Forever Yours (The Moreno Brothers 1.5)

Sal’s puckered brow said it all. He wasn’t impressed with Angel’s half-baked plan. “Didn’t he already show up once unannounced? What’s to stop him from doing it again?”

Before Angel could respond to that, Sal went on and thankfully so because Angel had nothing. The idea that Leo might show up at her place one day and he wouldn’t be there hadn’t even occurred to him.

Look,” Sal said, shaking his head. “We’re not just talking about some dude who might be trying to move in on your chick. If that’s all this was—you know me—I’d tell you to get your head outta your ass and stop acting like Alex because you know you don’t have anything to worry about. You can trust Sarah. But it’s not. We’re talking about a guy who’s known to be violent. He has a brother in jail for murder and admits to having been in and out of jail himself. Think about it. Are you really just gonna buy that his brother was put away for fighting?”

“He killed the guy,” Angel reminded him.

“Yeah, well last I heard you don’t get life for self-defense. Technically, if the guy’s death resulted from injuries sustained in a fight—a fight the dead guy was a willing participant in—then his brother could’ve easily claimed self-defense. I’m no lawyer, and even I would’ve advised him to do that. He might’ve still gone to jail, but not for life.” Sal shook his head again as Romero flew by them and into a pile of snow, face first. He chuckled before looking back at Angel. “What did he go away to Mexico for anyway? You sure he wasn’t in jail?”

Angel’s eye widened as Sal made him feel stupider and stupider by the minute. Then he remembered. “They don’t let you skype from jail.” With the growing uncertainty in the pit of his gut, he added. “Right?”

Sal finished putting on his goggles and shrugged. “I have no idea. I would imagine they don’t, but it might depend on what kind of detention center you’re in and what you’re in for. What did he say he was gone for?”

“Construction work for family in Mexico.”

Glad for the distraction of having to put his own goggles back on, Angel didn’t look at his brother. He could only imagine what Sal was thinking. Angel sounded naïve even to himself. Now that Sal had opened the floodgates to all the other possibilities why a guy like Leo would be gone for months, all kinds of things came to mind. Maybe he was on the run. Maybe he was really in Mexico, but he was hiding out or laying low. Who knew? He might’ve even been doing illegal drug trafficking. The more he thought about it, the lamer he felt for not having questioned it in the first place. Construction work on a farm in the dead of winter?

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Romero was coming toward them now. Angel finished putting on his goggles but didn’t look at Sal as he readied himself to take off and said just under his breath, “Let’s not talk about this in front of this guy.”

“How fast do you think I was doing?” Romero asked with a pained smile as he reached them, his goggles all crooked and half his face covered in snow.

“Whatever it was, it was too fast obviously,” Sal said.

“And your nose is bleeding, ass,” Angel added.

“It is?” Romero touched his nose.

Eric and Alex caught up to them, and they all decided that once they made it down they were done for the day. None of them had been skiing in a long time, and they’d all likely be sore tomorrow if they overdid it. It was too late for Romero. He was already wincing as they reached the bottom.

Back at the cabin they all oohed and aahed at the smell of the menudo Sal had left cooking in the crock pot all day. They peeled off their layers of snow wear and hung them up. Angel watched as Sarah stepped aside to check her phone. Whatever she read made her smile, and he was instantly annoyed. He hated this level of paranoia. It was annoying enough to know Sydney could put a smile on her face or even tears in her eyes like he had the day he’d shown up. But to think maybe Leo could too, someone who Angel was fairly certain now had other intentions when it came Sarah, was beyond annoying.

The moment he got her alone he pulled her aside. They were the last two in the laundry room where everyone hung their wet gloves and beanies, so he closed the door when they were left alone. “Have you talked to him today?”

“Who?” She looked at him curiously.

“Leo.”

Her expression went blank, but she shook her head. “No, he texted me, but I haven’t responded.”

“What does he want?”

This was proof beyond a doubt that her relationship with Leo may become a serious problem for Angel and Sarah. Before yesterday, before hearing the ass**le refer to his girl as baby girl and then having that insightful conversation on their way up to the cabin, Angel had been okay with her texting and chatting with him even late at night. Now just the thought of the guy texting her had him breaking his rule of discussing this further until their getaway was over. If he thought she wouldn’t protest, he’d demand she cut all communication with the guy. As far as Angel was concerned now, this wasn’t her brother they were dealing with anymore. This was some dude after Sarah, and he wasn’t having it.

“He just asked how my surprise turned out. I’d mentioned to him you were taking me somewhere but it was a surprise.”

Angel leaned against the washing machine and pulled her to him. He knew he shouldn’t do this now. He couldn’t just take her home like in the past when they’d had a quarrel or disagreement and they could both sleep on it. Neither was going anywhere tonight, and he didn’t want to make the rest of the night uncomfortable, nor did he have any intention of crawling in bed with her angry. But things had changed, and he was done standing aside, holding it all in for the sake of avoiding an argument. What Sal had said today had opened his eyes to other things. Just like the endless possibilities of why Leo might’ve left town for months Angel was now questioning everything. The only thing that calmed him was that she admitted she was too.