Page 96 of The Complete Truth Duet
She said nothing.
Finally, I dialed a number, but it wasn’t Dante’s.
“Why the fuck are you calling me right now?” Marcos greeted.
Short of Catalina, I had no friends in the Guerrero family. But when I needed something, Marcos was always my first call. He might hit me, but he didn’t get his rocks off by fucking the girls. Marcos had a very specific type of woman he liked: the kind with a dick. Even if he’d never tell his family.
“Last chance,” I mouthed at her.
She smiled, folding her hands in front of her. “Please.”
I sucked in a deep breath and then ruined her too. “Dante sent me over a girl.”
“Andddd,” he drawled impatiently.
“He didn’t mention it. I’m just double-checking it’s all good if I get her set up here.”
Please say no. Please say no. Please say no.
“Woman, who made me your goddamn babysitter? Is she fuckable?”
I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “Yeah.”
“Then let her fucking fuck!” He hung up.
I tucked the phone into my back pocket and tossed her a tight smile. “Welcome to the building…”
“Lexy,” she filled in. “Lexy Palmer.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Cora Guerrero.”
She gasped.
“Don’t look at me like that. I’m only a Guerrero by marriage.”
She gasped again, adding an eye bulge that made me laugh.
“And he passed away years ago.”
“Oh, shit. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. Just remember: I’m not one of them. Okay?”
“Okay.” She smiled big, wide, breathtakingly, and…cluelessly.
Though, a few years later, it turned out I was the clueless one.
Cora
In the two days since the fire, it felt like I was living in a state of suspended animation.
Time passed.
The world around me kept moving.
But I was equally lost and at the center of it all.
I remembered Drew ordering us delivery food a few times. I even vaguely remembered eating, though I couldn’t have said what it was. It could have been Chinese just as easily as it could have been a burger.
It all tasted like misery.
“Cora, give it a rest for the night,” Drew begged, sprawled out beside me on the bed. He’d been staying in the room with us since we got back.
“No,” I clipped, clicking the restart button again. It stripped me bare every single time, but I couldn’t stop watching.
I wasn’t able to make out his face, but there was no doubting that it was him.
Penn in a black hoodie, going up the stairs.
Penn going into my apartment.
Penn coming out with his toolbox and heading down to his truck.
Dante and Marcos showing up.
Penn running up the stairs as Dante fired his gun, hitting him in the back of the leg.
Penn scrambling into my apartment.
More shots fired at the door until it swung open.
The Guerrero brothers filing inside.
No one ever coming back out.
I fast-forwarded six minutes until flames erupted from my apartment, the camera shaking violently before going black.
I moved the curser back to hover over the restart button, prepared to click again, but River’s voice pulled me up short.
“Stop. You’ve seen it enough. You’re just torturing yourself now.”
I tore my gaze from the screen and gave her my attention. She’d been in the shower for the last hour. Her eyes were red rimmed, and the long, brown hair cascading over her shoulders caused wet circles to form on the front of her gray T-shirt.
We’d hit up Walmart on the way home from the building that first morning. I’d peeled off a grand of my Freedom Account and rushed inside to buy the necessities. The first being a laptop so I could watch the footage from Penn’s secret security camera on something other than the cracked screen of my cell phone. I’d grabbed River a few things I thought she might need, but I’d been too frazzled to look at sizes. We’d only ended up with some baggy T-shirts and panties that were a size too small. I’d promised her I would take her back, but I hadn’t been able to bring myself to leave the room yet.
The outside world felt too heavy without him.
“He’s gone, River. It’s torture either way.”
She pursed her lips, a chin quiver escaping before she could hide it. “I know, but it doesn’t matter how much you watch that video. It’s not going to change.”
Yeah. I wasn’t the only one struggling with Penn’s death.
“Come here, baby,” I whispered, extending an arm in her direction.
“No! I don’t want a hug. I want you to stop watching that damn video and figure out where we’re going to live or when I can go back to school, or…or…or…what happens now if Manuel comes after us for this. You know he’s going to find a way to blame you.” She turned her fury on Drew. “And you… Jesus, it was your brother. He’ll be coming after you too.”
Drew sat up, placing both of his feet on the carpet and anchoring his elbows to his knees. “And it was Marcos and Dante who killed him. I’m not feeling particularly sympathetic toward Manuel tonight. Let him send someone after us. I dare him to try.”
