Untamed Hearts 1: The Viper (29 page)

Aunt Sofia came over and picked up the bags he’d dropped. Then she flipped back her hair and gave him a smile. “This is Katie.” She turned to Katie. “This is my nephew Marcos.”

“We’ve met,” Katie said as she stared at him.

“He’s usually more charming.” Aunt Sofia put the bags on the island in the center of the kitchen. “But he
is
handsome. That’s something, right?”

“What is this?” Marcos asked when he finally found his voice.

“No gringo for me. Maybe a gringa for you,” his aunt said in Spanish as she started unpacking her groceries. “It was my idea.”

“You just decide my love life for me?” Marcos asked her in disbelief.

“Sí,” Aunt Sofia announced as she walked to the fridge. “I was tired of listening to you whine about her. You didn’t make your move. I made it for you.”

“You whined about me?” Katie asked softly.

“Yeah, I’ve missed you,” he said as he turned back to Katie before he frowned. “Wait, you understood that?”

“She’s learning Spanish.
Que linda
.” His aunt turned back to him and went on in Spanish, “She’s pretty. I see why you were whining. Just your type. Nice ass. Big tetas. Luis was eyeing them, chico. You might want to talk to him about that.”

“Coño, please tell me you didn’t understand any of that,” Marcos said to Katie.

“I understood enough,” Katie looked to Sofia. “What did she say he was eyeing? I don’t think Chuito taught me that. She said that before, but I was distracted. Does that mean—”

“We need to go. We have to talk.” Marcos set the groceries on the counter and then grabbed his keys from his pocket. “Lock the truck, Tía.”

Aunt Sofia pulled back. “What am I?”

“You are in so much trouble right now!” Marcos growled at her as he pushed the keys at her. “Lock the truck!”

“I don’t get in trouble,” Sofia announced.

“You were born in trouble,” Marcos assured her as he walked over to Katie. “Come on. Vámanos. We’ll go out back.”

Katie got up, looking uncertain. Marcos wrapped an arm around her waist, because that wide vulnerable look in her eyes hurt him, but he couldn’t talk to her. Not in front of his aunt. He needed her alone to figure this out.

He opened the back door and walked into the backyard.

“Oh, it’s nice,” Katie whispered as they walked up to the gazebo house in the back. “It’s bigger than I imagined.”

Marcos was still trying to find his voice. Katie wasn’t fighting shock like he was. She’d known she was coming to visit.
Why
was she coming to visit? She had stopped texting him two months ago when he never responded to her.

He opened the door to the gazebo house and paused when they walked in. “What is this?”

Katie turned around too, standing in the middle of all the boxes. “Does someone already live here?”

He gave her a look. “I live here.”

“But I’m renting it,” Katie argued.

“You’re renting it?” he repeated and then pulled back to look around again, seeing all of Katie’s things tossed around his room. “What is going on?”

“I decided to teach here in Miami.” Katie stood up taller and gave him a look. “It has nothing to do with you. I just felt that my skills would be put to better use here. Chuito offered to let me rent at his mother’s place since we’ve become friends.”

“You’re moving here?”

“Yes.” Katie nodded, looking him dead in the eye. “Things were uncomfortable at my old job with the all legal issues over Grayson and Ashley. So I quit. I needed a change, and I think Miami needs good teachers more than Garnet does.”

“What high school are you teaching at?” he asked, still trying to process everything.

When Katie told him, he gaped in disbelief.

“Are you crazy, chica? That’s my old high school!”

“I know.” Katie folded her arms over her chest. “That’s why I chose it.”

“Chuito told you to teach there? I am going to kick his ass,” Marcos growled. “He’s supposed to be protecting you!”

Katie shrugged again. “I don’t need a man to protect me. I’m perfectly capable of protecting myself.”

Marcos looked around the room again, seeing all of Katie’s stuff. “Did you really move here?”

Katie arched an eyebrow. “No, I always travel with this much luggage.”

Marcos couldn’t help it, he grinned. “I did miss you.”

“Thanks.” She nodded and looked at the ground for a second. “I’ll find another place to stay. I’m not certain what your aunt was thinking, but—”

“She was probably thinking I should make things right with the chica I’ve been telling her about for three months. I have truly missed you, very much, and I’m sorry, Katie. Things were complicated and—”

“It’s okay. I don’t mind finding another place,” she said quickly, as if she wasn’t really hearing him. “This move was never about you. It really
was
about me.”

“No.” He ran a hand over his face and through his hair. “I’m sorry about the other stuff. About everything. You should
not
forgive me, but—” He tilted his head and looked at her, standing there in a skirt that clung to her hips and a V-neck shirt that showed off her tits so nicely. “Fuck it.”

He reached out and pulled Katie to him before she could complain. He held on tightly, just feeling her in his arms again. The way her body felt against his, the way everything about them seemed to fit together perfect. Fuck, it felt
so good
. Even if she wasn’t hugging him back, it felt good. He leaned down to smell her hair, and she even smelled the same.

The door opened, and he lifted his head and growled at his aunt, “Get out, Tía!”

“Just ignore me.” She walked in with two plates. “You two eat in here.” She set the plates on the counter and then gave Marcos a pointed look and said in Spanish, “Tell her you love her. She’ll hug you back.”

“Please get out.”

She held her hands up and walked to the door, but then she seemed to think better of it and turned back. “Chica, I know he’s a pain in the ass. I helped raise him, trust me,
I know
, but he loves you. He hasn’t even looked at another woman in months, and if you knew Marcos—”

“GET OUT!”

“I’m helping you!”

“You helped enough!” Marcos kept one arm around Katie when she buried her face in his shoulder, and then he gestured to the moving boxes. “We’re gonna talk about this, Tía.”

“And I am
so
concerned about that,” she said dismissively as she walked out the door.

Katie was shaking, and for one moment, he thought she was crying, but then he pulled back and saw that her shoulders were shaking in silent mirth. “Oh my God, Marcos, your aunt is crazy.”

“I know.” He shook his head and let out a pained chuckle. “I’m sorry. Chuito should’ve warned you.”

“He did, but—” Katie gestured to the boxes around the room. “What are we going to do? I have nowhere to live. I really did think I was going to stay here. I hoped to see you again, but—”

“We’ll figure it out.” He tucked a strand of her hair behind one ear as he studied her face. “You look good, Katie. Really good.”

“Thanks, you look good too,” she whispered as she looked up at him. She touched the scar in his eyebrow. “That’s new.”

“Yeah.” He rubbed at it, trying not to think of all the things it represented. “I was in a bad place after I left you.”

“But not now?”

“Um, no, I’m doing okay now.” He looked back to the plates. “You want dinner?”

“I’m starving,” she said with another laugh. “I got so lost today, I didn’t even eat after my interview. Why does everyone honk here?”

“Because these pendejos don’t know how to drive,” he said with a snort of disbelief.

“You are one of those honkers.” Katie hit his chest. “You do that, don’t you? It’s obnoxious.”

“I am obnoxious,” he promised her. “If you haven’t figured that out yet, you will.”

“Will I?”

“You’re living in my house. Yes, you’ll probably notice.”

Katie looked stricken as she glanced around at the boxes again. “Marcos—”

“Dinner.” Marcos turned and grabbed the plates off the dresser. “I don’t have a table. I usually eat with Tía Sofia, but we can sit on the bed.”

She tilted her head, giving him a calculating look. “Are you trying to get me to bed?”

“Yes, Katie, I am,” he said with a smile. “And since I’m a pendejo, and I know you know it, I’ll have to bribe you with food.”

She seemed to hesitate for only a moment before she reached out and took the plate from him and said, “Okay.”

No one could say Katie wasn’t fearless.

It was one of the things Marcos liked most about her.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“The chicken was amazing, but I am very scared of these.” Katie poked at the slices of cooked yellowish fruit on her plate. “What are they?”

“
Plátanos
. They’re good.” Marcos reached over with his fork and stabbed at one on her plate. He took a bite out of it and said, “They taste sorta like bananas.”

“Cooked bananas. For dinner,” Katie mumbled as she pushed at another one. “Okay.”

“Try it.”

Katie cut it in half and then stabbed it with her fork. She brought it up to her mouth and licked it, gauging the taste of it. Then she glanced up, finding that Marcos had stopped eating and was just watching her. “What?”

“Nothing.” He shrugged. “I just like the way you look when you lick things.”

Katie laughed and felt her cheeks heat. Instead of responding, she took a small bite and considered it for a moment. “It’s pretty good.”

“Yeah, it is,” Marcos agreed, his voice husky.

“Stop,” she warned, eating the rest of the mysterious banana instead of looking at him. “I don’t know where I stand with you.”

“Where do you want to stand with me?” he countered as he pushed at his beans and rice and then glanced up at her hesitantly.

“You left me, Marcos,” she reminded him.

“I did.” He looked at his plate again. His handsome face was stricken, and he reached up and rubbed at his eyebrow, where the scar now gave him a much more dangerous appearance. “I didn’t want to, though.”

“Then why did you?”

He shook his head. “Katie, I was in such a bad place. I came this close to being six feet under or in prison. I still don’t know how I got out of it. I mean, I do know, but it’s still complicated. I didn’t think I deserved you. I’m still not certain if I do or not.”

“But you’re
more
certain?” she asked curiously.

He seemed to think about that for a moment before he finally nodded. “I’m much more certain.”

“What changed?”

“Well, I’m not a gangster anymore.” He gave her an unsure smile. “Maybe you won’t like me now?”

“What?” Katie laughed. “Why would that change anything? I’m happy about that. Chuito told me. I knew that part, but I’m happy to hear it from you. Why would you think I wouldn’t like you for that?”

“Not so dangerous.” He shrugged, giving her another smile. “Chicas like dangerous.”

“You still look pretty dangerous to me.” Katie reached over and touched his eyebrow again. “That helps. Did it hurt?”

“Ay Dios mio, chica. Yes.” He groaned as if remembering it. “I had Chuito for a doctor. Trust me, if you ever have a choice between my cousin or a hospital, pick the hospital.”

Katie laughed again, struck with how easy it was to be around Marcos, as if the past three months of loneliness didn’t happen. She had missed him and worried about him every single day, though Chuito assured her Marcos was fine and just getting his life together. The sadness had been all the more difficult because the stress over Grayson and Ashley had made school more than a little uncomfortable.

Grayson had gotten charged with trespassing, a misdemeanor. It hadn’t affected his job. Katie could have filed a restraining order, but she didn’t. Chuito had been underfoot a lot, and he worked better than a piece of paper at keeping Grayson away.

Ashley was dealing with the more serious charges of reckless driving and leaving the scene of the accident. She had confessed everything to Sheriff Connor once he started questioning her. Marcos had been right. It
was
her car. The teachers hadn’t known how to deal with that sort of situation, let alone two of them. Most were kind to Katie, but some hadn’t been, and it had just been an awkward end of the year—especially when Grayson and Ashley started dating.

At least Grayson had lost interest in Katie.

She had been a little too busy nursing her broken heart to think on it too much. Honing her Spanish had been a good distraction, though she had learned quickly that dinner with Chuito every night helped more than hours of studying by herself. She picked up enough of it to feel confident when she made the life-altering decision to move to Miami. Her family thought she was crazy and had argued with her until the day she left, but she simply couldn’t get past what she’d heard from Marcos and Chuito. How certain they were that they’d never had a chance of graduating.

They’d never even thought to try.

She considered all those other teenagers out there, angry at the world, certain that the only chance they had at succeeding was by stealing cars, robbing houses, and selling drugs.

If she could help one Marcos or Chuito, it would be worth it.

“Tell me what you’ve been doing,” Katie said as she took another bite of the rice and beans mixed together on the plate. “Chuito said he bought a car place here.”

“It’s an auto body shop,” Marcos said, and then stole another plátano off her plate. He’d clearly been famished too. “It was actually the place I got fired from before. I think Chu did that shit to be vindictive. We changed the name. We called it Juan’s Auto Body. It’s stupid, but we had this thing—”

“No, it’s not stupid,” Katie said quickly. “I think it’s nice.”

“So, I run it for him, and I’ve started letting some of the kids from the warehouse help me. I pay them. Even though they are horrible at it and half the time it gives me more work rather than save me from it.” Marcos rolled his eyes. “They’re getting better.
Slowly
.”

“You’re teaching them,” Katie whispered.

“Not teaching.”

“You’re helping them learn a skill they wouldn’t otherwise learn,” Katie said slowly. “A skill they use to make honest money. That’s teaching, Marcos.”