Straight ahead was the bedroom. Yadriel caught a glimpse of a room barely big enough to fit a mattress on the floor. Last one in, he shut the front door behind himself. There were two holes in the back at about knee height.
Luca sank into one of the chairs at the dining table, drawing one knee up to his chest. Rio turned left, into the kitchen. It was so narrow, Yadriel doubted you could open the fridge door all the way without running into the opposite counter.
Rio pulled a baking pan out of the fridge and snagged a fork from a drawer. “So, who are you?” he asked as he filled a mug up with water from the sink.
“I’m Yadriel,” he said.
Rio set the pan and mug on top of some papers in front of Luca. It was chocolate cake with goopy chocolate icing. Only one small piece had been cut out from the corner. His large hand thumped Luca’s chest, and Luca snatched up the fork and dove right in.
“I’m Julian’s friend,” Yadriel added, feeling pressured to fill the silence. While Rio wasn’t looking, he gave Julian a small nod. Julian edged around the room and disappeared into the bedroom.
Rio leaned back against the counter and folded his arms over his chest, hands tucked under his large biceps. He looked down his nose at Yadriel. “No, you’re not.”
Julian snorted from the other room, but it lacked his usual mirth.
“I’m a newer friend,” he corrected. He nearly added “from school,” but he knew better than to make that mistake.
Rio’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly. He said nothing and simply stood there, waiting.
“We were wondering if you’d seen Jules,” Luca somehow managed through a huge mouthful of cake.
Rio let his intense gaze stay on Yadriel a moment longer before looking over to Luca. “No, I haven’t. He left a few days ago.”
“You haven’t heard from him at all?”
“No, Luca.” Frustration edged his otherwise even voice. “He left. Probably for good, this time.” For a moment, his quiet stoicism slipped. Yadriel could see past it. Could spot the way his eyelids drooped, how he rubbed a spot on his neck.
Yadriel realized what he’d sensed coming from Rio when he first saw him. He wasn’t sick or injured, but his fatigue was so thick, Yadriel could actually feel it.
Luca frowned. “Jules wouldn’t just leave.”
Rio glanced over at Yadriel, like he didn’t want to have this conversation in front of him, but Luca was persistent.
“Really, Rio, he wouldn’t!”
“He’s been itching to get out of here for years,” Rio told him. “We got into a fight. He said he couldn’t stand living in this dump anymore. He said I—” He cut a glance at Yadriel again and stopped himself.
Yadriel didn’t like the way he was talking about Julian, especially when he couldn’t even defend himself. He felt himself bristling under Rio’s suspicious gaze.
“C’mon.” Luca tried to smile. “You know he just gets like that sometimes.”
“Not this time, Luca.” Rio was curt but far from yelling.
“He’d never actually take off on us!”
Yadriel wanted to agree with him, to tell Rio that Luca was right. He knew he needed to just keep his mouth shut, but it was becoming difficult to hold his tongue.
“This time he meant it. I saw it on his face.” Rio sighed and scrubbed his hands over his face, leaving a smudge of grease across his forehead. Worry and exhaustion made him look far older than his twenty-two years.
“Told you.”
Julian stood off to his brother’s side, a gray-and-black plaid shirt balled up in his hands. He watched his brother with dark, smoldering eyes. “I just make his life more difficult. He’s better off.”
Yadriel clenched his jaw. He wanted to knock some sense into both Julian and Rio.
“The cops haven’t come by at all?” Yadriel ventured, trying to steer the conversation toward something that would help them find not only Julian, but Miguel, too.
Luca’s hand froze, a heaping forkful of cake inches from his mouth.
“No.” Rio’s forehead wrinkled. “Why would the cops come by?”
“He’s missing, so shouldn’t we go to the police?” Luca jumped in, his cheeks burning red.
Rio sighed deeply and rubbed his temple. “He’s not missing, Luca, he ran away.” He let out a short, bitter laugh. “He didn’t even tell us he was leaving,” Rio added, expression stormy.
Julian turned away from his brother, wringing the plaid shirt in his hands. His ears were turning red. The hurt was written on every tense muscle in his face, shoulders, and arms.
Anger sparked in Yadriel, and he clenched his fists, his fingernails pressing into his palms. He’d only known Julian a couple of days, but even he knew there was no way Julian would run away from his friends—his family. He wanted to yell at Rio, to tell him he was so entirely wrong.
Luca put down his fork and shook his head, sending his shaggy hair sweeping back and forth. “No, he—”
“Luca.” Rio’s voice was firm. “He doesn’t care.”
Julian flinched, twisting away from Yadriel, but it was impossible to miss his pained expression, or the shine in his dark eyes.
The spark in Yadriel flared.
“If that’s what you think, then you really don’t know Julian at all,” Yadriel said, the words flying from his mouth before he could stop himself.
All three of them turned to stare at him.
Julian blinked at Yadriel, surprised.
Rio’s stare was stony and unforgiving. Luca looked between him and Yadriel anxiously.
“You think you know him better?” Rio asked. “I’ve never even seen you before. I’ve known him his whole life,” he said, tapping a finger against his chest. “I kept him off the streets and raised him ever since—”
“Apparently!” Yadriel cut him off, forcing himself to stand his ground even though he was incredibly intimidated by Rio. “If you really think Julian doesn’t care about you all, then yeah, I do know him better!”
Julian openly gaped.
Rio straightened. “You—”
But Yadriel refused to let him talk. He wasn’t thinking about protecting his own secret, he just wanted to make Rio see how stupid he was being, how hurtful his words were. “Maybe he’s got a short temper and makes stupid decisions sometimes,” he went on. “But you should know that Julian wouldn’t leave you all unless there was something keeping him from coming back!”
Rio eyes grew sharp with distrust. “Who are you?” he said—an order, not a request.
“What if something happened to Julian?” Luca said to Rio, his chin wobbling.
“What are you talking about?” Rio asked, but Luca turned away, refusing to look him in the eye. Instead, Rio looked at Yadriel.
He couldn’t think of anything to say that wouldn’t make Rio even more suspicious, or, worse, alarm him. Sensing his hesitation, Rio stood bolt upright.
“What happened?” His eyes shot between Yadriel and Luca.
“Don’t.”
The sharp word yanked Yadriel’s attention back to Julian. He stood there, the shirt twisted around his wrists like a rope.
“Don’t tell him,” Julian said.
Quickly, Yadriel looked away from him. He couldn’t draw Rio’s attention to Julian, or he’d see the shirt hovering in midair.
“Luca,” Yadriel said in warning, giving a quick shake of his head. Yadriel had promised not to out him, and he wouldn’t.
Luca tucked his chin to his chest, his cheeks burning bright red.
Rio’s tired expression had vanished. He was alert and protective as he stepped between Yadriel and Luca. “What do you want? And why did you drag Luca into whatever the hell this is?” Rio barked.
Yadriel’s heart thudded in the pulse of his neck. “I—I—” he stammered.
“But, Rio,” Luca interrupted, panic tightening his voice. “What if—”
“Luca.” Rio took a deep breath and exhaled through pursed lips. He sank into a squat beside Luca so they were eye to eye. He gave Luca’s shoulder a squeeze. “He ran away.”
Yadriel felt the cold washing off Julian in waves. Under it was a palpable ache.
Rio’s voice was strange when he spoke, like he was trying to sound comforting but didn’t know how. “If he doesn’t want to be a part of this family anymore, then we need to let him go, okay?”
It happened in a blink of an eye. Yadriel was the only one who saw Julian bolt.
But they all heard his foot slam into the door, leaving a third hole. It flung open, clattering against the railing. As Julian stormed out, a gust of icy wind whipped in, sending papers flying.
Everyone jumped. Luca flinched. Rio was on his feet immediately.
Yadriel thought his heart was going to burst through his chest.
Rio’s eyes snapped to Yadriel, wide and alarmed. He pointed at the door. “Get out.”
Yadriel backed up. “I’m sorry—I—”
“NOW.”
He caught a short glimpse of Luca, shielded by Rio’s body. He was trembling, his eyes glued to the new hole Julian had left in the door. Yadriel ran out and down the stairs.
SIXTEEN