Zel: Markovic MMA (27 page)

I didn’t want to ask what event couldn’t be missed. Knowing what I did of Shannon’s drug dealer boyfriend, he had probably received an invite to some athlete or hip-hop wannabe’s mansion as a supplier of their recreational fun. “Shannon, I hate it when you go to these parties. You know I worry about you all night.”

“We aren’t going to a party. It’s a concert at the Arena. And Shay?” She rolled her eyes at me and huffed. “Seriously, you are going to give yourself an ulcer. You don’t need to sit up all night waiting for me. I’m a big girl. I know what I’m doing.”

“Do you?” I put down the metal punch and the leather strip I had been working. “Shannon, you just got popped for being a dog fight! It’s been less than two weeks since I bailed you out of jail. Ruben is on the hook for a felony!”

“They can’t prove anything against him. We were just there to watch the fights. That’s it.”

“You can pull that bullshit with your lawyer, Shannon, but I know better.” Shaking my head, I expelled a frustrated breath. “If you get pulled over or picked up with Ruben and he’s carrying again, you could go to prison. Okay? Like
for real
prison and not the county lockup.”

“That won’t happen.” She said it so quickly and easily, brushing off my concerns without a second thought. “He never carries weight on him. That’s what the slingers are for obviously.” She preened proudly. “He’s
very
careful with me.”

“But are
you
being careful?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Shannon,” I said her name in my no-bullshit tone. “I found your stash in your purse.”

Her stance turned aggressive. “Why were you digging around in my purse?”

“I wasn’t! Your purse fell out of our locker at work and I was picking up everything that spilled on the floor. I found a rolled up twenty and that dinged up credit card, Shannon.” My tightened and my stomach pitched with anxiety. “Are you snorting coke or molly?”

“Both. Sometimes.” She swallowed nervously but held my gaze almost daringly. “Look, it’s just a little bump here and there, Shay. I like to roll when we party. It’s not a big deal. I know what I’m doing.”

I had to give her credit for not lying to me but her nonchalance drove me crazy. “It is a big deal, Shannon. That’s how it starts. A little
llelo
at a party, a bump on a long night at work and then the next thing you know you’re a total junkie selling her ass on some dirty street corner for a fix.”

“Oh my God!” She snorted as if I were the most ridiculous person in the world. “Do you always have to be so dramatic?”

“I’m not being dramatic!”

“You are such a drama queen, and you’re so out of touch with reality. So what if I like to cut loose on the weekends? I know what I’m doing, Shay. I know how to control it.”

Irritated by the easy way she justified her use of drugs, insisted, “You promised me that you wouldn’t use Ruben’s product. You promised,” I repeated, my eyes burning as my fear for my sister’s life hit me hard.

Her jaw hardened and her eyes went cold. “You’re not a little girl anymore, Shay, and I’m allowed to have a life. I’m allowed to party with my boyfriend and have a good time. We aren’t hurting anyone.”

“You’re not hurting anyone?” I repeated incredulously. “Do you even watch the news, Shannon? Two months ago, there were cartel pushers dead in the streets, okay? Do you think that you’re safe from that? If Ruben screws up a deal, you could be collateral damage.”

She scoffed loudly. “You watch too much TV, Shay. That’s not the way it works. Ruben is protected. We’re safe.”

“Even after the dog fighting?”

She glared at me. “You just have to keep bringing that up, don’t you? You just have to rub it in my face that Ruben made a mistake.”

“A mistake?” I scoffed. “Shannon, he got busted and now the DA and the cops are digging around in his boss’s business. Lalo thinks he’s a kingpin. He thinks he’s some hotshot mob boss—and one of his soldiers just embarrassed him in front of the whole city.”

“Shut up, Shay. Just shut your mouth,” Shannon snarled. “Enough!”

I didn’t know what else I could say. She wasn’t going to listen to me. She believed that Ruben’s connections to the cartel’s top man in Houston would protect her. I wanted to believe it because I loved my sister and wanted her safe but I wasn’t naïve. I knew the score—and I suspected she did too.

Exhaling slowly, I counted back from four. “Just promise me that you aren’t carrying anything in your purse. If you get popped with drugs
in your possession, you are screwed. They will hit you with every charge they can to make your arrest painful, Shan. They’ll hurt you so you’ll turn on Ruben—”

“I would
never
turn on Ruben. I fucking
love
him. He’s my bae, and I’ll go do my time before I betray him.”

“Lord,” I grumbled and sat back in a huff. I couldn’t stand it when she called Ruben her
bae
and her
boo
. “Will you listen to yourself, Shannon?”

“You know what, Shay? I didn’t come in here for a lecture from my baby sister that I raised through junior high and high school. I came in here to ask you to work my damn cleaning shift. That’s it.”

I scowled. “Why do you always do that?”

“Do what?”

“Why do you always have to throw it in my face that you had to raise me after Mom bailed?”

“I don’t!”

“Yes, you do.” I hated fighting with Shannon, but I was getting tired of hearing how much she had sacrificed to keep me out of foster homes. “I love you, Shannon, and I will never forget what you did for me, but I would really,
really
appreciate it if you would stop using it as a stick to beat me with whenever you’re pissed or frustrated with me.”

She swallowed and glanced away from me. “I don’t mean to do it, Shay. Sometimes it just comes out before I can stop it. I don’t regret any of the choices I’ve made.” For a moment, she met my gaze, and I could see the sincerity reflected in her eyes. “You fought like hell to get into college. You started this business on no debt and you’ve done it your way. I’m proud of you, Shay. Even when I’m a jerk,” she added with a lopsided smile.

My frustration with her faded. I reached out and touched her hand. “You’re not a jerk.”

“Softie,” she murmured and poked my arm. “Does this mean you’re going to work for me?”

I rolled my eyes and poked right back at her. “Yes, I’ll work for you.”

“Thank you.” She squeezed my fingers as if to let me know that all was forgiven and bent down to noisily peck my cheek. “Kylee is working tonight. At least you get to work with your best friend, right?”

She had a point. “Be careful, okay?”

“I will. I’m going to be late so don’t wait up for me.”

“Okay.”

She took one step out the door before turning back toward me. “Can you spot me a few hundred bucks?” She pressed her hands together. “Please?”

“You just got paid on Monday!”

“And I’ve got bills!”

“So do I, Shan.”

She rolled her eyes at me again. “Oh please! What bills do you have?”

“Rent, utilities, groceries, cell phone, car insurance, health insurance,” I said and ticked them off on my fingers. I didn’t add that I had had to cover her half of the household bills for the last four months. She was going to snap at me, I was sure, but I still said, “The diner is hiring for the morning shift. The tips are good there.”

“Not happening,” she replied and shot me a withering look. “I’m done cleaning offices and waiting tables.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I’m put in my notice yesterday.”

That was the first I had heard of this so I sagged with shock. “When did you get a different job?”

“I didn’t.”

I bit my lip to stop myself from shouting at her.
What the hell are you thinking?
“Shannon, don’t you think you should have had a better job lined up before you quit?”

“Shay,” she said with an exasperated exhale. “I’ve got this figured out, okay? Now are you going to loan me the money or not? I’ll pay you back next week.”

Experience had taught me that she wasn’t going to listen to anything I had to say. I rose out of my chair, crossed my room to my purse and retrieved my wallet. I tugged the three crisply folded hundred dollar bills I kept tucked into a card slot and handed it to her. “Here.”

“Thank you.” She took the money but held onto my hand a moment longer than I had expected. “I love you, Shay.”

Bewildered by her unexpected show of emotion, I smiled at her. “I love you, too, Shan.”

She stepped back and hovered in the doorway. “It’s going to be okay, Shay. Things are going to change for us in a big way. A really big and wonderful way.”

Before I could ask her what that meant, she flitted away and disappeared. I decided not to chase after her for more information. Knowing her history, whatever scheme for fast cash she had planned would fizzle and burn. I just hoped that she wouldn’t drag me into this one.

I cleaned up my workstation and tried not to think about how far behind I was going to be on getting this purse and wallet order finished. Although I wanted nothing more than to focus on growing my handbag and wallet business from its online presence to a real brick-and-mortar store, I had to focus on paying the bills and saving up for a proper expansion first. I probably could have gotten a small business loan or tried to shoestring my plans on credit cards but the idea of debt had always made me nervous.

While I was pulling on a clean uniform for the janitorial company where we worked, I heard the front door open and close. The loud thumping bass of reggaeton music from our short driveway rattled the windows as Ruben’s new and very shiny SUV idled in front of our single-wide mobile home. I tried not to think about all the danger Shannon was in every time she went somewhere with Ruben but I couldn’t just flip off that switch from caring to not caring. She was my big sister and I loved her and desperately wanted her to make better choices.

But I also had to acknowledge that what I considered a simple, black and white decision wasn’t so simple for Shannon. She had been in love with Ruben since they were both young teenagers. I could still remember the giggly fourteen-year-old version of my sister confessing to me that she loved Ruben after sneaking back into our house from a party.

Back then, he had been flirting with the idea of jumping into the Hermanos street gang. It wasn’t long before he made the commitment and started rising through the ranks of dealers who helped push the cartel’s products onto Houston’s streets. Shannon had walked away from Ruben for a short time after our mom bailed on us but that separation hadn’t lasted long. Four months later, they were back together.

Convincing her to give up on the man she had loved for twelve years? It wasn’t going to happen. For better or worse, she had committed herself to Ruben and the dangerous life he lived. I loved my sister and didn’t want to lose her so I had been forced to accept Ruben wasn’t going anywhere. I didn’t like it, and I worried that he was going to get her in so much trouble, but she was an adult who could make her own choices.

Dressed in my pink scrub-style uniform and comfortable but ugly white shoes, I grabbed a light jacket and my purse before locking up and leaving the house. I had some time before I needed to leave so I decided to check the mail. It was a short walk across the trailer park to the community center where the mailboxes were located. I slipped into my jacket as I crossed the street, careful to avoid the puddles filling the potholes in the craggy pavement.

“Hey, Shay!” Little Homer Rodriguez peddled his short, chubby legs as fast as they would go as he whizzed toward me on the hand-me-down bike that had once been belonged to his older brothers. He rode his bike dangerously close to the middle of the road, and it made me nervous. It was getting dark, and the street lights in our park were so dim. The oilfield guys who lived along this street would start racing down this street soon. Tired from long shifts, they might not see him until it was too late.

“Homer! Dude, get out of the street!” I waved him over to the broken sidewalk. “Your mom is going to flip her lid if she sees you riding in the road like that.”

He took my warning to heart and angled his bike toward the side of the road. His heavy backpack sagged down too low and threw off his balance as he hit a pothole. He splashed my pants with muddy water. “Oh man! I’m sorry, Shay.”

“It’s okay.” I smiled at him and didn’t dwell on the stains. By the end of my cleaning shift, my pants would look much worse anyway. “Here. Let me fix your backpack.”

He sat still while I adjusted the straps on his bag. “Hey, Shay?”

“Yeah?” I fought with the too-tight buckle on the strap.

“Do you need wrapping paper or cookie dough?”

Not really
, I thought, but I had a feeling I knew where this was going. “Maybe. Why?”

“We’re selling things for school. It starts on Monday. If I sell the most stuff in my grade, I get to ride in a limo and go to a pizza party!”

I was glad he couldn’t see my face as I fixed his backpack. The memories of being the only kid in school who had to explain why my fundraiser sheet had lots of entries but no money in the envelope made my stomach churn violently. The humiliation of having to admit that my mother had stolen the money to gamble still made my cheeks burn and my chest tighten.