Love or Money (3 page)

The couple went over to embrace Mama Maria just as there was another knock on the door. Riel’s gaze flew over to it again, but it was Andres’ sister Liliana who came in, followed by a couple of her cousins and some of Riel’s friends from high school.

Forget about it, Evan’s not coming,
she told herself, and slouched off toward the kitchen for a soda.

Soon the house was full, and Riel was surrounded by people eating pork
tamales
and salad, congratulating her on her release with varying levels of sincerity. Most people didn’t know about Isaias’ business and the full circumstances of her arrest, so some of them treated her coolly, their hands guarding their wallets or clutching their purse straps tightly. Worse yet was her old high school friend, Mark, a goofy and sheltered boy who seemed to think the fact she’d been to prison lent her an aura of mystique.

“What was it like in there?” he asked, his eyes shining. “Was it like
Orange is the New Black
?”

“Never seen it,” Riel said. “Sorry, I’ve got to go to the bathroom.”

She wove through the crowd and left the kitchen, heading down the hallway. She locked herself in the bathroom, closed the lid of the toilet, and sat there with her head on her knees, breathing deeply.
Don’t worry about them. Just worry about you. You aren’t what they think you are, and the best way to show them that is by taking care of yourself and making the best of your life.

It was a lonely thought, in a way; she wished she had someone else that believed in her, also. She sighed. She didn’t need anyone else. She was a good person and could make it on her own.

After a while, her ears quit ringing and her stomach settled. She stood at the counter and brushed out her hair, which fell in dark brown waves to the middle of her back.
I don’t look bad, for an ex-con
.

When she opened the door, she almost jumped in surprise. A tall man leaned against the wall in the hallway, his thick arms crossed over his chest. She froze, her breath catching in her throat, her heart beating frantically.

The man gave her a boyish grin, flinging dark curls out of his face. “Hey, Rielita.”

“Hey, Evan.” She tugged at the ends of her hair. Now that she saw him, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to kiss him or punch him.
He never wrote, and he thinks he can just march back into my life with a “Hey, Rielita”?

His green eyes searched her face, a small crease forming in his brow. Then he jerked his chin toward the back of the house. “I wanna talk to you,” he said quietly.

Her hands clenched into fists. She wanted to tell him off. She wanted to give him the cold shoulder, to get back at him for abandoning her. But another part of her, the physical part, was noticing the way his broad chest filled out his t-shirt, remembering the feeling of his strong, sensitive hands on her body. And there was something else: curiosity. What did he want to say to her?

Riel chewed the inside of her cheek. “Okay. Let’s talk.”

She followed him into her room and shut the door, muffling the noise of the party. Lizette had made the room comfortable for her. Her bed was neatly made with her childhood teddy bear perched atop the pillows. Her guitar stood in the corner, and her fingers itched for it, even with all the other things on her mind.

Evan spent a few moments gazing at her. She stood stiffly, waiting, not trusting herself to say anything.

“I missed you,” he finally said with a faint smile. “You look great.”

She felt heat rise to her cheeks. She looked away, gazing unseeingly at a faded photograph of her parents on the dresser.
Don’t tell him you missed him too.

“So,” he said, clearing his throat. “When’s Isaias got you going back to work?”

Her eyes snapped up to his, and she crossed her arms. So
this
is what he wanted to talk about? “I’m on probation for another year. I can’t even leave the county without permission until then. He’d be stupid to have me running under those circumstances.”

“What, you’re going to be all law-abiding now?” His full lips curled in a teasing grin. “That doesn’t sound like you, Riel.”

She scowled, fighting back the lump in her throat, and she fixed her eyes back on the photograph. She could feel him studying her.

After a moment, he turned the door lock, then reached out and caught her waist, gently pulling her closer. She resisted at first, but then her will to punish him broke. His touch sent fire through her, and her body ached to be close to his, to be wrapped in his arms. She looked up at him, caught in his gaze.

“Riel, what’s wrong?”

“Evan…” She huffed. What could she tell him? That she’d spent the first month in prison crying herself to sleep because he didn’t write? He’d never been her boyfriend. She’d just hoped he’d cared enough.

He took her hand, stroking her palm with his thumb and frowning. She closed her eyes. His touch felt so good…

You don’t need anyone else. Other people just let you down.

“Listen,” he said, “I’m sorry I brought it up. I know you don’t like working for Isaias. The guy’s an ass to you. But it’s just…I’ve really missed working with you.”

Her heart pounded. “Evan…” She squeezed her eyes shut tighter. She wanted so badly to press up against him, feel his body against hers. Evan had almost made those long runs fun, had taught her to turn her fear and paranoia into exhilaration. They listened to loud music and giggled at funny bumper stickers. They stopped at all the best barbecue restaurants, and sometimes pulled off on lonely roads to fuck in the backseat. She remembered how his huge cock pounded deep inside her…

She stomped her foot and shrugged out of his arms, glaring at him. “Evan, you never even wrote me. You forgot about me all this time, and then you walk in here like nothing ever happened…” To her horror her voice broke, and she pressed the heels of her hands up against her eyes to stop the tears.

He didn’t say anything, and for an anguished second Riel wondered if she’d scared him off, if he’d make his excuses and leave. She almost wished she could take back her words. But then she heard him suck in breath through his teeth.

“I can’t believe it. You mean that dick didn’t tell you?”

She wiped her eyes and looked at him. “Tell me what?”

He gazed at her uncertainly, his eyes darting to the door as if he could see through it to discover hidden listeners. “I thought he would have at least told
you
, but he must not want you to know.” His eyes searched hers. “If I tell you something, you gotta promise not to say anything.”

Her brow furrowed. Her hurt began to ebb, replaced by curiosity. “Of course.”

He reached out tentatively and put his hand on her waist again. “Isaias told me not to write you, or accept your calls if you called me…which you didn’t, by the way.” He raised his eyebrows.

“Isaias wouldn’t give me any money to make calls, or give me people’s phone numbers or anything,” Riel said. “He said I’d talked to the wrong person and gotten myself snitched off, and that I’d just make it worse if I talked to them from prison, but that’s bullshit. I don’t know who snitched, but it wasn’t you or anyone I talk to.”

Evan’s brow furrowed. “I thought the guy you were delivering to was the one?”

Riel shook her head. “No. I heard he got five years. He wasn’t the snitch.”

“Huh,” Evan said. He looked thoughtful for a moment, and then he shrugged. “Well, I don’t know who it was. But Isaias, like, ordered me not to talk to you, and I ended up figuring out the real reason why.”

Riel frowned, her scalp prickling. “What was it?”

He reached up and brushed a lock of hair from her shoulder. “A guy I know said that Isaias cut some sort of under-the-table deal to keep you from serving an ass-ton of time in federal. Part of the deal was that we couldn’t give them any reason to connect you with the organization. It had to look like you were just some small potatoes runner acting alone for your own benefit, or someone might have gotten suspicious and connected the dots. Then a lot of people would’ve gotten in trouble.”

A chill ran down Riel’s spine. “I knew he’d done something. I looked at my court papers after the plea bargain, and they said I’d only been carrying a hundred grams. I had three bricks on me when it came down. I thought that attorney he got me was just really good, and got the evidence excluded or whatever.”

Evan grinned dryly. “No lawyer is that good.”

Riel stood there, stunned, as Evan’s fingers drew tickling patterns on her waist. “I had no idea Isaias and Maria were that well connected,” she said.

“Oh yeah, they are. They don’t talk about it, and that’s how Maria’s survived as long as she has.”

“I also can’t believe he’d do that for me.”

Evan shrugged. “You have to take care of your own.”

“Why didn’t he tell me all this, then? Why let me think that you…that everyone had just forgotten about me?”

“That I don’t know,” Evan said. “I figured he would have at least told you.”

“And why did I get busted in the first place? I spent a lot of time thinking about it, and never did figure it out.”

“I don’t know that either,” he said. “But I’m glad you’re out.” Gently, with a faint, hopeful smile, he pulled her closer again. “Will you forgive me, Rielita? I would have written if I could have. I didn’t want to ruin your deal and get you in trouble.”

He wrapped his arms around her, and she let him. She pressed close to him, his warmth seeping into her like balm. She couldn’t keep her hands from creeping up under his t-shirt, feeling the hard muscles of his back. It felt
so right
to be in his arms. She’d almost forgotten how good it was.

She grinned. “I
might
forgive you.”

“Please, please forgive me.” He ran his hands up her waist. “Riel, I…” He opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again, looking a little flustered. “I like working with you,” he said again.

Her heart missed a beat, and she looked up at him breathlessly. “I like working with you too, Evan, but…”

He pulled her tighter against him, his gaze locked on hers, his eyes hazed over with longing. “But what, Rielita?”

Riel let out a breath, her words dying in her throat, and Evan bent down, bringing his lips to hers.

It felt good. She pressed into his strong arms. His tongue was slow and insistent, and his hands caressed her body, feeling all her curves. She pulled him closer, kissing him, their breaths mingling, and felt his cock getting hard against her belly.

He moved his lips down her jaw to her neck. “I missed you, Riel,” he whispered, his breath tickling her skin. “I missed you a lot.” His hand slid down inside the loose waistband of her jeans and squeezed her ass. “Ooh, your butt is even nicer than before,” he said, laughing softly. “I guess going to prison has its upside.”

She pinched the skin of his taut waist, wrinkling her nose. “You’re such a jerk.”

He laughed again and pushed her gently back onto the bed, crawling on top of her. “You love my jerkiness, admit it.” He slid his tongue down between her breasts, his hands reaching up to grasp them. “Oh, God, Riel, you’re so fucking hot. I’ve been counting the days until you got out.”

He pulled her shirt up over her head, and she shimmied out of it. “You really would have written if he hadn’t told you not to?” she asked. She gasped as he unzipped her jeans and jerked them down, his tongue finding her clit.

“Yes, but I’m a horrible writer,” he said, his lips moving against her pussy. “My grammar is atrocious.” He kissed and licked her, and she arched her back, moving against him, her breath coming fast.

He tugged her jeans and panties all the way off, tossing them aside. He pulled her thighs apart and slipped his tongue inside her, his thumb slowly rubbing her clit.

She cried out, and he let out a muffled moan, his tongue reaching deeper, sliding in and out, his thumb rubbing harder. She ached for him, wanting him inside of her.

Seeming to hear her thoughts, he sat up and pulled off his jeans, his long, hard cock springing free. He straddled her, gazing down at her body spread out on the rumpled quilt, naked, save for the lacy pushup bra. His pupils grew large in his green eyes. “Ah, Riel, you’re so beautiful.” He brushed his fingers lightly down her belly, making her shiver. He pulled back the cups of her bra and sucked each of her big nipples, his fingers working their way down to her clit again.

She pressed against his hand, gasping. “Evan, I want you in me.”

“Mmm. Do you? Do you want it, Rielita?” His tone was teasing, but she could hear the hoarse need behind it.

She wrapped her legs around him, digging her heels into his muscular ass and pushing him up so that the head of his cock rested against the lips of her aching pussy. She put her mouth to his ear. “I want it so bad, Evan. I haven’t had a cock in me in so long.”

“You sexy girl,” he breathed.

He thrust himself all the way inside her, and she cried out and bucked her hips against him to get him even deeper. She slid her hands up his chest, pulling his shirt up so she could feel him against her skin.

“Oh, you’re so wet,” he said. “You feel so good, Riel.”