Camouflaged (Hiding From Love #0.5) by Selena Laurence Read Free Book Online Page A

her hand.
    “I was there the day the INS came and took Juan’s mom away. It was so horrible, Gabe. I’d gone with my brother to pick up Juan so he could come to dinner at our house.
    “When we pulled up in front, we saw the agents. They had guns and everything. Juan was yelling at one in the front yard and his mom was in cuffs being dragged along by the other one. She was crying and screaming. Juan was getting more and more agitated.
    “My brother told me to stay in the car and he got out to help Juan, but before he could get to him, Juan took a swing at the INS guy. It just went downhill from there. The guy took out his gun and everyone freaked out. Juan’s mom was sobbing and pulling to get to him. Juan was so scared that he was standing in the middle of the yard, frozen. The INS guy with the gun was waving it everywhere, swinging it between Juan and my brother. I thought for sure one of them was going to get shot.”
    “So what happened?” I asked, admittedly riveted by the drama. “Did they take his mom in?”
    She looked at me finally and gave me a small smile. My heart clenched and I swallowed the feeling down as she continued.
    “Yeah, they took her, and it was heartbreaking. She was crying so hard I thought she was going to pass out in the yard. After the guy pulled the gun, Juan went cold. He stopped fighting, stopped yelling—he just stopped.
    “We took Juan in for a few weeks while his mom was in detention, but eventually, when his mom got deported and the INS started an investigation to get him deported as well, he left. Vanished in the middle of the night. I was destroyed. I asked every single day if my brother had seen him or heard from him, and he always told me he hadn’t. “
    I stroked her hand and tried to imagine what it would be like as a teen to lose everything you had in your life. Your only family, your home, and the only country you really knew. Somehow it made my dad’s absence seem minor in comparison.
    “About six months later,” she continued, “I was at the mall with some friends and there was a group of gang bangers hanging out in the food court. They were really scary guys—Latin King Nation, one of the worst gangs we had in San Marcos.”
    “Yeah, I’ve heard about those guys from Benji. They’re big in South Central L.A. too.”
    “They’re so scary, Gabe. In high school, if you saw one of those guys in the hall, you moved to the other side no matter what. Even the teachers wouldn’t touch them. That day, I realized one of the meaner looking guys seemed familiar. He had on the bandana over his eyes, you know, and tattoos all up and down his arms. He had a gun tucked in the back waistband of his pants, too, in broad daylight like he couldn’t care less who saw it.
    “When he turned and looked my way, I realized it was Juan. He had LKN tattooed across the top of his back, and worse than that, he had stars tatted on his shoulders.”
    While I wasn’t too familiar with Latino gang culture, I’d spent enough time listening to Benji to know that meant you were a Captain in the gang. It was a huge badge of honor to those guys. I breathed out in surprise. “Man, that’s really rough,” I told her in sympathy.
    She squeezed my hand a little. “He stood there and looked at me for a minute and then…” She stopped briefly, seeming to gather up the memory so she could lay it out and expose it to me.
    “Then he reached down and grabbed his crotch while he kept looking at me and yelled, ‘ Chupamela !’ It means . . . well, trust me, it means something pretty disgusting. When his friends heard, they all started laughing and calling me names in Spanish. I was so humiliated. I wanted to die. To have this guy that I’d loved for so long finally notice me and that’s what he did. I never saw him again, but last year I heard that he’d been sent to Huntsville, the State Pen. He killed a girl in a drive-by that went wrong.”
    “Damn. That’s hardcore, Alexis.” I shook