Author: Priscilla
Chapter 3
Evelyn walked onto the terrace of the $2,000 a night suite she shared with her husband. Well, share wouldn't be the word she would use, more like co-existed. She felt....anxious, like something big was going to happen to her or someone around her. Evelyn looked out onto the expanse of beach, sun, and people that seemed to go on forever. The water had this unusual shade of green..... and without her knowing it, she was blindsided by early memories of Leon.
***FLASHBACK***
***A 14 yr. old Evelyn walked into the garage owned by Leon's father wearing the biggest jumpsuit the guys had ever seen. Ignoring the snide remarks and giggling coming from the other guys working on the cars, Evelyn walked towards the back and into Leon's father's office.
"Hey pop, what do you want me to do today?" Evelyn asked, a red cherry flavored loly pop in her mouth. In truth Leon's father was more of a father to her than the one that shared her last name.
"Hi Evie, well don't you look.... ready to work today." Antonio Rodriguez said as he took in the girl's appearance while Kelvin and Mario laughed. Evelyn turned her cold hazel gaze on the boys who immediately stopped laughing and looked at the floor. She always used that look to intimidate people she didn't like or those who tried to intimidate her. Something else she could attribute to her friendship with Leon. He was her knight in shining armor ever since she'd transferred from her all girl's boarding school when her father's business had gone through tough times, and into his public co-ed John Aston High School. She had been made fun of profusely, until Leon had taken it upon himself to knock some people of their asses for her.
"Umm, why don't you go help Leon today? He's been slackin' off the past few days and now everything ganged up on him." Evie nodded her head in agreement and walked farther back into the garage, stopping next to Leon's sweaty 16 yr. old frame and nudging him to get his attention.
"Hey, wassup Evie!" He replied excitedly ruffling her hair with his big hand.
"Your dad said I should help you out today." She tried to explain why she was back there working on cars when his father would rarely let her out of the office.
"Yeah? Alright, hand me that screwdriver over there." She handed it to him and they worked side by side for hours until they got that engine into place. At about 5:30 in the afternoon a man walked into the garage and started talking to Mr. Rodriguez, Leon noticed Evelyn's far away look as she openly stared at their math teacher, Mr. Brooks.
He couldn't help feeling a little jealous at her obvious attraction to him and it pissed him off. Later in the afternoon, when they were cleaning up for closing time, Leon stopped in mid broom sweep and watched Evelyn clean the windows of the car they'd fixed that morning. She felt his gaze burning a hole through her so she turned her hazel eyes on his startling green ones and asked, "What?"
"Would you think of me Evie?"
"When?"
"If things don't work out with you and Brooks, would you think of me?" Evelyn held his gaze for an eternity, or so it seemed, then turned her blushing face downwards staring at her feet and nodded mutely before looking up to his smiling face.***
***END FLASHBACK***
The memory brought instant tears to her eyes. It hurt so much to think of him that way, vulnerable and asking for her affections. She'd thought she'd done the right thing by letting him walk out on her wedding day. Screw him if he didn't care enough about her to stay she'd told herself and then the nightmare had started. What had happened to the compassionate, funny, loving man she had married? What happened to all the promises?
They were a crock of shit, that's what happened. Evelyn shook her head as if to clear the flashback of her encounter with Leon yesterday, of her nickname on those rosy lips, and the intensity in those emerald pools that were his eyes. God he was still beautiful as ever she sighed as she grabbed her purse from the beau, and locked the door behind her. She took the elevator to the lobby garage and walked over to her waiting Mitsubishi Eclipse rental. Evelyn fumbled with her keys as she tried to unlock the door. She never even heard him come up behind her.
"How you doing Evie?"
Title: Fuel
Author: Priscilla
Chapter 4
Evelyn spun around to face him, no, it could NOT be him. She tried to steady her racing pulse but found it skyrocketing when she realized that the voice in fact did belong to Leon Rodriguez.
"Leon..." She said in an almost breathy sigh. He was even more gorgeous than she remembered from their brief encounter the day before. Taller than she remembered, bronzy tanned skin covered a very muscular frame. Strong, well defined shoulders and long stealthy fingers.
"So, you don't have amnesia today? More than I expected." He said chuckling, voice a raspy drawl. Oh yes, the years had been good to this boy. He wore baggy navy blue Guess jeans hung low on his hips, the top of black boxers peaked above their waistline, a NY Hitmen sleeveless jersey covered, or TRIED to cover a very defined chest. Chiseled arms attached to long, slender, and strong looking hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans. Black Nike sneakers on his feet. She slowly made her way up to his face again, black/brown hair combed back, slender nose, strong set jaw line, gloriously curved lips, but God those eyes, hints of hazel, brown and blue merged together under dark brows to give him the look of an exotic cat on the prowl.
Evelyn blinked, coming out of her thoughts and tried to put into words what she was feeling. Tell him how good it is to see him again, to have him near! Her mind screamed at her. DO SOMETHING!!! Instead bitter words escaped her lips before she had time to register how they sounded to him.
"What are you doing here Leon?" She asked, and immediately wanted to slap herself. This was NOT how she pictured their reunion. She figured that there would be SOME conflict, that was a given, his right, but not like this. They both sounded like old bitter enemies.
"What am I doing here?" He said pointing towards his chest, "You, got balls to ask me that. What, did you think that I would stay away?" Leon said, venting all the frustration he'd felt yesterday as she drove away from the garage, when she'd denied that she was in fact the woman he'd once loved.
"Of all the garages and shops in Mexico, you pick my door to walk into and then pretend like you don't know me." He said, voice barely above a throaty whisper. He sounded.....wounded, hurt.
"It wasn't my decision." Evelyn said lamely. God they couldn't do this here, in the parking lot of the hotel. The bodyguards could come down any minute to check on her, and Frank could.....Leon's voice broke into her frantic train of thought.
"I get the feeling you don't make a lot of fucking decisions then huh?" He asked bitterly, anger flashing in his emerald pools.
"Leon we can't-" Evelyn was cut off by the voices coming down the hotel lobby stairs that led to the garage. Male voices, Italian New Yorker accents.... Tony and Mario.....OH SHIT.
"Leon, take this, it's my cell phone number, call me around seven. If anyone but me picks up, hang up immediately." She instructed quickly, jotting down the number and handing it to him. Leon looked at her like she'd grown three heads in the last few minutes.
"What's going on? You afraid of the no-necks?"
"Leon! Please just go and call me at seven. I'll explain everything then." She said in a harsh whisper, pleading with her eyes, he nodded his head in consent. Evelyn darted across the parking garage and forced her body to remain calm, to walk at a steady pace when she came into both men's line of vision.
"Mrs. Sloan! We been lookin' everywhere for ya, you had us shitting bricks."
"Sorry boys, I just went for a walk is all." Evelyn said as nonchalantly as she could manage at the moment
"Who's that?" Tony asked pointing to the yellow Nissan Skyline whose driver was very intently, staring right at them.
"How should I know? C'mon take me upstairs." She ordered and the men followed her to the elevator that went up into the hotel. Only when the metal doors closed, did she let out the heavy breath she had been holding.
****************************
Leon drove down Juan Duarte Avenue and made a left parking directly in front of his house. He'd bought it two weeks after they moved to Mexico with the money he'd won from the last of his races. He'd realized that yeah, he did love the team, wanted to spend as much time with them as possible, they were his family, but it was way too crowded at Dom's and he needed his space, and a place to call his own. It was a two-floor house with all the bare necessities and it suited him just fine. Not overly big..... homey would be the word to describe it. He turned the ignition off and pulled the piece of paper Evelyn had given him and just stared at it. Why has she been to upset when those guys had showed up? He asked himself. Well, he would get to find out just that when he spoke to her later on that night, but right now he needed a shower.
****************************
Evelyn had just set one foot into her suite, that one mistake would cost her; she'd left and forgotten to tell her husband where she could be reached.
"Have fun Evelyn?" Frank asked from his place staring out at the view of the beach from the patio doors, his back to her. His tone was non-threatening, but his stance revealed his true colors. His voice was slurred too, she noticed......he'd been drinking. Evelyn's eyes darted back and forth between the bottle of Felipe II and the door she'd just walked through as if contemplating if she should run or not. She decided not.
"I'm sorry Frank, I lost track of time." She said softly.
"That's seems to be happening a lot lately, you losing track of time. Me not being able to reach you. You know how I worry." Frank said in a mildly amused tone.
"Yeah, I know, as much as you worry about a piece of trash you encounter on the street." She said, her voice even, she didn't know what she was doing.
"Don't be cross with me Evelyn." Her husband warned, finally tearing his gaze away from the view outside to whip her with it's icy chill.
"What's this about Frank? I'm tired." Evelyn said suddenly, and edge of menace in her voice. Louder than that should of been, she chastised herself.
"I don't think I like your tone." Frank said between clenched teeth. Meticulously setting his glass down and clenching his fists into tight balls at his side. Evelyn didn't know where this was coming from, this braveness, this unexpected surge of strength.
"I don't like you, period." She said. Evelyn watched it seemed, in slow motion as Frank moved from across the room towards her. She spun and tried to run into the bathroom only to be dragged back towards her husband by her hair. Frank turned her head at an odd angle to look her in the eyes. What he saw there pleased him: fear, apprehension, pure unadulterated hate.
Evelyn watched as he raised his arm and folded his long fingers into a ball, watched the giant fist come crashing down to her face. BAM! The searing pain tore through her jumbled brain, and then she was falling, falling, and then she hit the floor....hard. She coughed, trying to regain the strength that had been coursing through her veins just moments before, and blood sprung forth, staining the cream colored carpet in a show of her utter defeat. Evelyn didn't have time to regain anything; Frank grabbed her hair and dragged her across the room as she struggled to break free of his grasp. She drew in a breath to scream and his rough hands caught her jaw.
"Scream and I'll break you in half." Frank warned, face inches away from hers, and immediately she clamped her mouth shut, eyes brimming with tears that refused to fall. He opened the oak door that led to the shoe closet and threw her battered, bruised, and bleeding body in, locking it from the outside. This was her punishment, she was not being a good girl.