her lap. She picked it up, looking at the check in shock.

Then she turned to Chuito and stared at him in stunned disbelief, words failing her completely.

“I looked it up,” Chuito said before she could find her voice. “That’s how much it’s supposed to cost. I know you have scholarships, but books are expensive and—”

“This is sixty thousand dollars, Chu,” she whispered, the check feeling hot in her hands. “You
cannot
give me sixty thousand dollars.”

“Jules can give it to you, but I can’t?”

“I worked for that money from Jules. I worked hard, and I wasn’t going to take any more from her. I was going to get student loans to cover law school.”

“I don’t want you to get student loans.” Chuito took the check out of her hand and set it on the dash next to her phone and turned to her. “Look—”

“No!” she interrupted him before he could finish. “I can’t take that much money!”

“Let me explain—”

“No!” She shook her head frantically. “Just, no, I can’t—”

She stopped when Chuito put his hand over her mouth. He put his other hand behind her head, holding her trapped as he leaned into her.

“Listen to me, mami. You have to take this money,” he said slowly. “It’s important to me. I want to see you do something. I want to see you succeed.”

She gripped at the hand over her mouth, trying to pull it away, but he wasn’t letting her, because his hold on her was iron tight.

“My brother was smart like you. He worked hard. Very hard. He lived in the hood, but he never saw the hood. He didn’t see the world like I saw it. He saw happy endings like you see happy endings,” he whispered as he looked down at her. “He was supposed to go to college. He died instead.” He looked at the windshield, his dark eyes glassy. “Letting me pay for your law school will make that easier. I have all this money. I can’t save Marc. Just like I couldn’t save Juan. I need to do this for you. It’s a waste if it doesn’t help you. I don’t want to waste it. I don’t like to see things wasted.”

The tears spilled over before she could stop them, and she wanted to take back every time she’d called him cheap. She ran a hand up his forearm, clutching at it as she cried.

“Okay?” he asked, his hold loosening. “You’ll take it?”

She nodded, and then moved his hand away and whispered, “I’ll take it.”

He smiled, that same humble, pleased smile he had every time he won a fight, big dimples making his dark gaze seem a little less intense. “
Que bueno
,” he said and then added in English, “Good.”

She nodded in agreement and sat back, looking out the windshield to the raindrops running down the glass. Then, before she could stop it, a sob burst out of her, and she covered her mouth to muffle it.

“Ay, mami.” Chuito reached out and grabbed her, pulling her to him so that she was sobbing against his chest as her entire body shook with emotion. “You always cry at the wrong times, fights and movies and dirty love songs.”

“It’s not a dirty love song,” she said as she gripped his shoulders. “It’s a beautiful one.”

“Okay,” he said, for once not arguing with her. “If you say so.”

“I say so.” She buried her face in the curve of his neck, inhaling the scent of his aftershave. “I love you, Chu.”

“I love you too.” He rubbed her back gently. “Like friends.”

She hit his shoulder. “Friends don’t give each other sixty thousand dollars.”

“Yes, they do.” He held up his hand to the dash. “I just proved it.”

“No.”

He wiped at her cheeks. “You keep messing this up.”

“Is it bad?” she asked as she fought against the emotions still overwhelming her. “Is the mascara running?”

“Yeah, it’s okay.” He rubbed a thumb under her eye. “We’ll fix it. You wanna come in with me?”

She nodded, more tears spilling down her cheeks even while Chuito tried to fix the disaster of her ruined makeup.

“You got to stop crying, mami.”

She sucked in a hard breath, blinking at him through the tears. “I can’t.”

“Then fuck it.” He took his keys out of the ignition. “The rain will hide it. Put the check in your purse.”

“Okay.” She grabbed the check off the dash, but another sob burst out of her as she looked at the memo section, seeing that Chuito had written,
For Juan
, as if knowing she would understand. “Oh, Chu.”

Chuito ended up having to put the check in the card. He tucked it into her purse for her along with the phone, because her hands were shaking and she was still crying. She sat there sobbing until Chuito got out and walked around the car to open her door for her.

She looked up at him standing there in the rain. “I shouldn’t go in. I’m crying. Everyone in there will think I’m crazy.”

“It’s okay.” Chuito forced her to get up. “We’ll be quick.”

“I don’t want to. I need more time,” she argued, even as Chuito draped an arm over her shoulder and slammed the door behind her.

“You’re fine.” He pulled her toward the Cellar. “Don’t tell Jules about the money. She’ll get the wrong idea.”

“What’s the wrong idea?”

“You know what the wrong idea is.”

“That you love me enough to pay for law school?”

They stopped when they got under the awning, and Chuito surprised her by kissing her forehead. Then he opened the door and gestured for her to go in. He followed in behind her as she worked on blinking away the tears and wiping at her face.

Her hair was drenched, and she pushed it away from her forehead.

“Come on.” Chuito grabbed her hand, tugging her in.

“My purse is all wet. I should’ve left it in the car.”

Chuito raised his eyebrows at her. “I’d rather you didn’t.”

“Just go. I’ll stand here. Go get your stuff. I’ll wait.”

“Keep me company.”

“In the men’s locker room?”

“Sit outside the locker room.”

“You said it was going to take you one minute,” Alaine complained, even as Chuito was using his hold on her hand to tug her into the main part of the gym, that she only now noticed was completely dark. “Why are the lights off?”

Alaine blinked when the lights unexpectedly came on, glaring and fluorescent.

“Congratulations!”

She held up her hands, blinking again at all the people who were suddenly there. The entire Cellar was decorated, with streamers hanging down from the ceiling. There was a table in the middle, with the biggest cake she had ever seen in her life.

Even bigger than the one Wyatt bought Chuito after he won his title belt.

“Oh.” She covered her mouth as she started crying again and turned to Chuito. “Did you do this?”

Chuito shook his head. “No.”

“I did this!” Jules announced as she ran up to hug her, forcing Alaine off her feet in her enthusiasm. “I’m so proud of you! Valedictorian. I couldn’t tell you how excited I was because I thought you’d suspect. Oh, darlin’, I am
so
proud.” Jules turned back to everyone else. “Her speech was amazing. It made me think the world could be better. I believed her.” Jules glanced back to Alaine, tears running down her face too. “Look at what you did. You did it. I feel like—” Jules touched her chest as more tears ran down her cheeks. “It’s like my baby graduated. You’ve grown into such a powerful, strong woman and—”

“If you don’t call her mamá,” Chuito started as he gave Alaine a look, “I will.”

Jules punched his chest. “Shut your trap!”

“I’m just saying—” Chuito held out his hand to Jules as evidence but then flinched when she hit him. “Coño, Jules! You bruise me when you hit like that.”

“I’ll bruise you.” She kicked his shin, making him jump. “You ruined my moment. You’re worse than Wyatt.”

“Your moment was making every man in here uncomfortable. One crying woman is enough.” Chuito dodged another hit. “I did my job. I got her here. I even had to use that nasty bathroom to buy time. Now I’m gonna go have a beer.”

“You’re driving! You can’t drink.”

Chuito gave her another harsh look. “Okay, mamá! I can have one beer.”

Alaine couldn’t help it; she burst out laughing and held her hands up at everyone. “This is my life. Do you see what my life is?”

“It’s my life too,” Wyatt said as he walked up and pulled her into a big bear hug. “And I’m so sorry about that.”

Alaine was still laughing as she hugged Wyatt back. “I’m sorry too.”

“We’re proud of you.” Wyatt kissed her cheek. “And you better have the time of your life, ’cause Jules made us hang all this shit up. Pain in my ass. She’s been like a drill sergeant.”

“You know you didn’t have to do that,” Alaine said and squeezed Wyatt’s biceps.

“Yeah, you try telling her that.” Clay hugged Alaine when Wyatt let her go. “But we were happy to do it.”

“I’ve been cooking for two days,” Hal, one of Jules’s dear friends who ran the diner down the road, offered as he hugged Alaine next. “You better enjoy it.”

“If you made it, of course I’ll enjoy it,” she said and meant it, because Hal’s had the best food in three towns. “Thank you.”

“He did it for free,” Terry, one of Jules’s biggest clients, added. “That’s how proud we all are.”

“Thank you for coming, Terry.” She hugged him tightly and kissed his cheek, because he was darling and always made the office a little happier when he came in. “Really, this is—” She pulled back and laughed. “I was so surprised.”

It wasn’t until that moment Alaine realized how many friends she had. The small group of young people that had abandoned her when she’d decided to break away from the church seemed so far away now. She hadn’t realized just how many people came into the office. How many people relied on Jules and Alaine to help them with their problems.

She hugged a lot of friends.

The entire Cellar was full of people.

It felt like half the town had come out just because Alaine had graduated from college.

It was overwhelming.

And completely wonderful.

“I think this is the greatest day of my life,” Alaine told Jules when the two of them escaped to a corner so they could pull themselves together. She looked around the Cellar again, seeing all the people and all the food, and listened to the song playing over a sound system she didn’t know they had. “Why is there music?”

“I hired a DJ,” Jules said as she tucked strands of Alaine’s still-wet hair behind her ears.

“It’s coming from the ceiling.”

“We put in a system to announce the different classes.” Jules waved her hand dismissively. “The DJ hooked it up or something. I don’t know how he did it. I just told him to get it done.”

“I didn’t know you put in that system.”

“Well, it’s started making money.” Jules shrugged and then rubbed at Alaine’s cheeks, obviously trying to fix the mascara situation. “Clay’s doing well. Chuito’s doing well. We can invest more in other things. Make it more for the community.”