Hector smiled big. “I heard.”

His smug friend stuck the rest of his pizza slice in his mouth, grinning big, and Felix felt like shoving another one or two in that mouth to shut him up.

“I wasn’t”—he turned again to make sure Ella and Carmen weren’t on their way back—“hogging her okay?”

Charlee laughed. “Are we embarrassing you, Felix?”

“No!”

Hector laughed now too. “How cute,” he said in the most annoying coddling voice. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen your face get all red.”

“Shut up.” Felix refilled his beer mug. “I don’t get red.”

“Okay, your face is pink. Your ears . . .” Hector laughed again as Felix looked up at him. “Now those are red.”

As Ella and Carmen walked back in the room, Felix gave the rest of them warning looks, but he gave Hector a special one. One that said if he so much as mentioned any of what they’d all just said in front of Ella Hector might be sporting the Quasimodo look for a few days.

To his relief, Drew pulled out a notebook and started that informal interview she’d mentioned back at the gym. Felix sat quietly, trying not to appear as interested in some of Ella’s answers as he really was. He was still insisting even inwardly that this was nothing more than a professional interest.

He did, however. wonder if—even hoped that—Drew might touch on some more personal topics such as who the cop was who dropped by from time to time to see Ella at the gym.

Chapter 6

Ella

Ella couldn’t have been more relieved to have Drew go straight into her interview questions when they got back from the restroom. The topic of Sonia’s rape and the toll it took on her family was not one she enjoyed reliving, but for the sake of the self-defense classes, she was willing. It was important to get out there how necessary it is to be prepared and give yourself at least a chance against a would-be attacker before you have a tragic or near-tragic incident.

Her eyes met with Felix’s for a moment. “Ironically, it was the night of one your fights,” she said to Felix as he stared at her. His brows came together slowly. “It was the one where you knocked out Villareal. My dad had people over for the fight, and my brother was supposed to have been there. He’d gotten a call before I even got home from work, and my dad said he’d just stepped out. When the fight was over and he hadn’t come home, I started worrying. The idea of getting the fight on pay-per-view had been his to begin with. Then we got a call from the police that he’d been detained. It wasn’t until we got to the station that we found out he’d beaten someone unconscious and why.”

She took a sip of her beer, swallowing with it the emotion that overwhelmed her as she remembered her brother’s anguished cries that night about having walked in on his girl being raped and the torment in her father’s eyes as, once again, their family was being tested in the cruelest of ways.

This wasn’t something she’d shed another tear about. She’d stepped up in her mother’s place and taken charge, assuring both her brother and dad that, like everything else they’d been through, this too would pass. It was over and they’d all move on. She explained how during the investigation, after the guy Memo had beaten died of his injuries, she decided it did her no good to sit around and worry.

“I couldn’t just sit around and wait, and I kept thinking there had to have been something Sonia could’ve done.” They were all staring at her now, even Carmen, who knew the whole story. She shrugged. “So I started looking into the self-defense classes, but they were all so expensive. I knew most people in my neighborhood wouldn’t be willing to pay that kind of money for them. Most considered themselves street smart enough.” She frowned, shaking her head. “Sonia grew up in the area and considered herself street smart too.” She sighed then continued. “This is why these classes are so important. Just looking as if you are aware of your surroundings and not like easy prey can make the difference between whether an assailant decides to attack you or not.”

Charlee and Drew, along with the rest of the 5th Street owner’s wives, had all taken the self-defense classes. So Ella knew Drew and Charlee were aware of this spiel. Still, she wanted to make sure that this made it into the documentary.

By the third or fourth question, her nerves had calmed considerably. Her sudden trip to the ladies’ room had everything to do with the increasing thumping of her heart, which had doubled over with Felix’s compliment. It was a simple and innocent enough compliment, and the manner in which he’d said it was more of an observation. But the way he’d been staring at her lips and the intense way he’d held her gaze even as she took a desperate drink of her beer had done it.

With Carmen along, she couldn’t do her usual and pray for her mom to help her get through this. There wasn’t even anything to get through really, aside from the fact that her legs went limp each time Felix’s eyes looked deep into hers then fell to her lips. She was well aware that Felix wasn’t just a famous boxer. In spite of his troubles with the law and other media scandals, he was still one of the most sought after sports celebrities around when it came to endorsements. It wasn’t just for his boxing skills either. He was a sex symbol, so the endorsements came from everywhere.

The Calvin Klein ads he’d done last year went viral when the photos were leaked days before they were supposed to be revealed. Many speculated it was a publicity stunt. If it was, it was very well executed. For over a week, it was all anyone could talk about. And for weeks, those photos of him in his underwear were everywhere Ella turned. The man’s body was an absolute dream.