Page 88 of Liar

I wait for him to push me away. He doesn’t disappoint.

“Pack your things. Tomorrow morning, Javier will escort you home. From now on, he’ll be available if you need him.”

“I won’t need him now that the Z22 are gone.”

Hayden continues, ignoring me, “Whenever Javier is occupied, someone else will be positioned outside your home and business.”

“Doing what? Reporting back to you?”

His silence is answer enough, but I want to ask why. Why monitor my life from a distance? “When will my brother be home?”

“Not right away. He’s on an important assignment collecting information for me.”

I roll my bottom lip between my teeth. Is Diego still in Tijuana? But I can’t risk asking Hayden, because he’ll think my brother is running his mouth behind his back.

Silence falls. Awkward, miserable silence, until I can stand it no more. “It’s late,” I say, cutting the fragile cord that binds us, before he does. “I should pack.”

I step by him.

He grabs my arm, forcing me to stop.

My eyebrows raise in question.

“Ask me what happens to those who get involved with me.”

That question again. But do I dare ask?

“I didn’t take you for a coward. Ask me.”

That has the question rolling off my lips before I can stop it. “What happens?”

“She becomes my enemies target. A tool to use against me.”

Hayden’s young love.

I swallow hard. “This happened to you?”

“Her uncle—my boss—warned me of the danger. I was too young and foolish to listen. The cost was her life. She was walking home when they murdered her in broad daylight. Shot her in the head then left her to bleed out. I found her a block away from her house.”

Dios mío.

“What was her name?”

“Aurora. Beautiful, sweet Aurora.”

I mentally scold myself for the jealousy rising up inside me when all I should have is sympathy for her—and him.

“Relationships make you weak.”

“No.” I shake my head. “Relationships make you human.”

“I can’t afford to be human.”

“You really believe that?” I challenge. “That your emotions can be turned on and off like a light switch? One flick of the finger and poof, gone?”

He doesn’t answer, but too much is at stake for me to back down. So, I address the issue foremost on my mind since the night of Nacionales. The elephant in the room, the one that proves that not only is he human but he cares.

“Why did you kill El Calaca?”