Beast

  “In the garage,” the guy said, openly taking Allison in from top to bottom.

  “This is Allison,” Leonardo said, leaning against the center island and pulling her to him. “Allison, this is one of my roommates, Nine.”

  “Allison?” Nine said, lifting his chin and smiling even bigger as she smiled back in response. “So, this why your door was closed?”

  He spoke to Leonardo, but his wickedly playful eyes never left Allison. They were this light shade of golden hazel. As usual, she felt her face warm at the implication.

  “She’s why I was holed up this weekend,” Leonardo explained, ignoring the question.

  Another guy walked in from a door Allison could only assume went into the garage. He was a hair shorter than Leonardo and Nine but equally big in the arms and chest, and while not as heavily tatted as Nine or even Leonardo, he did have his share of tattoos. He wasn’t bald either, nor did he have the long hair on top that fell over the side like Nine’s, but it was on the longish side, far unrulier than Nine’s. He, too, was instantly smirking when he saw Allison leaning up against Leonardo.

  “This must be Allison,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

  “Yeah, it is,” Leonardo confirmed then turned to Allison. “This is O, my other roommate.”

  “O, Nine, and Beast.” Allison finally spoke up. “All your friends have nicknames? Or is Nine your real name?”

  “Name’s Rudy,” Nine said.

  “Rodolfo,” O clarified, making sure he rolled the R and heavily enunciated every one of the syllables. “But he’s been this close to being killed so many times, we started calling him Nine for his nine lives.”

  “More like twenty,” Leonardo added with a chuckle. “We’ll get him eventually.”

  “Not a chance,” Nine said, turning to Allison. “And no one calls me Rodolfo. I only answer to Rudy or Nine.”

  Allison nodded, making note of that. “Is O just a nickname too?” she asked, turning to him.

  “Orlando,” he explained. “But most call me O. I’m good with either.”

  She nodded again. Good to know. Because like with Leonardo, now that things had changed between them, she preferred using the longer, sexier names.

  “So, what the hell, man?” Orlando asked, turning to Leonardo. “Your stubborn ass couldn’t wait one more night?”

  “Nah.” Leonardo explained about Ron being arrested and his needing to get out of his apartment ASAP. How Allison was the one that got the call about it and why she was here with him now.

  “So, what’s the deal with Flip?” Leonardo asked Orlando. “You talk to him again?”

  “Yeah, you’re good, I guess. You know he can’t say a whole lot on those calls, but he did say you didn’t have to worry about the girl being harassed anymore.” Orlando turned to Allison. “But I am curious now. The whole world’s seen and heard how hot your sister can get. What’s she have to say about all this?”

  Gulping, Allison exchanged a glance with Leonardo then turned back to Orlando. “She doesn’t know. I was waiting to get more information because I know she’ll want to know everything. But now that I have more, I’ll tell her about it as soon as I get the chance.”

  Leonardo gave her a look that said he wasn’t buying her nonchalance. His holding her hand and pulling her to him so openly in front of his two good friends could only mean one thing. He’d given into this being more than just a sexual thing. After today, Allison wouldn’t be working up the nerve to explain to Lila about her still staying in touch with this man. She’d be telling her about her relationship with him.

  It’d been less than an hour, and already she could tell he knew her well enough to know she was full of it. Telling Lila about this wasn’t going to be nearly as simple as she was trying to make it sound. But she kept up the act because she did have every intention of telling her sister everything.

  Nine let out a slow whistle then laughed. “Any chance you can get that conversation on video? Bet that one would go viral just as fast as the other one.”

  Orlando laughed with him, and Allison tried laughing too as if the very thought didn’t unnerve her to no end.

  Lila, Beast is my boyfriend now. By the way, I was almost attacked by a guy with a loaded gun the other night. You see Leo’s brother, a formal cartel member, is doing hard time in jail for murder. His enemies come after his loved ones whenever there’s a beef among them. But don’t worry. My boyfriend nearly killed the guy then turned the gun on me and called me a bitch. But, but, but! Before you lose your shit, he had good reason!

  Dear God, this was not going to go over well at all. Snapping out of her thoughts, Allison smiled sweetly at Leonardo when she caught him still looking at her. The guys spoke a little more about Friday’s incident and then a little about a job Orlando was waiting to hear about before Orlando excused himself to get in the shower and Nine plopped down on the sofa to watch some TV.

  Leonardo and Allison headed out front after she said goodbye to his roommates. “I’ll just follow you in O’s truck,” Leonardo said as they walked out. “I have to pull it out anyway to let you out.”

  He walked her to her car then kissed her against it when they reached the driver-side door. “There’s still time to back out,” he said, leaning his forehead against hers.

  “Back out of this?” she asked, rubbing his deliciously muscled back. “No way. I stuck it out too long waiting for this to happen. I think we can both admit now we were hoping and knew long before tonight something might happen.”

  He smiled that smile she was already in love with and nodded. “I saw you thinking in there. Telling your sister about this is not gonna be that easy, is it?”

  Allison tilted her head, trying not to smirk. “It’ll be a different conversation for us,” she admitted. “But then this whole situation is different. Don’t worry. I got this. Not sure if you’ve noticed something about me.” He peered at her curiously. “Just like when it comes to getting a breaking story, I stop at nothing until I get what I want, and I want this.” She hugged him a little tighter. “So as long as you want this too, nothing and no one is going to stop this from happening.”

  “That reminds me.” His expression went all serious again. “Things happened so fast today, and then they showed up.” He motioned toward the house. “I didn’t get a chance to address this further.”

  “What?”

  “Carson.” He lifted a menacing brow. “I know he’s your editor and you do things with him that involve school and shit, but you said he kissed you. I already hate him. I hope you’re not planning on still doing stuff with him outside that class. After today, I can’t be held responsible for what I’d do to that little fucker if I found out you did.”

  Allison couldn’t help laughing. “Way ahead of you. After Friday night, despite you suggesting that I give him another shot, I knew there was no way I’d be able to feel anything for him or anyone now that I knew how you felt. I was supposed to have gone out with him last night, but I cancelled. Told him I’d explain on Monday. Ironically, because of that one kiss we shared, I’m sure telling him I’m in a relationship will make any kind of getting together out of school too awkward now.”

  “He better not go back to being a dick with you either.”

  Shaking her head, Allison touched that protruding vein on his forehead. “He was very touchy when I mentioned being nervous about people thinking maybe he was giving me special treatment because we’d gone out a few times. He insisted he’s a professional who would never do something like that. I don’t think he’ll go back to burying my stories just because we’re not going out anymore and prove my theory correct.”

  Leonardo lowered his hand over her ass and squeezed. “But you’ll tell me if he does, right?”

  “Yes, I will.” She smiled, hoping he wouldn’t remember her admitting to keeping things from Lila so she wouldn’t get her in trouble.

  No way would she be doing anything of the sort and risk her boyfriend, who was still on probation
, getting thrown back in jail. There was still so much about him she didn’t even know. But no matter how far he’d come, he’d admitted it himself and she’d seen bloody proof already. That side of him was alive and well.

  Just as her heart began to race at the very thought of just what she was in for, he planted a knee-weakening kiss on her before opening the door for her. “You had your chance to back out,” he teased, leaning into her window after closing the door.

  “You’re not getting rid of me that easy.”

  “You sure?” He smiled though it faded quickly. “You still don’t know my whole story. And trust me it’s not pretty. Gets pretty fucking gruesome. You sure you can handle it?”

  She gulped, trying not to show how nervous his warnings made her. “As long as it’s in the past.”

  He stared at her for a moment with an unsure expression then leaned in and kissed her one last time. “I’ll be up for a while. Call me and we’ll talk.”

  She watched through her rearview mirror at the massiveness of the man she could now call hers. Her insides roiled, wondering how bad his past could really be. He’d warned her enough about it. Could she really handle it?

  He turned back to her when he reached the truck that was parked at an angle. One smile from him and she was certain of one thing. She’d never felt so much for any guy—ever. After just one day of being indulged with his kisses, his body, and those smiles, she knew one thing she couldn’t handle: not having him in her life now. As long as it was in his past, she could handle anything.

  “My brother wasn’t the only one involved with the Mexican cartel. We were born into it, only we got out when we got the opportunity. Then later, when my brother was given ten to life for killing someone, he made me promise that I’d leave the life of crime we were still living and make a real effort to live on the right side of the law for once.”

  Allison sat, gripping her phone, and listened intently to all of it. Leonardo said he’d be honest, no matter how brutal and gruesome, because he wanted her to know all of it. He even assured her he’d understand if she changed her mind about him after finding out the whole truth about him.

  He wasn’t lying either when he promised not to sugarcoat anything. She sat speechless for the most part as he told her everything. At times, she got the feeling he was hoping she’d want out because he spared her no details, regardless how gruesome.

  “My mother attempted to hide me, keep me from the life she knew my father would want to drag me into. She could for a long time. But he found us when I was twelve.”

  He told her about the beating he endured at the hands of his father, how he branded him with the cartel’s emblem like an animal then how his father proceeded to rape his mother while Leonardo listened helplessly in the other room.

  “When it was all over, I either joined the cartel and represent the family name like my older brother from another woman or he threatened to torment my mother until I did. He mentioned ways he’d do it: have other cartel members gang-rape her while I watched, then torture her. My mom begged me not to. She said she’d hidden us for twelve years and she could do it again, but after hearing her get beaten and raped once already, I wasn’t about to chance it happening again. So, I was in.”

  For the next hour, maybe more, Allison listened to the horror of Leonardo’s life. He hadn’t been exaggerating about the disgusting people he’d lived his life alongside. He said on the outside he was loyal to his father because he had to be. Cartel members were merciless. He needed them to think he had his father’s back and his father had his. But a cartel member became dangerous when he had nothing to lose. So, when his mother had gone missing when he was just fourteen, he assumed the worst. She’d been killed. Still, a part of him held out hope even to this day. With his mom gone, the only other person the cartel assumed he cared about was his father. A few years later, he and his brother united. Both wanted out of the cartel.

  The only thing keeping them as an asset to the cartel was that they were still working with their father, whom everyone assumed they’d be willing to put their lives on the line for. The cartel also assumed you’d be more likely to stay loyal if the threat of that person being hurt existed.

  “So, when we decided we were turning our backs on the cartel—moving to the states for good—I murdered my dad, and I enjoyed every fucking moment of it. Beat him to death the way I’d watched him beat my mother and as mercilessly as he’d beaten me.”

  He paused for a moment as if to take a breath, and Allison had a feeling why. She’d heard the gradual change in his voice as he’d told the story. He still had a lot of deep-seated anger that no doubt talking about this after all these years had brought out. Now she understood where it all stemmed.

  “It was as bloody and gruesome a murder as they get, and I became La Fiera. All the anger I’d held in for years because of what he did to my mother, what he did to my life, unleashed. Never in my life had I felt such satisfaction. I wanted nothing more than to see him suffer. The few who witnessed it didn’t waste time spreading the word. And La Fiera was the name I went by and was very proud of for many years, even after I left the cartel. Even had it tattooed on me as a reminder of one of the most satisfying days of my life.”

  He explained it’d been easy to disappear since everyone in the cartel thought he and his brother had taken his dad’s last name, Valdez. They answered to it, even if on paper each had their mothers’ last names.

  “I didn’t know it, but my brother, who’s older, kept some ties with the cartel as a safeguard, in case we ever needed them. Since the house was in my mother’s name still, I left it as is, so in case she ever came back, she’d find it just the way she left it.”

  He paused for a moment, clearing his throat, but before Allison could comment, he went on. “At first, we went our separate ways. I moved around Arizona while he came here. But even then, Ali, we didn’t go clean. I was dealing drugs, stealing cars. I’d done a few stints in jail. So had my brother, so it was hard to get decent jobs. Then my brother got involved in underground fighting here. It was lucrative because he was so damn good at it and knew I would be too. I moved out here, and after that fight I told you about with the dirty fighter, I became Beast. It was also where I met Nine and O. It took a stroke of bad luck to have me seriously thinking about turning my life around.”

  He explained about all the other times he’d been hauled in for underground fighting, which didn’t carry too heavy a penalty since both fighters were willing participants. But the guy his brother killed just so happened to be a relative of some legislator. The black sheep of their family. Still the relative made some noise, and the judge decided to make an example of Felipe, and since he was already on probation to begin with, she threw the book at him.

  Allison sat there, stunned in silence, listening to all the details as he put them out there, slowly, cautiously, pausing at times to wait for a reaction. Though she’d managed to not react in a way that might come across negative. He’d warned her, and she’d tried to prepare herself for this. She was determined not to judge.

  Even when he’d first told her he’d murdered someone and enjoyed it, Allison had assumed he was either lying or it’d been someone he’d killed in self-defense. But she quickly put herself or even Lila in his place. Allison hadn’t been exaggerating when she admitted to why she’d done the shameful things in her past. Just like Leonardo, Lila would’ve snuffed the life out of anyone who’d done what his father had done to his mother, had Allison been the victim. So even this Lila would have to understand, but Allison still didn’t understand something. Gio’s words were back in her head again. The extensive background checks they did on these guys. How was this missed?

  “Did you do time for murdering your dad?”

  “Nah. That happened in Mexico. Things over there are nothing like they are here. We dumped the body where we knew it’d be years before anyone found it. There’s no CSI over there, babe.” He laughed humorlessly. “My dad’s was the first murder I d
id all on my own, but I’d been involved in plenty of others, not actually pulling the trigger or landing the fatal blow, but dumping bodies, being the lookout, driving the getaway car, etc. It comes with the territory when you’re in the cartel, and homicide investigations over there are a joke. The entire time I was involved, only time I heard of anyone paying for killing someone else was with their own lives from retaliation. Never by the law.”

  Allison wasn’t naïve. Yes, Leonardo had a dangerous past. Yes, his life’s story was heartbreaking. He’d never found his mother and still lived with the torment that she just might be out there being tortured.

  In many ways, he and Allison were alike. Everything he told her about his past before his dad came into it, was normal. Just like Allison’s had been for the most part until her mother’s passing, they both had a loving mother who taught them how to love. He was a good man with a good heart who’d been dragged into the underworld.

  Leonardo told her about his brother nearly reaching the ten-year mark of his sentence and of his possible parole if he’d kept his end of it up by doing his best to stay out of trouble in prison. So, he might be let out at the ten-year mark. They had plans, goals, and aspirations, and neither wanted any part of the violent life their monster dad inflicted on them. But he had a good and vulnerable heart she’d witnessed and felt. What more could she ask for?

  “I know everything about my past sucks.” His voice lowered to a near whisper, and Allison hated the unmistakable shame in the tone. “I know I’m the one that keeps saying you and I are too different. That I’m no good for you. It’s why I wanted you to know everything. Because after tonight, after feeling everything I felt this entire weekend, there’s still more I need you to know. But I want that to be in person. You gonna be at the gym tomorrow?”