Category: Angst/Adventure/Romance
Pairing: Hector/Steph/Lester
Rating: R to NC17. Language, sex, violence and general adult themes.
Disclaimer: Not mine, not making anything.. Other then myself giggle.
Warning!! This chapter rated for language, violence, and … shit guys this is me, just expect the worst.
Author's Note: I am a consummate
dumbass. The opening of this chapter was supposed to be the lead out
to the last. Would have had a hell of a lot more impact had I left it
there too. sigh
Thanks to everyone for the reviews! Hector says
Gracias.. And.. Not to lose faith in him.
Breaking The Habit
2
I pulled myself from my memories as I felt Stephanie stir beside me. My eyes opened to find her just beginning to twist and thrash in the empty space between Lester and I.
My hand had long ago stopped it's ministrations to her soft skin and fallen away to the mattress between us. As I watched, Lester rolled to his side, scooting forward across the bed until his body lay in a tight line against Stephanie's back, one well defined arm coming around to rest low across her abdomen. Steph's wiggling and whimpering came to an abrupt end and her eyes stopped doing the silent rumba behind her lids. Whatever had been pursuing her through her dreams had been chased away by Lester's soft touches.
I felt something crack and soften inside at the sight before me. I had gone so many years without a single person who could even get past my exterior long enough to know me, to wantto know me. Now two people lay across from me that I could physically feel myself wanting to open up to, to bring into my world.
I didn't know what to do with that.
I didn't understand how the life I've led could have brought me to such a fortuitous place. No one who's seen and done the things I have should be afforded such luck.
And yet there they were. Plain as day before me. It looked like my life was once again about to undergo some heavy alterations. Hopefully it will once again be something that makes me a better person. For these two people, I think I would like to be a better person.
OoOoOoOoOoO
I spent a day and a half in that shitty holding cell in Trenton's Police Department before someone bailed me out.
I'd only been nailed for an underage DUI, a month shy of my 21st birthday.
We probably shouldn't have been in Trenton at all that night, but Rufio's stupid idea that the pussy in Trenton was better then Newark and the vat of alcohol we'd imbibed, played a big part in the decision. I was designated the driver for that trip, and ended up the only one not released with a warning. I was also the only one with visible gang tattoos in the car that night when we got pulled over. Go figure.
I sat in the same stupid cell for two days that time before my Hermano's bonded me out through some rinky dink local outfit. I was told a court date, and sent on my merry way back to Newark and my job as 'Collection Agent'.
Attending the court date had never been in my plans from the start. That hadn't stopped them from bonding me out this time though.
OoOoOoOoOoO
The same weasel faced, greasy Bondsman was standing in the lobby signing off on my bond as I was brought out. I wasn't worried about his name, I had no intention of returning to Trenton anytime soon, had no plan to ever need his particular services again.
As he led me from the station, he explained to me that he had an associate he'd like me to speak with before I returned to Newark.
I didn't think anything odd of the request until we stepped through the doors into the parking lot. Across the lot, leaning against the front grill of a large black truck, was the man in black from the bar. He had brought me in. He must be the associate this weasel wanted me to talk to.
I thought I did a good job of masking my apprehension as we made our way across the lot.
The weasel's nasally voice kept going, but my mind tuned him out. Focusing instead on the steady bass line I could hear spilling down the road from some blocks away. I knew that bass line.
We were six feet from the front of the truck when the music reached critical mass and I turned to watch the vehicle cruise past the station.
It was almost a second too late that I heard someone yell "Down!" and I recognized the man hanging out the window of the car, with a gun trained on me, as Rufio.
I felt the weight of another body slam into mine, dragging me to the ground with a grunt and a crush of muscle.
At the same time I was slammed with the knowledge that my oldest friend, the one person in this world I trusted above all others was firing a gun at me.
For seemingly endless seconds the world continued on without me. I was stuck in the world of my past, where the only people Rufio and I counted on were each other. That world was shattering beneath me as I hit the pavement that day.
I lay there dazed, heedless to the action taking place around me. The man who had knocked me to the ground was now crouched beside me in a well trained firing stance. Firing shot after shot into the rear fender of my fellow Latin Kings quickly departing car.
I did eventually notice his hand waving in front of my face as he offered me help up off the ground. I waved his hand out of the way and gingerly got to my feet. Slowly shaking my body out as I went to make sure everything was still where it belonged. Knowing that now more then ever, I could only rely on myself. I was truly alone, again.
I met the eyes of the man who had brought me here in the first place, and then thrown himself between me and a bullet for no logical reason that I could see.
In the brighter light of day, it was obvious that he was of some Cuban descent. His posture and presence screamed Military of some sort. Some highly trained sort. I'd bet my money that just the aura of control and power that this man oozed was enough for him to bring in criminals without even needing to pull his gun. No wonder they sent this guy for me.
Despite, or maybe in part because of, that edge of 'Don't fuck with me' in his brown eyes, he was a rather attractive person to look at.
His coloring was a slightly darker version of my own, and his body was certainly kept in tip top shape. But that wasn't even it. His bone structure was something else entirely to behold. Long toned legs, long nimble fingers gripped the gun he had lowered to his side. My eyes traveled up a well defined torso to a set of shoulders that were wide enough to take the globe off Atlas' hands. The corded muscles in his neck disappeared into a mass of straight, shiny brown hair that looked just ever so slightly too short to be pulled back out of his face. His face.. It could have passed for any of the finely detailed sculptures I'd glimpsed on that last school field trip.. Before everything went wrong.
His entire demeanor was… aloof. Withdrawn. There was the man, but.. It wasn't truth. Such control. You would never see something in this mans face that he didn't want you to see, that he didn't put there himself. And there was no way to know if it was real, or a part of the mask. What the world sees is merely a two foot thick wall he places between himself and the world. I never figured out if that was for his protection, or for the rest of us.
His eyes stared back at me with not quite masked curiosity when I finally settled on them. He was obviously a dangerous man, but I wouldn't hesitate to look him in the eye. Now of all times I had to prove that I was in control of myself, of my destiny. I would not back down to this man. No matter how dangerous he may be.
I was near shocked when the corners of his mouth twitched up and he extended the hand that wasn't tucking his gun back into a holster out to me in greeting. I took his hand in my own, shaking it firmly as he spoke.
"My name is Ranger Manoso, I have a proposition that might save your life if you're interested in taking a ride with me." The corners of his mouth had relaxed from the trace of a smile he'd nearly had a moment before, and he was suddenly all business.
Shit. Ranger Manoso. THE Ranger Manoso. This week just couldn't get any more fucked up for me. Or so I thought.
OoO To be continued OoO