CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Samira

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me about this sooner?”

I’d seen waves of heat radiate from the concrete on a hot summer day plenty of times growing up but I don’t think I’d ever seen heat waves radiating off my father before. His brows were smashed together on his broad forehead and lines I’d never seen before on his face materialized making him actually look his age.

He was livid as he scrolled through the tons of creepy texts from the unknown number on my phone. I didn’t blame him but fuck, it was scary seeing him that pissed. At first, I wondered how my sweet father could be a kingpin. I didn’t wonder anymore after seeing him in a rage.

“I want his fucking head,” he thundered.

“Papa, we don’t know who’s sending the messages right now,” I pointed out. I wanted to rub his shoulders but he was fuming. I was afraid my palms would scorch.

“Well, we need to find the fuck out,” he snapped.

“Samira has a few ideas,” Santana spoke through the rapid flexing of his chiseled jaw.

Ideas?

Oh, shit I did have suspicions. I swallowed the knot in my throat and spoke up, “Um yeah…I was thinking it’s either Erin playing on my phone since I punched her in the nose.” I swept my gaze from left to right between Santana and Papa then continued. “Or, it could be Brady. I gave him the cold shoulder and pushed him off on Erin and I’m sure he still wants me for whatever reason.” The last name was a little bit harder to get out. I knew once I spoke that name into the air it would be tainted.

“Who’s the last one?” Santana and Papa both asked in unison. The deep gravelly sound made my stomach clench.

“Dom,” I said softly. I did honestly think about Brady and Erin but I’d be a bald-faced liar if I didn’t mention Dom too. He was a goddamn creep and I didn’t put anything past him at that point.

Santana pushed out a puff of air through his flared nostrils and shook his head. “I will press the barrel of my gun against his forehead and pull the trigger with no fucking remorse if I find out it’s him.” Anxiety wove thick heavy knots in my stomach. I’d never heard Santana sound so gravely serious about something before.

“We need to eliminate the other possibilities first,” Papa said.

“Fuck the other possibilities. I think she hit the nail on the head with Dom. Pop, you have to take care of this motherfucker. He’s a major problem at this point.” Santana was at one end of the thought spectrum and Papa was at the other. I understood that he wanted to handle his friend with fairness but Dom didn’t deserve fairness.

He was a pervert. Plain and simple.

“I told you, I’m handling it,” Papa’s voice exploded and the knots in my stomach tensed.

“I’m tired of waiting for this shit to get handled! I’m going to find out if it’s either Erin or Brady and if it’s neither of them then I’m going after Dom myself and at this point, there’s nothing you can say to stop me.” Flames licked my neck as I watched my father and fiancé standoff. It used to be different watching the scene unfold when Santana was still my brother but things had changed so much that now, my heart was in my chest watching them.

I didn’t know who to stand beside or who to comfort so I had to look inside of myself for the answer that I felt was right. Once I did that, I realized I agreed wholeheartedly with Santana. If it wasn’t Erin or Brady then Dom needed to go.

The standoff between Papa and Santana grew silent. It wasn’t just any type of silence though. It was a silence that had been stretched thin by the hundreds of words begging to be spoken.

“If you do the footwork, Santana and you actually find that Dom was the one behind the texts…I have no choice but to give you free rein.” Papa’s green eyes met mine and I knew he saw the shock that resided in them. “You’re protecting Sammie and no matter what I can’t be mad at that. When I gave you the green light to propose to her, I was also allowing you to be her protector. I was letting go of my princess so she could stand on her own.”

I couldn’t believe my fucking ears. Papa was siding with Santana. My heart sped up in my chest, thumping wildly. Santana blinked a few times as if he couldn’t believe what was happening either. Papa trusted him fully and that was an honor.

The two men gave nods of understanding and then we all laid out a plan to figure out who the hell was behind the creepy texts. While we sat around the kitchen table, my phone chimed with more texts and Papa instructed me to keep answering and stringing the person along to find out how deep into stalking me they really were.

“If it’s proven to be Dom, how do you want it handled, Sam?” Papa asked me, his eyes were clear and sure and he wasn’t patronizing me at all. He wanted my input. The icy vein of black granite that used to snake below stretched and grew, spreading out along my surface.

I said, “I want him dead.” It wasn’t just because Dom had gotten increasingly creepy every time I saw him but because he was blatantly disrespecting Papa after everything he’d done for him.

Papa gave a somber nod and looked at Santana. “Take her to shoot at the private range starting tomorrow. I want her to get familiar with her gun.” A thrill sliced through my middle at the thought of firing a gun for the first time and having Santana be the one to teach me.

“I can do that,” Santana nodded and glanced at me. His chocolate eyes made my chest feel so warm. “I think we should stay here tonight. I don’t want whoever is watching the house to follow us back to the apartment. So far they haven’t tracked her back there and I want to keep it that way.” Papa nodded in agreement and told us to get some rest while he took care of some private business.

Santana and I headed upstairs and settled in his old room on the bed. I took a deep breath once I was snuggled on top of his comforter. It still smelled like him. On the nightstand was a picture of Mama and her beautiful smile that looked so much like Santana’s.

“How do you look at pictures of Mama every day? Every time I see her, my heart hurts,” I said quietly, caressing the smooth cool glass of the picture frame.

“I have to or else I won’t be able to breathe,” he said. He pulled me against his side and kissed the top of my head. “You have no idea how much it still hurts thinking about losing her. I always wonder if she was in pain or did she pass out from the impact of the car crash first. I always pray she passed out first.” I watched his Adam’s apple bob in his throat and I skimmed my fingers over his smooth skin.

“I find myself wishing I was there to protect her in some kind of way even though I know there was nothing I could have done but my gut always tells me I could have saved her.” Santana sat up in bed and looked at me before tucking my hair behind my ear. “That’s why I’m so protective over you, Sammie. I couldn’t save Mama but maybe I can save you and protect you.” I leaned into the way he caressed my face.

“Santana, there was nothing you could have done. Mama died in a car crash. You couldn’t have stopped that.”

“I know but…I feel like I could have. So promise me you’ll learn how to shoot and take care of yourself because no matter how much I protect you, nobody can protect you like you can.” He tapped my chest and I gave him an earnest nod. I’d learn how to shoot and protect myself because if Papa planned to bring me into the family business, I had no choice. Besides, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to learn how to be a badass.

***

I had this image in my mind of Santana and me alone at some private range where I learned to shoot while he wrapped his strong arms around me but that fantasy was blasted to bits when we pulled up to Marco’s house.

What the entire fuck?

“Santana, why are we at Marco’s house?” I whispered. Marco let us in and went to get shooting gear while we stood in the kitchen.

“Because Marco’s family owns a shit-ton of land and has a private range on the land that Pop and the guys use to shoot on. It’s also where we store some product. Since Marco’s old man is Native American, Narragansett Tribe to be exact, and this entire stretch is part of the reservation, it’s protected.”

“Holy shit, I never knew,” I muttered, looking around the beautiful kitchen with wide eyes.

“Yeah, Marco’s a pain in the ass but he definitely comes in handy. There’s a reason Pop keeps him around.” Santana’s brown eyes slid down my frame and I bit my lip to keep all the nasty shit I wanted to say to him tucked away in my mind and not sliding out of my mouth. “You look nice today, Sammie,” he smirked.

“Thank you.” I tugged at the hem of my pink shirt and cleared my throat. My body ached for his touch and it didn’t matter where we were.

“Come here.” He patted his lap when he sat down at the island and I giggled into my hand. The heat radiating from my cheeks was insane. I could feel the splotches burning onto my skin. I hurried over to him and settled in his lap.

“What if Marco walks in?” I whispered. Santana’s warm lips seemed to ignore every apprehension I had. Those kisses had a direct line to my pussy and I couldn’t stop the throbbing if I wanted to.

“Then he’s going to have a lot of questions.” His voice was so deep and rough that it started to slough away my logic. Santana could have bent me over right there in Marco’s kitchen and I would have been okay with it. He absolutely drove me insane.

“I know Sam doesn’t have any shooting experience so I got her some gloves too. Just to help with grip at first.” Luckily, Marco announced his presence before he entered the kitchen and I had time to hop up from Santana’s lap.

“Thanks, Marco,” I smiled taking the gloves from him. He offered me a curious smile like he could still see Santana’s lips on my neck.

Fuck…did he leave hickeys?

“No problem. Let’s go out to the range.” We took a long walk through tons of dense trees before coming out on the other side. There was a clearing with targets set up in the distance and a barn further out. I was honestly shocked that we were still on the same property. It felt like we’d walked on to a ranch.

Santana showed me how to take the gun apart, clean it, load it and hold it. He made me practice that shit over and over until he deemed me ready to shoot. That’s what I was really itching to do.

I should have taken my time though because the kickback from the Glock was so hard that I hit myself in the forehead and left a nice red mark between my brows. Clearly, there was a learning curve and being a badass wasn’t as easy as it looked on TV.

 

***