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“Get to the clubhouse as soon as you can. We need all hands on deck. You’ll get your marching orders when you get there.”
Fuck, I was hoping to get home and get some shut eye.
“I’m right behind you,” I assure him but give myself a minute to check up on the status of other patients at the clinic before I check out for the night.
It’s an open secret that the clinic belongs to the Reckless Souls. We do a lot of good for the community through this place, and it’s also good for the legit cash flow.
Our clinic may be called ‘free,’ but it’s not exactly without cost. Most of our patients have state-sponsored insurance, and for those who don’t, we don’t turn them away.
Instead, we help them obtain coverage through the state. Sure, it can be a slow process for the government to pay, but eventually, they always come through. It may not be as lucrative as the high-profile doctors in Beverly Hills or L.A. proper, but it’s enough to keep our clinic running and ensure the city stays off our backs when it comes to our other *ahem* businesses.
When I’ve wrapped up business, I give myself a minute in private to get my shit together. I can’t afford to lose my focus right now. Until Banger is on his own two feet, I cannotlose my shit. I need to be sharp, and I need to do right by my brother.
When this storm passes, I’ll tackle my demons.
When this storm passes. What a joke.
CHAPTERTHREE
Maggie
“Oye,chica,” Demon says, his voice dripping with confidence.
I can hear him as if he were still alive, sitting right next to me. Alone in this abandoned building, it’s inevitable that my thoughts turn back to Demon, not that I can think about anyone else. He was my man, my lover.
My best friend.
And he’s dead.
I recall a moment back in the day. There I was, adjusting my denim overalls, all smudged with dirt and grass at the knees, when Demon—though everyone else still called him Damien back then—strolled up with a big smile on his face. He had that signature barrio swagger even in the fifth grade.
“You wanna rep my kickball team or what?”
I shot him a look, then broke into a grin. “You think you can handle a girl on your team?”
Without waiting for an answer, he grabbed my hand, pulling me toward the kickball diamond. From that day on, we were thick as thieves. Friends, enemies, lovers—we ran the whole playground.
But over time, the cute and cocky boy Damien hardened into the gangster Demon. At fifteen, he was jumped into the Bloodthirsty Devils. His initiation wasn’t just his rite of passage; it marked a turning point for us. His newfound confidence and swagger in his new gang colors stirred something raw and powerful inside me.
Out of nowhere, he draped an arm around me, that mischievous grin plastered on his face. “Hey,Mami, wanna roll with me for reals? Be my girl?”
My body lit up at his words, at his smile. I stepped back and looked him up and down, feeling my nipples harden at the sight of him in head-to-toe red and black. I rocked my own gang colors, purple and white, and in my mind, we would end up being this power couple like Jay-Z and Beyonce, only more badass. “Yeah,Papi, I think I do.”
A hard cough shakes my whole body, and I return to the present for a moment, where I’m huddled under a makeshift bed of folded cardboard boxes and tarps. I readjust things until I’m as comfortable as possible, but now I’m awake and staring at nothing but the grim dark ceiling. To avoid the ravenous animal gnawing in my gut demanding food, I let my thoughts slip back to happier days in the past.
Demon and I kicking it in the car, parked in some hidden alley, blaring old-school jams. He looked at me like he never had before, his eyes tracing every tattoo, every curve. The night was young, and so were we, drenched in beer, smoke, and teenage bravado.
“I’m gonna kiss you, Maggie,” he murmured, his voice all gravelly and full of desire.
I looked at him, that tough cholo who would go toe-to-toe with anyone who dared cross us. Back then, it was love. Or so I thought.
We were young, yes. Stupid, sure. But we were alive and on fire.
After he joined the Bloodthirsty Devils, Damien changed. The transformation didn’t happen overnight. It was a gradual metamorphosis that I only realized when it was too late. Our connection turned into something more, and before I knew it, I had crossed over to a point of no return.
That kiss turned into a lot more, and then I let him fingerbang me a bunch of times all over L.A. in the car, the bathroom at Tio’s Tacos, and even behind the Circle K in Compton. He’d get me off with his fingers, and I return the favor with a blow job. We might have been young, but we knew where babies came from.
One night, after too many Modelos and a couple bumps of coke, we came to this very warehouse to party and stayed out all night. I let him fuck me not because it was time—even though it was time—but because I wanted it. I wanted him.
