For Rosie to respond that quickly and use that kind of language, this had to be bad. Right there, Vince decided he didn't want to know. His first thoughts were that Sal had cheated. As unlikely as that seemed, the only thing he could think of worse than that, that might have sweet Rosie cussing, was that he'd struck Grace. But unless he'd heard it straight from Sal himself, Vince would never believe that. He may not be very close to his cousins, but one thing he knew was that as fast as all of them would be to kick some ass for the women in their family or for each other, none would ever lift a hand to a woman. So he was left with the former.

Ironically, Vince was now hoping Rose wouldn't take that one personality flaw in Sal that she obviously loathed and associate it with him just because they were related. He almost chuckled. He never thought he'd see the day when he hoped being related to the perfect La Jolla Morenos wouldn't cramp his style and not the other way around.

He was distracted for a moment when he heard Anita's dad booming outside his window and then Beto's cries. Fucking asshole. He hated to cut Rose short, but it was getting louder next door, and Lorenzo was already standing by the window. He texted her quickly before Lorenzo got any ideas.

Okay, no more talking about it. I gotta go for now, but will you be up a little later?

He smiled when she responded that she would be, but the smile was immediately replaced with a frown when he heard a door slam coming from Anita's bedroom window. Lorenzo was already climbing out onto the fire escape.

"Hey, get your ass in here."

Lorenzo turned to him, looking just as concerned as Vince felt. For years now this had been going on. Anita's dad would get home drunk, and if anything set him off which was usually the case, he'd take it out on Anita and the boys. Anita always took the brunt of it because she was quick to throw herself in front of her brothers. The door slamming meant one thing. Her dad was done, and he'd slammed her door shut. It was over, but Vince knew she was probably crouched in the room now, not even able to cry because she'd be busy consoling her brothers.

Vince grabbed the bag of unopened Hot Cheetos he'd brought in the room earlier before making his way to the window. "Get inside," he ordered as he climbed onto the fire escape and joined Lorenzo. "I'll go check on her."

She lived directly across from him in the next building but one floor down. This was about the only thing he'd risk. He didn't think he had a choice. A few of the times her piece-of-shit dad had beaten her, she'd been left with open wounds or lumps that required icing. Because she was too afraid to leave the room, Vince had climbed back up to his window and brought down the necessary supplies from his medicine cabinet or freezer. If anything ever happened to her because of unattended wounds—something he could've helped with—he'd never forgive himself. And he wasn't about to let Lorenzo risk getting caught in her room by her drunk dad, so if he didn't do this, he knew Lorenzo would.

Living in this area with their apartments so close and buildings side by side, there was never any shortage of drama coming from one window or another. Over the years his parents had warned Vince and Lorenzo not to get involved. The crying and cussing coming from Anita's window was nothing new to this building. There was plenty of this coming from other windows as well. Vince couldn't save the world, but this was different. Anita was his friend. He couldn't not get involved. He had to at least check to see if she was okay.

He climbed down the ladder then jumped over to her fire escape. Sneaking a peek into her bedroom, he made sure her dad wasn't still in there. Pepe saw him and blinked; his tear-streaked face was a mess. The tough stink-eye expression from earlier was completely gone now as he stood next to Anita who sat in the corner of the room rocking Beto in her arms.

Holding up the bag of Hot Cheetos, Vince smiled, hoping to make Pepe at least smile. But his lips didn't even twitch. Vince climbed in, and Anita looked up, her eyes glimmering but no tears. There were fewer tears every time something like this happened. After all this time, he knew most of the tears were from what her dad put her little brothers through having to watch him beat her, rather than from any pain she felt.

"You okay?" he whispered, handing the Cheetos to Pepe and patting his head.

She nodded kissing the top of Beto's head but said nothing. There didn't appear to be any visible lacerations or bumps, but her cheek was bright red, making Vince clench his fist so tight it almost hurt.

"I wish you'd let me tell my parents, Anita. One of these days he's really gonna hurt—"

"No!" She shook her head. "You can't. We've talked about this. They'll separate us. It's just a few more years, Vince. As soon as I'm eighteen, I'll move away and take them with me."

"You really think he's going to let you go without a fight?"

Anita glanced at Pepe who was now eating the Cheetos as Beto moved off her lap and walked over to Pepe. Her eyes met Vince's, and she gave him that look. She wouldn't say it in front of them, but he knew what she was saying with her eyes. She'd said it many times before. Her dad didn't want any of them.

Vince frowned, defeated, feeling completely helpless to do more for her. "You sure you don't need ice or anything?"

She touched her cheek. "No, it was openhanded, so I don't think it's going to swell," she whispered even lower than she'd been whispering earlier. "He was mad about the boys still being up, but they wanted a snack." She gestured to her brothers. "Thanks for the Cheetos. It's not exactly the snack I would've chosen for them, but it'll have to do for tonight."

Her weak little smile did nothing to alleviate the enormous urge he had to grab one of the bookends on her shelf, rip through that door, and beat her dad over the head with it. He took a deep breath, swallowing back his anger. This certainly wasn't the first time he'd had to calm himself, and from the looks of it, it wouldn't be the last. He just wasn't sure how much longer he could hold back or worse hold Lorenzo back, who was just as disgusted about the whole thing as he was.

Lorenzo stared at him, reaching out to help him as he climbed up the ladder to the fire escape outside their bedroom window. "She okay?

"Yeah, no lumps or open wounds this time, but he slapped her pretty hard."

Lorenzo banged his hand against the fire escape rail. "What a pussy! You know one of these days, I'm gonna throw a fucking brick through his truck windshield when he drives up the street."

"No you won't." Vince looked into his angry brother's eyes. "I know it sucks, but it's not worth it, Enzo. You could go to jail for something like that, and for what? That piece of shit?" Vince glanced back down at Anita's open window. "The other day she mentioned he's been seeing some lady, and she's noticed a small change in him—a small one, but it's something."

Lorenzo's face contorted. "Who the hell would want date that asshole?"

Vince shrugged. "I dunno, but if it helps Anita and her brothers' situation, I'm hoping he keeps dating her."

They climbed back in the window. Vince picked up his phone and saw he had a text from Rose. He plopped into his bed ready for his nightly dose of Rose. They'd usually text back and forth for at least an hour before calling it a night. He clicked on the envelope, already anxious to read it.

I'm sorry I was so quick to say we couldn't be friends anymore today. I had just found out about Grace and Sal, and I was so upset I wasn't thinking straight. Forgive me?

Vince smiled, his insides warming as he reread it. Even after dealing with Anita's ordeal and everything else that had happened that day—Rose's being so upset, blaming herself and knowing she'd been crying, the most disturbing thing of all that still lingered in his subconscious, was the fact that she'd dismissed their friendship so easily. Now here she was apologizing for that. Rose Zendejas was what he'd thought from day one—faultless.

***

The good news of getting the go-ahead from his uncle about summer in La Jolla was quickly paled when he found out Rose would be out of state for the first week. Her family was taking a last-minute vacation to Laughlin, so he'd been in La Jolla over a week now, and he may as well have been in La Puente. The only contact he'd had so far with her was their damn texting still. She was home now, and he was dying to see her. He still hadn't even asked if he could use the restaurant's car, which Sal had let him use to get to and from work, to drive out to see her.

The last few days she'd been busy packing because she was moving: nowhere far, just out of that scummy building she lived in now. Rose had asked Vince to share as little as possible with Sal about anything her sister was up to. He'd already blown it by letting Sal know they were in Laughlin, but fortunately Sal hadn't asked much about it.

Finally, Rose said she might be able to see him tonight, only she had to convince her sister. Apparently, thanks to Sal, even though he wasn't with her sister anymore, she was still holding on to the advice that Sal had given her before they broke up that Vince shouldn't be trusted.

He walked into the dining room of the restaurant where Sal was chatting with his friend Romero. Vince had been around Romero before. He liked him. He wasn't wound nearly as tight as Sal was. And from what he'd heard, he was a bit of a hothead himself so Vince could relate.

Vince hadn't even finished tying his apron when Sal was already asking if Rose was still in Laughlin.

"Nah, they got back a few days ago, but she's been busy packing for uh..." Shit! Vince finished tying his apron and tried to recover from the slip and changed the subject. "You think maybe it'd be okay for me to drive out tonight and see her for a couple hours after my shift?"

"You mean unpacking right?" Sal asked and Vince could feel his cousin eyeing him as he pretended to concentrate on tying his apron.

He gave a few vague answers to relieve Sal's further curiosity with the whole packing/unpacking thing. Vince thought they'd gotten past it. He was even relieved when Romero started in on him about Rose.

"You and Grace's sister, huh?" Romero asked tossing his napkin on his plate with a smirk then burped.

Vince was about to respond when Romero added another irritating comment. "She's straight jail bait, man." He shook his head. "I couldn't believe it when Grace said she was only fifteen."

The smirk on Romero's face was so annoying Vince couldn't help but give in to his obvious riling. "Jail bait?" He was trying not to glare but knew he'd failed miserably. "What the hell does that mean?"

Oh, he knew what he meant all right, but that would only be true if Rose were promiscuous and tried to pass herself as older than she was.

Obviously this amused Sal's stupid friend because he smirked even bigger now. "Means you're gonna have your hands full, fighting off older guys who might mistake her for an eighteen-year-old."

To his own surprise, this really pissed him off. Rose was his friend and one of the sweetest girls he'd ever met. "No I won't," he said raising his voice, "'cause she's not like that."

Practically laughing now, Romero lifted his hands in the air. "You wanted to know what I meant. I was just explaining."

What an asshole! Maybe Vince didn't like this guy so much after all. Of course Vince knew what he'd meant about jailbait, but what he really wanted to know was what Romero was insinuating about Rose. Before he could recover, Sal added his own two cents.

"Romero is right. She did already get asked to that prom by an older boy." Now even Sal smirked. "I dunno; you really think she was busy for days of unpacking? That's kind of odd. Isn't it? You sure maybe her prom date wasn't keeping her busy?"

Completely ignited now by these two assholes, the words flew out before he could think it through. "She was packing, okay? I wasn't supposed to say anything, but they're moving."

Seeing Sal's smirk fall flat gave Vince some satisfaction. Who was irritating whom now?

"Moving where?"

"They're not sure yet. That's another thing that's kept her busy, Sal. They've been busy looking for a new place, too. But all we do is text, so she can't write it all down." Since it was already out, he may as just tell him. Vince didn't know a whole lot anyway then it hit him, and he grinned. "If I see her tonight, I'll finally get to talk to her. I can get the whole scoop for you." Vince felt kind of crummy about giving Sal any information on Grace when Rose had specifically asked him not to, but he really wanted to see her. At this point he'd say anything.

"Sure you can go see Rose, Vin." Sal suddenly smiled.

Yes! Vince had never felt so smug in his life. The smug feeling didn't last very long because Sal quickly turned it around on him.

He proceeded to tell him under what conditions he could use the car. First off, he reminded Vince that Rose was only fifteen and warned him that if he did anything disrespectful or got her in any kind of trouble, his ass was gone. There were no second chances.

Romero got up in the middle of Sal's warning speech and said he was out but not before adding one more jab. "Listen to your cousin, Vin. A girl like that can be trouble."

That did it. "A girl like what?" Vince took a step away from Sal and one toward Romero. "You don't know shit—"

"All right, all right!" Sal put his hand on Vince's shoulder with a chuckle.

Sal assured him that Romero was just messing with him as Romero continued to walk away laughing.

"She's a very nice girl." Sal continued to smirk.

Maybe they were just messing with him. He'd had his balls busted plenty of times by his friends, but already things felt different when it came to Rose.

Strangely, this only made him want to see her even more now. He'd give in to any and all of Sal's conditions. By the end of his conversation with Sal, Vince felt like he'd made a deal with the devil himself because behaving and keeping Rose out of trouble weren't Sal's only conditions. Sal wanted him to get him as much information on Grace as he could.

Vince finally agreed and it was on. If Grace said yes, Vince would be seeing Rose tonight.

More to come tomorrow!