Page 60 of Her Passionate Hero

She looked over at Hunter. She’d known him when he was seventeen in a gang. He hadn’t been that way.

“Zed’s right,” Hunter said to her.

“We need to talk to Nicolas, Aliana, he knows things. There’s no way he doesn’t have knowledge if not some sort of involvement,” Zed said. “We also need to talk to his sister.”

She hoped these two men who got out of the life, could do a better job of helping Nicolas out than she had.

“Have you guys read Animal Farm?”

“Huh?” Zed said.

“I think so,” Hunter said.

“He finalled in the Literacy Contest with a paper about Animal Farm. The book is about a pig named Napoleon, who is basically Stalin, and the other pig is Snowball, who is a compilation of Trotsky and Lenin. Nicolas compared the current gang leader of Los Demonios to Napoleon and he said he hoped he could be like Snowball and help overthrow the dictator-like leadership. He read this book six months ago. I think he’s been doing things to disrupt the gang for awhile now. He just told me about it.”

“Fuck me,” Zed said.

“We’ve got to talk to him, quick,” Hunter said.

“I know, I’ve tried to talk him out of it, but he’s committed to the idea.”

“We need to get to the school right now.” Hunter put his arm around her waist. He did it gently, cognizant of her bruises. He looked down at her. “Say goodbye to your Maminka.” Her heart melted that he used the Czech term for Mama. They walked over to her bed together. She bent over and brushed a kiss on her mother’s warm, dry cheek.

“I love you, Mama. I’ll see you soon,” she said in Czech.

Hunter led her to the door where Zed was waiting. “We’ve got to hurry.”

Their unease was blowing her anxiety levels through the roof. She felt like an idiot that she hadn’t realized how explosive this situation was. Lottie wouldn’t have made this kind of mistake.

Zed led the way, and Hunter took a moment to whisper in her ear.

“Don’t beat yourself up.”

“Lottie says I judge too much on stereotypes. She says I need to look deeper. I hate this.”

“We all have our blind spots.”

“I’m an educator. If I’m this naïve, maybe I should step down.”

He halted them in the hallway. Zed stopped out of earshot, pointing to his watch. Hunter waved him away. “Are you always this hard on yourself?”

“I suppose.”

“Is that a yes or a no?”

“It’s a yes. But Hunter, these kids are important. They’re in my care. Some of them have nobody in their corner. I have to stand up for them. If I’m this blind, then what use am I to them?”

“Are you or are you not helping Nicolas with his academics and a possible way out of East L.A.?”

“Yes, I’m helping him, but what will it matter if he ends up dead?”

“Did you learn from this? Will you have a better understanding of the next Nicolas?”

She slowly nodded.

“Well, there you go then. Cariña, you’re too hard on yourself. It’s a damn good thing I’m here to make sure you don’t beat yourself bloody.”

Aliana huffed out a breath. His words evoked different ways to get bloody, different ways to relieve the pressure, so she didn’t feel like such a failure.