Chapter Six
Oh God her head felt like it was inside a church bell on Sunday morning with Quasimodo ringing the damn thing. She did not have a concussion. She did not have a concussion. She did not have a concussion.
She raised her head off the pillow and realized it was probably for the best her grandmother had checked on her as often as she had throughout the night. Dammit, she didn’t like this, but the doctor said this would be the worst day, and by Saturday, she should be feeling better.
Okay, now where was the aspirin? She got up gingerly from the bed and tiptoed down the hallway to the bathroom. Opening the medicine cabinet, she found some extra strength Tylenol. Thank the Lord. She didn’t even bother going to the kitchen, she swallowed them dry.
She tiptoed past her grandmother’s room on the way back to her own, laid back down, and considered yesterday’s events. First had been the calls with the police detectives and the insurance adjusters. Then, she considered the call with her principal, Bill, they just discussed when she would return to work. She had plenty of sick time, and Bill wanted to wait for her bruising to clear up. When she protested, they agreed she could call in, and they would send over a new laptop since hers was destroyed in the bombing, so she could work online. That conversation was pretty mundane. But the conversation with Hunter? That was an earthquake.
She’d replayed those minutes in the kitchen over and over in her head all night long, which is probably the real reason for her headache, she hadn’t gotten any sleep. During the night she’d made up her mind to talk to Hunter about Nicolas. She needed to protect her mother and grandmother and she knew in her heart that Hunter would figure out a way to help her help the young man as well.
But that wasn’t the real reason she couldn’t sleep. Now that she had decided to rely on Hunter, that meant that he would be in her life for the time it took to resolve things, and it scared her. She’d told him to leave, just like she had thirteen years ago, but he wouldn’t listen. She knew the woman he would eventually find beneath the surface, and she was a hell of a lot more scarred than the one her dad had found to be such a unimaginable hardship. She really wanted Hunter to leave with good memories of her. The fact that he saw her as beautiful told her how flawed his thinking was. What was she going to do?
“Láska, do you want breakfast?”
“I’ll be out in a moment, Babička.” She got up and dressed. Thank God Lottie had finally come to her senses and brought over something loose for her to wear.
It wasn’t until she was down the hall and face-to-face with Hunter that she realized her grandmother had been speaking in English.
“Hunter?” It was as if her thoughts had conjured him.
“I told you I was going to stay and watch over you and your grandmother. I’m going to look in after your mom later on today.”
“But―”
He took a step toward her, and she held her ground.
“Cariña, I told you I wasn’t leaving. Not this time.”
“Why?” she burst out softly, so her grandmother wouldn’t hear.
“I left part of me when I left you.”
They stood there staring at one another. Aliana didn’t know how to respond.
Her grandmother broke the silence. “I’m making waffles, with marionberry jam. I made the jam myself.”
“That sounds wonderful, Mrs. J. What can I do to help?”
“You could take out the trash.” Her grandmother pointed to the cupboard under the sink. Hunter bent to it and pulled out the trash bin.
“Is there anything else? Recycling?”
“Yes, that’s near the washer and dryer. The trash cans are under the carport.”
“Got it.”
Aliana watched his economical movements that had his muscles bunching under his gray T-shirt. As soon as he was safely out of the kitchen, she turned to her grandmother.
“When did he get here?”
“I called him in when I was making coffee this morning.”
“What do you mean, you called him in?”
“He spent the night in his car, watching our house.”
“Actually, I didn’t,” Hunter said as he came back in the door. He smiled, and Aliana remembered his smile from years ago. So white in his dark face. His dimples showed. She’d always loved his dimples. She shook her head to clear it.
“So you weren’t watching over us?” She felt let-down.
“I had to go search for Mateo, so I had one of my teammates watch your place. He’s a SEAL too, so I trust him.”
As soon as Mateo’s name was mentioned, Aliana couldn’t catch her breath. How in the world had Hunter found out about him?
“How do you know about…?” Her voice trailed off.
“You had some visitors yesterday evening. I think it was the Los Demonios’ version of the welcome wagon. We had a friendly little talk, and they mentioned that Mateo was looking for you.”
“They came here?” She took a shallow breath. “To my grandmother’s house?”
He came and stood in front of her, gently placing his hands on her shoulders. Looking into his warm brown eyes calmed her.
“I’m sorry Alia, but yes, they came here. We talked about that possibility yesterday, remember?”
“I was hoping you were wrong, stupid of me, wasn’t it?”
“Not stupid. Maybe naïve.”
“Don’t placate me. I screwed up, admit it. If I run around with my eyes closed while my home is blown up and my grandmother’s house is being watched, I’m useless. I can’t stand that. I need the truth.”
His warm brown eyes darkened. “Well, so do I. Why the hell didn’t you tell me that you’d been attacked?”
“Because I wasn’t supposed to.” Sakra, she didn’t mean to admit to so much.
“You need to tell me, you and your family’s lives are at stake.”
She blew out a deep breath, “I’m going to, I promise. Just give me a minute to catch my breath.” She gave him a pleading look.
“My God, you’re stubborn. Well fine, it doesn’t matter, I am planted firmly in the middle of your shitstorm, no matter what.”
She looked up when her grandmother giggled.
“What?” she asked. “What’s funny?”
“I learned a new idiom. Shitstorm. I like this one.”
Aliana looked to heaven. God help her, everyone had gone crazy.
“Babička, I appreciate that you’re going to learn great new terms from Hunter, but he needs to leave. Actually, we both do. We’re going to check into a hotel.” Why hadn’t she thought of this yesterday?
“No. I’m not leaving my home. I want to stay.” It was a bad sign when her grandmother put her hands on her hips.
“You don’t understand―”
“I understand just fine,” the older woman cut her off in Czech. “You’re afraid of Hunter. Something has been broken in you since your father took his life. Hunter can fix it.”
“What are you talking about? Hunter can’t fix anything.” She didn’t address the part where she was broken or her father.
“No, that’s not the truth, granddaughter. You’ve been living a half-life for too long. I’m not going to allow it anymore. You have to face your past and move on. This is a good, strong man who will keep you safe. You need him. Face your demons and walk into the light, beautiful girl.”
Tears threatened to fall.
“Okay, enough of this happy horseshit. I don’t know what’s being said, but you crying isn’t acceptable.”
“I’m liking him, Láska,” her grandmother switched to English. “Happy horseshit means you’re unhappy, yes?” she asked, turning to Hunter.
“God save me,” He muttered. “Look Aliana, I’m sorry I said you were naïve. I’m sorry I got mad that you didn’t tell me you were attacked. I have a lot of stress right now. Would you like to hear about it?” Oh God, he was giving her a half smile. He was up to something. She remembered this from years ago.
“Say what you need to say.” She crossed her arms.
“I have my grandmother’s book club meeting on Saturday, and they want me there. Why? Because they will have checked their little old lady network to find out who might have set the bomb in your apartment. Then, I have your grandmother wanting me to educate her in all the ‘less than appropriate’ terms I’ve learned since being in the Navy. You gotta just let me help you. Come clean to me, I’m begging you.”
His brown eyes sparkled. He used to do the same thing whenever she was close to tears or actually in tears back in school. He would do crazy things or make up wild stories to make her laugh. Anything so she would feel better.
“Your Mamie doesn’t really have a book club, does she?” She hadn’t just asked that, had she? She wasn’t actually suckering in, was she?
“Swear to God.” He held up three fingers like a boy scout would.
“And they’re meeting on Saturday and invited you?”
“Yep.”
She narrowed her eyes. He had to be kidding her. “If this is true, I want to come.”
“Thank you.” He reached down and cupped her cheeks. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. The way Mamie was talking up Velma’s German chocolate cake, I was worried she was trying to fix us up.”
Aliana sputtered out a laugh. The man was outrageous. Out came the dimples. She tugged his hands, pulling them away from her cheeks. He held them clasped in his hands. She was aware of every moment they touched. She thought about the letter he wrote her when he left. Those words had touched so much more than just her body, they’d touched her soul.
“Why are you frowning, have you changed your mind already, mi Cielieto?”
Aliana rolled her eyes. “Just because I’m trying to take the high road and deal with our situation today in order to make sure Babička is okay doesn’t mean I’m going to fall for your bullshit every time you start peddling it, you got me?”
They both laughed at her, and she knew she was doomed.
Her grandmother turned to the counter and poured batter into the waffle iron.
“Should I get the bacon out of the fridge?” Hunter asked her.
“After you wash your hands,” her grandmother replied.
Aliana watched as they cooked breakfast like a well-oiled machine. Her world was changing before her very eyes. Hunter just made himself at home, and she was allowing herself to like it. This had to stop. Twenty-four hours. It’s only been twenty-four hours.
She got up and cleared off the table and set it. When she went to get the butter out of the fridge, Hunter was slipping by to get the cheese for the eggs. He gave her a lazy smile, making her tummy flip over. Must be the concussion, she assured herself.
They all sat down to breakfast, her grandmother sat across from her, which left her sitting next to Hunter. He watched what she put on her plate. Then added two pieces of bacon.
“I can’t eat all of that.”
“Yes, you can,” he said.
“You’re too slim,” her grandmother chimed in.
“I am not. I’m in the weight range for my height.”
“Bet you’re on the low side,” he said softly.
She ignored him. He was right, but she maintained her weight now. She no longer let it fall to an unhealthy level. She took a bite of her jam smothered waffle, flavor bursting in her mouth. “This is to die for. Thank you.”
“I know your favorites, Láska.”
“What does Láska mean?” Hunter asked.
“It means love,” her grandmother answered. “I used to call my Terez that all the time, remember, Honey?” she asked Aliana. She nodded. Her grandfather had been bigger than life. She remembered him working at the forge in the foundry. All that molten metal fascinated her as a little girl.
When breakfast was over, Hunter said he needed to go back out to his car. “People need to see me, and I need to see what’s going on. Before I go, Aliana, can you come out to the parlor with me? I want to ask you a couple of questions about Mateo.”
She blanched. The cat was out of the bag. Babička would love that saying, she thought. But she would probably end up saying the dog was out of the bag. Since he knew who Mateo was, he was going to find the connection to Nicolas soon enough, wouldn’t he? She bit her lip, then hissed. She needed to stop doing that, it was a bad habit even when she wasn’t injured.
She got up and they went and sat down on the couch in the parlor.
“Ernie told me you needed stitches. Was it Mateo, who cut you?”
Ping. Ping. Ping. Her buttons hit the cement.
Strong hands cradled hers. Warmed them.
“Alia, stay with me. You’re safe. Tell me what happened.”
She shook her head. She’d tell him about Mateo, but she didn’t want to relive her attack. Her braid whipped around and hit her face. He tugged it away and brushed it back over her shoulder.
“You can tell me anything. Don’t you remember? You told me what those girls did to you in the bathroom. I took care of it. Remember?”
“I hated telling you. It was so hard,” she whispered hoarsely.
“Ah, mi Cielieto, my heart was breaking. I looked all over for you. When I found you huddled up under the bleachers, there was no way I was letting you get away with not telling me.”
She remembered that. He was looking at her the same way now, wanting to know about Mateo.
“Alia, please stop crying.”
“Go away, Hunter.” She grabbed her knees tighter, making sure her legs were covered by her skirt. It was the only practical thought she’d had since Lupita, Heather, and Theresa slammed open her bathroom stall.
“What happened? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Go away.”
“Is it those bitches? What did they do?”
He knew that they had been calling her a fat, ugly foreigner. He knew they passed notes and crude drawings of her around the classroom. Stuff like this had been going on all through elementary school, but Hunter had been able to intervene. Seventh and eighth grade, she’d had to go through it alone. Heather and Lupita were vicious, she had the bruises and the bad grades to prove it. But sometimes Hunter would be waiting to walk her home. Those were the best days.
Ninth grade things escalated and brought Theresa into the group. Hunter being a Junior was able to see it first hand, and he got involved almost every day. But he couldn’t help now, there was no way she could ever tell anyone about this humiliation.
“You have to tell me.”
She kept her face shoved against her folded arms. That was when he did something that hadn’t happened since elementary school, he put his arm around her and started to rock her. It made her cry harder.
“Shhhh, it’s going to be all right.”
But it wasn’t. It would never be all right again. She shuddered against him. She was so cold, and he was so warm. She shivered some more and tried to pull away. God, if he ever found out, he’d be disgusted just like the girls were. She needed to get her crying under control. She needed to get home somehow. She couldn’t walk home. It was windy. She needed her father to come drive her home because he had their only car, but he didn’t get off work until an hour after school got out. She’d just hide here until then.
“Please, go away.”
“If I go away, I’m going to go find Lupita and Heather and demand to know what went down.”
Her head jerked up. “No! You can’t!” They’d show him. Then he wouldn’t be her friend anymore. “Promise me you won’t.”
“Then, Alia, you have to tell me what happened.” Sometimes he used his grown-up voice. Since she came to high school, she noticed he did it now and again. It must have happened when he got the tattoos. She liked them, and she didn’t like them. She knew it meant he was involved with a gang. She didn’t like that, but he was still her gentle Hunter. Her protector.
“Please don’t make me,” she said in a last-ditch effort to stop the inevitable.
“I’m just going to go ask the bitches.” He sounded so different. So harsh.
Maybe if she spoke in Spanish, it wouldn’t seem as real. It would be as if it happened to someone else. “
I went to the girl’s restroom after the lunch period was done. I waited until it had cleared out. I always wait until everybody is pretty much gone.”
“Why?” he asked in Spanish.
“I don’t like being in there with the other girls.” She didn’t want to tell him why.
“Why?” he persisted.
“Because,” she burst out,” they always call me fat. They make fun of my clothes. All right?”
“Do they touch you?”
“They used to pull on my hair. That’s why I wear it in a bun now.”
He nodded like he wasn’t surprised.
“So you went to the bathroom. Then what happened?”
“I heard Heather outside my stall telling someone to keep watch. I was still…you know… I tried to hurry. But then I thought I didn’t want to go out there.”
He looked at her, he was angry, but at the same time, he was soothing as he kept his arm around her shoulders. She appreciated the fact that he didn’t prod her along, he waited for her to tell him at her own speed. She remembered the crash of the stall door banging open, the metal door hitting the inside wall. She was still sitting on the toilet. She squeezed her legs together, her panties around her ankles, she had her long skirt covering herself.
“I screamed at them to get out. It was Theresa and Heather who crowded in with me, Lupita was outside the stall, laughing.”
Even when the dirt had suffocated her back in the first grade, she’d never been so scared. The two girls loomed over her. She stared up, grateful she had stopped peeing. She needed to wipe.
“Fatty’s going to cry,” Heather said in a singsong voice.
“Who cares. Look, it’s just like you said. Look at those ugly undies.” Heather bent down and yanked her panties over her shoes. She held them up by the tips of her fingers.
“Look, they have holes. I told you she would have the ugliest undies in school. Smelly too.”
Aliana stared at them in horrified disbelief. This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be happening. Her panties didn’t smell. She was in charge of laundry at home. But it was true, they had holes in them.
“They’re granny panties. Look at how big they are. They’re ugly as fuck,” Heather crowed.
“Wait ’til we show the others. We’ll win for sure.”
This couldn’t be real. Say it wasn’t happening.
“Thanks, Alley Fat, we’ve won the bet. We’re going to win for finding the Ugly Undies for sure,” Lupita smirked.
“Come on, let’s show everybody our prize.”
As soon as she heard them leave, she jumped up and tried to lock the door. The lock was broken. She did the best she could to clean up while holding the door shut. Trembling and shaking, she left the stall and went to wash her hands. She couldn’t look at herself in the mirror.
She was halfway to the door when her stomach rebelled. She ran to another stall and bent over and everything she’d eaten for lunch came bubbling up and out. Again and again, she heaved. Snot came out her nose, her eyes watered. When she was done, she went to the sink and tried to clean up again, this time forced to look in the mirror. They were right, she was Alley Fat. She was pathetic. She needed a place to hide. Everybody was in class. She knew where to go.
“Jesus, I’ll kill them.”
“You would never hit a girl, Hunter.”
“I’ll make an exception.” She had never seen him so angry. “Come on, I’m driving you home. Don’t come to school for the rest of the week. It’ll be taken care of by Monday.”
Her eyes got wide. “But you don’t hurt girls, not ever.”
“I’m not. But those bitches are going down.”
“Others will take their place. Mama and Papa won’t let me dress like the other kids. I still talk funny. I try not to talk with an accent, but they only let me speak Czech at home. And I’m fat. It doesn’t matter what you do.”
“You’re not fat. There’s a lot of girls in this school who weigh as much as you do and people don’t call them fat.”
“That’s because they’re popular. They don’t dress funny. I’m always going to be the funny dressing, funny talking, fat girl.”
“Stop talking like that! You’re special, Alia. You’ve always been special.”
She felt like crying again. He was so wrong. But maybe if someone like Hunter thought she was special, then maybe she might be close to normal.
“So, do we have a deal?”
“Huh?”
“I drive you home. You call in sick. I take care of things.”
She bit her lip. What choice did she have? If she told a teacher or the principal, it would just get worse. She nodded. Hunter squeezed her shoulder.
“You’re brave Alia. You’re special and brave.”
“You need glasses.”
***
“You were remembering, weren’t you?”
She looked up and saw the grown-up Hunter. Somehow, she didn’t remember it happening, she was crushed up beside him. He hadn’t moved, but his arm was around her, and he was stroking her shoulder. She nodded her head.
“I can help you now like I did back then.” His voice was rich and gentle.
“You have girl gang members you can sic on the bitches in my life?” She hiccoughed a wet laugh. “As I remember it, Rita was pretty darn vicious.”
When she got back to school that following Monday, Lupita and Theresa showed up wearing scarves over their heads, and they refused to look at her. It wasn’t until Tuesday that Heather arrived in a wig which somewhat imitated her blonde hair. That was when everyone caught on that all three of the girls were bald. It was confirmed when Jose Garmin tugged off Heather’s bad blonde wig in first period and Lupita’s scarf during lunch. The ‘Alley Fat’ days ended for a while, and instead ‘Bald Bitches’, ‘Shaved Skanks’ and ‘Hairless Whores’ were the butt of all the jokes.
Hunter laughed outright. “God Aliana, you were always braver than you knew. I love that you can laugh about that now.”
“What are you talking about? I hid behind you.”
“Laughter through tears, right? I’ve been there, got the T-shirt.”
“You cry?” She couldn’t picture it.
He got a faraway look in his eye. “I cried for you that day.”
She stared at him stunned. Finally, she got her voice. “But not since you grew up, right?”
He frowned. Then ever so gently, he brushed a stray tear from her cheek. “What kind of man would that make me if I hadn’t felt strongly enough about things to cry about them?”
He was remembering something really bad. She could see the sorrow in his eyes. She hated it. She reached out and for the first time, she touched him. Cupping the side of his face, she gave him a soft smile.
“Thank you for being there for me. You made a difference in my life. I couldn’t have survived without you, Hunter.”
“You got it wrong, I couldn’t have survived without you.”
He made her feel like a heroine from a novel. How was that possible?
He cleared his throat. “You have to tell me about Mateo. I need to know what happened.”
She bowed her head. He was right.
“I guess it’s no different, you know almost all the ugly parts of my life.”
“Chaquita, one day you’ll learn you can tell me all the ugly, and it won’t matter.”
How she wished that were true.
“Mateo and three of his friends jumped me in the parking lot outside of my townhome. The security cameras had been vandalized two days before. I couldn’t help but wonder that it might have been planned.” She was proud how even her voice sounded. Now if she could just keep it that way.
“Four men?”
“Not men, exactly, more like boys. Students.”
“Really? Mateo is twenty-one, isn’t he? That qualifies as a man in my book,” Hunter said harshly.
“Anyway, before I could get to the pepper spray in my purse, one of them came up behind me and jerked both up my arms up behind my back. I was worried he was going to dislocate my shoulders.”
Still calm. She could do this.
“Fucker.”
“Mateo pulled out a knife. He put it against my throat. I knew he wasn’t going to kill me.” Damn, she heard her voice shake just a little. “He made a lot of noise about how I needed to stop encouraging Nicolas.”
“Let me guess, you argued.” Hunter’s eyes glittered down at her.
She didn’t respond, she knew better. “For some reason, Mateo escalated.”
“Goddamn it, Alia, you’re the reason he escalated. You should have just agreed with him.” Hunter reached out and touched the small bandage on her throat. “Then what happened. How did he escalate?”
“He… He…”
Hunter tugged her close, then tipped up her chin. “Tell me Cariña.”
“He told me exactly where my mom lived. He threatened to kill her. He knew the facility and even what room she was in. Then he cut off my shirt and bra. The end.” There, she got it out without breaking down. Her lips tilted up in a semblance of a smile.
“Try that again, Alia.” Hunter looked exactly like he had under the bleachers. She could feel the rage pouring off him.
“The details don’t matter.”
“They matter. Tell me.”
She rubbed her chest and winced. He pulled her hand away and pulled her into his arms, just like she’d asked him to at the start.
“Please tell me, mi Cielieto,” he coaxed. “You have no idea what I’m imagining.”
“I was scared,” she said quietly. “I didn’t want to be. I wanted to be strong.”
He stroked her hair, and she pressed tighter against him.
“One of them, he said…he said I had ‘nice tits’, I prayed I wouldn’t be raped.”
“Motherfucker,” he whispered fiercely into her hair. Somehow that made her feel better, and she continued.
“Mateo kept saying I had to stop giving Nicolas motivation. He said that his family was the gang.”
Hunter laid his cheek on her head. “And you disagreed.”
“I had to, Hunter.”
“Of course you did. Then what happened?”
“He threatened to kill my mother. I told you he knew where she lived, even knew there was a tree right outside her window. And then…”
“Then what?”
“That’s when he used the tip of his knife to cut the buttons off my blouse.”
“How did he end up cutting your chest, mi Cariña?”
“He slipped the knife under my bra, I don’t think he meant to cut my chest, but one of the other boys―”
“Men,” Hunter interrupted. “They were men, Alia.”
“One of the others said they heard a siren, and Mateo ended up cutting the bra and my chest. Then they shoved me into my car, and they all ran away.”
“Mother, mother, fuckers.”
She didn’t tell him about the medal. She just couldn’t. That was private. She swallowed.
“Cariña, I have to go. I have a friend who’s due to arrive soon. He’s going to spell me, and now that I know about this, I’ll go check in on your mom.”
“Can I go with you?”
“You’ve been rubbing the back of your neck and your temple for the last half hour. Why don’t you take a nap and see how you feel afterward? If you feel up to a drive to Glendale after that, then sure.”
He searched her eyes and must have seen something that assured him because he leaned over and kissed her forehead. He smelled good. She wrapped her arms around him. He felt good.
“I’ll call you.”
“You don’t have my number.”
“Yes, I do,” he winked at her, then left.