My Cruel Salvation (Fallen Saint # 3) - J. Kenner Page 0,2
the eye of a target, but at any goal that you set. You learn that, and you will deserve to inherit what I have built, and you will make it even greater than I have. Do you understand how much I love you? How much I have built for you?”
Bile rose in Alex’s throat as he nodded. “Yes, Father.”
“Go to your mother. Tell her you failed. But because you will do better tomorrow, you may have a cookie with your lunch.”
“Yes, Father.” Once again, his knees were rubbery. This time, with relief.
“Go. I must speak to Eric, then I will see you at home.”
“I—” He shut his mouth. He knew better than to question or argue. He only hoped that Eric—the man who trained him daily at the range—would still be alive tomorrow. “Yes, Father,” he said. And then, before his father could say another word, Alex Lopez took off running.
Chapter Two
“I hate him,” Alex said as his stepmother, Aurelia, stiffened beside him.
“Hush.” Her voice was soft but stern, full of love and also tinged with fear. “If he hears you…”
She trailed off, the sound of her voice making Alex shudder. She was right. He’d been stupid saying that.
Even so, he couldn’t help himself when he said, “He’s not a wolf. Wolves are nice. They protect each other. I looked it up in my encyclopedia. He should call himself The Hyena.”
Beside him, Aurelia giggled, then shushed him again. “You’re gonna get us both in trouble.”
She was his father’s wife, but she wasn’t that much older than him. Only eighteen, and she seemed a lot younger. His last stepmother had been twenty-four. She was gone now. One day she just disappeared. The Wolf had called her a bad name—the C-word that Aurelia said was really, really bad—and he’d told Alex that she’d gone away and wouldn’t be back.
That was two years ago, and back then Alex had thought she’d gone on a trip. She used to tell him that one day they’d drive to California and go to Disneyland, and he’d been mad at her for going without him. But he’d been a stupid kid, then. Now he knew the truth. Now he knew she was dead.
He was ashamed that he’d kept talking even when Aurelia told him to hush.
He didn’t want to get her dead, too.
“I’m sorry,” he said, snuggling closer as she put her arm around him. He whispered the words, not even sure that she could hear him over Friends playing on the television. “I don’t want him to hurt you like he hurt my momma.”
He felt her body go tense again.
“What do you know about that? You can’t possibly remember her. I mean, I barely remember her. I was thirteen when she—I mean, when you came to live here.”
“I remember she cried a lot. And I remember the police coming to the house that night. They said she drove her car off the road, but she didn’t, did she?” He turned and looked at her defiantly. “He did it. He killed my momma. And then he brought me here.”
He saw the answer on her face, but all she said was, “You can’t say things like that. You can’t even think them.”
He started to reply, but he saw the boy in the doorway and heard Aurelia’s soft sigh. “Manny, you get your little bottom to bed. Do you hear me?”
“He gets to stay up.” The boy had a mop of black hair, a nose with a tilted tip, and dark eyes that he focused on Alex.
“He’s ten. You’re seven.”
“I want to show you the game I made.”
She cocked her head. “I told you to go to bed an hour ago. You’re supposed to sleep, not play on that computer. Now mind me and go to bed. You can show me your game in the morning.”
“You’re not my Momma. You can’t tell me what to do.”
“I’m your sister, and our Momma’s dead, and I can tell you what to do. He said so.”
Nobody in the room needed to be reminded who he was.
With a final scowl towards Alex, Manuel Espinoza turned back into the hall.
“He misses her,” she said. “Now all he does is play on that computer. I’d let him stay up with us, but if your father came in, he’d beat all three of us.”
Alex nodded. “I know. It’s okay. I miss my mother, too.”