The Wall of Winnipeg and Me - Mariana Zapata Page 0,109
my family.”
That sounded about as fucked up as it was.
The betrayal that had pierced through me in that moment stabbed me again, fresh and painful. Tears pooled in my eyes as I relived the incident when I was eighteen that ruined what was left of the fractured bond I’d shared with them. Even my knee ached a little at the memory.
Those large fingers eased their grip on my hand just slightly, and in a smaller voice than he usually used, he asked, “She’s your real sister?”
Real sister. I’d mentioned my foster parents, hadn’t I? “Yes.” I messed with my glasses. “We’ve never gotten along. She’s about as far from what a sister should be as you can get.”
“How many do you have?”
“Three.”
“You’re the youngest?”
“Youngest girl.”
“They were there?”
“Yes.”
“And none of them did anything? Said anything?”
Why did I feel so ashamed? My eyes started to sting, and that made me force my gaze upward. I wasn’t going to feel bad. I wasn’t going to hide. “No.”
His gaze switched from one of my eyes to the other. “They live in El Paso?”
“I think.”
His nostrils flared and he gently let go of my hand, my skin immediately missing the warm touch of his fingers. “Okay.” He took a step back and turned his head over his shoulder. “Zac!”
What the hell? “What are you doing?”
He didn’t look at me before yelling Zac’s name again. “I need to borrow his car. If I fly, there will be proof I was there.”
Holy shit.
“You—?” I choked. “You—?” I coughed that time, floundering. “What the hell are you planning on doing?”
“You kneeing him isn’t doing it for me.” Aiden didn’t even grace me with a glance as he made his way toward my door. “Zac!”
Yeah, those tears pooling in my eyes decided screw it. They went for it. One, two, and three. “You’ve lost your mind, big guy.”
“No. That asshole lost his mind. Your family lost their mind. I know what I’m doing.”
This psycho was going to try and beat someone up, wasn’t he? Holy shit. “You’d do that for me?”
Crap, my expectations were low if that made me teary.
The big guy stopped in front of the door and spun on his heel with a lot more grace than a man that large should be capable of. He blinked, piercing me with a glare. “We’re partners. We’re a team. You said it.”
I nodded dumbly, earning me that ‘you’re an idiot’ look from him. His eyebrows went up just a little, his head just slightly forward enough to be confrontational. “If someone messes with you, they’re going to mess with me, Van. I don’t want to hurt your feelings. I might not be good with this friend crap, but I’m not about to let somebody get away with hurting you. Ever. Do you understand me?”
My heart. My poor, weak pathetic heart.
I swallowed and tried to nod away the clump of emotions plugging up every vein in my body. As much as I would love Aiden to go kick Susie’s husband’s ass… “The guard would see you driving his car, and there’s a camera at the gate.”
Aiden tilted his head and pinned me with another look that might have been a surprised one. “You’ve put some thought into this,” he said slowly.
“Of course I have.” He didn’t need to know I’d been plotting his murder then. “That’s why I know we have to wait.”
“We?”
“Yeah. I’m not going to let you go beat him up alone. I’d like to get a couple stomps in too.” I raised my eyebrows and smiled faintly, letting the tension slide off my shoulders. “I’m joking.” Sort of. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll probably never see him again, and even if I do, their lives suck. Mine doesn’t. That’s enough vengeance for me. Trust me.”
Well, at least most of the time it was enough.
“Vanessa…” He trailed off with a frown.
The next three sentences we shared between the two of us were going to be the last thing I thought about when I went to bed later that night.
“You’ve been with me for two years, but I figure I’m barely beginning to understand,” the big guy claimed, his expression solemn.
“Understand what?”
“I should probably be scared of you.”
Chapter Seventeen
My eyes were crossing from staring at stock images for so long when my phone beeped with a text message. Sliding my glasses up over my forehead into my hair, I yawned and picked up my smartphone.
Text Message
Miranda P.
Curious—more than curious because this was the first time I’d ever gotten a text