Loving a Bad Boy (49 page)

“
I remember sitting in his
car in shock. I wrote down the tag number and tried to think what
to do? How to help. I had no resources. I wasn’t close to his other
friends and didn’t want to involve them anyway.” Her eyes locked
with his. “I had to help him, there was no way I could allow them
to hurt my best friend.” The anguish in his voice tugged at her
heartstrings.

“
No, of course not,” she
murmured, rubbing his arm offering comfort.

He nodded. “I made a call to a family
friend. He’d been after me for years to get involved with the
organization.” He paused. “My grandfather had been the head of the
Cartel years ago. My mom didn’t want me involved and had kept them
away from me. But when they took my friend, I tapped into the
Cartel's resources to even the playing field so my friend could
live in peace.”

Thoughts whirled around her head at the
magnitude of his actions. Her mind filled in the blanks even as she
balked at the results. “What did it cost you?” she whispered. She
had to hear it from him so she could process it.

“
I had to join the Cartel.
I can never leave. It was one of those lifetime deals.”

“
Tex?”

“
What about
him?”

“
He a member of the
Cartel?”

“
I’m not going to discuss
anybody but me. Ask anything you want about me and I will answer
it.”

Since he sounded serious, she backed off the
matter of Tex, the gunshot wound, and the trashing of Julio’s
condo. On second thought. “Was it because of your job your condo
got trashed?”

He stiffened. “Yeah, indirectly. Yours too,”
he growled. “They painted Cardena’s Whore on your wall. I had it
painted to keep you from knowing my connection to the Cartel. But I
am tracking those assholes down. They will be dealt with.”

She patted his chest to calm his racing
heart. “Just a question, calm down.”

“
That still pisses me
off,” he growled.

She hated she brought it up. “You came to
Miami for a specific job?”

“
Yeah.”

She waited for him to add more. He didn’t.
“Do you sell drugs?” That would be a deal breaker for her and she
knew it.

“
No. As far as I know,
that’s not something we deal in right now.”

“
Right now?” Her tone
incredulous.

He tapped her nose. “I can
only speak for what
has
happened and right now. Don’t wanna jinx the
future.”

She inhaled. “You kill a lot of people?”

His arms around her tightened. “Define a
lot.”

“
More than
ten?”

“
Baby, I won’t lie. I have
killed men. In your eyes, one is too much, so let’s not do this,
okay?” The softly spoken words settled on her like a warm
blanket.

“
I am coming clean with
this so you know the man you marry. I won’t be able to tell you
everything and there will be times when I’m out of town on
business. But I promise you this, no one will ever love you as much
as I do, nor will anybody ever need you as much as I do.” He stared
into her eyes, stopping the denial as it touched her
lips.

“
I love you so much, Pam.
Don’t give up on me now. I will do anything to keep you with
me.”

“
But you can’t leave this
organization?” she asked, hoping she misunderstood.

“
Not alive.” He chuckled
mournfully. “Believe me, I already checked and they have no
interest in allowing me to leave.”

“
But they can’t stop you
if you really want to leave.” She frowned as a look of exasperation
crossed his face.

“
Pam, you and all your
family, as well as mine, could be killed if I just disappeared.
Everybody is watched. They know I am here and that I’m in love with
you. I would never do anything that would bring you and your family
pain.” He didn’t want to mention the added complication Ghost
presented. She would be safer than any before him, but if they
disappeared there would be massive retaliations from both
sides.

She pushed away from him. “My family? If I
decide not to marry you, my family will be in danger?” Her eyes
widened as his nostrils flared. “Tell me the truth, Julio. Tell me
right now. Is my mama and daddy in danger because you’re here?” She
could live with the consequences of her decisions, she loved the
big-headed guy. But her mama? No way.

He rubbed her arms. “Relax. If you don’t
want me, then I’ll leave and no one will bother you or yours again.
Not even me. You’re not in any danger. It’s me they want. My
services because of my birthright.”

Pam steeled herself against the desolation
in his voice. He sounded so alone as he attempted to move her to
the side. “What’re you doing?”

Julio looked around the room, everywhere but
her. “I’m trying to find my clothes, phone.”

She bit the corner of her lip. “Why? You
leaving?”

He whipped around and caught her eyes.
Inwardly, she cringed at the anguish she read in them. That he
allowed her to see it…spoke volumes.

“
I thought you didn’t want
me.”

“
I never said that. My
family has to be okay. You promised they would, so I’m good.” She
wrapped her arms around his waist, holding him tight. “I love you
so much, Julio. We have to work out the details. But we can do that
later. Right now I need you to hold me and tell me my mama’s gonna
be alright when she leaves me again. That my daddy won’t lose his
mind when she dies. And that I don’t have the gene that’s killing
her.”

Without another word he held her close. Her
body accepted and hopefully eased the tremors that ran through his
large frame. She’d chosen him. A series of tomorrows would judge
the correctness of her decision.

Right or wrong, the one thing she knew with
absolute certainty was she loved him, warts and all. He was
imperfect, but he was hers.

After a squeeze, he kissed the top of her
head. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll be here for him. You’ll do the
best you can to make it easier for your mom. And regardless of the
test results, we’re in this together. I love you and I’m not going
anywhere.”

And that was the best she could hope for
from any man.

Chapter 29

A week after Julio and Pam’s reunion,
Francisco had ordered them all back to the states. Of course he'd
balked, refusing to leave her behind. But Pam had convinced him to
leave, claiming she’d be okay, and that she’d return to Miami after
her mama’s funeral. She hadn’t expected it to be much longer.

According to Ghost, Boots had been the one
who messed up the last shipment and had never reported the failure.
That altercation put Francisco in the enviable position of Ghost
owing him a favor, and that made the old man very happy. Julio
never mentioned Ghost was his soon to be father-in-law to anyone.
The less who knew the better in his book. Security was going to be
tough enough, but he was looking forward to it. He missed his woman
and wanted to bring her home.

A month later, Tex, Pete and Miguel, claimed
Julio’s attitude stank. Waiting was not his strength, and he’d been
a pissed bear since he was forced to leave the Bahamas. Finally,
Francisco sent him to Michigan to hang with his friends, with
orders not to return until he could speak politely and think
rationally.

The clicking of power tools, the jibes of
men who’d worked together a long time and the muffled sound of
laughter greeted Julio as he knocked on the trailer door.

“
Come in.”

Opening the door slowly, Julio glanced
inside. Warmth filled his belly as he laid eyes on Smoke and Red
sitting at the desk going over plans. Smoke’s eyes widened before
he broke out into a wide-tooth grin while springing up from his
seat.

Julio met him halfway, accepting his
embrace. Smoke slapped him on the back, looked him over, and then
hugged him again. “Damn, it’s good to see you man. Real good. I
hope you can hang for a day or two, we need to catch up.”

Pleased by the genuine pleasure in his
buddy’s voice, he nodded. “I’ll see what I can do. I’m kinda
waiting for some info and then I gotta jet back south.” The
conversation with Pam last night had him on edge. Her mama was
worse and Pam was having a hard time dealing, still she didn’t want
him to come. Claimed it wasn’t safe since the investigation over
Boots' death had gotten sticky.

Red stood. Married life agreed with him.
He’d gained weight and looked content as he walked over and slapped
Julio on the back. “Good to see ya, man. You okay?”

Julio nodded. “I’m good, just came to check
some things out. Thanks for handling that problem for me last
month.”

Red threw his head back and laughed. “You
mean Beavis and Butthead. I should thank you for that piece of
entertainment.”

Smoke chuckled as he pointed at Red. “He did
enjoy that shit. Too much I think.”

Curious, Julio leaned
against the desk and crossed his arms. “I got Smoke’s email that
he’d tracked down the dudes who cause me some trouble and that he’d
take care of it. Something tells me the
how
is going to be
interesting.”

Red grabbed the wooden chair he’d been
sitting in, swung it around and plopped down. He pointed at Smoke,
who stood nearby with a small grin and his arms crossed. “This dude
comes in here all happy and shit. Claims he found the punk who
trashed your place and the guys who hit the other place.” He
paused. “Sorry about that man.”

Julio waved down his concern. This story was
becoming more interesting by the second. “Thanks, I’m good.”

Red nodded. A large grin took over his face
as he talked. “Anyway, he shows me the names of those punks and
their pictures. I can’t believe it. No fucking way.”

“
What?” Julio asked,
wanting Red to get to the point.

“
They worked here,” Smoke
said quietly, gaining Julio’s attention. “Two of them were from the
prison deal, but not all of them. We hire a lot of guys to help out
on jobs. When you sent me the videos, I remembered we had a guy
work here for a little while who drug his foot like that. You
probably don’t even remember him, he worked with you for about two
weeks.”

Julio scratched his chin. “I thought there
was something, but couldn’t put my finger on it.”

“
He and some other guys
showed up here a week after the break in, I guess to lay low,”
Smoke said.

“
But I’d seen him at the
pool hall the night before Smoke showed me his picture. I met him
the next night to talk,” Red said, rubbing his belly.

“
Talk?” Julio asked
skeptically.

“
I wanted to find out why
he trashed your place. So yeah, I wanted him to talk.” Red
stretched and stood.

He reminded Julio of a caged beast as he
walked back and forth. “Did he talk?” Julio asked. Wondering what
the men told Red. He only had Manuel’s version.

“
Yep. Claimed one of the
women he was seeing had been up on the floor and she told him there
was lots of drugs and money hidden up there.”

Julio laughed.

“
Anyway, they were pissed
because they had to buy some expensive equipment to break through
your security. Money they’d borrowed based on a big payload from
your crib.”

“
They took some stuff,”
Julio said, remembering the missing electronics.

Smoke moved to his desk. “Bottom line, this
is what we got. They didn’t shoot your man. They had a security guy
with them who broke the code. Seems that one didn’t survive. They
tore up the place in anger because they didn’t make the haul they
thought they would. And they pissed on everything because the place
belonged to you.” He said the last with an evil grin that Julio
responded to.

He didn’t tell them about what Manuel said.
It wouldn’t change anything. “They did?” Julio grinned. “Where are
they?”

Red sobered. “Gone.”

Surprised, Julio looked from one unsmiling
face to the other. “Gone? Like on a long trip?”

“
Yeah,” Smoke said. “They
are on a long trip. We didn’t kill them.”

“
But I’m sure they wish we
had,” Red murmured.

Julio’s curiosity was piqued. “What’d you
do?”

“
I handled it,” Smoke
said, peering at him intently. “Let it go.”

Julio met Smoke’s eyes and recognized the
determination in them. Asking more questions wouldn’t get him more
answers. They hadn’t killed anyone, so there was no blood on their
hands. These men, his friends, had families who depended on them to
stick around.