Wind Therapy - A.J. Downey Page 0,73

off from over my eyes and the bandana down from over my face. My cousin’s eyes went steely and he frowned.

“Oh, now what the fuck are you doing here?” he demanded.

“Her?” Maverick asked, groaning as he stood up. “She’s just along for the ride,” he said. “I’m the one who wants to talk to you.”

“And what the fuck do you want?”

Maverick yanked his red bandana down and took off his helmet, setting it off to the side behind him on the seat of his bike, which he’d just vacated.

“I wanna have a talk with your daddy,” Maverick said succinctly. “And you’re gonna tell me how I can find him.”

Fernando laughed in our faces and Maverick’s friendly smile cooled by several thousand degrees.

“We can do this the easy way, or the hard way, Fernando. Our beef ain’t with you.”

“Yeah?” Fernando asked, reaching behind him for a sturdy wrench off the bench. “Fuck you.”

“Marisol,” Maverick said, and I stood frozen, like a deer in headlights out on the road. “Get the door for me.”

I swallowed hard, mouth dry and Fernando crossed his arms over his dirty, grease-smudged white tee. He had on a pair of light blue, equally dirty, striped coveralls, the top part rolled down and bunched at his waist, the sleeves knotted there to hold them up.

He was strong, broad chested and chiseled. All muscle from hard labor and there was a reason why all the girls like Lupe fell all over themselves to get with him. The problem was, he was a raging dick. Had something like four kids already at twenty-seven and didn’t see or keep up on his child support for any of them.

“Now,” Maverick said, and I jumped slightly. I took the two steps over to the box with the three-square buttons on the wall and hit the bottom one marked ‘down.’ The door rattled, the steel unfurling, as it slowly made its way down. The light diminished by a little, but it was late afternoon and was coming in the back door for the most part, now. There was no need to bring that door down, though. It just faced the back parking lot and a barren concrete wall. The houses perched high above on the artificial plateau of land created by said walls sat in such a way that the view from them would be of the roof of the ugly little shop, if they had a view down here at all.

“I’m not telling you shit,” Fernando said dispassionately, spitting on the cement floor at Maverick’s feet. “Now you can take that lying fucking puta out of here and never look back. You get me?”

Maverick looked completely unconcerned and unfazed by what came out of Fernando’s mouth, but I knew different by the slight tick of the muscle in Mav’s jaw.

“See, now what happens next is solely predicated on the decisions you’re about to make,” Maverick said calmly. So calmly, it rose the hair on the back of my neck.

“Fernando…” I said and his head whipped in my direction.

“Shut up!” he snarled.

“Fernando,” Maverick said firmly, and my cousin’s attention whipped back in Mav’s direction.

“I’m going to ask one more time, nicely… How do I find your daddy?”

“Man, fuck you, and fuck this.” Fernando advanced on Maverick with the wrench and I jumped but Maverick just stood his ground. Fernando swung at Mav and I yelped in fear, jumping, pressing my hands to my mouth but I needn’t have worried – at least not for Maverick.

He smoothly side-stepped my cousin who swung again, Mav leaning back, arching just out of the way. Fernando growled and Mav struck so lightning quickly, I almost didn’t see it.

He shoved Fernando and sent him sprawling, the wrench clattering and clanging against the stained concrete and skittering out of my cousin’s reach.

“Last chance,” Maverick declared in an almost singsong mocking voice. My cousin growled and got to his feet, raising his fists. He and Mav started circling and Maverick shook his head.

“Just remember,” he said, my cousin straightening slightly and frowning harder, “you chose this.”

Fernando roared like an angry bull and came for Mav, but Maverick was both smarter and faster. He let Fernando overbalance and swept my cousin past him. Mav’s hand knotted in the back of my cousin’s tee as he fetched him up hard, face first, into one of the legs of the auto lift.

My man pressed his body into my cousin’s back almost lover-like and intimate, bringing his face close in, pressing the barrel of the