No one needs to know.
CHAPTER 26
RAUL
…22 years old
The hit goes off clean thanks to Diego, and the payout hits my account almost before the blood dries. Cash flows fast, stacks of it bulging the duffel on my couch like a dirty secret. But relief never comes. Just guilt, heavy and cold, sinking into my chest like wet concrete, making every breath feel borrowed and wrong.
The whole operation is already fraying at the edges, threads pulling loose faster than I can knot them back. That blonde girl, the mark's assistant who knew too much, now has homicide detectives circling her like sharks, pegging her as the prime suspect. On paper it should be simple: let her swing, tie off the evidence, walk away clean. Except Diego's gone and fallen deep, his voice softening at her name while his jaw locks when I probe. Turning a straight and easy job into emotional quicksand. He has her now in one of Dad's storage units outside of town, chained and under watch. A move meant to buy us time and silence, but it's backfiring hard, tightening the noose around all our necks instead of loosening it.
What the hell else can blow up in my face?
I've been burning up favors with Marco, my old buddy at the station. He feeds me scraps on the investigation: witness statements, tips, heat maps of patrols near the site. Anything to keep my family's name off their radar. Every solid lead, I slip to Diego, just enough to help him out of this fucking mess.
Truth is uglier than that. Someone has to bleed for this body, or the badges won't quit sniffing. I won't let it be my cousin. Not Diego, who pulled me out of more scraps than I can count, blood of my blood. Even if this girl's got him twisted up, whispering her name in his sleep like some lovesick fool.
I've pictured it a dozen times: anonymous tip, her name dropped straight to homicide. I've watched it play out in my head, cuffs on her wrists. Floated it to Diego once, casual as ordering tacos. He shut it down so fast, his eyes going dead like I'd suggested killing his own kin. And yeah, she'd flip on us in a heartbeat if cornered, drag every storage unit and ghost drop into the light. Pointless.
Unless she didn't talk. Unless she washed up dead somewhere, another Miami mystery.
The thought curls black in my gut, tempting like cheap whiskey. She's dead weight, liability in heels, but cutting her loose would gut Diego. If he feels a fraction for her what I do for Olivia, no. I shove it down deep. Can't go there. I won't.
My head spins in circles trying to figure out what the fuck I should do.
Then my phone vibrates in my pocket. It's been going off all day, but I've ignored everyone who isn't blood.
Olivia's name lights up my screen.
Fourteen texts. Three missed calls.
Fuck.
She never stops. She can't take the hint that I'm busy with more serious shit right now.
Her yellow Bug appears right on cue, as if my avoidance summoned her, gravel crunching under tires like brittle bones. She climbs out cautious at first, then hardens herself with that false swagger, curls tangled wild in the thick dusk air, eyes already sparking defiance from across the lot.
I open the door before she reaches it.
"What's up?" I say, blowing out a puff of smoke. I've been chain-smoking all day just to keep the edge off.
"Ew." She plucks the cigarette straight from my lips, tosses it to the dirt, and crushes it under her heel with deliberate flair. "What the fuck, Raul?"
"I'm stressed." My shrug lands half-mocking, a brittle shield snapping into place.
Olivia rolls her eyes and walks past me into the trailer. Her gaze skims over the bag of money on my couch, and I feel my stomach drop.
Thank God that's not a conversation for today. I do not have the energy to explain that one.
She drops onto my rumpled bed instead, curls springing free, tank top hiking to bare that smooth caramel strip of skin I've mapped a hundred times in the dark.
I settle beside her, the heat from her thigh bleeding into mine, narrowing the world to that single point of contact.
"So what's up?" I ask.
"You're ghosting me again."
"Just got a lot of work shit on my plate, Liv."