Chapter Three
Alyssa
No one in Riverside told her Scott had been released. No one from inside either. She closed her eyes as she walked into the bedroom and tried in vain to gather herself. Alyssa couldn’t break her cover.
When she’d been approached for this assignment, she hadn’t felt right about it. Snitching on her family? The 323 had been all she’d known for so many years because of her brother, Juan. Sure, her parents loathed the gang. Hated what they’d turned her and her brother into, but she got out. She’d made something of herself. An investigator with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
It’d taken her years of blood, sweat, and tears to get to where she was today. She fought every stereotype. Handled the snide remarks and crossed looks of disdain. Yeah, she was tatted up. Had the 323 tag on her back. She was proud of herself. Proud of where she came from and how she got out. No one could take it away from her. Nor would she let them.
When she opened her eyes, she frowned. How could brother stand being in such a filthy place. Beer bottles, condom wrappers, and God only knew what lay strewn across the floor and on the broken-down dressers. Two stained mattresses lay on the floor, and her stomach rolled in disgust. Had it always been this way? Did she block out this part?
“Catch up?” She shook her head. “Yeah, not going to happen.” She couldn’t blow her cover, but talking to Scott would be a disaster.
If anything, his time in the joint had been kind to him. The white tank he wore molded his upper chest and stomach like second skin, showing off his defined abs and trim waist. She also noticed the two tear drops next to his left eye. No, he was pure trouble, the kind she didn’t need in her life.
“Come on, Alyssa,” he said, closing the distance between them. “It’s been forever since I saw you.”
It’d been too soon for her.
When Juan became a member, she’d been a little girl compared to them. For a while, she idolized them. Her brother and his friend were tough. They didn’t take shit from anybody, and if anybody came into their barrio looking for trouble, they got their asses handed to them.
She idolized them. Probably put both men too high up on a pedestal. They were going to fall, she’d always known it, and yet she still clung to the hope they’d change like she had. She glanced up, trying desperately to not be ensnared by his chocolate-brown eyes.
Alyssa failed miserably. Once captured, she fell into them, willing to do whatever he wanted, because damn it. Old feelings, no matter how long they’d been removed, still sneaked back in.
“It’s been thirteen years, Scott. What do we have to talk about?”
He shrugged. The easy way he lifted his shoulder shouldn’t have turned her on. “Everything.” He licked his lips again, and she bit back a sigh.
“Sorry, I don’t have time for this little game,” she muttered. “Where’s my brother?”
“Smurf said he had business,” Scott answered. “Said he’d be back later.”
“Business?” She chuckled. “What is he, the prince of Persia now?”
Scott choked on a laugh. “How would I know? He’s your brother.”
“Unfortunately,” she grumbled under her breath. “Well, good seeing you. Glad you did your time. Nice to see you’re home.”
“We should still talk, princess.”
The warmth of his palm pressed against her hip had tingles of pleasure shooting across her lower belly. Her nipples hardened. Her breath hitched. Damn him for being so … tempting. “No, really I gotta go.”
He flashed her one of his panty-melting smiles. “I’m home. I ain’t going anywhere, so I’ll see you around.”
She stepped out of his hold. “Yeah. Sure. We’ll, uh, catch up another time.”
He tracked her gaze. “You know it.” He stepped into her way again, this time he bent his head. “Saw the way you looked at me all those years ago. Legal; free and clear, right mami?” He rubbed the tip of his nose over hers.
Holy shit. His words should have left her feeling dirty and a bit creeped out, instead they turned her on even more. Her skin heated, flushed by his words, by how close he stood to her. She’d seen this before from him, but never with her. Never this close.
“Damn, homie,” Milo stated. “You just get home and you’re already trying to get you some.”
Scott smirked. “Been a long time. I’ve got an itch to scratch. All. Night. Long.”
Alyssa couldn’t blow her cover, so she stepped out of his embrace. “Maybe later, papi.” She traced the line of his jaw with her fingertip then turned to Milo. “Did my brother say where he went?”
He shook his head. “Nah, you know how he is. Always doin’ the hush-hush with us.”
Yeah, that’s what she worried about. “Shit. He told me to meet him here.”
“He went to Mexicali,” Simon said coming out of the kitchen. “Said if you showed up; snooze you lose. Some big ass party with potential.”
Potential, what?
“That all he said?”
Simon nodded.
Shit. What the hell would her brother need in Mexicali? Unless the rumors were true. The potential could be drugs or weapons or people. Either way, nothing good could come of it. When she took the job, she hadn’t wanted it. She hated the idea of spying on her brother.
Though her parents might have disowned him, she hadn’t. In fact, she considered the gang her family more than the biologicals. She hated it. She hated she’d been torn in two by her brother and her parents.
She hadn’t hidden her past either when she took the job in Riverside. She liked the work and she fit in, even for a reformed member of the 323s. It’d also been why they told her to go home and find out what he brother was doing.
Which in her estimation would be no good.
The information in her case file said Juan had been spotted in Mexicali. No one knew where he went once he got there or why he’d been there. However, since he’d been taking these little trips, drugs and weapons were beginning to show up in the greater Los Angeles area.
Some could say it was coincidence. Taking a trip to the middle of the desert didn’t automatically mean he’d been breaking the law. For all she knew or the department knew, he was going there to get away from the smog and noise of the city. Still something didn’t sit right with her. Intuition said everything in the file she’d been given about the case against her brother was right.
What have you gotten yourself into?
She had to get out of there, call her brother and tell him to stop. The lines of where her loyalties lie blurred. She was undercover, yet the need to go to her brother and prevent whatever he was about to do sent a bolt of anxious energy through her. Why did she have to be the one to bring her brother down?
“I’m holding you to our later,” Scott murmured, wrapping his arm around her middle. The hard press of his body to her back chased away the anxious feeling and replaced them with lust.
“Please.” The word tumbled from her as a tremor worked through her.
“You got it, mami. I’ll make you feel good. Real good.” His breath warmed her ear and neck. Her nipples hardened and her sex ached.
Fuck. This shouldn’t be happening to her. She didn’t have time for his bullshit. Not after her pining away for a guy way older than her. She edged away from him, trying to hide the way her body responded to him.
“Why now?” She hadn’t meant to say the words out loud.
“Why not.” He placed his finger under her chin and turned her face to him. “It’s been a long time.”
Nothing good could come from her giving in to some childish infatuation. Especially if she was going to take down her brother and those who’d want to bring more guns and drugs into the area. If it meant putting Scott away, then so be it. She’d hate it, hell she hated the whole situation, but she had a job to do.
She flinched away from him and took a deep settling breath. She had to be interested just enough to not seem suspicious, but not so much he’d take advantage of her. “You don’t get to act like no time has gone by. For all you know, I could have a boyfriend or something.”
Alyssa hated lying. She didn’t have anyone in her life. Being a sheriff’s deputy had its draw backs. Most of the men who worked with her turned their noses up when they caught a hint of her tattoos. The minute they saw the 323 on her shoulder, or the la vida viva, across her chest they gave her shit. Whether it’d been telling her she didn’t belong or trying to figure out who she paid off to get on the force.
She could admit she did some shady shit when she was younger, but people did change. She’d had to change or she’d be dead or six-feet in the ground. Getting involved with Scott in any capacity would cause her problems. Problems she didn’t need, and problems she’d never be the same after.
“I can’t, Scott. Not now.” She took a step away from him, determined to leave the apartment and not look back.
He grabbed her hand, stilling her motion. “Wait. We should talk.” The soft quality of his voice could be her undoing, but she wouldn’t fall for it. Not now. Probably not ever. As far as she was concerned, he was the enemy.
“I really have to go. My mom needs me to pick up my sister from school, and you know how mama is if we don’t do what she wants.”
He smirked and gave a nod. “Yeah, she whipped you with her chanklas.” The deep rumble of his laugh warmed her.
“Exactly.” She waved as she continued out the door. “Good seeing you, Scott.”
She couldn’t get out of there quick enough. Being so close to the object of her lust-filled fantasies made it way too easy to forget about the obligations of her investigation. Though she knew logically for this to work, and for her to stop her brother, she had to get close to everyone and act like, well, her. She couldn’t let anyone find out what she’d become or how she’d gotten a job with the sheriff’s department.
However, having Scott there made her job ten times harder. She climbed into her Camaro and started it up. The hum of the engine relaxed her marginally. When she hit the button for her radio, the classic rock ballad drove away the remaining anxious feelings jumbling her thoughts. The built in GPS screen switched to how many calls she’d missed along with texts. Two of them came from her sister. The other from her boss.
She hit the call back button on the screen and put the car into gear before pulling away from the curb. Her commanding officer claimed he saw potential in her when she’d first gone to work for Riverside Sheriff’s Department. At nineteen, she hadn’t given a shit. She’d been caught in a stolen vehicle, and if she’d gone along with the charges, she’d have spent six months in jail and earned her respect from the 323s.
However, she saw the anguish she caused her mom and something snapped in her. She couldn’t do it. When the prosecutor gave her one more chance to take the deal they offered her, she jumped on it. No way she’d give her mother any more grief. It was bad enough Juan did it enough for the both of them.
At first, she’d only been used as a snitch. If the 323s’ were going to be anywhere near Riverside or the surrounding area, she had to report it. Of course, Alyssa had issues with that. The only person who could snitch on them would be her. They’d figure it out quickly. It had been around the same time she started catching shit about her tattoos. Too many of the old school deputies told stories about the gang members they “rounded up,” and never made it to booking. Most of it had been done to scare her, but some of it, she did question. She could never prove the truth of what they said. So, she never took it any farther.
“Ramos,” Felix Jimenez, her commanding officer barked in greeting. “Took you long enough.”
“Sorry, Captain. I was trying to locate my brother. He should have been at the hangout, but he’s in Mexicali again.”
Jimenez grunted. “Figures. Anything else strike you as interesting?” His caustic tone always made it hard to distinguish when he might actually care about her as deputy rather than treating her like a criminal.
“Scott Jurupa is home. Says he got out of prison a few days ago.”
“Hmm,” he muttered. “I find it strange your brother goes to Mexicali, and his best friend gets out. Don’t you Ramos?”
No, she didn’t. Not in the least. If Scott did his time and got out, then so be it. He paid his debt to society. Her brother on the other hand … Stupid idiot. What the hell are you thinking, Juan!
“No, sir. I’m more concerned with Juan than I am Scott. If what the reports say are true, my brother could be getting into something he can’t get out of.”
Jimenez chuckled.
“Sir, with all due respect. You can arrest my brother all day long, but he’s supposedly partying and making deals in the desert,” she stated. “Can we save this pissing contest for after we stop whatever is about to go down?”
He grunted. “What have you got?”
Nothing, but she wouldn’t say it. “There is a party scheduled for this afternoon. Scott’s welcome home party. I want to attend so I can keep tabs on him, and see if I can get more information on where my brother has gone off to. If I rush to Mexicali right now, it might cause Juan to grow suspicious of me.”
“Fine. Do it,” the captain answered. “But don’t make me regret it.”
She figured after ten years, she’d have earned a bit of their respect. She put her life on the line day after day. The nineteen-year-old girl who came into the academy with a chip on her shoulder didn’t sit behind the wheel today. All she asked for was a chance to prove her loyalty … even if it meant giving up her family. “You won’t, sir. Thank you, sir.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Ramos.”
Before she could answer, he hung up and the whine of an electric guitar blared from the speakers. Alyssa blew out a breath and headed to the high school. She hadn’t been lying. Her mother did need her to pick up her sister and take her to the DMV for her written driver’s test. At least for the next three hours, she could concentrate on something other than the case and seeing Scott again after all that time. Aye dios mio. I’m screwed.