EPILOGUE
I looked down at the hallway and smiled at Zach’s open door. After so long of keeping it locked to keep my pain in control, seeing it wide open was like being free. Free of my guilt. Of my grief. Of my torment.
Free to work on my dreams, enjoy my family, and plan my future. With Ethan.
I walked to my brother’s office and let myself inside, plopping down on the chair across his desk. “You’re here early.”
He rubbed his hands over his face. “I needed to get ahead of a couple of things.”
He leaned over the table with his index finger pointed at me, so I stretched my arm to meet him halfway and pressed the tips of our fingers together in greeting.
I smiled at him and frowned as I noticed his appearance. If his crumpled clothes and the dark circles around his eyes were any indication, he hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep in ages.
I curled my feet up on the chair. “Care to share what’s troubling you? I might be able to help.”
He smiled tiredly at me. “I know. And I need your help. I think I’m way in over my head here, and I’m not sure how to handle it.”
“Haley isn’t very fast in forgiving, huh?”
His shoulders dropped, and he looked at the portrait that used to be in the first drawer of his desk but was promoted to the top of the table. The portrait showcasing Gabe, Haley, and Zach, hugging and smiling. Like the family they were.
“That’s one of the reasons.”
“What are the others?”
He hesitated for a moment. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
Before he could explain whatever it was, Ethan and Benny strode into his office bickering .
I leaned my head back, and Ethan bent at his waist to hold my face and give me an upside-down kiss on the lips.
He twirled my chair around and pulled my arm, so I jumped from it to hug my Phoenix. “What are you doing here? I wasn’t expecting you two until lunch.”
Benny threw himself at Zach’s couch and glared at Ethan. “Your bird was driving me crazy. He woke me up at the crack of dawn because he just ‘ needed to come back home ,’” he mimicked in a high, un-Ethan-like voice.
Ethan scoffed. “Yeah, like you didn’t want to come fast for Izzie and Teddy.”
“That’s beside the point,” Benny mumbled.
Zach smiled lightly and leaned back on his chair. “How was the trip?”
Ethan pulled me into his chest, circling his arm around my shoulders, and kissed my forehead. “It was very productive. Even more so than I imagined. Let’s wait for Danny to show up, then we’ll brief you on everything Aaron and Mr. Dawson shared.”
Zee groaned in relief. “Finally, a fucking break. I was starting to believe the whole universe was working against us.”
Ethan grinned at my brother. “No need to worry. I believe we’re about to have a syzygy.”
Benny squinted his eyes. “A what? ”
“A syzygy,” Ethan explained happily, waving his free hand. “It’s when three or more celestial bodies align. It’s an astronomy term.”
Damn, my geek was sexy. “Syzygy? Yum .”
Benny scrunched his nose and stared at us in disgust. “Oh man, is that some sort of nerdy foreplay? This has got to stop. Both of you, enough! And please, please , stop sexting when I’m traveling with him,” he pleaded.
Ethan’s eyes snapped at Benny, and I scolded him. “I can’t believe you were snooping on his phone and reading our texts!”
He threw his hands up and shook his head. “I didn’t have to! Lover boy here has no poker face. I knew exactly what was going on. It’s fucking disgusting.”
As Benny and Ethan went back to their bickering, I pumped one brow up and smirked at Zee—who was eyeing me horrified. I guess he wasn’t ready to acknowledge his little sister wasn’t a pure lady anymore.
Danny walked into the office and watched Ethan and Benny’s argument in confusion. “What’s going on?”
Zach let out a deep sigh of relief at the interruption. “Oh, Thank God.” He cleared his throat. “Not that I don’t enjoy hearing that our newest member is defiling my sister—”
“Why do you think I’m the one being defiled? I could be very much corrupting him. Although, he did suggest we should use the handcuffs again…”
Ethan’s eyes rounded and his cheek turned adorably and geekly pink, as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. Danny chuckled, while Benny groaned loudly.
“ Anyway ,” Zach interrupted me pointedly, “I need to talk to you.”
At his somber tone, our mood adjusted accordingly. He opened his mouth and snapped it shut. He rested his right elbow on the table and rubbed his eyes. He threw his fingers into his hair in distress.
Danny sunk on the couch beside Benny waiting for Zach to gather the courage to say whatever was in his mind. I sat across from him again, and Ethan sat next to me.
“Zee? What’s going on?”
He ran his fingers over his lips. “Protecting you was one of the reasons why I decided to fake my death. But there’s something else I need you guys to know.”
Zach opened his mouth to admit whatever was weighing on him, when his phone vibrated over his table, startling us. The thrum echoed within the office, surrounding us with an ominous foreshadow.
And just like that, our day was ruined.
I hesitated before picking up my phone. I watched the caller and saw it was indicated as unknown. That wasn’t uncommon, seeing lots of people called us for our services. But I knew that call wasn’t random.
I couldn’t explain why or how. I just knew it.
I swiped my finger over the screen and placed the phone to my ear. “Zach Bryant.”
“ What a pleasure. I was wondering if I’d ever be able to talk to the man taking such good care of my treasures .”
My insides froze, and I closed my eyes and held my breath trying to keep my rage at bay. When that wasn’t enough, I squeezed the cup of cold coffee on my table until it broke from my pressure, spilling it all over the table. Once I felt ready to keep my voice and wrath under control, I opened my eyes.
“I’m sorry. Who is this?”
The whole room was on alert, and Ethan pulled out his computer from his backpack and opened it on my desk. He picked a pen and piece of paper from the table and wrote me instructions, asking for data I could inform him so he could search the caller. He didn’t even know who was calling, but he was already stepping up to help .
If I wasn’t so consumed with ire for the devil screwing with my mind over the phone, I would’ve been grateful that such a good man was building a life with my little sister.
“ Are you going to pretend you don’t know who I am? If that’s a lie, you’ll soon learn that there’s no deceiving me. You can play dead or dumb all you want; I’ll find you soon. And if you truly don’t know, then you’re even less deserving of the bitch spreading her legs to you. And that’s all the more reason for me to get that whore and my heir away from you, hijo de puta. ”
Mia waved at me and signed to me to put the phone on speaker. My first instinct was to ignore that and solve it on my own. But I’d already tried that route and realized it wasn’t the smartest choice. I needed my whole team. I needed my family to protect my family.
I was ready to tell them the truth anyway.
Fighting every one of my instincts, I pressed the screen on my phone letting our conversation be known to the people I trusted the most.
“And if you think you’ll be able to barge in whenever you want and mess with my family, you’re just proving I’m right: you’re more stupid than you let on, and the stories about you are a farce. And so are you. You can sit in your tower of drugs and brutalized victims like the coward rat you are, pretending to be a lord, but we both know you’re a fraud. ”
I almost patted myself on the back for keeping my voice calm. His heavy and angry breathing through the phone ignited my determination. And I couldn’t say it wasn’t satisfying to provoke him. “In the last couple of years, we have cost you some of your closest goons. We took out your right hand and even eliminated your link to law enforcement. You’re as good as dead.”
“ You’re a fool if you believe that. They don’t call me ‘La Sangre’ for nothing? ”
“Then I’ll make sure you’ll bleed.”
Ethan kept typing furiously but gave me a slight nod, without taking his eyes off his screen, indicating I could hang up the phone.
I disconnected the call and peered up. Ethan was engrossed in his search, as the others stared at me with worry.
Danny pointed at my phone. “‘ La Sangre ?’ As in Carlos Gomes?”
I nodded in silence and waited for the curses I knew would follow. Ethan grimaced at the news but kept on working. Ben and Danny spewed all the profanities they knew.
But Mia remained silent. There was no surprise in her eyes. Only accepting somber and murderous intent. She was ready to fight. But not with me. Mia was ready to go to war beside me. Because she understood what was happening, she was one step ahead of the others. She always had been .
I gazed at the photo I had of Gabe and Haley with me. My saving grace. It was the one thing that kept me going as I tried to mend my relationship with Haley.
Mia stared at the picture for a few seconds, then looked at me and asked in a flat tone. “Why was the head of the cartel calling you, Zach?”
There was no easy way to answer that. But I needed to say it anyway. I needed to face that torment and verbalize the unthinkable if I wanted any chance of ending that nightmare. Because Haley and Gabe were my family. They were mine .
They were the ones I called home.
And I would stop at nothing to keep them safe.
“Because he’s the man Haley ran away from. Carlos Gomes is Gabe’s biological father.”