8. Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
C lutching her iPhone, Dina flew down the stairs in her pajamas. She swallowed the lump of panic blocking her throat and prayed her trembling legs weren’t about to give out on her.
A vehicle ramming Beto and Steve? Trying to drive them off the road? Shooting at them? A man dead and another dying?
This is all my fault.
It’s happening again.
My mistakes are never going to stop hurting us.
Guilt-ridden and ashamed, she made her way across the house. As she neared the front doors, red and blue lights flashed through the windows and open doors, turning the entry into a scene from a police TV show. She found Beto arguing loudly with two police officers and a detective. Steve stood nearby, cuffed like a criminal. His forearms and shirt were stained with blood, and she hoped it wasn’t his or her brother’s.
“What’s going on in here?” Dina demanded in her haughtiest voice. She pushed by the family’s night security team who had formed a wall behind Beto and faced off with law enforcement. “Why is the captain in handcuffs?”
The detective in charge made a face. “ Senora , this is standard procedure after a murder.”
“A murder?” The panic that had been trying to choke her vanished. Fury replaced it. “The captain acted in self-defense!”
“You weren’t there, s enora ” the detective insisted. “You can’t possibly know that it was self-defense.”
“You weren’t there either!” Dina stormed closer and stepped between Steve and the officers. “My brother was! He told me what happened. Are you calling my brother a liar?”
The detective nervously glanced at Beto. “No, s enora , but your brother and the captain fled the scene—.”
“We didn’t flee!” Beto cut in angrily. “We were told by the officers on the scene that we should come back to the house and wait.”
“They were wrong to tell you that,” the detective argued. “They should have kept you on the scene for questioning.” The detective glared at Steve. “Which the captain knows fully well as a police officer who has investigated many crimes!”
Having heard enough of this back and forth, Dina interrupted the two men. “Call your superior. Right now. I want to talk to the person in charge of you and the person who is in charge of that person. I don’t care if you have to wake up the attorney general and our senators and the governor! Get them on the phone right now!”
“What’s all the shouting?” Soila demanded from the grand staircase that was rarely used by the family. Like a queen surveying her court, she stared down at the small crowd disturbing her rest. She looked like a Frida Kahlo painting in her white cotton nightgown with a hand embroidered rebozo draped around her shoulders. “What’s happened?”
“I’m sorry, Mama.” Beto hurried to their mother’s side as she stepped off the staircase and onto the tile floor. “Steve and I were attacked on the road back to the city.”
Soila reared back in shock before glancing between her son and Steve and then the police officers and Dina. “Why is he in handcuffs?”
“I killed a man, ma’am,” Steve answered matter-of-factly.
Dina gawked at him, shocked by his candidness and lack of self-preservation. “Really?” she hissed in frustration. “Don’t all you American cops memorize that thing about having the right to remain silent?”
Steve shot her the most infuriating lopsided smile and shrugged.
“In my defense,” Beto quickly clarified for their mother. “He killed a man to defend our lives. They tried to run us off the road and shot at us. Steve shot back and hit the driver.”
“So, it was self-defense,” Soila stated.
“Yes,” Beto confirmed.
“Well,” Soila calmly walked to Steve, “I think Captain Morgan deserves our thanks for saving my son’s life.” She pointedly eyed the handcuffs. “I don’t think we should reward him with handcuffs.”
“Dona,” the detective said nervously. “The law—.”
“Can wait until morning,” their mother interrupted smoothly. “My son and the captain have been through a terrible ordeal. They need to rest. We can sort all of this out in the morning. With our lawyers,” she added deliberately.
The detective unhappily complied with Soila’s silent threat and fished the handcuff keys from his pocket. He unlocked them and took them away from Steve’s wrists. Dina noticed how red they were and wondered why the detective would have made them so tight.
Immediately suspicious of the detective, she wanted him out of the house as quickly as possible. Knowing what she did of Diego, he probably still had his claws into law enforcement. There was nowhere he couldn’t reach.
“I’ll walk the detective and officers out.” Dina took charge of getting rid of the detective and officers, forcefully walking them to the door. She was shocked by the sight of a dozen police cars parked in front of the mansion. Officers milled around, and she sensed the tension between them and the household security.
“Detective...?”
“Chief Inspector Olmos,” the man supplied his name.
“Chief Inspector Olmos,” she repeated with as much respect as she could muster. “I appreciate that you have a job to do, and I want you to know that our family will cooperate fully.”
“But?”
“This display of force was completely unnecessary. We’ve always cooperated with law enforcement—.”
“Except for the night your husband was captured,” Chief Inspector Olmos interrupted rudely.
Dina gritted her teeth at that awful memory. “My ex-husband is currently a fugitive. Perhaps instead of harassing my family with dozens of police officers, you should use these men to find Diego before he kills someone else.”
Furious, she spun on her heel and stormed back to the house. She whirled back to warn, “Don’t come back here again without speaking to our legal team first.”
Jose, the head of her security team, stepped from the shadows to flank her. He escorted her back into the house and secured the door. “I have more guards coming. We’ll lock down the house and the property.”
“Do whatever needs to be done. Don’t worry about the cost.”
“ Sí, senora .” Jose looked like he wanted to say something else.
“What?”
“I don’t think Steve should go back into the city.”
She nodded at his suggestion and went to join her family. Her mind reeled as she thought of all the ways Steve could find himself in serious trouble. This wasn’t the US, and this wasn’t Texas. He wasn’t here officially, and she’d all but dragged him right into danger.
“You’ll stay with us,” Soila announced in her voice that brooked no refusal. “You saved my son’s life. You rescued my granddaughter. You’re in trouble because you protected us. You’ll stay here, and that’s that.”
Dina hung back, waiting to see how Steve would react. He seemed as unable to deny her mother a command as the police officers who had just left. Steve nodded and thanked her for the hospitality.
Soila waved her hand. “We’ll talk in the morning.” She glanced back at Dina and gestured toward Steve. “Get him set up in one of the guest rooms.”
“Yes, Mama.”
Her mother slipped her arm through Beto’s. “Walk me back to my room.”
Once her mother and brother were out of earshot, Steve maneuvered closer and in a low voice said, “I need to talk with your security, and I need to get my things from the hotel.”
“I’ll handle the hotel. You talk to Jose.” She stepped aside while Steve spoke with Jose and quickly called Ximena.
Groggily, Ximena answered on the third ring. “Hello?”
“Ximena? I’m so sorry to call this late, but I need your help.”
“Of course. Yes. I’m here.” Ximena sounded like she was rubbing her eyes and trying to appear more alert than she actually was.
“Can you go the suite that Captain Morgan is using and clear out all of his things? Have them brought here to the estate?”
“Yes. I can do that. But why? Is something wrong? Are you okay? Is Camila okay?” Ximena hurriedly asked. “Has something else happened?”
“We’re fine, and I’ll explain later.” Worried that someone might be targeting Steve, she added, “Be careful, Ximena. If you get there and anything seems strange, you leave immediately.”
“I’ll take Miguel with me.”
“Yes, take your brother,” she agreed, certain Ximena’s football star brother would be useful in a tight spot. “Don’t worry about coming in to the office tomorrow either. Take the day off.”
“I could come out to the estate?” Ximena offered. “If you’re working from home, you might need my help.”
She was right, of course. “If you don’t mind?”
“I don’t mind.”
Dina ended the call a few moments later and waited for Steve and Jose to finish their tense discussion. It was obvious both men were extremely concerned about the situation. She trusted Jose implicitly. She’d known him for more than two decades, after all.
Steve she’d known for a much shorter time yet she trusted him just as much as Jose. She couldn’t explain why. Maybe part of it was his job. Mostly, though, it was the way he looked at her.
Like that.
Steve finished with Jose and came toward her with powerful strides. His handsome face was a mask of concern. He stopped a respectful distance from her, and she secretly wished he would move closer. She wanted to feel the reassuring heat of his body. She wanted to inhale that crisp masculine scent that soothed her raw nerves. She wanted to reach out and touch him, to take his hand and draw him away to her bedroom where he could keep her safe.
Her gaze fell to his still bloody hands, and she grimaced. He winced with embarrassment. “Sorry. I need to wash.”
“Come upstairs with me. I’m sure there’s something in Rafa’s closet you can wear.”
“Thanks.” He fell into step beside her. “I’m sorry about all that downstairs with the police.”
“Don’t apologize for saving my brother’s life.” She cast a worried glance his way. “What kind of trouble are you going to be in when your boss finds out about this?”
Steve issued a rough grunt. “You let me worry about that.”
“I’m worried about you.” Dina allowed herself to be vulnerable. “This isn’t your fight, Steve.”
“The hell it isn’t.” Steve stopped at the top of the stairs. He reached out as if to touch her face but pulled back at the last moment. His gaze lingered on the dried blood staining his skin. Lifting his hand again, he asked, “Do you see this?”
She nodded mutely, the horror of how close Steve and Beto had come to dying making her stomach churn painfully.
“I could have died tonight. Your brother could have died tonight. It’s personal for me—in more ways than you know.”
Confused by his statement, she frowned up at him. Was there something else he wasn’t telling her? Something about Diego that she didn’t know? Was he hiding a secret?
“Steve, what do you—?”
“Ama?” Camila called out from the hallway behind them. “What’s going on? What was all that noise? Did I see police cars?”
Dina tore her gaze away from Steve and turned to face her daughter. All the anger and frustration she’d been feeling toward her child had long-since faded. Seeing her there, hugging her middle, in her princess pink pajama set, Dina was remind of just how young Camila truly was. She might think she had the world figured out, but she was only fourteen years old.
And scared.
“Is that blood?” Camila pointed a shaking finger at Steve. “Are you...? Did someone get hurt?”
“I’m fine,” Steve assured her. “And so is your uncle.”
“Tio Beto?” Camila asked, eyes wide in panic. “What happened?”
“Some bad men shot at us and tried to run us off the road,” Steve answered honestly. “We’re fine—but they aren’t.”
Terrified, Camila asked, “Ama, are we safe?”
“Yes.” Dina rushed to her daughter’s side and drew her in close. She relished the scent of fruity shampoo and the baby soft feel of Camila’s dark hair under her hand as she smoothed the loose waves. “We’re safe here. Nothing is going to happen to you.”
But as she glanced at Steve while gently rocking and hugging her daughter, Dina couldn’t help but wonder if she had just made a promise she couldn’t keep.