“No sé si pueda hacer eso, papá.”I don’t know if I can do that, Dad.
He nods. “Cuando estés listo.”Whenever you’re ready.
He sits with me in silence as we watch the sky turn from pink to purple as night begins to take over. He doesn’t ask me any questions. He doesn’t push. He just sits with me, lending me his strength with nothing more than his presence as we listen to the gentle lapping of the waves against the shore.
“I just ... I don’t get it, papá,” I admit, breaking the silence. “How could she move on like this? How could she just replace Carlos and me?” I’m still here, I want to tell him, but instead, I keep that last part to myself.
My father reaches out, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. “I wish I had the answers, mijo,” he says softly. “But sometimes, hurt people, hurt people. And your mamá, she’s been hurting for a very long time.”
I nod, his words sinking in despite my resistance.
“I should get going,” my father says, breaking the quiet once again. “But I’m always here if you need to talk. I mean that.”
I offer him another small nod, a silent acknowledgment of his offer. As he turns to leave, I’m left alone once again, the weight of his words lingering in the air. Hurt people, hurt people. That’s exactly what I did to Cecilia today.
With a heavy sigh, I pull out my phone and power it back on. As soon as the screen illuminates a call comes in, and seeing Felix’s name flash across the screen, I answer it.
"Where are you? I've called you at least a dozen fucking times," Felix says, his voice strained with concern.
I sigh, running a hand through my hair as I stride back toward my motorcycle.
"Relax. I'm just now leaving the pier," I tell him as I reach my CBR1000. “I’ll be home soon.”
"Have you heard from her at all? Cecilia?" he asks, a worried edge sharpening his tone. He has a right to worry after I dumped her on him with no explanation and refused to answer my phone for what’s now been—I glance at the clock on my screen—roughly two hours.
But damn, give a guy some room to breathe. It’s only been a few hours, and after the day I’ve had, a little alone time isn’t unwarranted.
Rolling my eyes, I straddle my bike, prepping my helmet as I connect my phone to its built-in bluetooth speaker. "If I wasn't answering your calls, I sure as fuck wasn't answering hers either," I say tersely. I know I lashed out, and she didn’t deserve it. I have some apologizing to do, but that doesn’t mean my anger at today's events has been completely washed away.
Felix curses under his breath, and something in his tone makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on edge.
"What—" I begin right as he interrupts.
"You need to get your ass home. Now."
"What’s wrong?” I demand, my grip tightening on the phone as I buckle my helmet and start the engine. "What happened?"
"Holt happened. He was released on bail an hour ago."
The fuck? "Are you shitting me right now?" I ask in disbelief, my jaw clenched. “The officers we spoke with said Holt didn’t have a chance of being released before his trial.” This shouldn’t be happening. There has to be some kind of mistake.
Holt went after Cecilia before just for suspecting she was behind him getting suspended from the team. Who knows what that psycho will try now that he's facing attempted murder charges?
“How the hell did that asshole make bail?”
"I don’t know, man. But he did. Time to end the pity party and get your ass back here so we can figure out our next move.” Felix says, his voice grim.
"Does Cecilia know?" I ask, immediately worried as I peel out of the pier, weaving into late-night traffic. I take a left and head toward her place. I doubt she’ll talk to me right now. Not after the way I acted, but that’s fine. She doesn’t need to talk to me. I just need to see her. To make sure she’s home and safe.
"That's what I'm trying to tell you, Gabe. No one's been able to get a hold of Cecilia since he got out. She's not answering her phone, and I went by her place as soon as we got the news. She isn't home and her parents don’t know where she is.”
An icy dread trickles down my spine at his words, my pulse kicking up as I lean into a turn.
“Where did you drop her off?”
“Where you told me to,” he snaps. “I took her straight home after you left. But that was more than two hours ago. I spoke with her dad when I stopped by and he said she wasn’t there. She went out shortly after I dropped her off, but she didn’t tell him where she was going. I don’t know if she’s somewhere on campus or in town on her own ignoring her phone or if?—"
"If he took her," I finish grimly, adrenaline flooding my veins as I accelerate.
