Page 79 of Her Wicked Hero

“I asked if they could come live with us. She told me no.”

“So even at eight years old, you were trying to look out for him.”

“Some help I was,” Zed’s mouth twisted. “Hunter is my best friend, Marcia. I know some of what his life was like with that woman and the man I thought was our dad. I should have forced Abuelita to take him in.”

“What do you mean?”

“The name of Hunter’s father on his birth certificate is Hector Nuñez.”

“So, not Carlos,” Marcia said.

“No. But still, what’s on a birth certificate doesn’t mean anything, my father’s name is left blank, and so was the father’s name on my mother’s birth certificate. That’s how we are three generations of Zaragoza.”

Marcia couldn’t help but smile at the pride in his voice. She would have loved to have met his grandmother.

“So, let me get this straight, you’re upset with yourself that, as an eight-year-old kid, you couldn’t have protected a child who could or could not be your brother when it was totally out of your control?”

Zed gave a tight nod.

“How did you meet Hunter later to become friends?”

“I heard about a kid named Hunter when I was trying to find a way out of Las Nuevas Espadas. Once again, I couldn’t help my baby brother, so he was going down the wrong path.”

“Stop already, tell me how you did manage to help.”

Zed tipped back a long sip of beer, then looked at her.

“I took leave when he was fifteen. I found him…” Zed rolled his neck and shoulder. “I did a ‘scared-straight’ on his ass.”

“Huh?”

“I kidnapped him. Just pulled him off Belmont Avenue, stuffed his ass in the back of a van, and took him to a safehouse I’d set up. I spent two days pulling in the big guns, showing him what kind of life he was destined to have—prison, death, or worse.”

“What was worse?” Marcia asked.

“Killing an innocent. Second to that was letting down the girl in his life. He just didn’t know a way out.”

“Until you showed him one,” she said softly.

“I told him about the ultimate gang. The SEALs. I told him he could get his shit together now and escape. It wouldn’t be easy, but it was possible.”

“That’s a hell of a story Zaragoza,” she smiled. “So, this is how you helped your best friend, huh?”

Zed flushed and nodded.

“Did Hunter ever ask you why you singled him out?”

“I said someone had done the same for me, and I was paying it back.”

“And he’s never questioned that you two look alike?”

Zed stared at her. “What do you mean?”

Marcia stood up from the table and grabbed his empty plate.

“Men are stupid.” She set both of their plates in the kitchen sink. When she turned Zed was behind her.

“I thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me. You think we look alike?”