“I don’t need a short version.”
How was it possible for someone so beautiful to have so much attitude? I side-eyed him. “You’re not going to kill me or anything, are you?”
He side-eyed me right back. “If I wanted… I’d have done it already.”
That was real comforting.
“I know enough about what I need to know.” His eyes glowed briefly. “I won’t use… what you tell me against you… Won’t share it unless it’s necessary.”
It was so fucking weird to hear him talk.
But that was as good as I was going to get, wasn’t it? I guess… I guess, I didn’t see the harm in telling him. I guess I didn’t want him to think I was a scumbag. I wanted to be sure he understood that, at its root, this wasn’t my fault. That I had tried to avoid this.
I wished he hadn’t gotten dragged into this. I pressed my lips together and sighed, then winced. “Okay. Let’s see… I’ll try and keep the story straight.”
He stared.
I stared.
Then he grunted.
“My parents stole money from the cartel, and they want it back.”
There. It was that easy, wasn’t it?
The Defender’s eyes had started narrowing from the moment I started talking and kept narrowing with every second that passed. Obviously, that wasn’t enough information for him. I knew it wouldn’t be, but I guess some itty-bitty part of me had hoped he’d accept that. That he wouldn’t want to talk about it more.
But since when had I ever gotten what I wanted?
“Your parents? Not your grandparents?” he asked.
I nodded. “Right. Other than lying about our names sometimes, they were really good people. The best. They got dragged into this just for being related to my mom.”
His face went thoughtful. “Do you have it?” he asked suddenly.
My body froze but I told him the truth. “No. My grandparents would have never taken a single penny even if it was the end of the world.” I swallowed. “My grandpa used to say that even if the cartel got back the majority of the money, they would never let it go. They would never forgive or forget what was done.”
Now that we were talking…
And what if this was the last conversation I’d ever have?
I guess that was the thing about feeling like you were running out of time—with every minute that went by, every second felt more and more precious. The things that had stopped you before suddenly didn’t seem that important.
What was the worst he would do if I annoyed him? He’d ignore me? Talk to me all grouchy?
I’d tried being quiet around him for weeks. I’d always tried to keep my mouth shut so I wouldn’t say anything I shouldn’t by accident. And I might or might not be running out of time.
Fuck it.
“What’s the longest you’ve gone being injured before?” I blurted out in Portuguese, not even realizing that’s what I was going to ask until it was halfway out of my mouth, and at that point, I just had to roll with it.
Dark eyelids fell slowly over those incredible pupils. “This wasn’t… a two-way road… with questions.”
I knew that better than anybody, but we were past me catering to him to that extent. If this could be the end, I was getting all these fucking words out of my mouth. “But it could be.” I thought about smiling at him, but I figured he’d see right through that. “I wouldn’t tell anyone anything. I don’t have any friends, remember?”
Something flickered in his eyes. “You said you did.”
I snorted, and it was only about half bitter. “I was lying.”
He blinked. Then he watched me for a long, long moment while I stared right back at him.
I didn’t have friends. So what?
“Seconds,” The Defender finally answered, totally grudgingly. But it was still a reply!
But seconds? It wasn’t like I didn’t know he was in deep shit. This wasn’t news. It was what I’d expected.
Yet somehow, at the same time, it was devastating.
“Your parents…”—Did he say that sarcastically or was I imagining it?—“how much did they take from them?”
I tried to think about how to answer that without actually answering, but he must have seen how much I was overthinking it because his expression went wary.
“I want the truth,” he demanded in that voice that still felt like a discovery.
I sighed, knowing there was no getting out of this shit. If I had any shot of getting out of here, as tiny as it might be, I needed him, and it was better to get this over with now than later. “My parents used to work for them. I don’t know what they did, just that they worked for them. Fifteen years ago, for reasons I don’t understand, they ran off with millions of dollars. I don’t know how many millions, but I’d bet even a few hundred dollars would have been too much. Apparently, no one knows what they did with it, but some people in the group—the cartel, gang, whatever they are—think I have it, even though I haven’t seen either of them since I was five.”
That got him thinking some more. “Why?”
“Why did they steal the money? No clue. Why did they get involved with the cartel in the first place? My grandpa said they got involved with the wrong people and couldn’t find a way out of it.” I shrugged. “I don’t know if that’s the truth though. Part of me doesn’t believe it. But that’s why my grandparents raised me. Can’t really raise a baby when you’re doing illegal shit, I guess. My mom hid her pregnancy, dropped in on my grandparents randomly, had me, and she left me with them before she went back.”
I really didn’t want to get into all this, but I didn’t see a point in leaving out pieces. According to my grandparents, my mom and dad had wanted me to “have a normal life,” and that’s why I’d been left. I called bullshit.
Over the years, as I learned more about my family—at least what they hadn’t minded me learning—I’d decided my grandparents had done what they did to put distance between us and my parents. At first, maybe they’d been afraid they would change their minds and want me back. There was no other reason why we should have moved around as much as we did back when I’d been real young. No one had been after us at that point, but every few years, we’d picked up and gone somewhere else.
“I don’t know anything about them.” I shrugged. “Only what they did. I saw them only once. I don’t remember what they looked like. Ten years ago, I read a letter my mom somehow got to them; it wasn’t even addressed to me. It’s just a DNA link between us. That’s all. We changed our last names and started moving around a lot afterward.” Might as well be honest about that. But that was all the truth for the most part. I figured he’d still have questions. It was more than I had ever admitted to anyone. It was also more than I should have shared. Dammit.
I wanted to change the subject though, and my curiosity was at its all-time high, especially since he wasn’t ignoring me for the time being. So I went with the first thing that came into my head. “How old are you?” I asked. “I can keep a secret. If I tell anyone, you can… give me a wedgie.”