Andres Maldonado’s Home

Benedict Canyon

Los Angeles, California

 

Andres stood with his arms crossed over his chest on the front stoop of his house, watching as the young woman walked toward him. Her name was Stevie Wayne. She was another operative for Mastiff Security, one that the owner of the company, Durango Masters, had hired personally. That should have been a big enough endorsement to satisfy any concerns Andres had, but it wasn’t.

He didn’t know Durango. He knew Wren.

“Are you sure she can handle this?” he’d asked twice, then a third time, when he spoke to Wren earlier in the day.

“Positive. She’s a good operative. We’ve already worked two cases together, and she held her own on both.”

“But she’s deaf?”

“It’s not an issue, Andres. If I thought it was, she’d be the last person I’d send over.”

But seeing her here, in the flesh, didn’t make him any more confident. She couldn’t have stood more than five-four or weighed more than a hundred pounds. Skinny and small. Gray might be better off on her own at this point.

“Mr. Maldonado?” she asked as she approached, her tone slightly monotonous, but not enough to sound unnatural.

He nodded.

“Stevie Wayne.” She held out her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

He studied her face for a long moment, ignoring her hand. “I don’t know what Wren told you,” he said, speaking slowly so that she wouldn’t have trouble reading his lips, “but this is my family. This is my daughter and…” He hesitated to call Gray his nanny. But she was, wasn’t she? “This is important to me.”

“Of course. I understand completely.”

“You can handle watching over them? You can keep them safe?”

There was a slight narrowing of her eyes, but she smiled. A forced smile, but a smile nonetheless. “I am quite capable of doing my job. I’m sure you’ve seen my resume, know that Mr. Masters hired me for this position himself?”

“Yes.”

“He wouldn’t have done that if I was incapable of keeping a small child and her nanny safe from potential threats.” She tilted her head slightly, her eyes moving quickly over the front of the house. “I’ve handled much more complicated jobs than this.”

“I’m sure you have, but—”

“Just because I can’t hear an intruder doesn’t mean I can’t see one. Haven’t you heard that when you lose one sense, the other four become stronger? It’s not just a myth.”

That didn’t make Andres feel any better, but he just nodded. “All right. Come inside.”

He didn’t like this. He didn’t want to leave Alyssa and Gray tonight. But it was Friday, and if they didn’t go forward with the kidnapping of the client’s kid tonight, he might be stuck working with Lobo and Isaac another week. Maybe longer. Andres wasn’t sure he could handle that.

He had no choice. The only thing that made this slightly better was knowing that several other operatives would be in the neighborhood, watching the house as well. And they all had a full range of hearing.

“Gray and Alyssa are upstairs. I’ll go get them,” he said before he realized he was talking to her back. He touched her arm. She smiled as she turned, but he could see irritation in her eyes. If she didn’t want to be touched, shouldn’t she have some other method for people to catch her attention? “Gray and Alyssa are upstairs,” he said again, pointing to the ceiling. “I’ll go get them.”

“Okay.”

She turned again and walked into his living room like it belonged to her. He watched her go, still assessing her thin body with a concern that made him consider staying behind on this little kidnapping job tonight. He wanted to see this case come to a close, but he wasn’t sure he felt comfortable leaving Gray and Alyssa right now.

He’d been taken to the infirmary in the aftermath of the fight. The guards were still dragging the Sur 13 guys off that poor kid when one noticed the blood gushing from his side. The doctors told him he was lucky, that nothing major was punctured. Fifteen stitches, and he was as good as new. But a jail fight was cause to keep him inside longer even though Lobo’s lawyer had finally negotiated bail for him. That’s where the tattoos Robert had insisted were too dark for his innocent sister came in handy. The Sur 13 boys took the fall for him.

Say what you will about street gangs, but when it comes to one brother standing up for another, they had it down to a perfect science.

He walked out the following afternoon, bail secured through a bondsman just across the street from the courthouse where all the deals had been made on his behalf. Lobo was waiting outside the jail gates, sitting in an idling car all alone.

At least there were no bags to go over his head and no cable ties to restrict his hands.

All Andres had wanted at that point was to go home. But he was still working a case, and he had to keep up appearances. If he burned his cover with Lobo, it might not cost him only this case, but future cases as well.

“How’s it hanging, hermano?” Lobo had asked as Andres reluctantly climbed into his car.

“About as well as it can for a man who was stabbed with a spoon yesterday afternoon.”

“I heard about that. Sorry we couldn’t get you out sooner.”

“You got me out. That’s all that matters.”

Lobo didn’t respond to that. He started the car and pulled onto the street, speeding toward the heart of the city. Andres settled back, wondering if he was being taken to his execution. Did they think he’d told some secrets inside there? Did they believe he was behind the arrests? In a way, he supposed he was. He suspected Robert had arranged his arrest and the marijuana that was found with his things. The man was that determined to get Andres away from his sister.

“The boys tell me that you were a voice of calm inside there. One said you reminded him to keep his mouth shut.”

Andres shrugged. “They’re kids. I’d assume most of them haven’t been on that side of things very often.”

“Nope. Two of them went to juvie a few years ago, but that’s about it.”

“It showed. But they held up better than I did my first few times.”

“Because of you. Isaac is grateful.”

“I was just watching my own back.”

“Whatever the reason, all five boys got out of there without saying a word. Isaac believes that’s because of you, and he wants to reward you. Between this and the card game, he feels he owes you big.”

“He doesn’t owe me anything. I just want to be a part of the gang.”

“He’s promoting you.”

“Is that right?”

Lobo glanced at him. “He wants you working at the club. Running whores.”

Andres’ eyebrows rose. “Isn’t that part of your duties?”

“He’s promoting me, too, hermano. We all get something out of this.”

And that’s where the drinking had come in. Lobo had taken Andres to the empty club, and they’d shared a couple of bottles of tequila before the place opened. After it opened, the real party had started. Andres hadn’t been able to sneak out until late, and by then, he’d been plastered. He couldn’t even remember getting home, but he must have done all right. The Camaro was parked safely in the front drive.

He headed upstairs, glancing briefly at his phone. He had less than three hours to meet with Wren and the crew she’d chosen for the night’s activities before he was expected at the club for his first night in his new position.

First and last, he hoped.

Gray was standing just inside Andres’ bedroom door, the landline pressed to her ear as she watched Alyssa play on the hall floor with a toy cell phone. Alyssa was watching Gray, chattering whenever Gray spoke, remaining silent whenever Gray listened. She was such a parrot, his little girl. And the affection and admiration that poured from her eyes warmed his heart.

But there was sadness and grief there, too.

“I will. Thank you,” Gray said dully into the phone. She’d spotted him coming through the safety gate at the top of the stairs, her eyes unreadable as she watched him walk toward her. She disconnected the call and turned, setting the cordless receiver back in the little base that sat on the table beside his bed.

“What was that?” he asked, his eyes moving over her hips, her perfect ass in those tight jeans, as she stood with her back to him. Maybe if he’d been looking at her a little more properly he might have noticed the tension in her shoulders.

“You’re interviewing new nannies on Monday?”

Oh, yeah…

“Gray—”

“Are you firing me?”

“It’s complicated.”

She turned, hurt and anger in her eyes. “When were you planning on telling me?”

“Things have been a little chaotic recently. We haven’t had much of a chance to talk.”

“Have they? Because I’ve been sitting around here taking care of your kid and your house, waiting for you to check in or come home or something! You forget to tell me you’ve been arrested, and then you fail to tell me I’m fired?”

“My job is complicated, Gray. And dangerous. I don’t want you getting caught up in all of that.”

“Then what was last night about?”

“Last night was about last night. It was just a one-time thing.”

It killed his soul a little to say it aloud. It murdered his soul to see the pain flash across her face.

“You said it yourself,” he said, approaching her with his hands outstretched, not quite sure what he thought she might do, but not stupid enough not to protect himself, “we would deal with everything tomorrow, you said. Today is tomorrow.”

She shook her head, turning her face slightly away to hide the emotion burning color onto her cheeks. But nothing could have hidden it completely from him.

“I care about you, Gray. And I know you love Alyssa, that you’d do absolutely anything for her. But I can’t keep pretending that my work isn’t going to blow back on the two of you. There’s only so much I can do to protect Alyssa, but you…you are so young and so beautiful and so full of potential. You could do anything with your life! You don’t have to tie yourself down to this mess! You can be free of it, go live a good, safe life.”

“So can you.”

“No,” he said. “I made my choices a long time ago. My chance is gone.”

“You underestimate yourself, Andres.” She moved close to him, slipping a couple of fingers through the spaces between the buttons of his shirt. He watched, pain like nothing he’d ever known before rushing through him at that simple touch. “You can quit this nonsense and do something different. You can go back to school or open a nonprofit to help boys like you were. You can teach, you can go into something totally different. What about accounting? You like balancing your checkbook. How many people can say they actually like doing that?”

Andres rested his hands on her shoulders. “I love you for thinking that’s even a possibility. But this is my life, Gray. This is who I am. It’s who I will always be.”

“Then we’ll do it together. Last night you said—”

“We both said a lot last night. We were…emotional. But now it’s time to face reality.” He pushed her back, needing her not to touch him right now. “You’re not safe here with me.”

“Now you sound like my brother!” There was venom dripping from her words. “Always telling me what I should do and who I should do it with! Who are you to tell me who I can choose to spend my life with?”

“I’m not telling you what to do. I’m just telling you I don’t want you to do it here.”

“No, Andres…”

Tears began rolling down her cheeks, her eyes expressing what her loss of words couldn’t. It killed him. He wanted nothing more than to pull her into his arms and promise her the world. Today of all days, he needed her here, needed her happy and supportive. But he also needed her safe.

He stepped back, forcing himself to put up a wall, to steel himself against emotion.

“As soon as I find a replacement, I want you to pack your things and go.”

“What about Alyssa?” She brushed at her cheeks, wiped away the flood of tears dripping from her chin. “I’m the only caregiver she’s known for most of her life. Are you really willing to take that away from her? Do you really think that’s what’s best for her?”

“What’s best for Alyssa is to have a proper mother and father to take care of her.” He brushed his hand over his head. “I know that you’re what’s best for her. If I could send her with you, I would. But this isn’t a perfect world, and I can only do so much.”

“She needs me!”

“Yeah, I know she does. But I need you to be safe.”

“And what you need is so much more important?” She wiped angrily at her face, storming past him as she went out into the hall. “You made a deal with my brother, right? Told him you’d stay away from me? What did he give you in exchange?” She swept the baby off the floor and headed for the stairs. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.” She glanced back at him. “I guess I don’t want to be with a man who could so easily buy and sell me. If I mean that little to you, then maybe it wouldn’t have been worth it, anyway.”

She was gone, the safety gate falling over in her wake. Andres walked over and picked it up, stowing it to one side of the stairwell, where it normally sat when Alyssa wasn’t playing in her room. Order. He needed order in his life, but everything suddenly felt so chaotic. He regretted last night. He’d thought…honestly, he wasn’t thinking then. But maybe he’d needed something to hold on to. Maybe he wanted the experience just once. Maybe he wanted the memory.

But that’s all it would ever be. Memory.