Of course Tristan ignored that. “What if I bought myself a new car and let you borrow this one?”
At that Mateo laughed louder. “I’m not drivin’ a fuckin’ Beamer.”
“Why?” Tristan glanced at him, streetlights showing Mateo the shock on his face.
He’d never even ridden in one before he was with Tristan. Javier had flashy shit like that, but it had never really been Mateo’s style. “Because I don’t want to get pulled over because they think I stole it, and then we’ll have all sorts of shit to deal with because it’s yours.”
“Mateo.” He heard the warning in Tristan’s voice.
“I have a few hundred bucks saved. I’ll buy a piece of shit with that. It’ll do for now.” Because Tristan was right. The bus got old a long time ago, and he didn’t want Tristan to have to pick him up late when he had to work the next day.
“Wow...”
“What?” Mateo asked.
“Josiah would be proud. I think we just compromised quite effectively, without either of us...well, being us, I guess.”
Things had been different between them since they’d fucked by themselves. It was one of the things Josiah had with them, that Tristan and Mateo didn’t have with each other. It made...fuck, it made things feel different than they had before. It gave them something to share with each other besides the memories of things they’d done, things neither wanted Josiah to know about. Which he knew was bullshit, in a way. It wouldn’t change how Jay saw them, but damn, he didn’t want Jay to see all that shit when he looked at Teo.
“Eh. I’m too tired to fight,” Mateo replied to what Tristan had said.
“I will claim that excuse as well.”
They didn’t talk much more on the ride home. When they got back, Mateo took a shower and then joined his men in bed. They were both already asleep. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he felt a hand on him, waking him up.
“You guys are killin’ me...” Mateo mumbled.
“You don’t have to leave. We want to show you something we did for you, before Tristan goes to work. Well, actually Tristan did it. It was his idea.” Josiah sat beside him on the bed. “It will be worth it. Wake up, Teo.” He kissed the corner of Mateo’s mouth, then down his jaw.
“Do I get to fuck you if I wake up?” Mateo opened one of his eyes, then the other.
“I knew I should have let him wake you earlier. Then I would have time to play with you, too.” This came from Tristan as he ran a finger down the scar on Mateo’s neck, then down to the tattoos on his chest and arms. “I love the ink in your skin, but I hate these.” He fingered the gang tattoos. “They don’t own you. You belong to us.”
With that, Mateo went painfully hard. Yes, he was so fucking theirs. “I’ll get them removed one day.”
He wanted to, but he needed to not be that man anymore before he did it.
“You deserve them gone now,” Tristan said, as though he read Mateo’s mind.
Josiah kissed each of the tattoos. “He’s right. And you can fuck me any time you want to, but we want to show you something first. Tristan has a late night tonight, and you work as well. We wanted to show it to you together.”
It wasn’t like he could fucking say no to that. When Jay stood, Mateo got out of bed behind him.
“You might want to get dressed,” Josiah told him, making him wonder what the hell was going on.
“Sweats good?” he asked.
“Yes,” Tristan answered.
He pulled on sweatpants but didn’t bother with a shirt. He followed his men as they went out the front door, and straight for the other apartment next door. Excitement swelled in Mateo. He didn’t know what they were doing or what was going on, but it didn’t matter. Whatever it was, they’d done it for him, and that meant so much to him.
It was Tristan who opened one of the doors to a backroom.
“What...?” Mateo started, but then he realized what it was. He felt light, light like he hadn’t felt probably ever, as he stepped inside. “You made me a darkroom?” He walked farther inside, saw the line hung for pictures and all the other materials he would need.
“You’re helping Josiah with his dream. Don’t you think it’s time we helped with yours?” Tristan’s hand came down on his shoulder. They knew Mateo wanted to learn to develop, knew he’d saved for the camera himself. They’d done this for him. For Mateo, the gangbanger, drug dealing murderer. But in this moment, he didn’t feel like any of those things.