The Slayer (Untamed Hearts #2)(138)

Chapter Forty-Four


The conversation in the bath didn’t do a lot to calm Alaine down, but she tried very hard not to let Chuito see how shaken up she still was after they’d washed up and got out. He noticed anyway, just like she noticed the lavender hadn’t cooled him off either.

Alaine couldn’t help but think the marketing on the calming effects of lavender was a huge lie.

Outside the bathroom door were clothes for Chuito that fit him perfectly. He was bigger than his cousin, so she suspected they were his that he had left there during a previous visit. His mother had left a pretty, paisley-designed robe for Alaine on top of another stack of clothes for her. She slipped it on while Chuito swooped up a small wooden box that had been resting on top of the clothes.

She grabbed her spare change of clothes, knowing she might need them with a party going on.

He grabbed her hand and said, “Come on. Let’s get out of this room.”

“What’s wrong with this room?” Alaine asked as Chuito opened the door. She was stunned at just how many people were in the house as she peered down the hallway. Not just Italians, because she could hear the Spanish over the Latin music playing from outside. She gaped as Chuito tugged her hand. “Where did they all come from?”

“When my mother throws a party”—Chuito turned back and rolled his eyes—“everyone seems to show up.”

“Your mother’s very beautiful,” Alaine said as Chuito opened the door to another room. This one was masculine and warm, with a cherry-wood sleigh bed and a beautiful, dark blue comforter. It didn’t look like anything Chuito would pick out, but there were posters of him everywhere. “Is this your room?”

“This is the room my mother made up for me that I sleep in when I’m here,” he corrected her.

“It’s lovely.”

“Yeah, according to the credit card bills, it should be. My mother likes to decorate.” Chuito locked the door and then tossed the wooden box on the bed. “Most of my life, she refused to take anything from anyone, including me. But now, co?o, I know it’s her way of showing me she’s proud of me. Letting me spend money like water, like she knows it won’t disappear. Every time I get a credit card bill, it’s like she’s reaching across the country, telling me she has faith in me. Life’s been unkind to her, so it’s a good thing, but still.”

“She’s sweet,” Alaine pointed out as she set the clothes on a chair in the corner. “And she loves you very much.”

Chuito paused at that and then looked to Alaine. “Yeah, I know. Maybe she shouldn’t. Just like you shouldn’t.”

“I hope you don’t say that to her,” Alaine whispered as tears welled up in her eyes, and she walked back over to him. “It probably hurts her to hear it as much as it hurts me.”

“Why, mami?” Chuito snorted. “Look at where it got you.”

“You deserve to be loved,” Alaine promised as she reached out to Chuito. “Very much so.” She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face against his chest, just feeling him alive and healthy in her arms. “It feels so good to finally be able to love you. To hold you.”

Holding him brought it back to the surface that she had almost lost him. That they had almost lost each other, and that maybe they wouldn’t have met up on the other side. Everything was so uncertain, making her feel like they were both standing in quicksand, and she clung to him, fearing that somehow she would be separated from him once more.

She just wanted to stand there and hold him forever, even if doing it was making her weepy again, and she hastily wiped at her face. “I wish I could stop crying.”

“It was a bad day.” He pulled back and wiped at her cheeks for her. “You should probably be freaking out a lot more than you are.”

“Yeah?”

“Oh yeah,” he assured her as he pulled her to the bed. “I’m shaken up too. That was—” He shook his head and then crawled onto the bed with her. The two of them lay there side by side as the music and the laughter drifted into the room. “I just need to forget for a little bit, don’t you?”

She nodded, because she was still crying. Chuito brushed the tears off her cheeks before he reached behind him and grabbed the box. Alaine stayed curled into him, forcing Chuito to maneuver around her as he dug in the box. Then he fell onto his back, pulling her with him.

She eyed a thinly rolled cigarette in his hand, surprised that it was dark brown rather than white. “It looks like a cigar. That’s not how they look on television.”

“You believe everything you see on television?” he asked with an arch of his eyebrow.

“I don’t want any,” she argued as he lit it and took a long puff and then coughed as if he wasn’t used to it. “Is this going to lead to cocaine?”

“No.” He rolled his eyes with a laugh and took another puff. “It’s like drinking.”

“I don’t think it’s like drinking.”

“Your hands are still shaking. You’re in shock. I’m probably in shock too. I don’t have any f*cking gringa Valium. One blunt isn’t gonna hurt either of us.”

“Promise me you’ll stop drinking,” she bargained. “Promise that this is the only time.”