“I don’t know,” Marcelo continued to argue. “Jen did say she thought Ali had a crush on the dude.”
Lila’s stomach dropped a little but quickly reminded herself this was Marcelo. “Didn’t she just text you to tell you the guy this girl mentioned was Leo?”
“Yeah, but we don’t know what Scar’s real name is. Scar’s just his street name, remember?”
Lila hadn’t even thought of that. There was no way Ali would be crushing on some drug-dealing thug. That made no sense. She shook her head. No matter what the reason, even if, by some infinitesimal chance, Ali had developed a crush on Scar, that was still no reason for that bitch to do what she had to her sister.
“I don’t know,” Marcelo continued as only his stubborn ass could. “Maybe like she kept from you the fact that she was still investigating Scar, she’s kept more from you, Lila. I mean look at you. You’re out here ready to give someone a beat down even if it may get you locked up. She knows what a crazy ass you are. I’m not saying you two aren’t tight enough. But maybe she keeps stuff from you to save you from yourself. Ever thought of that?”
Glaring straight ahead because she didn’t even want to look at him right then, Lila tried to hide what his words did to her. As much as what he’d just said pissed her off, it also stung because she knew it was true. She hated the thought that Ali felt she had to keep anything from her because she was such a crazy ass. Sonny was right; she was better than this now. She had grown. At least she thought she had until she’d seen Ali’s injuries. Someone else had done this to her baby sister and purposely! How the fuck was she supposed to ever control her rage over something like this?
“That’s them,” Marcelo said, pointing in the direction of a crowd huddled around a car in one of the parking lots. “I recognize that car.”
“Do you see her?”
Marcelo was quiet, peering at the small crowd as they turned into the parking lot. The group of about ten turned, taking in the car as they got closer. Lila slowed just as they reached them, stopping in the middle of the parking lot. They all took her in now, and Lila saw the instant recognition in their eyes.
“I think that’s her,” Marcelo said in a lowered voice. “The one in the black, holding something to her eye.”
Just the sight of the bitch ignited something inside Lila. “Are you Eva?”
“Who wants to know?” the girl asked, moving the hanky or whatever it was she held against her eye.
To Lila’s surprise, it was swollen shut. It almost made Lila smile. She had scratches all over her face as well and a fat lip. She looked worse than Ali. Had Ali done all this? The visual of the huge lump on Ali’s head assaulted her, squashing any desire to smile.
She yanked the keys out of the ignition and got out. “I’m the sister of the girl Eva beat earlier today,” she said, slamming the car door shut with a purpose.
The idiot next to Eva with a big scar across his cheek smiled big. While Eva attempted to smile smugly, Lila saw it, the same fear she’d seen all her life in the eyes of anyone who knew they were about to feel her wrath.
“Yeah, she’s Eva,” the guy with the scar said. “What are you gonna do about it?”
“You need to turn yourself in,” Lila said, taking a deep breath. “My sister was assaulted today, and someone will be held accountable.”
Scarface laughed even while Eva remained quiet, the forced smile on her face gone now. “Yeah, I’ll bet she’s in the hospital. You should’ve seen the beating she took.” He nudged Eva. “Go ahead, Eva. Tell this bitch to get the fuck out of here before you put her in the hospital too.”
Though they attempted to be discreet, a girl and a guy behind the car were obviously videotaping the confrontation with their phones. The only thing keeping Lila from reaching out and grabbing the girl by her shirt to tell her one last time she needed to turn herself in, was the fact that she seemed hesitant to step forward.
The second time the guy nudged her, she jerked her arm away. “Stop it, pendejo!”
“My sister do this to you?” Lila asked, motioning to the girl’s face.
When Eva didn’t confirm nor deny it, Lila almost smiled in strange relief. Maybe Ali hadn’t just stood there and taken a beating. But the urge to smile waned when she saw the exchange between Eva and Scar. That’s when Lila remembered what Ali had said. The girl who attacked her already had a black eye when she’d approached her.
Glancing at Scar with all the stupid gang tattoos on his neck and the teardrop tattoo just under his eye brought back memories. For too long, Lila had allowed Marcelo to disrespect her, and while he’d never hit her because he knew she’d go batshit crazy on his ass, she knew too many girls in the neighborhood who did allow their boyfriends to slap them around.
Her eyes locked with Eva’s, who didn’t seem nearly as aggressive as her douche-bag boyfriend. “I could make that eye worse, Eva. So much worse.”
For the first time in her life at a moment like this, Lila felt something other than rage. A strange calm came over her because she knew, if she unleashed her fury on this girl, she could seriously hurt her—or worse. Only as angry as she’d been earlier, she wasn’t anymore.
Not only could this ruin her life, something told her she was missing something. Shaking away thoughts of her sister sitting in the ER in pain, she continued. “That’s not why I came here. All I’m asking is that you turn yourself in.”
“Nah, fuck that,” Pendejo said, moving forward and once again nudging Eva. “She fucked up your skanky sister, made her squeal in agony like a filthy pig, and she’ll do the same to you. No one’s turning themselves in, you stupid bitch.”
The buzzing in Lila’s ears had started before the asshole finished talking. Just like that, everything she’d worked so hard to keep under control gave way. All the fury she’d felt from the moment Jen said Ali had been in a fight erupted. The visuals Lila had when she stormed out of the ER, visuals of going for the jugular and holding on for dear life until there was nothing but a lifeless body left inundated her, and she did just that. With a guttural roar, she went straight for the jugular.
Chapter 27
Sonny
Hollenbeck Park. It was the final confirmation Sonny needed. Both he and Lila had done enough interviews, dodging endless intimate questions about their relationship by giving vague answers. One of the ones they’d indulged the prying media with was their account of the night they met and their first kiss. Both had mentioned the park being near and dear to them. Of course, these assholes had chosen this place to reel Lila in.
“Pull in here!” Sonny instructed his driver. “That crowd over there. Take me there!”
Sonny’s heart nearly pummeled through his chest when he saw the scuffle in progress, and then he saw it. It was a mess of people, shoving and holding others back, but as they got closer, what was really happening became clearer. Right there in the middle of what he’d first thought was a guy holding Lila back—maybe Marcelo—was Lila and a guy going at each other. There was one other guy trying to get in between them, but Lila looked enraged. Worse yet, the guy she was trying to hit was reaching out menacingly for her too.
The car had barely slowed when Sonny opened the door and jumped out. “Lila!”
His yelling didn’t have much of an effect on the still-scuffling crowd. As soon as he was close enough, he grabbed the guy by the shirt with both hands and slammed him on the hood of the car but lost hold of him when the guy nearly slid off.
Scrambling, the guy moved off the car hood but stayed close enough. Sonny could grab him again if need be. Not surprising, not only did Sonny have the crowd’s attention now, most held their phones up and he could already hear his name being murmured among them.
“That crazy bitch came at me, puto!” the guy yelled, tugging down his rumpled shirt, then turned to Lila. “I’m not the one who fucked up your prissy sister. She did, but then that’s what happens when a skanky whore moves in on someone else’s man!”
The girl he p
ointed at was one Sonny hadn’t even noticed standing off to the side. To Sonny’s surprise, Lila didn’t react the way he thought she might to the guy’s insult of Ali. She didn’t even appear as enraged as she’d been when he arrived moments ago. Instead of responding to the guy, she was looking at Eva.
“Did he make you hurt my sister?” Lila asked Eva, quieting the buzz in the crowd.
When Eva didn’t say anything, the guy started to. “What are you talking about—?”
“Shut up!” Sonny said, grabbing him by the shirt again.
“Did he?” Lila asked again in a voice so calm Sonny could hardly believe she’d gone from raging to this in such a short time.
Eva glanced in Scar’s direction. “Don’t look at him,” Lila said calmly again. “Is he why you had a black eye before the fight? He put you up to doing this?”
Scar started to protest again, but Sonny shook him, still holding on to his shirt roughly. He was floored that it appeared Lila had figured this out without him having to explain it.
Eva shook her head but turned away when her one good eye began to glisten. Lila took a step toward her when the short but loud siren got their attention. Two squad cars with their lights on pulled up to them in a hurry. The crowd began to disperse.
“Everyone stay where you are,” the cop said through the car’s speaker. They all did as they were asked; then the cop got out of the car. “Who’s Lila?”
“I am,” Lila said, lifting her hand.
Scar, who’d tensed up considerably when Eva had turned away looking emotional, tried coming loose from Sonny’s hold, but Sonny only held on tighter.
Eva and another girl appeared to be arguing about something. Their voices were hushed but just loud enough that Sonny could make out a few of the words like, “You have to” and “Don’t be scared.”
“. . . she’s in the hospital right now,” Lila continued to explain to the officer. “But a report was taken and Eva’s boyfriend admits she’s the one who attacked her.”
“He made me do it,” Eva finally spoke up.
“You lying bitch!” Scar yelled as Sonny held onto him even more roughly now.
“She’s not lying,” the girl with Eva said. “I was there when he slapped her around and threatened that it’d be worse if she didn’t do what he was asking.”
“That’s bullshit!” Scar muttered, shaking his head.
“It was supposed to be just a slap.” Eva turned to Lila. “He said it’d be all it’d take to piss you off. But your sister got all crazy and shit.”
“And then what?” Lila asked, turning to Scar, looking as disgusted as only she could. “You’d get me here somehow, egg me on, and then she’d take the beating, you fucking coward? For what?”
“Money, of course,” Sonny said, grabbing Scar by the arm when he tried to pull away.
“I got this,” the other cop said, taking Scar by the other arm and pushing him down on the hood of the car. “Hands behind your back.”
“This is bullshit. Why am I being arrested?”
“He’s on probation,” Eva said quickly. “And he’s been drinking and doing weed. Check the car. His stash is in there.”
“Eva, you bi—”!
The cop didn’t let him finish because he pulled him up by his cuffed hands then slammed him back down.
“Everybody else take a seat on that curb,” the cop talking to Lila ordered. “Hands where I can see them. Not you,” he said, motioning to Sonny with a smirk. “I know you’re good.”
“What about me?” the guy Sonny had seen trying to separate Lila and Scar asked.
“Especially you, Marcelo,” the cop said. “Can’t I go one week without having to detain you or one of your damn friends?”
“These aren’t my friends!”
“Sit down!” the cop said, raising his voice.
Sonny eyed Marcelo, who glared at Lila but was smart enough to shut up and walked away to sit with the others. The cop holding Scar walked him to the back of his squad car then proceeded to search his car as Lila continued to give her statement to the other officer.
He called over Eva, who explained Scar’s inane plan. It might’ve worked if they hadn’t been so ridiculously obvious about it. Eva said, when Scar realized Ali was Lila’s sister and that Lila was dating Sonny, he hatched a scheme to try and extort money out of them. He did his homework, reading every article about Lila and even had someone stake out 5th Street to see if he couldn’t gain more insight on her. Because they knew Marcelo’s sister was so close to Ali, he’d been unwittingly used to pass the word along to Lila about who Eva was and where she could be found.
Eva turned to Lila with pleading eyes. “It was just supposed to be going up to her and maybe push her or slap her. Scar didn’t want her to know it had anything to do with him, so we came up with the idea that I’d tell her to stay away from my man. I chickened out last minute. This was supposed to have happened the other day, but I told him I wasn’t doing it.”
“So, he beat you?” Lila asked again in that almost foreign-for-Lila calm tone. Though it was laced with plenty of disgust.
This time the tears escaped the corner of Eva’s eye, but she nodded.
“Did he do this to you?” the officer asked, motioning to her face.
“Yes and no—”
“You don’t have to lie for him anymore,” Lila said, reaching out to touch Eva’s arm.
“No, I mean he did, but it wasn’t this bad. Your sister head butted me today in the eye, and I had some other bruises already, but like I said, she got really crazy.” She touched her eye gently. “I wanted to go to the emergency room, but he didn’t let me. He said he didn’t want you to miss me when you came looking for me because he was so sure you would.”
The utter rage that Lila had rid herself of earlier was back in her eyes as she glanced at the car where Scar was sitting. Sonny slipped his hand in hers and squeezed. He didn’t blame her. Even Sonny wished he’d get a few minutes alone with the asshole.
“I hope he’s getting arrested,” Lila said, turning to the cop.
“Yeah, he’s going right back in, and he’ll be in for a lot longer this time.” He turned to Eva. “But I gotta arrest you too, sweetheart.”
Eva nodded as if she’d already known it. Although the officer did say they’d be making a stop at the ER.
The ride home was a quiet one. Sonny could tell Lila had mixed feelings about the whole thing now. He understood why because so did he. They left Jenny’s car with Marcelo and drove away in the town car. Sonny reached for Lila’s hand and brought it to his lips. He kissed it softly. “I knew you’d come a long way, but you blew me away today.”
Lila smiled, but he could see it was a bittersweet smile. She leaned her head against Sonny’s shoulder, and he kissed the top of her head. “Just sucks that she’ll have to pay for something that monster forced her to do.”
“You know,” Sonny said cautiously. “Looks and sounds like she got more of a beating than Ali did. Ali could drop the charges if she really wanted to.”
Instantly, Lila lifted her face to look at him. “I feel bad for her, Sonny, but it doesn’t take from the fact that she attacked my sister. Ali’s hand—”
“Is broken in three places because of how hard she beat Eva.” Sonny couldn’t help but smirk despite the topic. “I knew your timid little sister was a spitfire the day I met her, but I didn’t know she had all that in her. You should’ve seen the proud look on her face when she talked about having picked up a few things from you over the years. That knot on her head is from head-butting Eva so hard it swelled up Eva’s eye as bad as it did. Said she learned the move in the self-defense class you insisted she take. And you heard Eva. Even she said your sister got all crazy.” The bewildered expression on Lila’s face made him smile. “I thought it from the moment she first grilled me, but now I’m sure of it. You two are definitely cut from the same cloth, baby. I’d say big sis did a damn good job of teaching Ali how to defend herself. I wouldn’t
worry too much about Ali taking care of herself anymore. Sounds to me like she enjoyed being the badass for once.”
Lila began to smile then frowned. “She broke her hand in three places?”
“And she’s proud of it, babe.” Sonny chuckled.
The tug at the corners of her lips gave way to the disapproving frown she tried to give him. “Well, I don’t want her turning into me either.”
Sonny laughed. “Why? That’s not a bad thing. She would’ve been proud of how you handled things today. And it’s not like she went out looking to beat someone’s ass.” He kissed her when her brow lifted at the jab. “She was just defending herself. It’s what you’re supposed to do. Granted, breaking your hand in three places because you’re beating on someone that hard is maybe going a little overboard. But hey, just like those girls at the club who came at you, it’s the chance you take when you decide to attack someone. Sucks that it seems Eva didn’t have much of a choice.”
“Some would argue she did,” Lila said with a solemn frown. “I’m sure it’s not the first time he hit her, and unless she gets her shit together and does the smart thing—runs while he’s in jail and has the chance—it probably won’t be the last.”
“Might not get that chance if she’s locked up too.”
Their eyes met, and for a moment, Sonny saw it again, that same foreign tenderness he only ever saw in Lila’s eyes when she spoke of her sister and when she was she was gazing at him. “I’ll talk to Ali when we get home. It’s entirely up to her.”
“Of course,” Sonny said, kissing her softly. “I’m proud of you, baby. I didn’t doubt for a minute that you had it in you to do the right thing. I just wasn’t sure how goading she might be, especially once I figured out this was all a setup. I figured they’d say whatever they had to, to piss you off.”
“Yeah, well that asshole finally did make me lose it. Not for a second did I think of lunging at her, not after I realized what he was doing.”