Testing Recipes for Disaster (Emberwood #2)

Prologue- Danny

I was not equipped to handle this situation. What possessed me to insist on driving her home was beyond me. Maybe it was the nauseous feeling after the joke I made about her husband being mad about her flirting with me. That had taken a whole three seconds to not age well.

Cabrón. I was an asshole.

My abuelita told me my whole life that my mouth was going to get me into trouble that I couldn’t charm my way out of, and I hadn’t really believed her until tonight.

Gen gave me directions to her house as I drove, and I wished I had something to say to lighten the tension, but I didn’t know that an amusing story was appropriate when your spouse was leaving you.

And the worst thing was, I would have bet money that her dick of a husband had been cheating on her. The few times we all went out together, he had no qualms about flirting with other women. Maybe not in Gen’s direct vicinity, but that man didn’t give a shit about her. I gripped my steering wheel like it was personally at fault for me being in this situation.

“Can I walk you up?” I asked when I pulled up to her house.

“Hmmm? Oh, no. I’m fine. Thanks for driving me...I’m sorry you had to leave the party.”

Her eyes were struggling to stay open, and the blond waves that were pulled up into something intricate on her head had started to unravel and fall around her face.

“Yeah...I think I’ll just feel better if I do, though. So, for me , let me walk you up, yeah?”

She just nodded sleepily. I hopped out and opened her door and let her lean on me as we made it down the drive. The front door swung open before we made it up the porch steps. Penn stood there, leaning against the door frame, beer bottle in hand.

“Hey, man,” I offered in terms of a greeting.

“Danny,” he replied, taking a long drink.

Well, this is fucking awkward .

“Thanks for the ride,” Gen said, her voice much smaller than it had been earlier.

“Are you so hard up without me that you’re fucking him ?” Penn asked, his tone taunting, his words slurred.

“Jesus, Penn. He gave me a ride home because I drank too much.”

She turned to me, unshed tears filling her eyes.

“I’m so sorry, you can go.”

Like hell I can .

He grabbed Gen by her arm and pulled her closer to him.

“Don’t apologize to him like I’m the problem. He should be thankful we even let him in this country.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

A smile played across my face because there was almost nothing I enjoyed more than fucking with racists.

“You know, man, my cousins... the ones who ran with the cartel back in Mexico, have a saying for men who put hands on their women.”

I succeeded in getting his gaze to land on me. He loosened his grip on Gen, so she was able to wrench her arm away and step back.

“Muerto,” I finished, dragging my thumb across my throat.

“Are you fucking threatening me, you illegal piece of shit?”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Get in the fucking house, Gen.”

Penn lunged for her, and she let out a squeak, but I’d been ready for that move and caught him by the arm. I shoved him back against the house, my forearm now digging into his throat. I hadn’t spent four days a week in the boxing gym for years to let this asshole manhandle a fucking woman in front of me.

“Go back to the car, Gen,” I said as calmly as I could under the circumstances. She hesitated a moment before whatever sense of self-preservation she had kicked in and she took off down the driveway. I knew he was going to hit me as soon as I touched him, but I was good with it. If he had the bright idea to call the police after I left, I’d at least have evidence that he was the aggressor.

Penn shoved me and swung, his fist connecting with my cheekbone in what I could tell was a valiant attempt on his part. At least there would be a bruise. That only made me grin wider.

“Get the fuck off my property.” He ended with a stream of racial slurs that weren’t the most creative I’d ever heard, but I wasn’t going to hit a white guy on his own porch and have to explain that to the cops.

“Don’t touch her again, or I will become exactly who you think I am. Pinche pendejo .”

I turned and sauntered back to the car, only hoping a little that he’d come after me. I hadn’t been in a decent fight in a long time outside of the gym. But, that would be counterproductive to getting Gen out of there. He didn’t. He slammed the door instead.

Super tough guy.

I yanked open the driver’s side door to find her bent over, her hands covering her face and her body wracked with sobs.

“Hey hey hey. You’re good. Everything’s fine.”

I reached for her wrist and tugged gently to coax her to uncover her face. She used the other to wipe away the tears from her cheeks and the mascara from under her eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Danny. He... he wasn’t always. I don’t know.”

She finally looked at me and reached out to touch my face. “Oh my god, he hit you? I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I should—”

“Stop apologizing. I let him hit me. He’s kind of a pussy, honestly. You need to work on your taste in men.”

She let out a choked laugh at that and then a heavy sigh, her blond hair now fully falling around her face, previous hairstyle forgotten. I started the car and headed for my apartment; glad I’d just cleaned, though I didn’t imagine she’d be awake for long.

“I can, um, call my mom or my sister to come get me, but it will take them a bit. Or, maybe Lauren, she’s closer.”

“You can stay at my place, and I’ll crash on the couch. It’s not a big deal. But if, ah, you’re not comfortable with that, I get it. I can take you wherever.”

“Oh, you’ve already done more than enough, I couldn’t ask you—”

“You’re not asking, Gen. It’s late, and if that’s what you’ve been dealing with, I can’t imagine how tired you are. Again, if you’re not comfortable, I’m not gonna press the issue. But my sheets are clean, and I have an extra toothbrush, even.”

Her lip trembled again, but she kept it together.

“Okay,” she got out in almost a whisper.

“Okay.”

I held her hand and rubbed circles into her palm as I drove, and she didn’t seem to mind, so I figured she just needed someone to shut up and be there. I could do that.

Once we got to my place, I showed her to my room and shut down her thousand apologies and thank-yous as many times as I could.

Before she went to brush her teeth, she turned to me and asked, “Didn’t, like, your entire family grow up here in Ohio?”

“Mostly, yeah. Why?”

“Just... your cousins didn’t actually work for the cartel, right?”

I burst out laughing, and a small grin appeared on her lips. “No. But I’ve learned that sometimes it’s best to play into the fears that people have when they’re being racist pieces of shit.”

She tilted her head and let out a sigh.

“He really is a piece of shit, isn’t he?”

I shrugged, trying to convey an obviously as gently as I could, and she made a sound that could have been a laugh. While she was in the bathroom, I laid out a t-shirt and a pair of sweats on the bed and set a glass of water with some pain killers on the side table before making myself scarce. Really, I should have been tired too, but the adrenaline hadn’t fully left my body yet, and I needed to wind down. After taking an ice pack out of my freezer, I peeled off my suit and tie and pulled on the sweats I’d grabbed from my room before sinking into the couch.

That was not how I envisioned tonight going.