Page 482 of Devil’s Disciples

Reno allowed the others to leave, and he stayed. Despite my mother’s demand, I knew I couldn’t walk away from him. The mere thought of it caused my stomach to ball into a knot.

“She wants me to quit my job,” I said. “She’s really disappointed that I told you about us coming here from Mexico.”

“She thinks I’m going to turn you in?”

“Not you, specifically,” I responded. “But someone. A friend of a friend, or whatever. Think about it. All it takes is one person to make a phone call.”

He picked at his fingernails. “I don’t like the thought of that.”

“The thought of what?”

“The thought that all someone has to do is make a phone call and you—your family—will be tossed over the border. It aggravates me. An idiot with an itchy finger and you’re facing one of the biggest criminals on the planet.”

“I don’t like it, either. But there’s nothing I can do about it.”

He wrung his hands together and gazed at the adjoining booth.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

He shook his head. His jaw tensed. After a long period of silence, he looked up. “If everything goes perfect, and what’s-his-fuck gets arrested, you’re still going to have this same problem. Getting rid of him doesn’t fix it.”

He was right.

It was easy to think that ridding my life of Angel was going to fix things. It wouldn’t. Removing Angel from Mexico wouldn’t make the country a better place. As long as the United States had a demand for drugs, there would always be an Angel to supply them. The corruption and violence that came hand-in-hand with the drug traffic would remain.

The fear of being captured by Immigration Agents and returned to Mexico would linger, troubling me like a disease.

Eventually, it would happen.

“You’re right,” I agreed. “Getting rid of him won’t fix everything. Mexico will still be an awful place and my family will always face deportation.”

“I’ve been telling myself I’m doing this because I have to. That if I don’t, this Alacrán fucker is going to hunt the MC down and kill us for what I did to his men. Sitting here right now—looking at you—I think I’m more concerned with you than I am with the MC.”

I felt terrible that I’d managed to involve him in my problems. He’d already done much more than I would have expected anyone to. “I don’t want to be a burden,” I said. “To you, or to your club.”

“That’s not what I was getting at.” He took a moment to collect his thoughts before continuing. “I don’t want anything to happen to you. I like being around you.”

My face went flush. Instead of keeping him in suspense, I quickly confirmed I felt the same way. “I like being around you, too.”

He looked away, almost as if he was embarrassed. “It’s weird.”

“What?” I asked. “The mess we’re in?”

“No.” He met my gaze. “Enjoying a woman’s company.”

It wasn’t much of an admittance. Not really. I had my suspicions, however, that Reno enjoyed a woman’s company as frequently as I had enjoyed a man’s.

Feeling warm from head to toe, my mouth curled into a prideful grin. “I’m glad I can give you something in return for what you’ve done for me.”

“This is far from over,” he said, arching his back as he spoke.

He reached into his pocked and pulled out his phone. He studied the screen and then looked at me apologetically. “I’ve got to take this.”

“Okay.”

He swiped his thumb across the screen and then raised the phone to his ear. “Give me a second,” he said to the caller. “I need to get where I can talk.”

He slid from the booth and walked into the parking lot. For several minutes he paced the lot, talking the entire time. When he finished the call, he lowered the phone to his side and peered up the street, into the darkness.