gaze drifted over my shoulder to the women who were starting to disperse. Their problems were still mostly unresolved, but more often than not, that was their constant state of being.
I jerked my chin to the stairs. “Come on. I’ll walk you down.”
She quirked a dark eyebrow. “The kitchen?”
“Oh, please. It will take at least five minutes for Hugo to haul his ass up the stairs. I’ve got time.”
She aimed pursed lips down at her black Chucks and started toward the stairs. “Why are you bleeding?”
I touched my nose with my free hand, thankfully finding it dry. “You want the truth or a lie?”
“Truth.”
“I ran into the door. But if you’d asked me for a lie, I would have said I got elbowed in the nose while wrestling Chrissy to the ground, just before hog-tying her and then using her hair as a mop to clean that disgusting apartment.”
She laughed quietly as we walked side by side to the front of the brick building. We stopped at the end of the concrete that divided our hell from the rest of the world. When she tipped her head back to catch my gaze, her smile faltered. I could almost see the anxiety crawling across the smooth curves of her olive complexion.
“Hey,” I soothed, giving her shoulder a squeeze. “What’s wrong?”
“You know Chrissy isn’t going to stop,” she whispered. “The others, they don’t put up with Savannah. But Chrissy—”
The vise in my chest threatened to crack my ribs. She shouldn’t have to worry about people like Chrissy. But that was her reality, regardless of how much I hated it.
“I’m going to take care of it.”
Her face paled. “Please don’t call Marcos.”
I rolled my eyes. “Relax. I didn’t say anything about Marcos.”
Her big doe eyes searched my face for the lie. She wouldn’t find it, but it was definitely there, skillfully hidden beneath the surface right beside a mountain of my fears and regrets.
Looping my arm around her shoulders, I gave her a side hug that wasn’t nearly long enough—for either of us. It was all I could give her though. “Go. Get out of here before you miss the bus. I’ll take care of Chrissy. You take care of geometry.”
“Corrrra,” she drawled in warning.
“Riiiiver,” I mocked, giving her a gentle shove toward the dirt parking lot.
She walked backward, keeping her brown eyes locked on my blues. “You’ll be here when I get home, right?”
I scoffed. “Aren’t I always?”
“So far, anyway,” she mumbled.
Guilt burned like an inferno in my chest, but I smiled through the pain. “I’ll see ya at three.”
She stared at me.
I stared back.
A million words were spoken during that moment of silence: promises, pleas, apologies, explanations, and everything in between.
All of it was the absolute truth.
Which was exactly why two tears rolled down her cheeks as she lifted her hand in the air, spun on a toe, and jogged toward the bus stop.
Cora
“I want Chrissy gone!” I demanded before the back of Marcos’s hand landed across my cheek.
Savannah screamed from the couch as my head snapped to the side. Pain exploded in my neck when my chin hit my shoulder.
His lanky body folded at the hip, and his face contorted like the monster he was. “I don’t give a fuck what you want!”
Once upon a time, I’d been in awe of how beautiful Marcos was. All of that straight, black hair and thick lashes lining eyes so dark that I couldn’t see the pupil. But then again, all the Guerrero brothers were gorgeous.
Dante, Marcos, and Nicolás were the personification of every poor girl’s dream. Tall and lean with chiseled jaws and strong shoulders that were not only sexy but oozing with power. Add to that the flashy cars, expensive clothes, and never-ending string of promises and it made them the golden ticket. But that gold had tarnished all too quickly when I’d discovered the intrinsic evil that was born and bred inside them.
All except Nic.
After catching my balance, I rolled my aching shoulders back and stood my ground. “I can’t deal with her anymore. I’ve warned her, Marcos. Repeatedly. Either she’s gone tonight or—”
I didn’t get to finish. He snaked a hand out and fisted the top of my hair. My scalp turned to fire, feeling like it was going to tear free. I swallowed my cry as he forcefully tipped my head to the side.
“Or what? What the fuck are you going to do about it, Cora?”
Nothing. That was all I could ever do.
But just like his hand in