The Slayer (Untamed Hearts #2) (39 page)

“I’m sure he does,” Tino said dismissively. “But I turned off my phone. We’ve been using Alaine’s. He doesn’t know her passwords.”

“You give Nova your passwords?” Chuito asked Tino in surprise.

“He always figures them out,” Tino said in annoyance. “Always. I could come up with the most random shit ever, and he’ll hack my account.” He looked up from the phone. “Where’s my Benz?”

“I parked it.” Chuito waved his hand in the other direction. “It’s a walk.”

Tino put Alaine’s cell phone into his back pocket and said, “Let’s go find the warehouse.”

“Tino—” Chuito let out a manic laugh as the fury of the moment caught up to him. “You brought Alaine with you. Now there are Russians and—” He took a deep breath, not even able to sort out the different things he was pissed off about. He gestured to Alaine, who was sparkling in her blue dress under the Miami lights, and said, “Did you go shopping? Did you stop and shop on the way down here?”

“We didn’t bring anything,” Tino said as if that made sense. “We were sorta in a hurry when we left.”

“So you stopped at a mall?”

“Well, I certainly didn’t stop to shop at a gas station.”

Tino stepped up and pulled the sunglasses off the brim of Chuito’s Miami Heat hat, looking at them for a moment before he rolled his eyes. He put Chuito’s sunglasses on and walked off, suitcase in hand, like he expected them to follow.

Chuito turned to Alaine. Then he reached out to her and pulled her into his arms. “Are you okay, mami?”

Alaine nodded and curled into him. She rested her hand over his heart as she took a long, shuddering breath. “I was worried we wouldn’t find you. You scared me.”

“You shouldn’t have come.” He sighed, even if she felt amazing against him and his heart was beating hard and fast now that he had her in his arms again. “Why didn’t you just let me go? You’re smarter than this.”

Alaine pulled back and stared at him, her light eyes swimming pools of blue accentuated by dark eyeliner. “I’d rather be in hell with you than anywhere else without you.”

“Hey, lovebirds,” Tino called out across the parking lot. He snapped his fingers and pointed to the direction Chuito had said the Benz was parked. “Let’s go.”

“I seriously need to kill him,” Chuito said as he glared at Tino, who held up his hands, the suitcase swinging. Chuito ignored him for a second and turned back to Alaine. “You look beautiful, though.”

“Thanks.” She smiled, making a stray tear run down her cheek. “This dress is worth more than everything I own. I can’t believe I let him buy it, but he’s sort of pushy.”

“Madonn’!” Tino called out. “You got ninety-nine problems, motherfucker, but—”

“No!” Chuito shouted back before Tino could finish. “Just no.”

“I’m just saying.” Tino gestured to them impatiently. “You got the girl. Let’s go. You got other shit to deal with.”

Chuito draped an arm over Alaine’s shoulders and pulled her to him. She snuggled into him and didn’t say a word when she felt the gun he had tucked into the back of his jeans as she slipped a hand around his waist.

Then they followed after Tino.

Together.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

The phone led them away from the bright lights of the city and into a run-down, depressed area that had Alaine checking the door locks more than once. Always out of the corner of her eye, as she silently hoped Chuito didn’t see her doing it.

She was surprised how many people were out. It was past two in the morning, but she was starting to realize why Chuito stayed up all night.

Miami, it seemed, was a city that didn’t sleep.

Chuito was driving. Alaine sat next to him in the passenger seat, and Tino was in the back, resting his arm on her chair as he looked at her cell phone.

“Cazzo.” Tino groaned in annoyance. “Jules is
still
calling you.”

“It’s so late. I feel bad.” Alaine sighed and looked to her phone just as Tino sent the call to voice mail. “We should at least text her and let her know we’re okay.”

“Here.” Tino turned on the dome light. Then he leaned into Alaine and wrapped his arm around her seat, holding out the phone to snap a picture of all three of them. “Smile.”

Tino took the picture of him with a dazzling smile. Hers was lame at best, and Chuito had managed nothing but a side glare of annoyance.

“That’s not a very good picture,” Alaine complained.

“It’s good enough,” Tino said as he sat back and texted it to Jules. “Oh shit, you were supposed to turn left.”

“Coño.” Chuito looked behind him and then worked on turning around. “Turn off the fucking dome light.”

Tino turned it off and leaned forward once more, pointing left. “Right there.”

All of them looked at the big, dark building three stories high on the corner of the street. There were dogs in cages outside it, and Alaine frowned as Chuito slowed down.

“Why are there dogs?”

“The better to bite you.” Tino looked at the phone again and then lifted his head to stare out the window. “This is it. The Ferrari’s in there.”

Chuito kept driving rather than stop, which had Alaine breathing a sigh of relief. She had been terrified the entire ride here just knowing what they were going to do once they got here.

“Now what?” she asked both of them. “What happens now?”

Chuito looked back to Tino, as if he wasn’t sure either, and then said, “Well, we need to know more about what’s going down in there.”

“And we need somewhere to crash,” Tino added.

“What about your mother’s place?” Alaine suggested. “Is she near here?”

“No, she’s not near here. We’re in the fucking hood, mami,” Chuito said as he glanced at her. “You think I’d put my mother in the hood?”

Alaine shrugged, because she felt like she had just landed on another planet. “You said that’s where you lived.”

“I used to live here. Actually, I used to live a mile down the road, but—”

“Can we just focus?” Tino interrupted him. “We need to watch the warehouse. We need to crash. Do you know anyone around here we could crash with?”

“Yeah, I know people, but—”

“In this direct area,” Tino went on, waving his hand around in a very Italian way. “You know someone close?”

“Anyone I know is gonna tell Marcos I’m here,” Chuito said in exasperation. “And if Marcos knows—”

“Look, motherfucker, we’re gonna need backup,” Tino cut him off as he turned back and gestured to the warehouse they had passed. “We don’t know what’s in there, but if your boy Angel is working with the Russians, I guarantee you the two of us cannot get this job done, and I can’t call Nova.”

“We should probably call Nova,” Chuito argued. “’Cause I know Angel. There is no way he went out looking for those Russians. They found him. That means these Russian motherfuckers are plotting something against your people, and Nova needs to know that.”

“Do you know what Nova is gonna do when he gets ahold of me?” Tino snapped at him. “I’d like to skip bringing the accountant into this issue if we can help it. Let’s fix the problem, and then we’ll deal with my brother. It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Besides, this is not a Nova issue. I can handle it. I just need backup.”

“So my cousin is the backup?”

Tino nodded. “Your cousin strikes me as decent backup.”

“After I sold my soul to get him out. I don’t think so. There are plenty of Italians in Miami. Call one of your people.”

“This is your issue.”

“Russians are my fucking issue? No.” Chuito shook his head. “The Russians are
your
issue. That is an Italian problem. There is something going down much bigger than Angel, and now we’re stuck in the middle of it with Alaine. Call Nova!”

“Is there a reason we can’t just talk to Angel?” Alaine interrupted their debate. “Or the Russians? Isn’t there some sort of negotiation that could take place so we don’t need guns?”

“Oh, yes, let’s negotiate with them,” Tino said sarcastically and then turned back to Chuito. “We’re gonna have bigger problems than Russians if we call Nova. I know him. I know how he thinks. There are so many things about this that are gonna stroke him out. We’ll need to shoot him with a tranq dart to keep him from having a heart attack.”

“He’s probably already having a heart attack,” Chuito shot back. “And you know what, the longer you’re here with me, the more that makes it my fault. Ninety-nine problems, no fucking shit, and one hundred is gonna be Nova wanting to smoke my ass for dragging you out of retirement for this bullshit. This is
not
my fault. I left you in Garnet.”

“You jacked my car!”

“Really?” Chuito shouted as he stared back at him. “You think your brother’s gonna buy that? That you came down here for a car?”

“No, I don’t think he’s gonna buy that! I’m not the one who wants to call him!”

Alaine sighed and admitted, “I’m so tired. Aren’t you two tired? Maybe that’s why you’re fighting? Maybe we need to rest and regroup.”

“Maybe,” Chuito agreed and then leaned forward. He slowed the car down, staring at a house they were passing. Then he stopped in the middle of the street and looked behind them. “Do you see anyone?”

“Why?” Tino asked but glanced around anyway.

Chuito put the car in park. “I need something tiny and metal. Quick.”

Alaine went to search in the bag she had, but remembered she had left her purse at home and all she had in here were the emergency supplies she and Tino had picked up at one of those highline outlet malls on the way.

Then she reached up, undid her hair clip, and pulled it out. “Will this work?”

Chuito leaned forward, using the lights off the dash to stare at it. “Yup, this works. Tino, drive around the block. I need one minute.”

“What are you doing?” Tino growled at him, but Chuito had already leaped out of the car. “Merda.”

Tino got out of the backseat and slammed the driver’s-side door when he took Chuito’s spot. Then he put it into drive, all the while glancing around in paranoia. Alaine turned in her seat, seeing that Chuito had run up to the house they passed and yanked a piece of paper off the door.

“What is he doing?” Alaine asked Tino when they got too far to see in the darkness.

“Do I know? I don’t know.” Tino shrugged and then tilted the rearview mirror.

They drove around the block, and when they passed the house again, the garage door was open and Chuito was waving them in.

“Merda,” Tino whispered but turned into the driveway anyway. “He is not thinking about crashing here. That cannot be his plan.” Chuito manually closed the garage behind them when they pulled in, and Tino turned off the car and opened the car door. “No.”

“It’s a foreclosure house, and the place next door is practically falling apart. Most of the places around here are abandoned,” Chuito said as he held up his hand. “We’ll be able to see the warehouse from upstairs. This is perfect. It’s like winning the lottery. No one will know we’re here, and we’ll be able to get a better grasp of the situation.”

“I’m not going down in Miami for squatting in a foreclosure house,” Tino argued. “That is not gonna be what takes me down.”

“Give me a better option.” Chuito folded his arms and shrugged. “Find me a Ritz-Carlton in the hood to watch the warehouse.”

Tino stood there, obviously furious. “I don’t know who lived in this place. They could’ve had—” He held up his hand. “Anything.”

“You’re spoiled,” Chuito said dismissively as he turned and walked into the house.

Tino turned to Alaine. “Do you wanna stay here?”

Alaine glanced around the garage that had an abandoned bookshelf in the corner and rugs rolled up by the door. She stepped inside the house, finding a washing machine and dryer that were probably older than her.

Then the lights to the car turned off automatically, plunging them into darkness.

“There’s no electricity here, is there?” she asked as she turned back to Tino, though she couldn’t see him.

“No.” He pulled out her phone and used it to light their way. “This is really great. Highlight of my night. There are rats here. I can hear them. I have a sixth sense for rats.”

“There’s no fucking rats,” Chuito called out. “Stop being a pussy.”

“I don’t like that term,” Alaine complained and then screamed when her foot hit something soft and furry. “Oh my God! Oh my God!”

She jumped on Tino, who nearly fell over as he tried to hold on to her and shine the phone down at the floor. “What is it?”

“It’s a rat!” She pointed to the floor as she hung off Tino, trying to keep her feet from touching the floor. “I felt it! It was a big, huge rat! I don’t want to stay here, Chu! I can’t handle rats! I don’t want to be in hell if there are rats! I changed my mind!”

Chuito flashed his phone at them, his face illuminated in the darkness, and he didn’t look amused. Then he pointed his phone to the floor, lighting up a stuffed animal sitting on the floor in the kitchen.

“Oh.” Alaine crawled off Tino and looked at Chuito hesitantly. “I’m still not a big fan of staying here. There are no lights. No water. What if we have to pee?”

“She has a valid point,” Tino agreed quickly. “We’ll get a hotel room and come back tomorrow.”

“In the daytime, where everyone can see your GL from a mile away?” Chuito supplied in a dull, annoyed voice. “You’re supposed to be good at this. It’s your job, motherfucker. You know that hiding out and watching the warehouse from here is a better idea than driving by and trying to scope it out. We can see it from upstairs.”

Alaine looked at Tino hopefully, because he’d had a lot of good ideas thus far and seemed to be a fairly efficient enforcer, not that she would consider herself an expert on the subject.

“If there are rats—” Tino started.

“There’s no rats.” Chuito flashed his phone around the kitchen. “Do you see any rats?”

“They hide.” Tino shone Alaine’s phone into the corner of the kitchen where a refrigerator had once been, and it was now a dirty, empty space. “And they come out when you least expect it.”

“Is this an issue we need to discuss?” Chuito asked with a laugh. “Why are you so freaked out about rats? Doesn’t New York have more rats than anywhere?”

Tino flashed the phone at Chuito and said, “Why do you think I hate them?”