Chapter Four
Carlos
I wasn’t sure about revealing the things I remembered from the coma.
I saw her staring at me as if I might not be sane.
Hell, maybe I was crazy? Maybe someday I would tell her what I saw while I was under, but not today.
But I knew what I had to do today. “Unlike most cartel or mafia men, I am fully aware that I have done deplorable things, Selena. I already explained to you that most of the time, I had no choice. But does that release me from being guilty of the crimes that I most certainly committed? No, it doesn’t.
I could have run away. Though as you are aware, once you are in, you can only leave toes up.
But what really stopped me from running, from quitting? Was those kids.”
Selena stared at me as no emotion flickered in her eyes or on her face.
“Si, it is your prerogative to not believe me. Considering who I am or used to be… I cannot blame you. However, I am asking for your help. You claim to want to know where those kids are. You are Alex’s sister and that makes you their tia.
If this is true and you are their aunt, then I think we need to go and get them together. ”
Selena studied me closely. “Are you serious?”
“As…” I laughed as I paused. “I almost said… a heart attack, but considering my health up until this point…Perhaps I shouldn’t use that phrase.”
“You would really do that?” she asked. “Take me with you?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“We are from dueling cartels, Carlos. We are enemies.”
“I am not with a cartel. Therefore, I cannot be your enemy. In fact, you did me yet another favor.”
Selena looked very curious as she asked, “And that is?”
“You made me disappear. For all anyone knows, I am dead.” I grinned at her. “Does anyone know I am here?”
She slowly shook her head. “They do not know your location or that you have woken up.”
“Did your men have to kill the guards my father put on my hospital room?” I worried about a couple of my cousins who wouldn’t ever leave my side.
She stared at me. “There were no guards.”
I blinked at her. “No…” I shook my head as I couldn’t believe that.
“I wondered about that too.” She stared at me.
“You haven’t reported back to Quanto?” I referred to her boss.
“No, and I have my own reasons why. I wanted to question you first.”
“Then you were going to do what?”
“Leave you under guard.”
“To go and rescue the kids, correct?”
Nodding, she admitted, “I suggested to Quanto that we take you as you could turn out to be levantón as an exchange as huge collateral. But you already know that is not why I captured you.”
Now I took a huge leap of faith as I asked her something that would make or break our possible partnership, “Did you intend to return them to their mother?”
Pausing, she met my gaze. “I did. They are of my blood but I…” She shook her head.
“You are cartel and cannot raise them in safety,” I supplied the reason.
Nodding, she bit at her lip. “I needed to know if they were even alive first. Then beyond that…” She shrugged. “I already know she wants them back very badly because of that recording. Then Alberto Mancini has moved away from crime if reports are to be believed.”
“Moved away?” I asked as I felt curious about this statement for sure. The man was very feared and respected as a mafia head.
“He has stopped all drug running. He still runs some guns, but mostly his businesses are legit now. He has followed his cousin’s example.”
“You mean Stephano Descalia?”
“Si, but I mean his son really.”
“Luca?” Of course, I knew about them all as it had been my business to know.
She nodded. “Yes, he has been running their corporation.”
“I know. At least I knew this six months ago.”
“Seven months,” she reminded me.
“Yes. So, I will be honest here.” I met her gaze again. “I have no resources. I have no dinero. In fact, for all intents and purposes… I am dead. And as that, I am also dead broke. I couldn’t catch a cab, let alone get plane tickets to anywhere.”
She actually chuckled. “You could change that. Join your—”
“Never again,” I cut in. “I do not care what arises, what changes or if you just tossed me out to the street today. I would remain homeless. I will never take dirty money again. I will never kill for money again. I am done with that as I stated before. I really have no choice in that either.”
“No choice?” she asked.
“None. I gave my word…” My voice faded away.
“To who?” she queried as she sat forward.
“You will call me loco if I gave you the answer.”
“Why do you fear that?” she quipped. “I already question your sanity as it is.”
I laughed. “I really like you, Selena. You are truly…” Again, my sentence trailed off. “Your brother was so funny too. Yes, he was good natured, but he also had an uncanny sense of comedic timing.”
“I was just a kid but I remember him well.” She nodded. “And yes, he always made me laugh. You know how little girls are, they love to play with dolls and dress up.”
I shrugged. “I am sorry but no…I do not know what little girls do.”
She laughed. “Bien, I guess not. But he would allow me to put a somewhat frilly apron on him to have tea parties. Then he would brush my doll’s hair and dress them up for me.
He would do silly voices and read me stories in those same voices.
He took me swimming, sledding, fishing and always came to my room to see me when he got home from work.
He would have been a great father…” She paused as her smile left her lips.
I nodded at her. “He would have been a better parent than us. Then again, we are hardcore criminals.” I looked at her and wondered if I should ask her my next question. “Don’t you yearn for a different life?”
Pausing, she stared at me. “I joined up willingly, Carlos. You know my family was not cartel.”
Yes, I knew that. The Gomez family were farmers.
Alex could have never been a part of a cartel.
Her parents either. They were humble people with no real greed in their hearts.
I remembered them well. “But why would you do that?” I asked her.
In all my research about her that was an answer I did not find.
“You should know why already,” she snapped.
“Alex?” I asked.
Nodding, she explained it, “I’d just gotten out of high school in the town where my Abuela lived.
Then I came home. Alex had been missing for almost six years already.
We knew he had to be dead because he would never have left his family like that.
Bien, my parents prayed that he was alive but even at sixteen, I knew better.
We just never knew what had happened to him.
I went and looked for Gabriela to see if she knew anything.
I knew about them being in love earlier when I was a kid.
But she was gone too. I asked all over town.
No one would say a word. They all looked too afraid to talk to me about that.
Then old man Garcia was the only one who dared to tell me the truth.
He said that they ran away together and never came back.
But he had a cousin who lived down in Baja that told him they were living on the beach.
Then one day, Santiago Castillo came into town with his men.
Alex and Gabriela went missing that same day.
His cousin sold them vegetables and fruit in exchange for fish.
He was close by to the place where the couple had been staying and heard the gunshot.
He then saw the cartel men all leave town quickly, he believed that Santiago had killed them both. ”
“And that recording?” I asked. “Where did you get it?”
“My little sister said she found it on the net. Along with a very large reward for any information leading to finding the kids.”
“I think I see now,” I told her. “You joined up, so you could someday get revenge?”
She nodded. “That or get into a position where I got the opportunity to track the kids somehow.”
“Like taking me,” I stated, as it wasn’t a question.
“Absolutely,” she replied. “But the doctor and the nurse that I captured with you told me that you might never wake up.”
“So, what would you have done then?” I asked.
“Then when?” she asked as she looked confused as to what I was asking exactly.
“How long would you have kept me if I remained comatose?”
“As long as my boss would allow.”
“Well shit,” I grumbled. “He is not known to be patient or generous.”
Selena laughed. “No, he is not.”
“You aren’t afraid of him, why?” I could tell she wasn’t and she damn well should be. He wasn’t any better than my father.
Shrugging, she replied, “I have made him millions.”
“How?”
“My ideas? I have thought up ways to make money that had never occurred to him or his men. And I never asked for a cut or pushed him for anything beyond my regular pay. That is why he agreed with capturing you.”
“That idea was never going to pay off for him, Selena.”
“I know.”
“Then what would you have done?”
She looked away.
“The answer is that bad, eh?” I quipped.
She let out an uneasy breath then looked back at me “To be brutally honest…There would be two choices. Sell you to the highest bidder, including your family. Or snuff you out for a price.”
I stared at her. “Chingar,” I swore in awe. Not feeling anger or any resentment about this, I could see her doing that. It would save her ass too. Especially since she worked for Quanto. It made sense and it would still pay the bill for the operation. “Very smart.”
“Smart but cold as all hell,” she added.
“Have you ever heard of the cartel being warm and fuzzy?”
She shook her head.
“So, here we are,” I said.
She raised a brow at me. “And where are we?”
I sat up higher in the bed and winced as I still felt stiff. “This is what I propose. We partner up. You and I will go and retrieve the kids. Then take them to Gabby.”
“Then after that?” she asked.
“That will be up to you, but I would prefer if everyone believed I was dead.” I raised my hand at her and added, “I said believe, ok?” I smirked at her.
“You trust me to help with that without unaliving you?”
“Si, I am hoping that you will not unalive me.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t know. Like you said before I am a cutthroat female and have done in quite a few men.”
“But not in cold blood. You always armed them in some way.”
“Did your research tell you that?” She smirked at me.
“In a way. One of our contacts had witnessed a face-off you had, as we call it. You tossed a knife to your opponent. He of course grabbed it up and came after you. Then you raised your blade and tossed it at him. Needless to say, he went down and did not get back up.” I shrugged.
“But let’s do this together and afterwards if you decide to fight me… ”
She cocked her head at my pause.
“…I will just beg for mercy and refuse to fight back.”
Staring at me her eyes actually twinkled, then she leaned her head back and laughed.
I watched her with total captivation. God damnit, her laugh and the way she looked when she dropped that ice queen act…
it made me hard as fuck. I winced as my body had been slowly waking up and then this happened.
It was more than a wakeup physically it was a shock to my mind as well.
Not many women had caused this in me even before my coma.
Sex was something I would have to build up to.
Not because I had an issue physically. I just didn’t trust many people, even females.
I didn’t care for ladies of the night either, like most of the soldiers in my organization.
So sex was few and far between. In my business, it wasn’t like you could date someone safely.
Not that I would have ever dragged anyone into my lie that my father could use against me.
Her laughter had stopped and she stared at me. “So, we go together.”
“Yes, that is what I mean. Although we should have some extra protection.”
“Like what? We cannot travel by plane and take machine guns, Carlos.”
“Like a couple of guards,” I clarified.
“Guards?”
“Yes and they have to be men we trust absolutely.”
Selena looked thoughtful and said, “I do not have um… well, anyone that…” She looked over at me.
I understood this difficulty. “The cartel is not full of honor and trust. I should know. I was born into it.”
“So what do you suggest?” she asked.
“Not what but who,” I corrected her assumption.