Oops - CinderScoria (the best books to read .TXT) 📗

down my cheek. Antonio had slapped me with the back of his hand and obviously he’d been wearing rings. Nani carefully dabbed at the cuts.

“He’s not usually like this,” she said, wincing as their voices raised at one point.

“Is he your brother?”

Nani nodded. “Yeah. We haven’t seen him in, like, five years though. Antonio’s—”

“Dad killed people!” That came from Maya, and it was partially horrified— which was good, right? She sounded like she had issues with her dad, which meant she was less likely to kill somebody… right?

Nani flinched, hard.

“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling bad for her. It looked like every word was a physical blow to her.

The girl shook her head. “It’s fine,” she murmured. “Bleeding’s stopped, but you’re going to have a nasty bruise.”

I shrugged. “I can deal with that.”

“Well, I’m not going to kill him!”

Automatically I knew she was talking about me, and my head turned to look at Maya. She was staring at her brother, fists clenched, while Antonio looked annoyed and impatient.

I quickly looked away. This really wasn’t any of my business— aside from the fact that this family had kidnapped me and held me against my will and all.

Nani turned back to me. “I don’t really see why you shouldn’t know,” she whispered. “But Maya and I are princesses— our dad is a leader. Of a gang. He’s dangerous and he’s violent and he’s evil and I spent twelve years with him. Maya and Tony went longer. But when I turned twelve Maya picked us up and left so we could go live with our mom. Tony stayed here. I don’t know why. But five years later he finds us again and asks for our help because apparently he stole five thousand dollars from Dad and Dad gave him a week to pay it back or…”

She trailed off, but I understood what she didn’t say. I didn’t know a lot about gangs but I knew that if you wronged them you were dead, simple as that.

“That’s why you kidnapped me,” I said softly. “You really do need that money.”

Nani nodded. “We were going to just rob a bank or something, but I got that tweet and it just seemed like a perfect opportunity to control the violence.”

That was… awfully considerate. And I guess I could see where she was coming from. If they really were adamant on not hurting or killing anybody then kidnapping one person was probably a lot safer than robbing a bank.

Antonio started walking back towards the door, the conversation between him and Maya over. He blew a kiss at Nani, but she didn’t return it. He didn’t seem to mind. Giving me one last challenging glare, he was out the door and into the rain before any of us could say anything.

As soon as the door closed, Maya seemed to slump against the wall. She took a deep breath and, after straightening up, walked over to me, nudging Nani out of the way.

“Jesús,”

she said in Spanish, and I recognized that word at least.

“It’s fine,” I mumbled, a little uncomfortable with her this close to my face.

Maya gave me a look. “Why do you boys have to be so egotistical?” she muttered aloud.

“I am not egotistical,” I said.

“Yeah, Superstar, keep telling yourself that.” She straightened up and started to come around to the back of my chair. “I’m going to unlock your cuffs, okay?”

“Okay,” I said evenly, but inside I was happy to finally have them off. With a click the cuffs popped open and I brought them around to the front to rub them.

“So, Antonio,” I said, watching as she went around to the side of the boathouse and pulled out three cots from the wall. When she didn’t answer I said, “He seems like a nice guy.”

Maya snorted at that. “We are not nice people, Superstar.”

“That’s debatable.”

She looked over at me and I felt a little ridiculous saying that out loud. It was an automatic response but I’d meant it.

Sighing, I said, “Nani told me about why you’re doing this.”

Nani seemed to shrink as Maya shot her an accusing glance. “It wasn’t her fault,” I said, drawing her gaze back to me. “And for the record, from what I’ve seen of your family, I think I get it.”

“Congratulations,” she said sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes. Obviously she wasn’t getting what I was trying to say. “I’m already in this situation and I don’t have to like it, but I don’t think you can do this on your own.”

She stayed quiet.

Huffing in annoyance, I said, “Maya, let me help you.”

Apparently that was it. She burst into such loud laughter that I nearly toppled out of the chair. “Help us,” she said, gasping for breath. “Oh, God, that was funny!”

I frowned. “I’m not kidding.”

Bam, it was over. Like a bipolar ice queen Maya whirled on her heel and stalked right up to me as I stood up, nose to nose. Her eyes were level with mine and it was all I could do than to tear my own away.

“Stay out of our business,” she said darkly. “You should know if Nani told you everything that violence is second nature to us. I learned how to shoot every gun imaginable at the age of twelve. Do you know what that’s like?”

I opened my mouth to say something, but she obviously wasn’t finished yet. “I’ve been stuffed in closets, trunks, chairs. I can’t go outside around here without feeling like any moment somebody’s going to drive by in a van and shoot me to pieces. I’ve been dangled off a bridge by my ankle. Everybody’s always trying to kidnap or kill me, Rocky, every single day."

She was panting hard now. I stood my ground, but my throat tightened with every word that came out of her mouth. Her hard eyes were angry and hurt, but I wasn’t afraid of them this time. This time instead of pistol-whipping and kidnapping and threatening somebody, she really just looked like she needed a hug.

Before I could come to my senses and give her one, though, she turned on her heel.

“We got out,” she said shortly. “Nani and I got out. We’re in this once and we’re skipping right back out again. This isn’t for a plush superstar like you. You can’t help us.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but then I closed it. What could I possibly say to something like that? I looked at Nani and was surprised to see tears glistening in her eyes. I felt horrible— even if it technically wasn’t really my fault.

Maya laid out blankets on the cot and gestured to it. “You can sleep here.”

I looked at her, surprised, and she elaborated, “I’ll be keeping an eye on you, so don’t try anything.”

Honestly, I wasn’t sure I would even if I did have the opportunity. But I didn’t tell her that. Awkwardly I walked over to the cot and laid down. Nani did the same on hers and Maya pulled up a chair and placed the gun in her lap.

It was weird to know that she was watching me, but I was tired enough not to care as I drifted off to sleep.

Chapter Six

Hank was waiting for them, along with Turnbow and Howard. As Shane and Blake got out of the car followed closely by Keith they took in their father’s face. For the first time it looked like his façade was slipping, leaving behind a strained, pained expression that he was desperately trying to hide for his sons.

Blake was terrified about what that look meant. Was Rocky hurt? Scared? At least he was alive, right? That was at least a good thing.

“We’ll show you the recording,” Howard said gently, turning around to go back into the house.

They followed her silently into the family room, where a box stood by the phone. Shane looked intrigued, like he wanted to fiddle with the equipment. Despite his bad boy exterior, Shane was a total geek at heart, and he probably recognized a whole lot more in the system than Blake did. He started to reach for the console.

“Please,” Turnbow said tightly with one hand out to stop him, “don’t touch that.”

Shane cut his eyes at him, annoyed, but stepped back. Agent Howard leaned forward to mess with the computer that was hooked up to the console and in a few seconds the recording was playing.

“Hello?”

A beat of silence, and then, Rocky’s voice, said, “Dad?”

He sounded relieved, Blake thought, if not a little shaken. Not scared at all. Blake didn’t know if he was happy about that or not. His heart pounded, just hearing his voice. Even though he’d only been missing for 24 hours it felt like he’d been gone for days, weeks at a time. The familiar sting of tears burned in Blake’s nose and eyes, but he gritted his teeth. He wasn’t going to cry. He was not going to