CHAPTER EIGHTY-EIGHT

“Gabi, can you stop acting like a girl and be a man, for God's sake?”

“Hey, I'm doing this for you, quit acting like you won't wince if I went any harder,” came the response.

Ruby was sitting before Gabi as he tried to clean up her face which had been messed up by her fight with Les Latinas De La Muerte at the hospital, and her face was so fucked up that it scared Gabi to Ben touch it, even with the tissue, for fear that he would hurt her or further damage her. This fear had made him keep dabbing softly and inefficiently at her face instead of wiping the blood away, and Ruby had tolerated him enough.

Mercedes, sitting in the same room as them, breastfeeding Junior, looked on and smiled at them, shaking her head.

She'd gotten her joy back due to two major things; one, the birth of Junior, her long-awaited bundle of joy, and two, the promise her aunt, Aylla Pedro, had made to her when he said she would try to help Gio gain his freedom again.

And so, feeling good again, she was able to c