Chapter Three
Selena
I glared at him as I clenched my fists at my sides. Taking note of the curious look on his face, I let out a slow breath. I wasn’t doing a great job at holding my cards close to the vest now, was I? I slowly sat back down.
“So, this is personal,” Carlos concluded.
I slowly shook my head. “I do not allow my family to be pulled into my cartel life.”
Cocking his head at me, he said, “Cartels are made up of families, Selena. I admit they have foot soldiers that are not of their blood, but the hierarchy is usually all family. It is the same with some Italian mafias. This is why they call them the Famiglia.”
“Bien, gracias for the lesson on criminal organizations, Mr. Castillo,” I quipped as I nodded at him. “However, I am an exception to that rule.”
“That is true. You are not a Diego as far as I could find.”
I felt uncomfortable again at his seemingly plentiful knowledge of me. Here I was after him for the information I needed and he was turning the tables on me. However, I did not know that he had looked into me or my reputation. “Did you actually research me?” I asked outright.
“I did,” he fully admitted. “But I did that with all of the cartels and mafias in fact. I knew all about Houdini Mancini as they call him, before I went to war with him. Although, that was not my choice.”
“It had been your father’s choice,” I supplied this answer.
He gave me a nod. “There had been many things he decided that weren’t smart for our family.”
“But a good captain and son such as you had to go along with his choices.”
He nodded again.
“Bien, at least you do not have to consider that anymore,” I told him.
He cocked his head at me. “I may have disagreed with him, but I try not to openly oppose his orders. That is not the way a successful cartel operates.”
“That is true but as I said, you do not have to worry about that anymore.”
He looked puzzled as he asked, “Why? Because you are intending to kill me? Is this your kind way of telling me that I will not be around to oppose him?”
I paused. Damn, he didn’t know. He had no idea. I suddenly realized he couldn’t know as he had been in that coma. I wondered if I should even tell him the news. I slowly shook my head and scooted forward on my chair to tell him the truth, “Santiago passed away during your coma.”
Carlos froze and stared at me then he asked in a low tone, “He’s gone?”
I nodded.
“They killed him?” he asked as his eyes glittered.
I shook my head. “He had a major stroke as far as I know. No one facilitated his death.”
Carlos took a deep breath and looked away from me.
I paused at this. Was he sorry? Or was he relieved? Santiago was a hard man. He had done all those things that Gabriela talked about in that recording. He had done horrible things. I hated the man with a fucking passion as he had sinned in many ways that had hurt a lot of people.
Finally, Carlos looked at me again to ask, “So do you know who is running the Castillo organization?”
“There are rumors,” I tried to avoid a direct answer. I had heard that Alvaro Castillo had taken over with his father Salvador at his side.
Carlos looked upset at the news as the man was his father.
And I did not wish to exasperate his agitation. Not because I had to care. No, simply put, he would be harder to handle and I would never get the answers I needed from him.
He stared at me and asked, “Quién está en la cima?” Who is at the top?
“No one knows really. Seems to be a couple members of your family.” I had no real proof about Alvaro, just rumors.
Carlos seemed to calm down and released a sigh. “It doesn’t matter. I do not intend to compete for a top spot or go back to it.”
I blinked at him in total surprise. “You don’t?”
“No, I cannot.”
“And why not? You are the next in line. You were already a captain, second only to Alvaro and Santiago. It is an easy takeover.”
“I do not want a takeover. In fact, if and when you release me, I will not be returning to my position at all. I will not be part of that shitshow of a life anymore.”
I admit I had a hard time understanding what he meant. “You mean that you do not intend to return to your cartel?”
“It is not my cartel. And yes, that is what I am saying. I will not be returning to that way of life.”
I studied him and he looked determined about this decision. “Is that because your father has passed away?”
He shook his head. “No. I wanted out before this.”
“When before this? You mean before your coma?”
“No, during.”
I slowly shook my head in confusion. “I don't understand this at all. During?”
Nodding, he told me in a low soft voice, “I experienced nightmares.”
Intrigued, I leaned forward to ask, “During your coma?”
“Yes and let us just say it was something along the lines of being scared straight.”
His answer didn’t lessen my curiosity. But I felt like maybe I shouldn’t be asking. He looked upset already and that would not do me any good in my quest.
Looking up at me, he changed the subject back to his original inquiry, “So, what is your motive for kidnapping me? If it isn’t to trade me for a prisoner or because of some deal gone wrong. Then why? And if it is just about the kids, I also need to know the why.”
I wondered about his mental state a bit with his partial confession of nightmares during a coma. But he did seem sharp in any case. “It is about them, yes.”
“What is your personal interest in my niece and nephew?”
I took a deep breath and told him, “Because they are also my niece and nephew.”
He stared at me as he looked shocked into silence. “How can that be?”
“I can see that you do not remember me.”
He cocked his head at me and then he looked surprised as his eyes rounded. “You are Alex’s little sister. I knew there was something familiar about you. I just couldn’t pinpoint it. Dios mio!”
I nodded. “I was taken to my Abuela when I was twelve. My grandmother needed someone to take care of her and I did my duty.”
“So you weren’t there when—”
“—Alex was killed?” I nearly growled the words. “Executed by your father.”
Carlos lowered his head. “I never forgave Santiago for that. But he didn’t know that I was so close to Alex. I never told him Alex had been my best friend. I knew he would not care and I knew he might…” He raised his head to meet my eyes. “He would have used that to control my actions.”
“What do you mean?”
“You heard that recording. I mean you must have listened to it a few times, I assume. He was capable of horrible acts and he would also use the people you cared about against you. If he’d known that I was so close to Alex, you might have died as well as your parents and any other family you have.
He used my love for Gabriela against me for many years. ”
I gasped upon hearing this. I had never considered this circumstance. I only believed what the crime world believed. Carlos Castillo was as blackhearted as his father Santiago was.
Carlos nodded at me. “Si, he also used the twins a few times once he realized I knew about them. In fact, I participated in the murderous acts against the Mancinis simply because he blackmailed me. No one knew of this as they would be dead if I ever told of it. He promised Gabriela’s demise a few times to get me to do what he wanted.
I learned better at a young age, not to let him know about any personal relationships.
” He locked gazes with me as his eyes glinted with pure hatred. “I only hope he fries in hell.”
I felt stunned. All the things I believed I knew about Carlos Castillo went out the damn window with that lone sentence.
The belief that he was as cutthroat as Santiago and other members of his family had been ingrained in me from a young age.
I also had believed that he never cared about Alex even though they grew up as close as brothers.
“I loved Gabby and he ruined that too,” Carlos went on.
“Allowing her to believe I had forsaken her and Alex. I had been forced to allow her to believe that I willingly accepted Alex’s murder.
That I was in agreement with Santiago taking her children from her.
I could never remove the ideals that Gabby had about me and my black soul.
I had been forced to go along to appear to be in support of Santiago’s decrees.
I hated him for that…” He looked away as he spoke softly, “Alex was the purest soul I’d ever known.
He had no guile in him. And I have missed him every day of my life.
He should have been my brother-in-law, instead, he is gone.
” Looking up at me, unshed tears glinted in his dark eyes again.
“I wanted to kill Santiago so many times, yet I couldn’t bring myself to murder him.
My hidden hatred for him was dark but not dark enough to trade my soul for. ”
I noted that he did not call him his father. He called him by his first name, Santiago.
Carlos continued, “But I intend to make all of that right. Secretly, I had been hunting those kids for a long time. And I finally located them with someone’s help. So I have known exactly where they are.”
I stood from my chair and exclaimed, “For all this time? You knew? How could you not—”
“Go and get them? Return them to Gabby?” He scoffed.
“That would have made them dead just like their father.” He again looked up at me and met my gaze as he spoke softly, “They are his offspring, part of him. So I cherish them. And even though I knew where they were, I never revealed that. Because I believed Santiago when he vowed to kill them should I ever interfere. He wasn’t above murdering his own grandchildren.
No, I was shown how low he would go when—” He halted.
I waited as I wondered what he meant. “You were shown?”
He slowly raised his head and asked me, “Have you ever heard of the legend of the Castilian Rose?”
I stared at him. “It is about a saint, si? Is that what the tattoo is that you have over your heart?” I saw his chest a few times when the nurses changed his bedding and the hospital gown he wore.
I wouldn’t tell him that I had seen his ripped muscles and I wondered how he could be in such great shape while in a coma.
But I had noted the yellow inked roses there.
I knew it was unusual for a man who ran an ungodly cartel to have such a religious symbol as I recognized it and the cross next to it.
He laced his fingers together and told me, “I realize having this tat doesn’t reflect the job that I had or the things that I did.
I also admit that I carried so much rage against my…
against Santiago and a few others in the cartel that I turned into a fucking monster.
Did I realize it before I hit that tree?
No. I didn’t face myself or my sins. No.
I did what I was told to do. Mostly because many lives were at stake if I did not follow his orders.
But deep down, I wished for a different life, not the one I was born into.
They say your fate is what you make it. But I never saw it that way.
I seemed to have no choice in my own fate, simply because I had Castillo blood running through my veins.
Then my sister showed me that someone could escape.
She had done it. Although Alberto Mancini isn’t some law-abiding citizen, he did not kill innocents that I was aware of.
Anyone he had disappeared usually deserved it.
Not that I could get protection the way she had, but she did the impossible.
Today, by telling me that Santiago is no more? You have freed me.”
“I have not set you free yet, Carlos.”
He smirked. “Si, you have not.”
I wondered at his smirk. What was he planning? “So what does all of that have to do with the Castillian rose?”
“It is more to do with me, than my quest.”
I kept shaking my head. “You have lost me entirely.”
Carlos remained silent as he stared down at his hands with his fingers still laced together.