Out Of The Dust

52

Daizee watched as Cristobal and Mateo played in the living room together. No matter how much Erin annoyed her, she knew that she would take good care of him while Leti was away for the day. The smile never left the chubby little boy's cheeks.

"Oh! I didn't know you were here," Emily said as she came into the kitchen wearing workout clothes, and a noticeable bruise on her neck.

"I work here, what the fuck happened to your neck?" Daizee said, getting straight to the point.

"Oh it's uh. . . Nothing just Miguel and I got carried away last night," Emily blushed.

"That fucker tried to kill you." Daizee said, anger heating in her body.

"No, what, no. It's not like that Daizee,"

"God, you're so stupid. You can't even see past his bullshit to see what he's doing to you. There's a difference between light choking for a good orgasm, and deliberately trying to strangle someone." Daizee responded.

"Fuck off, Daizee. Just go back to playing house with your new man of the week." Emily said getting in her face.

"Get. Out. Of my face," Daizee took a step closer, so the women were chest to chest, neither one backing down, "You know who the fuck you are messing with?"

Emily looked at her cold green eyes, before stepping down and moving past Daizee. She grabbed Cristobal out of Erin's hands and ran up the stairs, slamming her bedroom door shut. Daizee looked out the window to the dry, harsh desert and sighed. The last thing she wanted was to be on Emily's shit list.

"Pretty early to be causing problems with big Bro's wife?" Erin asked, walking into the kitchen with Mateo.

"He's going to kill her."

Angel sat in the driveway of the sheriffs station waiting for EZ to be released. He couldn't believe that the golden child ended up in a fight in front of Gaby. The poor girl's nose wasn't broken, but if he hit her any harder, then it would've been broken. Angel's mind was already swimming after the events of last night. He was having another child, months after he lost one, for him to learn that the baby was living with the woman he loved. . . or he thought he loved.

Angel wasn't sure how the hell he was going to break Daizee's heart again. It felt like deja vu, like he just broke the news to her that Adelita was pregnant with his kid. Every time he saw Daizee, he saw the light back in her eyes, after being dull for months. He couldn't do that to her again. He couldn't hurt her again. He wasn't so sure she could survive being hurt again.

EZ walked out of the station and made eye contact with his older brother, leaning on the back of his truck. He nodded at the elder Reyes and made his way over, squinting at the sunlight. Angel hugged his brother before climbing into the cab of the truck.

"I'm sorry about yesterday," Angel said, blowing out the smoke from his cigarette, "Been fucked up lately. Saw Adelita."

"Shit. When?" EZ asked.

"Few days ago."

"They let her out? Is she okay?"

"No. She's not." Angel responded.

EZ sighed and then asked, "The baby?"

"My little boy, Mateo." Angel said and the realization washed over EZ's face, "Adelita knew some shit would happen to her, so she gave him to Daze. I didn't even know for months that my own kid was being raised 15 miles away from me."

"Oh, fuck. I'm so fucking sorry, Angel."

"When she showed up, back out of the blue like that, I told myself, 'don't ever let her out of your sight, don't ever let her go again' but. . . I wasn't enough for her to stay."