Chapter 13 #2
“You’re right, Mercurio, my son. I shouldn’t accuse you until I have proof.
” The underlying threat remained unsaid, but it was understood.
“Why don’t you take your family out for the evening.
Have a nice meal, and maybe ice cream from the spot that you used to frequent as a boy.
” Carlos’s head tilted, predatory like. “A family outing.”
Dean blinked. What the hell kind of test was this?
“You’re serious?”
“Yes of course I am.” He looked at the time on his expensive wristwatch. “The night is still young. Take them out, show them the area, and let them fall in love with it. After all this will all be theirs one day.”
Silence lengthened a hair too long as he thought. Say no, and Carlos would read that as disrespect. Say yes, and Dean would count every guard, every turn, every timed light on the route to town.
Carlos chuckled. “You didn’t want to come here and now you don’t want to leave? Funny how things change.” He gestured toward the door. “Go, but of course you must be back by tonight, and you must take a dozen guards with you.”
This smelled like a trap. Like him getting killed on the street would be a good thing. Or maybe with them out of the bedroom, Carlos could have it searched for any traitorous information.
Dean nodded once. “I’m just trying to figure out your motive. You didn’t seem to ever want me to leave so…what is this?”
Carlos sighed. “I need to start showing you trust if I expect it in return. Isn’t that how this works?”
“Fine, I’ll go.” He slid his phone into his pocket and walked out, with a pace calibrated to telegraph mild annoyance and nothing else.
He stopped at the door, looking back at his father for any sign that he was about to get stabbed in the back.
But his father was a master of always looking psychotic, so it was hard to know.
Only when Dean rounded the corridor and the cameras dropped out in the brief dead zone between arches did he let his eyes close for one heartbeat.
Dean marched to the bedroom, finding Yasmine sitting on the floor with Isabella in her lap, Tate and Aiden sat across from her counting coins, and Ava was holding Andrés in her arms.
“Dad!” The boys jumped up and ran to him, and instantly his heart warmed.
Their suite smelled like baby powder and crayons which was a little slice of normal.
“We’re going on a field trip,” he said, pitching his voice like this was the best news. “Town. Dinner and then…ice cream.”
“Yay,” Tate and Aiden cheered, as Yasmine slowly stood, worry in her eyes that matched Dean’s own.
“Go get changed,” he said, and the twins took off to put on something more suitable for outside of this room. Dean looked at Ava as she slowly stood. “Why don’t you go get dressed as well, we could use the extra hands.”
Ava’s eyes lit up. “Thank you, Sir.” She bowed her head as Dean took Andrés from her arms.
“Is this for real?” Yasmine asked. They walked into the portion of the room that was their bedroom and she sat Isabella on the large bed.
“Yes, seems to be.”
“Are you worried?”
“Always when it comes to my father,” Dean stated, and smiled as Andrés reached for his face. Dean pretended to nip at the little fingers making him giggle.
“Guard count?”
“Unknown. We will see once we get to the courtyard.” He let his gaze flick to the door as if an afterthought. “But honestly as much as we have our issues, I don’t think Carlos would purposely try to hurt all of us.”
Yasmine gave him a skeptical look. “Maybe. Who knows with him.”
“True, but it will be nice to get out for awhile.”
“Always.”
Yasmine disappeared behind the accordion wall and reemerged in a pretty summer dress, fluffing out her long hair. Dean could only stare. She made his heart race.
“You ready boys?” Yasmine called out.
“Yeah mom,” Aiden replied with snark.
Dean turned and stared at Aiden. Aiden swallowed. “I mean yes mom,” he corrected, without the attitude
Great, it was starting already, what were they going to be like at sixteen?
They moved with practiced speed, gathering shoes, spare jackets, and Isabella’s little sunhat with the ridiculous brim that always made Yasmine smile.
A bag with diapers, wipes, bottles, water, and a change of clothes for the baby.
It was like they had children and turned into pack mules whenever they had to go somewhere.
It was mind boggling how much stuff was needed.
Finally, they gathered the kids and met Ava in the hallway before heading out.
The courtyard heat swallowed them even at five in the evening. Four SUVs waited. Engines idled, black paint shimmering, and doors open like jaws. The escort Carlos promised sat ready. Dean shook his head. Like this wasn’t going to draw attention.
“This is a lot of men,” Dean stated to Matteo, as if he didn’t know him.
“El Don wants you and your family to be kept safe, Senor,” Matteo replied, not missing a beat.
Dean’s gaze passed over the drivers, all with mirrored shades, standing ready to take them wherever they wanted to go. Well…almost wherever. With Ricco the count was exactly twelve guards, four drivers, his family and Ava.
Above the courtyard, a balcony door yawned open. Carlos stood there, no smile, one hand in his pocket, the other resting lightly on the iron rail, a pirate captain staring down at the ships he owned.
Dean took Yasmine’s elbow like it was theatre and guided her toward the middle SUV, the one with the best sightlines forward and back and clear angles left and right through the glass. He didn’t rush the twins, he let them clamber in on their own.
“Can we get chocolate ice cream?” Tate asked.
“If they have it, yes, you can have it,” Dean answered, lifting Isabella into the car seat already anchored in place. Of course there was one, Carlos’s foresight reached into nurseries like a disease. He clicked it with a practiced hand and masked the twist in his gut.
Yasmine slid in, lifting the twins onto the bench and buckling them with a calm efficiency that made Dean smile.
“I can ride in here with them, if you want to ride with Ava and Andrés?” Dean suggested to Yasmine.
God, they were minivan people status now.
“Okay,” she said, and hopped out, giving him a kiss on the cheek before heading to the SUV behind his.
When Dean turned back to get in, he let his eyes go up—just once, just long enough to catch the balcony again. Carlos’s expression was like a god trapping a fly under a glass. Carlos’s death couldn’t come soon enough.
Dean gave him nothing and got in the passenger seat of the SUV. He would see more from up here. A guard named Orozco took the driver’s seat beside him, an eager puppy in a bulldog’s body.
“How long are we going to be in town?” Orozco asked, eyes forward.
“Few hours.” Dean rolled his wrist, checking his watch. “We’ll go along the river, then through Plaza Vieja.”
“You’ve got it, Senor .” Orozco radioed the direction they were headed and the convoy started to move.
The gates opened, the iron groaning. The SUVs rolled onto the road, heat shimmering in the late day heat.
Dean counted intersections, timed lights.
He watched for police cars and paid attention to how busy certain streets were.
Much of this area was unchanged, but enough had changed.
He needed to make the most of this outing.
Dean clocked the kid on the corner with the Yankee’s baseball cap on. He noted the old woman with the cane who didn’t look at them. He spotted some local trouble who smartly looked down when the vehicles passed.
In the back seat, a small voice piped up. “Can I have two scoops?”
“Three,” Tate corrected, because twins loved to one-up each other.
Dean let a corner of his mouth tick up, his mask finally falling, at least for a little while. “One each.”
“Awe…Dad,” they chimed together.
He looked over his shoulder at them as they pressed their lips together and looked down. They were silent for exactly two seconds before chatting amongst themselves once more.
Where the road met the river’s curve, Dean studied the water and how the wind pushed fingerprints across it toward the south.
He timed the bend’s blind spot between two murals.
He mapped, mapped, and mapped. The first test wasn’t to escape, it was seeing.
How many eyes? How many blind corners? How quickly men like Orozco responded when Dean said stop at a green light, testing whether they would tolerate his whims. They did, but with hesitation.
That was something Dean needed to work on.
Once they reached the plaza, Dean pointed to, La Familia Rosa, the family restaurant that was one of the few places he had fond memories from his childhood. From here they could walk to the ice cream parlor and let the vehicles follow like dark shadows.
It was nice to do this with Yasmine. To share something positive from his childhood before the darkness consumed it.
They walked into the restaurant, and the servers looked terrified, like they wanted to run out of the back door.
Luckily, most of the guards stayed outside, and those that did come in sat at another table.
As Dean help get everyone seated, it felt like the first normal thing they’d done in forever.
Dean took control and ordered drinks and appetizers, with a mix of what he knew the boys would eat and some new stuff for them to try.
The look on their faces when the fried calamari was placed on the table was priceless.
As they finished the incredible meal Ava gave Yasmine a brief hug. “Thank you for being so kind,” she sobbed, then jogged off to the bathroom leaving Yasmine and Dean to stare at one another.
What the hell was Carlos doing to this poor girl?
When Ava returned, her face was composed, and her hair was a little damp like she had splashed water on her face.
“I was thinking that it is time we expanded from just our one room,” Dean declared and then tapped his chin.
“Ava would you be open to staying in the room next door to ours and keeping Tate, Aiden, and Isabella in there with you? This of course would mean that unless you have plans you would need to oversee their care throughout the evening.” Dean glanced at Yasmine. “What do you think?”
Yasmine smiled and picked up on what he was trying to do.
This way it gave them a little more privacy, but it would also keep Carlos from stealing Ava in the middle of the night.
The guards stationed outside the door would give her a little peace of mind.
The rest of the female population was still at risk, but Dean could only save with one person at a time.
“I love the idea, our room is getting pretty cramped. Only if you want to, of course.”
Ava started to cry all over again. “Really?”
The two of them nodded and Ava suddenly grabbed Yasmine in a hard hug, the embrace warming Dean’s heart. It wasn’t much, but it showed him exactly what he was doing. By staying, he was destroying not just Carlos but his empire.
They walked to the local ice cream parlor after dinner, the sunset painting the sky and the warm breeze brushing past them.
For Dean, it was a fleeting sense of normalcy he hadn’t felt in.
months. Ice cream had been a huge hit, and so had wandering down the couple streets with vendors that hadn’t yet put their wares away.
Yasmine got a new dress and scarf, and the boys each got a new toy.
By the time they arrived at the compound gate, the twins were fast asleep.
The two of them holding on to one another as they slept exactly how they did at night.
They were inseparable and refused to have their own bed, saying they couldn’t sleep without one another.
Andrés had only gotten fussy once, and of course, Isabella had all the guards wrapped around her finger by the time the convey left the seaside town.
Dean noted that the guards on the wall were different than the morning shift. Dean stared up at the massive gates, spotting a new camera as they pulled through, and the iron teeth closed behind them.
Was this the real reason Carlos didn’t want him here? He put up new cameras and didn’t want Dean to know where they all were. Interesting…and disturbing.
As soon as they got all the children into bed, Dean took Yasmine’s hand and walked her next door to the vacant room.
“Do you really like the idea or were you just saying that? I’m sorry, I put you on the spot, but Ava looked wrecked and needed someone to throw her a lifeline.”
Yasmine smiled, rising up on her toes, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “You are a very good man Dean Ramírez.” She kissed his lips softly. “Yes, I love the idea.”
Linking their fingers she tugged him toward the door, pushing it open. “Come on and I’ll show you how much,” she teased, biting her lip.
“Are you trying for our own soccer team?” he asked, making her laugh.
“Maybe…”
He smiled and scooped Yasmine up, making her laugh as he carried her over the threshold of their room.
“I love you. More than I could ever explain.”
“I know…because you’re my forever,” she sighed, and just like that, all the rough edges that cut him all day long smoothed out and healed.
Ricco suddenly appeared in the doorway and Dean’s smile fell.
“What is it?”
“The meeting is on, tonight,” Ricco replied.
Yasmine looked to Dean, her what the hell is he talking about stare fixed in place.
Shit.