Page 48 of Empire of Carnage
“They aren’t wrong,” I told her and she scowled.
We’d finally arrived at the villa, and she was so pissed at me she practically opened the door before the car had come to a full stop. I grabbed her wrist, pulling her to me and slamming her against my chest.
“Let me go,” she yelled, beating her other hand against my chest while my brothers got out of the car, confusion written all over their faces.
“What’s the matter? Are you mad because I’m lying or are you mad because it’s the truth?” I asked her.
“Fuck you! You don’t know what it’s like.” She was crying now, and even though it wasn’t my intention to hurt her, I needed her to know she wasn’t alone in feeling this way.
“Don’t you think I feel it too? Lost out here, because itshouldbe home, but it’s never beenmyhome? Don’t you think they feel it as well?” I pointed to my brothers.
“Do you not want to be here?” she asked, her eyebrows furrowing heavily in the middle.
“Now when did I fucking say that, morena?”
“I think what he’s trying to say is that it’s okay for things to not feel right, to feel out of place here even though it was your home once. We’ll make it home eventually, together. We can belong here too,” Mateo said.
“He’s right. I am afraid of what they’ll think of me,” she admitted.
“Fuck them,” Ronan finally spoke. “It doesn’t matter what they think of you. At the end of the day they will still come begging for what you have to offer,” he reassured her. “You’re enough.”
She exhaled and turned on her heels, stepping towards the villa. We followed behind and suddenly she stopped and faced me, sticking her pointer finger in my face, her nostrils flaring hard.
“Call me white-washed again and I’ll add your teeth to my collection, querido.”
I knew I had crossed a line, but she needed to understand she wasn’t alone in these feelings. I’d been in her place my entire life, pushed into a corner by my family because my only parent who spoke spanish failed to teach it to me. The other didn’t give a shit if I was connected to my culture and eventually I found myself a grown man, too afraid to learn something new for myself.
“Maybe we should hire a tutor?” I asked my brothers, as we made our way inside the villa.
Mateo agreed and Ronan shrugged like he didn’t give a shit either way.
“Whatever you guys think is easier for you,” he said, and I frowned.
“What? You’re too good to learn the language of the country you’re going to be living in?” I asked, not hiding the snark in my tone.
Celia laughed from the front and stopped in her tracks again.
“You mean they don’t know?” she asked him.
“Know what?” I demanded.
She laughed harder, a borderline unhinged sort of cackle, and she slapped her hands down onto her thighs in disbelief.
“He fucking speaks spanish.” She could barely get it out, she was laughing so hard.
“What?” I asked, not hiding my outrage.
How the fuck I managed to know an asshole for half my goddamn life and not know he spoke an entire other language was beyond me. Ronan shrugged and walked on in front of us like he didn’t want to answer any questions. Mateo looked just as stunned as me but not at all pissed off. Celia sobered up from laughing to finally speak again.
“You think he would have survived a minute inside my house if he didn’t learn spanish? Take note boys, these are the ‘little things’ women fall head over heels for.” She winked and caught up to Ronan, lacing her fingers into his.
“What the fuck man?” Mateo asked, just as much confusion in his own expression.
“Did you know he spoke spanish?” I asked him.
“Now that I think about it, I remember him saying he had to fight to not get sent down to South America for a mission when we were in the Seals. I just never thought too hard about it, but it makes sense.” Mateo scratched his head. “Barely fucking fair if you ask me, he was probably a kid when he learned it.”
“He’s always gonna be two steps ahead of us when it comes to her,” I told him.
