The Slayer (Untamed Hearts #2)(95)

“Every woman I’ve f*cked knew what my ink meant,” Chuito said as he shrugged. “I’ve never f*cked a woman outside this.” He gestured between them. “All the women I screwed in Miami knew what I was. They f*cked me because of what I was. There was a reason I was avoiding this, Tino.”

“Your problem is you don’t f*ck enough,” Tino said with conviction. “You just f*cking lose your shit when a woman opens her legs for you.”

“Don’t say that about Alaine,” Chuito warned him.

“What’re you gonna do about it?” Tino countered. “You exposed my family. You should be dead right now, motherf*cker.”

“I didn’t say it was your family. If she does tell Wyatt. If I do go down, do you honestly think I’m going to sell you out? Anything I told her is hearsay. I’m not Nova, but even I know that. The only way the Feds can get shit on your family is if I tell them. I won’t sell you out. Ever.”

“Yeah?” Tino snorted in disbelief. “I used to believe that. Now, Chu, I dunno. The Feds would probably give you a pretty sweet plea deal. They could make you disappear. You speak Spanish; you’d be easy as f*ck to hide in Mexico or Spain or one of the other dozen Spanish-speaking countries, and all you’d have to do is testify. You’ve done hits for us. You could sell us out. You are a f*cking liability.”

“You think I’d sell you out?” Chuito was genuinely insulted. “Honestly?”

“Life in prison?” Tino seemed to consider it. “Yeah, I think you might.”

“Fuck you, Tino,” Chuito said with a glare. “Just f*ck you.”

“Give me a reason to believe something different.” Tino almost sounded pleading. “Really, I need a reason.”

“This is your reason.” Chuito pointed to the table. “I am here. I told you. I trusted you. I came here to ask for help knowing you’d think this.”

“You didn’t knock.” Tino remembered. “You stood there like you didn’t trust me either.”

Chuito laughed manically. “Can you blame me?”

Tino rubbed a hand over his face and then looked at him again. “Life in prison, Chu. You’re telling me you’d take the time over selling me out? Over selling out Nova? Do you know what the Feds would give you to get him? I guarantee you, they will give you a free pass to sell him out. You’re asking me to risk my brother on the hope that you’re loyal enough to die in prison.”

Chuito considered that, for one moment putting himself in the position of having to choose between life in prison or turning against Tino. He didn’t even hesitate before he met Tino’s gaze. “I’m telling you I’d take life in prison. I wouldn’t sell you out.”

Tino hesitated, staring him down. “You’d do life to protect me? To protect my brother?”

“I would.” Chuito nodded. “Without a doubt. I’d do it.”

“Why?” Tino choked.

“’Cause you’re a better person than me.” Chuito shrugged, thinking of his explanation to Alaine about Marcos. “You did the blow to help you get through it. I did the blow because it made me meaner. It made me more efficient. There’s a difference.”

“You are a self-deprecating motherf*cker,” Tino said with a sad shake of his head. “You’re not that bad, Chu. There’s some seriously mean, psychopathic *s in the world. I know because I’m related to a few of them. Hell, my father was one. That’s not you.”

“What am I, then?”

“Loyal to the point of stupidity,” Tino suggested and then thought about it more. “You’re”—he held out a hand to Chuito and smiled—“you’re a f*cking warrior, man. You need a cause. The right cause, and you do shit that’s f*cking beautiful.”

Chuito snorted. “Murder is beautiful?”

“Yeah.” Tino grinned. “The right kinda murder is beautiful. Bleeding for a cause is beautiful. Dying for a cause is beautiful. Killing for a cause is beautiful.”

“Sounds like an Italian mentality if ever I heard one.” Chuito laughed at him. “You’re drunk.”

Tino nodded and filled up his glass. “Drunk enough to risk my brother going down to help you. What do you need from me?”

“I guess I need to disappear.” Chuito sighed. “I need you to be kind to Alaine. To watch her. To make sure the Mexican doesn’t try anything with her.”

“You gonna go back to Miami?”

Chuito nodded. “Yup.”

“I think that’s a bad idea,” Tino said as he glanced up. “You’ll be in deep in five minutes. You’ll be back on the blow faster than that.”

“You don’t think I can go back and not do blow?” Chuito asked him honestly, ’cause he wasn’t sure either.

Tino shook his head. “Nope. I don’t think you can. I think if you go back, no fighting to worry about, you’ll be on blow so f*cking fast it’ll make your head spin, and I think you’ll snort it until it kills you.”

“There’s worse things to die from.” Chuito took another drink. “Alcoholism, for example. It’s such a sloppy, shitty addiction. I accomplish shit on cocaine. What the hell do I accomplish with this?”