CHAPTER TWO

Santana

“Working here will build character.” Pop spoke with a cigarette hanging from between his lips, seemingly stuck there by sheer faith. I hated that I was being crammed into a nine-to-five at Papa’s Family Mexican Restaurant but after Pop decided to take it easy on me last night, I couldn’t refuse.

I got to see what really happened after hours at the restaurant and it blew my mind but it made perfect sense at the same time. If I had to work a legit job during the day then I would, especially if it meant I got to work with Pop once the sun went down.

I looked over my shoulder at him and scoffed a bit, “I’m not looking to build character, old man. I have that shit in spades.”

“Yeah, well, you need more of it,” he told me. His narrowed eyes crinkled at the corners. It was the only sign of his age. Other than that, he looked like he could have been my older brother instead of my father and that’s saying something since I’d only been alive for twenty-one years.

“You need to learn to navigate all sorts of customers, son,” his tone took on a double meaning and I dialed back my arrogance. In this arena, Pop was the king and I was the apprentice. “Get back there on the grill and start scrambling up some huevos.” I let my shoulders slump as I pushed my feet to the kitchen.

I had to build character.

Yeah right.

I wished like hell that I could skip all the Karate Kid Mr. Miyagi shit and get straight to business. “I don’t know what scrambling eggs has to do with learning the business, Pop,” I called over my shoulder. I heard his rough laugh behind me as he approached. The squeak of his black shoes was unmistakable.

“You have to learn how not to stand out, Santana. That’s your problem. Your energy sticks out like a sore thumb. You’re fucking huge and your whole vibe matches your stature. Scrambling eggs will help you not be such a bull in a China shop.”

“You’re a bull too. Where do you think I got it from?” I cracked the egg’s thin shell and dropped the contents onto the hot grill top. I cracked one after another until I had a dozen in front of me.

“Ah, but I know how to be subdued. I know how to operate as a day-walking, law-abiding citizen and I know how to operate as a nocturnal predator. You only know how to be nocturnal, Santana.” He placed a heavy hand on my shoulder and sighed as if I’d never get it. “Scramble those eggs, mijo.”

“Yeah, okay.” So, I scrambled the fucking eggs while counting down the time until the sun sank in the earth. It was all I cared about since last night.

Anyone else would have been thanking God that they didn’t get chewed out for being expelled from school. Not me. I was pissed that my father had been keeping such a major secret from me. That secret trumped my expulsion. It made me wonder if Sammie knew what I’d only found out about last night. Had my mother known too?

Pop studied me as the day wore on and customers packed the cozy restaurant. Papa’s was the most popular place in town, easily. It had the type of atmosphere that made people settle in like they’d lived there all their lives.

Maybe it was the lived on couches that lined the exposed brick walls or the smallish round tables in the sitting area that made people sit close and talk to each other. Could have been the colorful art on the walls depicting family scenes from Mexico or the upbeat music always going in the background. Hell, the smell alone pulled people in from the street. Whatever it was, people flocked to Papa’s Family Mexican Restaurant.

I used to hate being there during business hours. There were too many people. Too many conversations. Too much of…everything. I liked solitude and sitting in the middle of Papa’s during the day was not how you got solitude.

All the talking and laughing was more my sister’s thing. She was the social butterfly. Sammie was sunbeams and warmth. She was like a sunny day at the beach and I was like a storm on the horizon.

The more I thought about her, the more I missed her. My eyes turned to the front doors of Papa’s, waiting for her to breeze through. My father glanced at me and said, “She’ll be here soon, mijo. She gets out of school at one.” He lifted the cuff of his sleeve and checked the time on his Swiss watch.

It made sense that he had that watch now. At least I knew for sure it wasn’t just money from running the restaurant. “You’re putting all the pieces together now, aren’t you?” Pop’s lips curled into a satisfied smile.

“I am. Now I know how you’re able to put Sammie and me through Ivy League schools.”

“I’m not putting you through shit, Santana. You got kicked out for selling drugs on campus, or do I need to remind you?” The smile dropped clean off his face as he regarded me.

Was he really mad though?

“No need to remind me,” I grumbled. I didn’t need a reminder for something that only happened one day ago.

I was minding my business outside the dining hall when a few of my boys walked up talking about a frat party. Naturally, I wanted to be the supplier. I’d been selling drugs on and off campus for months and I had a nice amount of product to unload. I wanted to get rid of it quickly because I knew the payout would be lovely. I told my boys that I’d get the shit from my room and go to the quad where I knew the frat boys would be.

The deal went fine. I had everything sewed up. I headed back to my dorm to get ready for the party without a care in the fucking world until campus security banged on my door. It trembled beneath their eager fists.

Evidently, a new teacher that looked a hell of a lot like a student spotted me on the quad making the deal for the party and reported me. I couldn’t dispute the claims once they showed me video of myself handing off the product.

They handed me off the state police and I got thrown in jail. Pop had to come bail me out and it wasn’t like the drive from Rhode Island to New Hampshire was a short one. I sat in a cell for more than three hours until he got there and a part of me wanted to just stay the fuck in jail because the ride home with him was hell.

I got lectured for hours until I exploded with frustration when we got home. Shards of anger went everywhere. I didn’t care that I was yelling at my father because he blew up too. We collided like two massive suns until he calmed down enough to bring me into the fold.

Pop yanked me from my recollection when he said, “Sometimes you’re too much like me for your own good, Santana.”

“How’s that?” I smiled, tossing a dishtowel over my shoulder.

“You want instant gratification. You want things fast and you want them your way.”

“Can’t argue with that,” I nodded. Our words fell to silence when the doors to the restaurant opened. In walked sunshine and blue fucking skies. My face lit up at the sight of Sammie.

A warm smile slid across her face when our eyes met. She was still pretty as ever even though it was clear that she filled out a little more while I was in school. My eyes swept the restaurant to see if any motherfuckers were looking at her in ways they shouldn’t have been.

I really wished she hadn’t worn her cheerleading uniform. She was a feast of sights for hungry men. For predators who had no problem trying to bed a seventeen-year-old.

Sammie was a fucking vision though. She was a portrait of dusky amber skin, thick strands of butterscotch brushed up high in a swishing ponytail, and olive green eyes that had me helplessly wrapped around her pinky. My little sister was my biggest and only weakness. It had been that way since she was a baby.

“Santana!” She squeaked like she wasn’t in my bed bugging the fuck out of me this morning with a million questions.

“What’s up, Sammie?” She catapulted into my arms knocking the dishtowel to the floor.

“Damn, I must be chopped liver,” Pop chuckled and held his arms out. Pink dusted Samira’s cheeks as she hugged him.

“Sorry. I just never get to see my brother anymore. It’s like he’s a freaking celebrity.” I snorted at her use of the word freaking. Sammie cursed like a grown ass man and maybe that was my fault but hearing her try to hide it always made me burst at the seams with laughter.

“So, are we having a big family dinner?” Sammie tossed one slender arm around my shoulders and the other around Pop. “Mom would have wanted it that way,” she pinned both of us with a green stare. We couldn’t say no to her.

That was her superpower. She could make anyone agree with her. She had cunning unlike anything I’d ever seen in my life. One look into those big eyes and everyone submitted.

“You cooking?” Pop chided, nudging her ribs with his elbow. I saw a few guys staring at the way Sammie’s pleated white skirt slid up her thighs while her arms around me and Pop’s high, broad shoulders. Anger forced my jaw muscles shut. I clenched my teeth together until a dull throb pulsed through my neck.

Being Samira’s big brother meant I was constantly fighting off assholes that didn’t know how to keep their hands or their eyes to themselves. Her gaze was on me like hot coals the second she felt me stiffen. She knew my temper well.

“Behave, Santana,” she sang in my ear. She let go of Pop and hung her arms around my neck.

“You need to put on some goddamn clothes.” I used my body to shield her from view but the guy in the corner couldn’t keep his fucking eyes to himself. He tossed his papers in the trash and smiled as he walked past Sammie. He smiled like a goddamn wolf and it took everything in me not to shove him out of the door.

“Santana, we got orders coming in.” Marco, the other cook in the kitchen only kind of pulled my attention from the asshole in the corner.

“Go,” Pop grumbled once he noticed my disposition darkening like storm clouds. I stalked back to the kitchen and behind me I heard the shuffling of feet. I slowed in my stride and waited for what I knew was Sammie to catch up.

“I was serious about having a big family dinner,” she said. A smile brightened her face and I felt a chunk of anger dissolve from my bones. “I can make refried beans, tamales, and yellow rice.” Her grin widened and her red nails danced up and down my shoulders. I rubbed my stomach thinking about all the food she was mentioning. I hadn’t had a good home cooked meal in a while.

“Okay. We can do it. You better make it like Mom did too.” Even the thought of my mother made my chest so heavy I thought I might suffocate. I had to focus on something else…anything else. I pulled a deep breath in through my nose and let my eyes fall shut for a second.

I smelled garlic and tomatillos in the air along with the spice of peppers being chopped on the counter by Marco. I opened my eyes again and looked down at the chicken in front of me on the grill top.

“I miss her too,” Samira said. Still, nobody missed her the way I did. The second that thought crept into the shadows of my mind, I banished it. My sister missed Mom just as much as I did.

She was the only mother Sammie knew. Her own mom abandoned her and Pop in the hospital when she was only a couple days old. To be totally honest, I never knew Sammie wasn’t my blood sister until I was a teenager. Most of my memories started with her and ended with her.

“I know you do, Sammie,” I said, clearing my throat. “Hey, do me a favor?” I lifted an eyebrow at her and she nodded, her tawny ponytail bouncing up and down. “Go shopping for the food for dinner and when you do, put some fucking clothes on. I don’t want to murder half of Rhode Island because you can’t keep your little ass covered up.” The chicken breasts on the grill sizzled when I flipped them over. Metal clanged against metal when I chopped the meat with my spatula.

Sammie’s laughter tore through the hissing and chopping sounds in the air and it caught hold of me, forcing a chuckle out. “Santana, shut the hell up. I can wear what I want. I’m about to turn eighteen.” She spun in a little circle and her skirt flared out in a fan of white.

I grunted in response and shook my head. I pulled the chicken off the grill and set it on a platter then handed it off to Marco. He wasn’t paying attention to me though because he was busy staring at Sammie with a smirk.

“Hey,” I snapped my fingers and he jerked his eyes to mine. He offered me a weak smile that made me want to shove a few choice words down his throat. “Do me a favor, Marco, and keep your fucking eyes to yourself.”

“I didn’t mean any harm. Sam knows she’s beautiful though. I barely get to see her back here she’s always out front talking to everyone else but me,” he said.

“Stop it, Marco. I say hi to you whenever I come in,” she reasoned.

“No, you don’t. I’ll let you make it up to me though. Come to my house later…” His eyes slid down her curves like grease.

“Are you serious right now? Did you forget all of a sudden that she’s seventeen and you’re twenty-three?” I was trying my best not to cause a scene at the restaurant but Marco was pushing his fucking luck trying to take my sister out.

“Let me get the hell out of here before I get you in trouble. You know Santana has a temper,” Sammie warned Marco, rubbing his shoulder. Just like everyone else, he fell under the spell of her sparkle.

Samira wrapped me in a hug and pressed a chaste kiss to my cheek before breezing out of the kitchen. I heard her tell Pop goodbye and then I heard the doors close. The minute she was out of sight, I swarmed Marco, irritation burning through me. I was at least a head taller than him so he had to crane his neck to look up at me.

“Yo, Santana, you know I didn’t mean shit by that. I was messing with Sam, man.”

“You were messing with her by telling her she could make it up to you by going to your house?” I rubbed the base of my palm over my chin and sighed, shaking my head. “See, that shit didn’t sound like a fucking joke to me. I don’t like motherfuckers like you trying to screw my sister.”

“I wasn’t,” he stammered, holding his hands out. He bared his teeth in an attempt to smile but it didn’t translate. All I saw and smelled was fear. It turned me into a hunter. A wolf stalking helpless prey.

“You were.” My voice was a roll of thunder. The only thing that dismantled the tension was the ding of the bell up front. Pop was ringing it on purpose. He had to be. He glanced into the kitchen from the front and I backed off of Marco a bit.

It was still within business hours so I couldn’t take things out on him like I wanted but the thought of it burned through me. When the restaurant closed for the evening, Marco still avoided me. Ever since I came close to fucking him up he stayed quiet and on the other side of the kitchen.

“Look, Santana,” he began with a lighthearted chuckle. “You know I didn’t mean anything by what I said to Sam, right? I was just fucking around. Harmless flirting.”

“Next time you tell my little sister to come to your fucking house, I’ll keep your teeth as souvenirs. Understand?” My fist held the collar of his t-shirt so tight that he was starting to sputter. Uselessly, he tugged at my fingers trying to get me to drop him. I didn’t plan on it though.

I slammed him against the wall and knocked the wind out of his lungs. I wanted him to have a real reason to sputter. His head banged against the shiny white tile and he pled to me with his eyes.

“Santana, man…I’m sorry. Let me…go.”

I smirked while I watched him struggle. I felt the familiar black water of darkness spreading out in my chest. It pushed me to swing my fist into Marco’s jaw with no regret. I stood back and watch him double over in agony while he held his face.

“So we’re clear then? Next time you say anything to my sister, I promise your teeth will come out.”

“Santana, what the fuck?” Pop’s voice burst through the door before he did but the damage was already done. I shook my aching hand out and chuckled at the sight of Marco in so much pain.

“It’s fine Mr. Alvarez,” Marco stood upright as he could and braced himself against the wall. He shot me a look of pure fury. I dared him to do a motherfucking thing. I would lay him out on the floor and he knew it.

“It’s not fine, Marco. Santana, go. I’ll talk to you when I get home,” Pop snarled. In a huff, I tossed down the dishtowel slung over my shoulder and stormed out. Fuck that shit. I hated having a nine-to-five anyway. I liked quick money. Waiting for a paycheck annoyed the hell out of me.

I peeled away from Papa’s and sped all the way home. I needed my bright spot. I needed my ray of sunshine. Smelling the house filled to the brim with familiar aromas wouldn’t hurt either.

***