in an abandoned garage down at the end of Horn Street. Actually, small world, one of them has a little brother at the Crowne estate project. Esteban is the, I don’t know what to call him exactly, the driving force in the gang, I guess. His enforcer is a man name Puerco. Pig or Hog in English, and the name tells you mostly what you need to know. He is a fearsome psychopath. Even the cops are afraid of Puerco.”
Jesse smiled.
“What?” Nina said.
“They don’t have to be scared of him anymore,” Jesse said.
“Something happened to Puerco?”
“He got killed a few days ago,” Jesse said.
“Puerco?”
“Yep.”
“God,” Nina said, “I’d like to see the man who could kill Puerco.”
“Anybody can kill anybody,” Jesse said. “It’s just a matter of what you’re willing to do.”
“You ever kill anyone?” Nina said.
“Yes.”
They were quiet for a moment.
Then Nina said, “Esteban Carty has been on his own since he was little. I don’t know what he had for family. Maybe none, ever. He’s like a feral child grown up.”
“So he’s probably not bound by societal convention,” Jesse said.
“Oh, God, no,” Nina said. “That’s what the gang is for.”
“Any thoughts on what kind of boyfriend he’d make for a fourteen-year-old girl?” Jesse said.
She shook her head.
“Outside my purview,” she said. “I’m neither a shrink nor a fourteen-year-old girl.”
“But you’re female and you know something about Esteban,” Jesse said. “Puts you two up on me.”
“I believe that one of the rules of the Horn Street Boys is that girlfriends have sex with everyone in the gang,” Nina said. “All for one and one for all.”
“Great for building camaraderie,” Jesse said.
28.
They were naked together on the bare mattress of a rusted daybed against the wall opposite the big-screen TV in the garage at the foot of Horn Street.
“Esteban,” Amber said, “what if somebody comes in?”
“Who’s gonna come in ’cept Horn Street Boys?” Esteban said.
“But they’ll see us.”
“Won’t be seeing nothing they ain’t seen,” Esteban said.
“I know,” she said. “I’m just kind of not used to doing it like this, you know, like out in the open?”
