Valentine's Day
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Ophelia Bell
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All we had to do was make it through the weekend. It shouldāve been a breeze. A tattoo convention in CancĆŗn with Toni Valentine, the toughest and sexiest tattoo artist in the world? It was a dream come true.
It was my chance to show her how Iād grown. I came to work for her when I was just some kid from LA and she already had a spread in Maxim and a successful video stream, but over the past three years, weāve gotten close. And I had plans for us to get even closer.
But now my plans have changed. Now Iāve got to prove myself in a different wayāby saving her from one of Mexicoās most brutal cartels.
Iād do anything for Toni, and that includes walking right into the belly of the beast. And Iām not coming back without her.
1: Chapter 1
SAM
āHold onto your dick, brother. Youāre about to fall in love.ā
My brotherās penchant for theatrics provokes a sharp look from me. āJust show me the damn bike, jackass. Iāve waited two months and itās killing me.ā
Mason grabs hold of the sheet draped over the motorcycle I brought to him back in February. Iād bought the beat-up Harley Davidson Sportster for the price of a tattoo, already knowing at the time who I wanted to give it to.
Behind me Maddox starts a drumroll on the hood of his truck while Mason teases, gently tugging the sheet. My stomachās in knots, not because Iām afraid the bike is uglyāMasonās restoration skills are beyond compareāIām just afraid this whole gift idea may be going a step too far.
But the woman itās for is worth it. I wonāt lie, Iād love it if she saw the bike and immediately took me to bed, but I have no expectations beyond seeing her smile, something she hasnāt done nearly enough of in the time Iāve known her.
I take a deep breath and grit my teeth. My brother is having way too much goddamn fun with this reveal, but he finally yanks the sheet off with a flourish.
āVoilĆ”!ā
āYouāre an idiot,ā I mutter, but canāt help smiling because the bike is fucking gorgeous. I take a step closer, basking in all her shiny chrome and polished paint. The deep red leather of the seat tempts my touch and doesnāt disappoint when I brush my fingertips across the warm, supple surface. The design on the fuel tank is just how I drew it, candy-apple red with Toni Valentineās logo carefully hand-painted on either sideāa bleeding heart punctured by symmetrical vines sprouting rosebuds along their coiling length. The style is art nouveau with a gothic twist, and itās all her.
āYou sure about this, Sammy? Itās not too late to sell this and find her a subtler gift, you know.ā Mason crosses his arms beside me and gives me a look, reminding me how crazy he thinks I am to go to these lengths for a woman who probably thinks of me as a baby brother.
Our older brother, Maddox, steps up to my other side and tuts softly. āHeās not backing down and you know it, Mase.ā
āListen, I know you two think Iām off my fucking rocker, but Toni deserves to have something good happen to her for a change.ā
Maddox claps me on the shoulder. āNobody said any different. We just donāt want your tender little feelings to get hurt, and you are charging full speed ahead down the road to heartbreak with this thing.ā
Heās probably right, but I donāt give a fuck if she tears my heart to pieces and stomps on it. Donāt get me wrong, I hope she doesnātāI hope she finally sees me for the man I am, not the teenager she hired to apprentice at her tattoo studio almost three years ago. Not that I expect a gift like this to change things between us.
āAll I want is for her to be happy. And safe. The old bike sheās been driving is falling apart. She needs a new one. Will you help me get this thing loaded onto the truck?ā
Mason lowers the bike lift and I shift it into neutral to roll it down the ramp, then push it across the garage and up the other ramp into the bed of the truck I brought up from San Diego. I had to borrow it from my coworker, Vic, to pick up the bike, but I want to have it close when we get back from our trip on Sunday.
āWhen are you giving it to her?ā Mason asks after we wrap the bike in a quilted drop cloth and tie her down for the trip. āJust so we can be prepared for damage control after she rejects you.ā
āWho says thatās how this will play out?ā I reply, quickly finding my limit to their ribbing.
Mason holds up his hands. āListen, I know youāve crushed on Toni since you sprouted pubes, but donāt forget youāre twenty-two. Sheās got to be what, thirty by now? Thatās an eight-year age difference. Not to mention her history and the baggage she doesnāt even know she has yet. All Iām saying is you have an uphill battle ahead of you if youāre hoping to win her over.ā
āFirst, itās seven and a half years. Her thirtieth birthday is next Tuesdayāyou already know this bike is her birthday present. And donāt you think Iām painfully aware of the challenge?ā I stare at him, then at Maddox who wanders over to listen. āYou think Iām not playing the long game here? Iāve been working with her for three years now. I know a couple of her dark secrets already. Not many men can say that. I know things about her she doesnāt even know herself. She talks to me. She trusts me. Itās time I let her know Iām an option.ā
āSammy, itās the secrets we worry about,ā Maddox says. āShe finds out you know something as life-defining as who her real father is and didnāt tell her, thereās no coming back from that. I donāt care how many crazy gifts you give her.ā
āWell you assholes didnāt exactly give me a goddamn choice, did you?ā I glare at them both and am mildly gratified by Madās wince, but Mason only glares back harder.
āItās too dangerous for her to know the truth yet,ā he says.
Maddox purses his lips, but doesnāt say anything. I narrow my eyes, trying to gauge whether that expression means he agrees or not.
Madās the biggerāand arguably scarierāof my three older brothers, but Masonās been more of a hard-ass ever since he came back from the dead a few months ago. After believing heād been murdered, Iām happy as hell that he turned out to be alive, but to say the experience changed him would be an understatement. The fun, irreverent J.J. I grew up idolizing came back with a new name, as well as an entirely new outlook on life. Heās turned into a responsible dad on the verge of marrying a doctor.
The funny thing is he feels like the dad our own father should have been. Youād think that Maddox, as the oldest, would have filled that role after Dad died, but I guess heās too much of a softie at heart. Masonās the one who always puts his foot down when the family needs something and he needs the rest of us to step up. Heās also the only one of us who is actually a father.
I donāt like arguing with him, not because Iām afraid heāll hit meāthose old fears disappeared the day a pair of Marines showed up at my door to let me know Dad was deadābut because heās almost always right.
This is one situation where I definitely donāt agree with him, though.
āI think itās too dangerous for her to not know the truth. Iām telling her this weekend while weāre at Mayan Mayhem. Then hopefully after we get back from the convention, sheāll have cooled down and her birthday present will heal the rest of the damage.ā
I grit my teeth, eyeing Maddox and waiting for him to react to the mini-bomb I just dropped. Heās been to this particular tattoo convention before, so heāll know where it is. His nostrils flare and he drops his hands to his sides.
āFucking hell, are you out of your goddamned mind, Sam?ā
āLanguage!ā Mason snaps. āI donāt need Zoeās vocabulary to be any more colorful than it already is. Whatās he talking about?ā Mason shoots Mad a confused look. āWhatās Mayan Mayhem?ā
āItās a tattoo and music festival. In CancĆŗn, the last place Toniāor Samāneeds to be.ā
Mason cuts himself off mid-curse, casting a sideways glance at the playpen in the corner of the garage where my toddler niece, Zoe, sits playing with a set of brightly colored plush blocks.
āNo, brother. Just no. You know better than to head right into the viperās nest.ā
āAmador doesnāt even know who she is. Iāve scoured the intel you shared so I know it backwards and forwards. He wonāt touch her unless he knows sheās PapĆ” Floresā daughter, which he doesnāt.ā I look at Maddox. āDoes Celeste even know she has another sister?ā
Maddox sighs and shakes his head. āShe only knows about Elle. PapĆ” Flores hasnāt shared that particular detail with her because heās afraid sheāll be pissed he had an affair while her mother was still alive. But Toniās mom doesnāt want to tell any more than Flores does. Elena knows there will be a time for it, and it isnāt now.
āPlease think about this hard, baby brother. Toni isnāt the only one whose world will be turned upside-down when she finds out. We may know all these secrets, but that doesnāt mean theyāre ours to tell. And you can bet Amador knows her connection to the Flores family even if he doesnāt know how deep it goes. She and Celeste have been best friends since they were babies. He knows everything there is to know about Celeste already.ā
āSo youāre just okay with lying to the woman you love about something that life-altering? Jesus Christ, Mad. Donāt you think thereās a limit?ā
He takes a deep breath and shoots a look at Mason, who says, āThereās no limit to the steps weāll take to protect our family. Even steps they might not like. Itās not going to last forever. When Amadorās gone itāll be safe to talk about it, but itās up to Arturo and Elena, not us. Until then, itās just better if Toni stays in the dark. That way thereās less risk of Amador finding out. And itās better if you stay the heck away from CancĆŗn.ā
I pace the alley, shaking my head before I turn and stretch out my arms. āThis trip is only for a few days. And trust me, I tried to change her mind about it, but we made these plans a year ago. Itās the first convention she felt strong enough to attend since Manny was killed, and God knows the business needs it. I couldnāt exactly talk her out of it without telling her the truth, which fucking killed me. I have to tell her because I know thereās a risk and I want her to have all the information, but I know her. She wouldnāt change her mind even if she knew.ā
I donāt exactly relish the idea of laying this on Toni during our trip, but weāre getting on a plane to CancĆŗn at the crack of dawn and I donāt want her to arrive oblivious to the risk.
But my brothers donāt look convinced, and I fucking hate that Iām starting to agree with them a little. Whatās worse is that they donāt say anything else; they just watch me pace as if sensing the indecision they put into my head.
Zoe starts to fuss in her playpen and Mason walks over to retrieve her. He comes back, bouncing the curly-haired cutie gently in his arms. Then there are three sets of eyes staring into me and it doesnāt help that one belongs to a toddler. She has the Santos eyes that drill deep into your soul.
She ruins the effect when she smiles and blurts out āSam!ā in the chirpiest little baby voice followed by a string of nonsensical syllables.
āWell, well, baby girl, listen to you,ā Mason says. āAnything else you want to tell your Uncle Sam? Like ādonāt be an idiotā?ā
āIdiot!ā she parrots, and I canāt help but laugh. The tension eases inside me, but Iām left with a lump of dread, and Iām not sure whether itās fear of any potential danger or of simply being rejected by a woman Iāve wanted for almost a decade. My brother wasnāt exaggerating when he said Iāve crushed on Toni since puberty. The day I saw her first online tattooing video when she launched her Tendrils Tattoos channel, I was done for.
I sigh and turn back to the truck, digging into my pocket for the keys. āI need to get on the road before traffic gets bad. I told Toni Iād stop by the studio this evening to help her finish packing up the banners and swag for our booth.ā
āWhere are you parking the bike until then?ā Maddox asks, and Iām relieved he seems to have let the subject drop.
āElleās meeting me at the storage lot where she rents a unit so she doesnāt have to haul all her stuff home with her every summer. She starts full-time at Typhon the day after finals, so sheās staying down there this summer while she finishes her internship. Weāre talking about getting a place together.ā
At least my sisterās on my side about this. Sheās followed Toniās career at least as closely as I have, though without half as much hero worship. Since weāre closer in age, Elle tends to be the one I confide in more than my brothers. Thatās not to say she doesnāt have concerns too, but sheās at least less heavy-handed about letting me know.
I check the tie-downs one last time, then return to face my brothers. āWeāll be fine. Iāll be back in time for Zoeās birthday party on Monday.ā Itāll be a crazy week, what with my niece turning one and then Toniās birthday the day after.
āWho are you kidding, kid? Youāll be hungover,ā Maddox ribs me.
Zoe starts to fuss, so Mason steps back to her playpen to pick up her bottle and her binky before strolling back to have the last word. I eye him warily as I answer.
āElle said sheād drive. Toni wants to come too, so weāre planning to head up straight from the airport when Elle picks us up. This weekend will be nothing but a memory by then, I promise.ā
Masonās jaw twitches. āNot if you tell her the truth. If you do, itās better if you donāt come. Iām sorry, brother.ā
āIām sorry you feel that way,ā I say. I donāt think Toni will react the way they believe, but thereās no point continuing the argument. I just step close and give Zoe a peck on the cheek, glad I got a haircut this morning when she immediately reaches up to grab hold, but winds up tugging on my earlobe instead. Then I give Maddox a hug before climbing into the truck.
As I pull out of the alley and head toward the freeway, I canāt help but envision Toniās reaction to the truth. My brothers are understandably concerned. If she confronts Arturo or her mother about their affair while weāre at a toddlerās birthday party, there will be too many witnesses for comfort. While sheās brilliant and level-headed as a business owner, sheās also passionate when it comes to justice. Once a client tried to stiff her and she chased him out of the shop and tackled him in the middle of Market Street, with dozens of people looking on.
I love that about her, but my brotherās rightāthereās a time and place for news like this, and I canāt let my own desires cloud my judgment. Maybe sheās safer if she doesnāt find out this weekend. Maybe Iām safer if she doesnāt find out from me.
