I stopped myself before I confessed the nauseating details to Sofia. It would be upsetting enough for her to see my mother’s disfigured appearance. She didn’t need a graphic description of the gory sight I’d come home to. The man had taken his time hurting Mom, using his knife and his fists.
“I called an ambulance, and they got to her in time,” I said. “While Mom was recovering in the hospital, I hunted down the motherfucker who hurt her and made sure he would never do it again.”
More gory details Sofia didn’t need to know. The day I’d tortured him to exact my retribution had been the day I’d realized that there was no bloody task I was too squeamish to carry out.
“After, I kept Mom as comfortable as I could in that shithole apartment, but I couldn’t leave the gang. They were the only protection we had left, and I needed the money from dealing to support us. Meeting Adrián was the best thing that ever happened to us.”
By the time I finished, Sofia’s vibrant eyes were shining. “Mateo,” she said tremulously, a tear sliding down her cheek.
I brushed it away with my thumb, and she leaned into my hand.
“Your life is…more complicated than I realized.” She bit her lip, thinking through what she wanted to say. “Thank you for sharing with me.”
I stroked her cheek, tracing the path of her tears until my fingers touched beneath her chin. She tipped back at the lightest pressure, inviting me to take the kiss I’d been craving for weeks.
The distinctive hiss of an aerosol spray paint can—a familiar sound from the ugly past I’d just revisited—was a gunshot to my senses, jolting me to instinctive action.
I pushed Sofia out of harm’s way, tucking her between my back and the fence behind us as I searched for the threat.
Several yards down the street, my pretty Porsche was being vandalized. One of my former friends was tagging my brand-new baby, scrawling our gang sign onto the perfect, cherry red paint job.
I roared out a curse and launched myself at the motherfucker. Ruiz had either forgotten just how fast I could move, or he’d gotten slower with age, because Shit-for-brains didn’t drop the paint can quick enough to put distance between us.
I tackled him to the pavement before he got three steps, and ruby blood sprayed onto the sidewalk when his front teeth busted against it. I turned him roughly onto his back. I wanted him to see my face when I killed him. No one fucked with what was mine.
My hands wrapped around his throat, letting him feel the vise closing. “You thought you could follow me here and fuck up my shit?” I seethed, enraged that a demon from my former life had tailed me to the safe place I’d bought for Mom.
His eyes rolled in terror, his mouth opening and closing in desperation to draw the breath that I denied him.
Sofia’s soft cry hit me like a grappling hook, yanking my body away from Ruiz to slaughter whoever had frightened her.
My stomach dropped to the pavement, and I froze in place. Medina, another one of my former demons, held a knife to her throat. Her lustrous curls were trapped in his fist, yanking her head back and baring her vulnerable artery to his blade.
Rage and panic wracked my system, making my body vibrate with impotent fury. I couldn’t risk an attack, because he could slice her open before I even got close.
“Give Ruiz your keys,” Medina ordered, the command harsh with malice. “You were stupid enough to think you could drive through your old hood and show off your fancy shit. You think you’re better than us, Ignazio?”
I held up my hands, the show of attrition utterly foreign to me. “Let her go,” I snarled, knowing there was no power in my demand. From this distance, I couldn’t do anything to stop him from slitting her throat.
“Give us your ride, and we’ll leave,” Medina sneered.
“If you hurt her, you’re a dead man.” He was already dead, but I would have to wait until Sofia was out of harm’s way. Medina wouldn’t live to see the end of the day.
“Consider it a trade, then. Your whore for the Porsche.”
An enraged, purely animal sound tore from my chest. He would die extra slow for that insult to my sweet Sofia.
“Keys. Now.” I heard Ruiz’s rasping voice behind me. He’d gotten back on his feet while I witnessed my nightmare playing out before me.
I managed a stiff nod and retrieved my keys from my pocket, moving slowly so I didn’t spook Medina. My heart slammed repeatedly against my ribs, pumping enough adrenaline through my immobilized body to enable me to face an army.
I kept my focus trained on Medina and the knife at her throat. If I allowed myself to look into her lovely eyes, her terror would break me, and I might do something impulsive that would get her killed.