Chapter 9
Nine
Shiloh
I groaned, stretching out my stiff body and recoiling at the sharp pain in my ribs. “Fuck.”
I was tired. Tired of being tired. Tired of being in pain. So fucking tired.
The sound of crackling firewood registered in my awareness, and I forced my eyes open. I turned my head to the side to see Carlos at his desk, typing on his laptop.
I slowly sat up, my head a little woozy, and attempted to stand. My legs weren’t having it, and I landed back on my ass on the couch with a whine.
“Good morning, sweetheart. Have a nice nap?”
I checked the windows; it was still night out. My eyes found his.
“What the hell happened?” I asked groggily, thinking back to how I wound up here. I felt like I had a hangover—slightly nauseous, my brain foggy.
My stomach dropped to the floor.
“Wait…you gave me something. What did you give me?”
Carlos studied me, leaning back in his chair and bringing a glass of liquor to his lips.
“A little truth serum. Granted, it doesn’t make it impossible for you to lie, just makes it harder for you to do so.
I had to make sure you were going to be loyal, that we didn’t have another snitch on our hands. ”
I blinked. “You asked me about Javi?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes, desperate for the memory to suddenly appear, but I couldn’t recall any of the conversation. I jumped when Carlos suddenly spoke again several moments later.
“And now I know that you were not involved with whatever it was Javier was attempting to do.”
“And what was that?” I asked hesitantly.
“Well, from the digital data we gathered, it seems your brother was taking payments for information. Using a cloud drive to share minor details, nothing of severe consequence from what we can tell. But we don’t know who he was selling secrets too.”
My brows furrowed. “But you called him a soplón, an informant for the police.”
Carlos shrugged. “Semantics. It could have been FBI, or a disloyal cop in Granby, or it could have been a rival family. I guess he took that information with him to the grave. Unfortunately, my little truth serum method didn’t work on him, nor did any pain tactics.
” Carlos paused staring blankly ahead before shaking his head and returning his eyes to my face.
“He had your name on the bank account he was using to store his money, which was why I needed to see if you were involved. Seems like Javier kept you in the dark about a lot of things. You didn’t even know what his job was. ”
A bank account? In my name? Fuck. If only I had access to it. Is there a lot of money? There must be with how angry Carlos was with Javier.
I swallowed, my throat uncomfortably dry. Wait, what did he just say?
“What do you mean I didn’t know what his job was?”
Carlos moved from behind his desk and approached me. I leaned back into the couch as he perched on the edge of the coffee table in front of me. The smell of his cologne reminded me of Javier’s and my stomach knotted.
“I’m a supplier. I don’t change hands with individuals.
I work with other groups who have a vested interest in a large supply of particular pharmaceuticals and substances.
We’ve been the sole supplier of various substances to every gang in Austin, San Antonio, and DFW for years now.
And soon, Houston will join that list. Your brother never once dealt drugs for me, because that would be impossible.
I simply do not handle that type of business. ”
I shook my head, eyes narrowed with disbelief. “You’re lying.”
“I wish I was, Shiloh. Your brother was very good at keeping secrets and I suppose this was one of many he chose to keep from you. I can only assume he chose to lie to you because you weren’t aware of the person your brother really was.
It doesn’t surprise me, though. That he kept secrets from you. ”
“What do you mean? He’s my brother. I’ve known him my entire life. He must have lied to protect me. For this very reason. If I didn’t know anything you wouldn’t have a reason to torture me for answers.”
“Sweetheart, I’m sorry to say this, but I think he’s been doing a lot more than lying to you. I only wish I had realized sooner the dire situation that you were living in.”
My hackles rose and I forced myself to lean into Carlos’s personal space. “Fuck. You.”
Carlos gave me a sad smile. “I’d been telling your brother for years to get you out of that house.
I gave him the means to do so. He was…stubborn.
I offered to let you live here with my wife and children even.
But he was possessive when it came to you.
I know you don’t trust me, and maybe I haven’t given you reason to, but I have only ever wanted what’s best for you and your brother. ”
“What’s best?” I scoffed. I struggled to find my words as anger seemed to be pouring out of every cell of my body.
“You force a child to join your gang! You force me to watch my brother’s murder!
You fucking kidnap me and drug me with a ‘truth serum’!
And you think I should trust you? Are you fucking stupid?
! I will never trust you. And I will never forgive you for what you’ve done! ”
Carlos sighed heavily, smoothing his hands down his thighs as he let me shout at him.
“I never forced your brother to do anything. If you’d just let me explain, you might realize that I truly have been looking out for the both of you for over a decade now.”
I stared in shock. He was mentally insane. He was a fucking idiot. There was no way in hell he actually believed that.
“It was…hm, thirteen years ago now. Things were different back then. The economy was going through a recession, and I was a new-to-the-job low-level city official. A job which my predecessor had placed me in with the purpose of building up our empire. It was unfortunate timing for me, being that the recession had completely stalled our development projects.”
Carlos paused, chuckling to himself. “I was a little inexperienced. And desperate to prove myself to my jefe as I knew I was soon to become his sucesor. Los Siete has always been in the business of pulling people out of the trenches, but I might have gone fishing with a little too wide of a net. I had connections within the police department, people who were willing to turn a blind eye when a criminal would be more useful to us free than sitting in a jail cell.”
I dug my nails into my palms in an effort not to claw his eyes out. Fuck, my head was killing me. Everything fucking hurt and the sound of Carlos’s voice was making the nausea twelve times worse.
“It was around this time that I received a call. There was a car accident involving a drunk driver and a teenage girl who had been killed in the collision. And in the back seat of the man’s car there were two young children, a boy and a girl.”
Carlos nodded his head at me as my brows furrowed. My insides twisted with unease. I couldn’t remember being in a car accident as a child, but there were many things about my childhood I chose to forget.
“Looking back, I should have never agreed to help him, but like I said, I was desperate, and specifically desperate for low-ball bids on the city’s development projects.
When I found out that Oscar, your father, worked for a contracting firm, I ignored the red flags.
With you and your brother in the back seat and the death of that girl, he would have been charged with a felony DUI.
A hefty fine and up to ten years in prison.
And that was if law enforcement chose not to notify ICE that he was undocumented. ”
“That’s the ‘debt’ my dad owes you?”
“Yes.”
I rubbed my eyes, the heat from the fire making it difficult to stay awake. I want to go home. My chest tightened at the thought of home. I was reminded of the sad truth that I didn’t have one, didn’t even have anyone left who cared about me. I didn’t have anything.
“Okay. So, my dad owed you. How the hell did Javi end up involved?”
“Your father agreed to work for me, and in exchange I made his legal troubles disappear. However, he turned out to be completely unreliable.”
“Of course,” I muttered bitterly.
“I didn’t realize your father would turn to drugs to numb his guilt.
I had every intention of killing him for attempting to back out of our agreement, but then Javier walked into the room.
And…well, you know your father, Shiloh. He pleaded for his life and offered up his son in his place.
I wasn’t going to kill a child, but I did recognize the opportunity he was giving me.
So, I spared Oscar’s life, and I kept an eye on the both of you as you grew older.
Took Javier under my wing while I waited for him to be old enough for more. ”
I released a sigh and immediately regretted it as my chest spasmed with pain. That’s not what Javier told me at all. He told me that he met Carlos as part of a mentorship program sponsored by the YMCA we attended for after-school care.
“You’re saying that Javier was always going to join the gang?”
Carlos nodded. “Yes. As payment for your father’s debt to Los Siete. Although, I never intended for him to become an arreglador. It just so happened that his interests sped things along in that direction.”
“What do you mean ‘interests’? What’s an arreglador do?”
“You must have realized that there was something a little bit off with your brother’s emotional capacity, no?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I asked with exasperation. My brain couldn’t handle the overload of information. “Please…” I ground my teeth, cautiously breathing through another wave of stabbing pain in my chest. “Just fucking say it already.”
“I think it’s best if I show you.”
My head tilted with confusion. “Show me?”
“Yes,” he nodded, standing up to walk towards his desk. He carried his laptop back to the couch, taking the seat beside me. My foot tapped the floor as he searched for a file.