fate
By Elizabeth Reyes
Fate
Elizabeth Reyes
Kindle Edition
Copyright © 2012 Elizabeth Reyes
Discover other titles by Elizabeth Reyes
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All rights reserved including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, the please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
For information on the cover art visit Stephanie Mooney’s website at: http://stephaniemooney.blogspot.com
To Eddie, my only sibling and lifelong friend, if I didn't have a brother who I've always been so incredibly close to, I would not be able to sincerely write from the heart, stories like the ones I've written where family and loyalty are everything! I love you!
Table of Contents
Prologue
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Fate
(Vince & Rose)
“Just close your eyes, each loving day. And know this feeling, won't go away. Every word I say is true. This I promise you.”
~NSync~
Prologue
Operation Desert Eagle
Baghdad, Iraq
Now…
Enjoying a rare, tranquil moment in the scorching desert, Vincent Moreno stared out into the hazy sunset. Across his chest he was holding the gun that was now just as much a part of him as the slow-beating heart under his U. S. Army uniform. His mind had only begun to wander to the usual memories of his beautiful Rose when his thoughts were interrupted by his partner Will’s whispers directed to all of them.
“Y’all ever wonder what you’d be doing back home if you weren’t here?”
Vince shrugged still staring at the sunset. He let the other guys respond. Most said the very thing he was thinking, “Always.”
Will straightened out from where he’d been slouching against a wall. “The first thing I’m gonna do when I get back home is ask Missy Anne to marry me. I can’t tell y’all how many times I’ve had a hankering to ask her in a letter or even on the phone, but that’s not how I wanna do it.”
Will and Vince had gone through boot camp together. They shared the same bunk, and though Vince had been a tough one to get through to, somehow Will had managed to get through Vince’s hard shell and befriend him. They’d been through a lot together. Will was now, not only the only person Vince had opened up to here, but after everything they’d gone through just this past year alone, Will was now quite possibly the closest male friend he’d ever had. Something about this cheery southern boy had grown on him. The boy loved talking, and that alone could jolt Vince’s out of his miserable moods at least for a while.
The one thing Will couldn’t stop talking about and went on and on the most about was his Missy Anne. Even though it was painful to hear about his happy relationship and how his girl was happily waiting for him back home, Vince couldn’t help but smile when Will talked about her. Will’s smile was never brighter than when he spoke of his girl. It brought back memories of when just thinking of Rose was enough to put a goofy smile on Vince’s own face.
Curiously Vince finally broke his stare with the nearly gone sunset. “How you gonna ask her?”
Will stood up, and Vince glanced around cautiously then laughed when he saw Will’s stupid overly serious expression. Will held one hand over his weapon, which also lay across his chest, then held out his other. “You only ask the love of your life once, so it’s gotta be extra special. I’m gonna ask her in front of the whole town. Get down on my knees right there in the middle of town square.”
He got down on his knees directly in front of Vince to demonstrate with a big smile as the other guys around sniggered. “I’m gonna say,” he lifted his hand up at Vince, “Missy Anne, will you—”
The gunfire came out of nowhere, and in the next second they were all sprawled out on the floor firing back in the direction the shots had come from. Orders were yelled out along with painful cries from those that got hit. They all scrambled, and with the sunlight gone, it was hard to tell who was who in the darkness. But one thing was for sure: Will wasn’t running with him like he normally was during these attacks. They usually stayed close—had each other’s backs. But Vince didn’t see him anywhere; he hadn’t since that first shot.
“Will!” Vince called out as the gunfire began to cease.
There were a few more shots in the distance, and Vince knew they had to make a move again. There’d be no sleep tonight, not since their cover had been blown. “Will!” he called out again.
“Over here!” Someone else answered his calls. “He’s been hit.”
Rushing over to the sound of the voice, Vince’s lungs were already having a hard time gasping for air. The two soldiers crouched next to a body as Vince approached. This wasn’t good. Vince could see that Will was fighting in vain for his life.
Vince dropped to his knees staring at his friend. He grabbed Will’s nearly lifeless hand and squeezed. He was in the very spot where he’d gone down on his knees to demonstrate how he’d be proposing. They had him lying on his side, and Vince could already hear the gurgling in Will’s chest as he struggled for his last breaths. He’d heard that same gurgle more than a few times since he’d been deployed here. “Stay with me, Will,” Vince demanded as his heavy heart pounded.
But it was useless. He’d been shot in the back—dead center. The shot had likely pierced his lungs. He had minutes, if not seconds, left to live. Then the shots started again, and they all dropped to the ground, but Vince continued to hold Will’s hand.
“We gotta get out of here!” Their team leader yelled out. “Everyone, let’s go!”
They all started moving except Vince. There was still some life left in Will’s hand. He couldn’t just leave him there.
“Moreno, let’s go! We’ll have to come back for him, but you have to take cover now!”
Vince almost did until he felt Will’s hand squeeze his. “I won’t leave you,” he said crouching down with his face next to Will’s, feeling an enormous weight of guilt that he’d even considered it for a moment. Will shook his head harder and with more strength than Vince would have imagined he still had in him.
“Du…” Will struggled to speak.
“Don’t try to talk,” Vince insisted. Whatever time he had left, he was speeding it up exerting his last breaths.
Will shook his head a
gain. “Don’t…give up.”
“I won’t! Now shut up!” Vince said, ducking his head down, covering his and Will’s heads with his hands as another bomb landed nearby.
Will squeezed his hand again and grunted, “On lu…love…on…Rose.”
Vince stared at him, feeling even more choked up, as he watched a single tear roll down the side of Will’s face, but Will was still breathing.
His team leader was still yelling for everyone to move out of the area. Deliberately disobeying his team leader’s direct orders was something Vince stopped doing back in boot camp. But now he had no choice. He lay there next to Will, still holding onto his hand. With the gunfire getting even closer and growing more deafening by the second, the team leader didn’t wait. Instead, he ran for cover leaving Vince there alone with Will until Vince heard and watched his good friend take his last breath.
What happened next brought his father’s words spiraling at him. Everyone’s fate is predestined. The decisions one made, in Vince’s case usually in haste, had something, but not everything, to do with the consequences brought about because of them.
A bomb went off just as Vince had pulled Will’s tags from his lifeless body and had begun to move away from him. Vince hit the floor again, assessing for a moment where the bomb had gone off. Looking up, he saw that the explosion had come from the direction where his squad had headed. The whole area was on fire now. He knew they couldn’t have gone far. He had to get to them now. There had to be casualties from that massive bomb. Just as he got up, two more bombs went off in that same vicinity, and Vince dove behind a pile of rubble for cover.
Feeling the warmth of blood streak down the side of his face, he knew he’d been hit by some kind of debris from the explosion. He wiped it away, wincing at the pain of what felt like a small gash along his temple. At that moment he knew—there was no way his squad had survived all three of those bombs. The whole area had been obliterated by it. Yet here he was still alive—saved twice from sure death by his friend Will.
As the gunfire died down, an eerie fog of smoke and silence settled into what had been chaos just moments ago. Vince crouched there, numb and lost in thought. He should’ve been thinking of what his next move would be. How the hell was he going to get out there alive? Instead, all he could think of were Will’s final words, and had it really been his fate to die today?
If Vince could go back to that day—the day he let his parents down, again—the day he broke Rose’s heart, ultimately landing his ass in Army boot camp and had now brought him here, would he do things differently? Would his decision be different now that he knew the outcome?
Taking a deep breath, he realized this really had been predestined. Looking back now, even after all the heartache he knew he’d caused his parents and the love of his life, he hadn’t had a choice. Given the circumstances his decision would’ve been the same. Therefore, this had been Will’s fate.
Rose had moved on already and never once bothered to respond to any of his letters: not even the one he thought for sure would make her understand. Maybe his dad was also right: that some things weren’t meant to be. Deep inside he’d always known he wasn’t the kind of guy a girl like Rose should be with. She deserved better.
His heart ached knowing that even Will and Missy Anne were not meant to be. Life was cruel. But at least Will died knowing his girl loved him unconditionally—faults and all. Things had been different for him and Rose. Maybe he was never meant to have someone like her in his life.
So why the hell couldn’t he get the nagging feeling out of his gut? It insisted that even back then his choices, including the bad ones, had ultimately led him to her. But then later, decisions he’d made because of her, for her, had made him a better person—one that made him worthy of a girl like Rose—until that day when it all went to hell. But before that, things had been nearly perfect.
Vince lay there; his warm tears now mixed with the blood that still ran down the side of his face. He cried silently for the friend he’d just lost and finally allowed himself to cry for Rose. Life had been beautiful with her, and he’d been happier than he’d ever imagined he could be. She’d given him so much hope for a perfect future together. But that was then. Everything was different now…
Part I
CHAPTER ONE
Vince
Then…
“Spread your feet, boy.” The cop kicked Vince’s legs open before he even had a chance to spread them.
Another cop car pulled up, joining the other three that were already there. Vince was not even supposed to be here tonight. He knew when the guys showed up riled up about what had happened at school earlier that day it was a bad idea to buy booze and hang out. He’d already said he was out but at the last minute decided to join them.
Sure enough, as soon as a few of them got buzzed, they started talking about walking the two blocks from the abandoned car lot where they’d been hanging out to their high school and crossing out the offending tags they were so pissed about.
Now here he was face down on the hood of a cop car as a cop frisked him roughly. Most likely, he would be thrown in jail for vandalism. He hadn’t even been one of the ones doing the tagging. In fact, he’d been the one telling them they were stupid for doing it.
They didn’t call themselves a gang, but they may as well have because they sure as fuck acted like stupid thugs sometimes—like tonight, for example. The guys were all pissed because someone had tagged several of the more noticeable walls at school with the word Basset: the city just over on the other side of their high school.
Alfonso, one of Vince’s friends since childhood, had gotten in a fight over a girl with someone from a Basset gang not too long ago. They’d all been there at the party, so everyone took the tagging personally. Everyone agreed they had to cross the tag out. As stupid as Vince thought it was, he agreed to go out of loyalty to his friends, but he refused to do any tagging. It didn’t matter now because they were all in trouble just the same.
“What’s your name, boy?” The heavyset cop asked Vince from behind him as he handcuffed him.
“Vincent.” He squeezed his eyes shut for a second and thought of how disappointed his parents would be. The cop turned him around so he could face him.
“Vincent what?”
“Moreno.”
“How old are you, Moreno?”
“Sixteen.”
“You in a gang?”
“No sir.”
“You sure about that?” The cop asked gesturing toward his friends.
Vince glanced over at Alfonso who was now sitting on the curb handcuffed then at the rest of them who were still lying face down on the ground with their legs spread and their hands behind their heads. Not a gang his ass.
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
“You were the only one without a marker in your possession or doing any tagging when I drove up. Why’s that? You the look out, Moreno?”
“No sir.”
The cop smiled, crossing his arms in front of him. “So you hang out with a bunch of punks who come and cross out another gang’s tags, but you’re not in a gang?”
“No, sir, I’m not.” As stupid as that sounded, he was sticking to his story. The last thing he needed was to get labeled a gang member by the local authorities. For months he’d been trying to straighten his shit out.
After his brother Lorenzo had gotten caught shoplifting and his mother blamed Vince for being a bad influence even though he’d never stolen a thing in his life, he swore to her he’d straighten out.
Vince didn’t even let Lorenzo hang out with him and the guys anymore if he even thought they’d be up to anything that smelled like trouble—like tonight. He was so glad now he’d refused to let Lorenzo tag along. Being arrested would be bad enough, but getting his younger brother swept up into this mess would’ve been a million times worse.
“I’ll tell you what,” the cop said. “You tell me who the ringleader of your little non-gang here is, and I’ll let you walk.??
?
Vince chuckled. This cop was full of shit if he thought Vince was going to rat out any of his friends. Living in La Puente his whole life, he knew the drill when it came to cops. Gathering gang information was crucial to them so they could go after them, and their biggest targets were always the gang leaders. He’d sooner go to jail than throw any of his friends under the bus. Besides, as bad as this looked, he wasn’t in a gang, damn it.
“I already told you I’m not in a gang, so there are no ring leaders.”
The cops smile went flat, and he grabbed Vince by the arm. “Suit yourself.”
He walked him over to the curb and sat him down next to Alfonso. Vincent thought about what his parents’ reaction would be when they got the call. His mother would probably cry; his father would be completely disappointed, and he’d be in a world of trouble if his parents, who were already struggling financially, had to pay any fines for this shit.
One by one, all his friends were frisked, questioned, handcuffed then were seated down on the curb. Their Miranda rights were read, and the paddy wagon arrived. They all filed in and sat down. By now enough people from the neighborhood had gathered, so his parents would probably know about his arrest before he even called them. Fucking hell!
***
Legally Vince got off easy. Because he’d been the only one not in possession of any marker and the cops did write in their report that he hadn’t been seen tagging like all the others, he wasn’t charged with a misdemeanor like all his other friends. But because he’d been a willing participant in trespassing on school grounds and most likely because the judge wanted to send him and his family a message that this kind of shit would not go unpunished in case he was thinking of doing it again, his parents were going to be fined, and he’d have to do some community work.