Chapter 7

Walking into Templo, they all take their seats. "What's going on brother?" Bishop asks Taza. "I need to talk to you all about Zara but first I need to share a little history. She's not my biological daughter. When she was three, I married her mother and adopted her. Her mother had her biological father's rights taken away after she was born because he was abusive and Zara was conceived as a result of a rape. After I adopted her, I went to jail for a bit and when she was seven, her father came back and killed her mother and raped Zara. He went to jail for it and we were told he would never get parole. Well, yesterday, he was released on parole. Zara doesn't know. I haven't told her yet. I need her to stay here because if he finds her, he will kill her. She has to be protected." Taza says. "Anyone else know about all of this?" Hank asks. "I did." Coco says. Coco looks at Angel and sees him looking down at his hands resting on the table and his fists are clenched. "What do we need to do?" Angel asks slowly. "We have to find him. The parole info was emailed to me this morning. He has an address about ten miles from here but it wouldn't surprise me if he knew where she was." Taza says. Angel looks up and says "Then we find this fucker and we cut his fucking heart out." Coco looks at Angel and then Bishop and says "I second that." Taza says "I third." Bishop looks at the rest of the guys and asks "Do I even need to ask?" They all raise their hands in agreement. "Then let's end this fucker." Bishop says before banging the gavel.

The guys walk out of Templo and Angel walks right by me, outside. I look at the door he just left through confused and a little hurt. Coco walks over and says "Me and your dad need to talk to you." I look at him and say "Yeah. Okay." I say as I follow them into Templo. Shutting the door, Taza looks at me and says "I got a call yesterday. Russ was given parole." he tells me and my eyes go wide. "He was released yesterday." I start going into a panic attack and when Coco tries to touch me, I push him away. "Don't. Please." I panic. Next thing I know, Vickie is in front of me and trying to calm me down. Angel walks in and walks over to me and tries to pull me to him and I stop him. "Don't. Just don't." I say before slipping by him and heading to my dorm and locking the door. Sitting on the bed, I sit there in shock. He's out. He's going to find me and he's going to kill me. I'm going to die. No one can help me.

Coco walks up to Angel and says "It ain't on you. She's freaking out man. The things he did to her. He didn't just rape her. He tortured her. She has scars on her back from where he cut her open and watched her bleed while he raped her. Just don't give up on her." Coco says. Angel looks at him and says "I'm not but I gotta get to her. I gotta talk to her." He walks towards my dorm and knocks on the door. "Bebita, it's me. Open up please." he says softly and I don't move. "Please baby. Let me in." he pleads. After a couple of minutes, I open the door and let him in. He doesn't try to touch me. He moves to sit on the bed and I stay standing. "Will you sit with me? I won't touch you unless you want me to. I promise. You're safe mi amor." he says softly. I slowly move over to sit on the bed but sit on the opposite end from him. "I can't do this Angel. He finds me, he's going to kill me. I can't let him find me." I tell him and I start to freak out again. I stand and start pacing and Angel stands up and stands in my pacing path but doesn't touch me. "Bebita, I won't let that happen. None of us will. You're going to stay here while we look for him." he tells me. I look up at him and say "I need you to know something. Just incase." I tell him. "Don't do that." he says. "No. I need to say this. Please Angel." I say and he nods. "If anything happens to me, the code to my safe is your birth date. Inside, is the deed to my house, insurance policies, bank account info. Things like that. Everything goes to you." I tell him and he looks at me shocked. "Zara…" He starts. "Let me finish." I say and he nods again. I walk up to him and cup his face. "You need to know that I love you more than anything. I always have. You're the only one that I ever saw spending my life with. You're my other half. You're the one that I wanted my kids to look like. The one that I wanted to grow old with. You're the one that I wanted to be just mine. You've always had me. Always had my heart. I just needed you to know just incase. Okay?" I say. By this time we both have tears in our eyes and he cups my face and says "I love you so fucking much. I won't let him hurt you. I promise baby. I promise." he says and I start to sob. He pulls me into his chest and I look up at him. "Angel?" I ask and he looks down at me. I kiss him softly and then deepen the kiss before pulling him to the bed. "Love me Angel." I whisper against his lips. "Siempre." he whispers before lowering me to the bed and making love to me nice and slow, never breaking the kiss until we find our release, both of us still with tears in our eyes.

After we redress, he walks me out to the main room and I see my dad standing there. I move from Angel and hug him. "I love you daddy." I say. "I love you too little one." I walk back over to Angel and he pulls me as close as he can get me. "We're not going to let anything happen to you Princessa." Bishop says and I just nod. Only time will tell.