20. One Too Many Demons
20
ONE TOO MANY DEMONS
Alejandro
The Present
“ W e need to come up with a plan.”
Dahlia pauses mid-bite. “What?” she mumbles around a mouthful of pancake.
Lyss says, “If what you’re saying is true and the FBI is closing in on Li, then we have to make sure he goes down alone.”
“Brilliant,” I reply. “I wish I had thought of that.”
Lyss’s eyes narrow at me. As I take a step back from the stove and jerk the frying pan with a flick of my wrist, she bumps me on her way around the counter and the pancake I was flipping lands lopsided, hot butter and batter sloshing over the edge. I let out a frustrated huff and point to the massacred pancake.
“This one’s yours.”
“No it’s not.” She grabs the plate I served myself and starts digging in.
“Not fair.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she waves a syrupy fork around, “who’s the one involved with a notorious drug trafficker and on the cusp of having the FBI slap a pair of handcuffs on their wrists?”
Dahlia snorts and almost chokes on her orange juice. I lift my spatula and open my mouth to retaliate but…she has a point.
“Well-played.”
Last night, Rian and Lyss stayed out for a few hours and by the time they got back, it was already dawn. Dahlia attempted to sleep but she was fitful and restless and we spent what was left of the evening hours watching television in silence. It was strange but comfortable. I can’t remember the last time we were in each other’s company and it didn’t end in a screaming match.
About an hour ago, Rian went upstairs to shower and after today, I’m considering petitioning the Catholic Church for sainthood. Because when he comes down the stairs with wet hair and fresh clothes, implying he has drawers and a space in Dahlia’s closet, I almost bludgeon him to death with the frying pan.
He doesn’t bother to greet us. The first words out of his mouth are, “You have to be sure.”
“Good morning to you too.” I drop the deformed pancake on a plate in front of him. “Have a seat.”
He ignores me and focuses his attention on Dahlia. “About Li. You have to be sure.”
Her throat works with a swallow and she pushes away her plate, breakfast half eaten. Absolutely criminal—it took half a tub of butter to get the edges the way she likes them and now this asshole has ruined her appetite.
“Can this wait until after the girls finish eating? It’s been a long night.”
His razor-sharp gaze cuts over to me. “Why are you still here?”
“I pay the mortgage on this house. Why are you here?”
“Guys,” Lyss pleads gently. “Can we not?”
“This doesn’t involve you.” Rian goes on, “I bought you out of Li’s shipping company and you’re selling your shares in the LLC to Antonov.”
Dahlia perks up. “Wait, you did?”
“Last year,” Rian confirms before returning his attention to me. “Which means you’re getting out of this intact. I’m the one who has shit to worry about.”
“My shares haven’t been sold yet and until they are, this is very much my problem. Especially since she’s involved,” I point toward Dahlia without breaking eye contact. “What do you think is going to happen when Li figures out she played a role in all this?”
“Nothing, because I’m going to protect her.”
“You expect me to entrust the life and safety of the woman I love to the idiot who didn’t realize his best friend of nearly thirty years was fucking him over? Have you lost your mind?”
Rian takes a step forward, his gaze darkening. I’m ready to meet him blow for blow when something races toward us, the movement catching in my peripheral. The object hits Rian in the arm first and I reach out to catch it in time.
“A measuring tape?”
Dahlia says, “Since the two of you decided to have a dick measuring contest in my kitchen, I figured you might need one. And for the record, only I know whose is bigger.”
Lyss picks up her plate and orange juice and makes for a hasty exit. “This is getting awkward.”
Rian sits at the seat Lyss once occupied. “Should she know all this?”
“Lyss can be trusted,” I say. “She’s one of very few people who can be.”
Dahlia looks at me and the corner of her mouth lifts just barely. The expression, though subtle, sends a bolt of realization through me.
I can’t remember the last time I made her smile.
“Li’s leaving on business in a few days to handle a last-minute shipment to California. He left me in charge of the investor’s meeting on Friday.” His voice is hoarse when he speaks. I don’t miss the tremor in his hand when he drags it down the length of his face. Noticing as much, Dahlia leans over and gently caresses the side of his neck. The gesture sets my blood on fire.
How familiar, how comforting. Almost as if she really…
I can’t stand to finish the thought.
“He’s planning on consolidating the shipping company and his corporate business before expanding later this year. He’s going to open up more locations like The Empress across the country and in China to help make the narcotics trafficking easier.” He explains. “We may be some of the primary shareholders but he has other investors, smaller ones, looking to make larger contributions once the merger goes through.”
I turn off the stove and take a moment to collect my thoughts. “What do you need from me?”
“To hold off on selling your shares to Antonov. God knows I don’t need my mother’s son causing me anymore headaches.”
“Your family affairs are none of my business but I spoke to him last night. He’s been suspicious of Li for weeks now.”
Dahlia’s head snaps around. “What?”
“I hadn’t originally intended on selling my shares. When he heard I was back in the city, he approached me and made an offer. I didn’t know his motives at first but apparently, he got involved to protect you.”
Rian’s eyes narrow. “Did he now?”
“Something to do with keeping your mother happy.”
In a soft voice, Dahlia interjects. “It sounds like something Sasha would do. You guys have your differences but he’d never do anything to hurt Orla.”
She moves her hand to touch his cheek and he pulls away. The movement isn’t harsh but the way Dahlia startles and shrinks away from him is practically scathing.
“If we can get everyone on board, we can push through the merger and vote Li out in one night.” Rian continues, “We’d have to move quickly and be convincing. Some of Li’s investors have been with him since before his father died. It’d be hard to get them to turn against him.”
“But not impossible,” I say. “So how do we do that?”
Rian attempts to rub the exhaustion from his eyes. “Proof. A paper trail. Evidence damning enough to make his investors realize they’re in hot water with him.”
“Morales!” Dahlia interjects quickly. “He told me he found proof—oh, well, rather that there would be.”
“Fine.”
“He’ll want something in exchange, though.”
“And I don’t think getting the FBI involved is a good idea,” I say.
“Morales just wants to take Li down. Doesn’t matter how or when,” Dahlia replies. “I promise, we can trust him.”
“Get him on the phone. I want all of this settled before the end of the day.” Rian stands. “Call me if something happens.”
“Wait!” Dahlia hops off the stool and makes to follow him. “Where are you going?”
“Home,” he answers curtly.
“I can go with?—”
“No. I’d rather be alone.”
Rian leaves and the front door slams shut behind him.
Dahlia
T he rest of the morning and early afternoon pass by in a blur.
Alejandro leaves not long after breakfast but comes back a little while later to take Do?a Ana out for an early lunch. I feel strangely possessive when I watch them leave together, as if he intends on taking her and never bringing her back. Which is ridiculous but the fear never subsides.
To distract myself, I start cleaning.
I scrub all the bathrooms, wipe down the windows, change the sheets in all the bedrooms, run several loads of laundry, and mop until my back gives out. I’ll never forget the first time Alejandro visited my old apartment after Karina’s wedding. He was afraid of breathing too deeply, lest he somehow infect any of my pristinely clean surfaces.
One thing I had to learn very early on in my life was emotion regulation. During moments of instability between my parents, I didn’t have an outlet for what I was feeling or the emotional intelligence to articulate how their behavior was affecting me. Then again, what child does? As a result, I became what I like to call a situational neat freak. High stress situations has always been the main trigger for my cleaning sprees and by the time I finish riding out the high of this particular manic episode, people will be able to drink out of the toilets they’ll be so damn clean.
Lyss and I don’t speak much and she spends the day working in her bedroom. By midafternoon, she comes downstairs and notices I’m steaming all the pillows in the first-floor den. A few minutes later, I hear a grinding metal noise coming from somewhere in the house so I head upstairs to the formal dining room. Having climbed nearly six feet on an old ladder she trudged up from the cellar, she uses a feather duster to clean the chandelier.
I’m not sure why I feel the urge to cry in this moment. All I know is I want to tell her how grateful I am for her but can’t muster up the courage to do so.
Two hours later, we find ourselves in the kitchen again. I just finished beating out the dust in every rug in this house in the backyard while Lyss rearranged our pantries. I hang up my coat by the door and plummet onto one of the island stools. Without prompting, Lyss uncorks a bottle of wine and serves us both a glass. We drink in silence and the smell of cleaning solutions and fragrant plugins fills my lungs.
“Lyss…” I whisper.
She lets out a deep breath. “Yeah, Dee?”
“I think I made a really, really big mistake.”
She refills both our glasses but this time we don’t finish them. Lyss doesn’t speak over me and instead allows me to fill the silence when I’m ready.
“Sometimes, I wonder if…leaving the way I did was the wrong decision. I was overwhelmed and afraid so I ran.” My cheeks heat and the wine goes straight to my head. “I thought he’d come after me.”
“Why?”
“Because if he loved me, he would’ve.”
“Are you talking about Alex? Or your father?”
My wine glass almost topples over. I catch it in time.
“I think you’re confusing being unwanted with having freedom. Alejandro didn’t let you go because he didn’t care. He did it because he cared too much to force you to stay,” she says. “Gael didn’t fight for you because he was an unfit father who didn’t deserve to be in your life.”
“Jesus, Alyssa…” I mutter. “No need to attack my Achille’s heel.”
“Why not? You asked me because you knew I’d tell you the truth so I am. You will never be happy in a relationship until you confront your inner demons.”
“Yes, well…I have one too many.”
“I’m not saying this to hurt you. I’m saying this because I love you, Dahlia. I care . I may not always agree with your choices on how you live your life but my job isn’t to make decisions for you. It’s to bring you back to yourself when you’ve strayed too far.” She hesitates. “And you’ve gone too far. Especially with Rian. It was wrong of you to use him that way. What he feels for you is real.”
Tightness in my throat makes it difficult to breathe. Tears prickle behind my eyes and I run my fingers through my hair, applying pressure to my temples where a migraine is mounting.
“What do I do? How do I fix this?”
“Sweetheart,” she says gently. “I don’t think you can.”
A tear manages to fall free and I wipe it away quickly.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course you can.”
“Why do you keep me around?”
I frown. “What kind of a question is that?”
“One that requires an honest answer. Am I here because we’re friends or because I’m your friend?”
It takes me a while to find the right answer. “You’re the only person in the world who’s known every version of me.”
“Not Karina?”
“I long ago came to the very difficult realization I loved Karina more than she loved me.” My chest aches and I fold my hands to keep them from trembling. “When I asked you to move in with me last year, I did it because I wanted to help you. It was my way of trying to thank you for everything you’ve done for me as a friend. I guess maybe somewhere along the way I lost sight of that.”
“Of what?”
“Of what it means to be a real friend.” Blinking profusely, I chase away fresh tears. “Lyss, I need to ask you. Are you and Rian?—”
“ We’re home !”
We both look over just in time to watch Alejandro and Do?a Ana emerge from the vestibule. Alejandro’s hair is covered in snow and Do?a Ana’s sandy cheeks are flushed with color.
“?Está nevando otra vez!” she exclaims giddily.
Alejandro isn’t pleased. “She says that because she’s lived in warm climates her whole life. The novelty of snow hasn’t worn off yet.”
“?Me voy a cambiar!”
She walks through the sitting room, breakfast room, and into the kitchen where the door to her apartment downstairs is. The entire garden level is hers, equipped with its own kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room. As much as I enjoy her company, I know how much she values her alone time so the apartment is her sanctuary. Lyss and I have only ever been down there a few times and that’s because below her is the cellar where all the power and waterlines are.
Alejandro leaves a handful of grocery bags on the island before he undresses and hangs up his coat on the hook next to mine. Times like these I wish I could pluck my eyes out.
He’s so fucking hot. The son of a bitch probably wore a turtleneck on purpose because he knows how good he looks in them. Tears forgotten, I want to slam my face into the marble countertop until my brain is mush.
The black turtleneck is tucked into a pair of dark, olive green slacks whose color matches his suede blazer. He hesitates by the coat rack and then removes his blazer as well.
“What’s with the bags?” Lyss asks.
“I’m making dinner.” He extends his hand to the empty stool beside me. “Either sit and watch or vacate the premises.”
Lyss jabs her finger in his direction. “Are you really letting him invade our kitchen?”
I lean over and take a peek into one of the bags before blowing air between my lips. “He’s making ajiaco.”
Her breath catches. “The soup with all the different potatoes and chicken?”
Alejandro reaches into one of the bags and produces an avocado. “And it’s ripe.”
She squints at him. Slowly, almost painstakingly slow, she eases around the kitchen counter and plops down onto the seat beside me.
Alejandro’s smug smile glimmers with satisfaction.
Do?a Ana comes up a little while later to help and I’m cutting up potatoes when I hear the bell ring. Lyss almost goes to get it but I wave her off. “I got it.”
From the bay window in the sitting room, I can see the snow has finally let up and sapphire blue light washes over the streets. The sun will have fully set in another half hour or so but at least some light managed to peak through before the winter darkness swallows us whole.
I half expect it to be Rian. I pray that it is and so I swing the front door open with him in mind.
Except, it isn’t Rian.
Morales holds up a stack of folders and says, “Is Narvaez here? Because he’s going to want to see this.”