17. Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Sixteen
“ W hy do they make the openings on these things so small!” Beto huffed in exasperation as he tried to dress Jasper in the outfit Lola had chosen. Their nephew squealed and giggled and kicked his bare feet every time Beto tried to pull the shirt over his little head.
“I thought you said you could handle it,” Rafael smirked at his brother’s frustration and straightened his tie with the help of the mirror in the bathroom attached to Jasper’s nursery.
“Rafa! Get in here and help me squeeze this gordito into this ridiculous shirt our sister bought.”
“Who are you calling gordito ?” Lola demanded as she stormed into the nursery. Rafael decided to stay in the bathroom and fiddle with his tie a bit longer rather than get between those two. “Are you calling my adorable, cherubic nephew fat?”
“He’s got rolls on rolls, Lola! Looks like he has rubber bands around his wrists and ankles! He makes the Michelin Man look like he’s starving.”
“Don’t listen to your mean skinny green bean tio !” Lola urged and dramatically covered Jasper’s ears with her hands. Her metallic bracelets jingled together, drawing Jasper’s attention and making him laugh as he reached for them. “Be gentle, mijo . Those are Bulgari. Your daddy gave them to me at my Quincea?era .”
“Speaking of,” Beto said, taking a step back from the changing table to let Lola work her magic. “What’s going on with Camila’s quince ? Shouldn’t we be planning it by now?”
Rafael stepped out of the bathroom and exchanged a concerned look with his brother and sister. “I completely forgot.”
“I think we all did.” Beto frowned. “After losing Jaime and Maddie, we sort of shut down.”
“Well, we are not letting Camila’s birthday fall through the cracks,” Lola insisted. “I’ll talk to Dina later. I’m sure she has the whole thing planned out and is probably waiting for the right time to discuss it.”
“You don’t think it has anything to do with Diego?” Beto asked worriedly.
Rafael stiffened at the mention of their ex-brother-in-law's name. “Why would he have anything to do with it?”
Beto reluctantly explained, “I heard he’s been granted release.”
“What?” Fury blazed through him. “He’s supposed to rot in that prison. He’s supposed to suffer until he draws his last breath.”
“How?” Lola asked, cradling Jasper close after finishing his outfit change. “He killed our father and our grandfather. He was convicted. He was sentenced to life.”
“I heard that he may be working with the DEA, and they may have cut him a deal to get him extradited to the US and then released.”
Rafael’s hands curled into fists. He fought the urge to pick up something heavy and throw it through the nearest window. He wanted to pound a hole in the wall. He wanted to scream and snarl and gnash his teeth.
Instead, he remained outwardly calm. He let the fury burn hot and violent deep inside. Growling, he said, “We’ll see about that.”
“Rafa,” Lola cautioned. “Be careful. We already have one legal mess with Beverly and the custody fight.”
Rafael slashed his hand through the air. “That will be settled by next week. The attorneys already have the meeting set. Once they get Beverly’s signature, it’s done.”
“Except for the part where Beverly still gets supervised visits with Jasper,” Lola grumbled. “I still can’t believe you agreed to that.”
“Sky insisted,” Rafael defended his wife. “She wanted to be fair to Jasper. She wanted to make sure he would know his mother’s family.”
“Well, I don’t trust Beverly,” Lola muttered. “She’s nuts, and I don’t think she should be anywhere near Jasper, not even if supervised.”
“She’ll probably give up on the visits once Jasper starts to grow and learns to walk and isn’t just some cute little prop for her social media accounts,” Beto said. “She’s not likely to be a problem for us much longer. Diego, on the other hand....”
“If he’s leaving for the US, what does it matter to us?” Lola asked, clearly still terrified of Diego and the hell he had rained down on their family. “If he stays there, away from us—.”
“Rafael, Sky, and Jasper are returning to San Antonio soon,” Beto reminded her. “He’ll find a way to use them to hurt Dina and Camila.” Beto darkly muttered, “We should have killed him when we had the chance, Rafa.”
Lola’s eyes went wide with shock, and Rafael glared at Beto for revealing that secret. That decision remained his greatest regret, even worse than the night he had spurned and rejected Sky. His private security had been on Diego’s tail. They'd had him in their sights. One word—and he could have ended that bastard.
But Dina had begged him to show mercy for Camila. She couldn’t bear the thought of Rafael being responsible for her daughter’s father’s death. It would be a stain on his honor that would never wash off, and he hadn’t been able to deny the request. For Camila, for Dina, he had agreed to let Diego spend the rest of his life in prison.
Except that agreement was now under threat.
Which meant Rafael was going to have to make some very hard decisions soon.
Those hard decisions plagued him as he carried Jasper downstairs to meet Sky. The rest of the family followed close behind, and they filed into black SUVS that would drive them into town for dinner. Sky must have noticed his preoccupation because she interlaced their hands after he finished securing Jasper in his car seat and took the spot next to his wife.
“I’m fine,” he assured her, hating that he was offering another white lie. “Lots of things on my mind.”
Sky leaned close and kissed his cheek. Conspiratorially, she whispered, “I’m sure I can help you relax when we get home.”
“I’m sure you can.” He grinned and lovingly kissed her. If there was anything that could take his mind off his degenerate, murderous former brother-in-law, it was Sky’s sensual touch.
Jasper fussed at being unable to see what everyone else was doing. Rafael offered him a noisy toy to chew on and bang into the seat and let his nephew hold onto his finger. It was strange how quickly he had adapted to fatherhood. A few weeks ago, he wouldn’t have had the first clue how to deal with a crying or upset baby. Now, he had mental checklists and multiple tricks and hacks to settle Jasper.
Tricks that came in handy once they reached Licha’s and were ushered to the best table in the house. Jasper didn’t want to sit in his high chair, and he didn’t want to be held by anyone except for him. Rafael bounced his nephew on his knee while feeding him yogurt puffs from a packet he’d tucked into the diaper bag.
There were interested looks and whispers from other restaurant patrons, but Rafael paid them no attention. He had nothing to apologize for, and neither did Sky. If people wanted to gawk like uncouth, vulgar boors, let them.
He glanced at his wife and saw that she was relaxed and smiling. She looked so beautiful tonight in a green dress that contrasted with her blonde hair and highlighted her eyes. His mother had opened up her jewelry box and given Sky gold and dainty emeralds to wear tonight. She looked like a queen.
My queen .
Safely nestled between Rafael and his mother, Sky enjoyed a glass of wine with her meal and laughed at the silly stories Lola and Beto told. Most of them seemed to be at his expense, but he let it slide. Even he could admit the stories were funny. He hadn’t always been the sophisticated, polished tycoon he was today.
Outwardly, Dina looked calm and content, but the stiff grip she had on her wine glass told him otherwise. He glanced at Camila who had just taken Jasper and had him giggling on her lap. She seemed wholly unbothered which meant his niece was still in the dark about whatever was going on with her father.
Across the table, Dina caught his gaze. She seemed to be reading his face, and without a word, she nodded as if to confirm what Beto had told him. Knowing she must be feeling incredible stress, he mouthed, “We’ll fix this together.” She smiled and sipped her wine. He hoped that his promise was enough to put her at ease.
Jasper was fast asleep in Sky’s arms when everyone had finished dessert and coffee. He settled the bill, thanked the hosts and waitstaff and guided his wife and nephew out of the restaurant. His family flanked them, and he eyed the security team that stepped into place as they exited the restaurant.
“SUVs are tied up around the corner,” the lead security guard explained. “There’s a wedding leaving the hotel next door. Traffic is backed up.”
Rafa frowned. With security on either side of the family, he felt reasonably safe. This was a quiet area of the city with almost no crime outside pickpockets and scammers. Even so, after learning about Diego, he felt uneasy about letting his guard down even a little bit.
“Oh, a wedding!” Sky grinned up at him. “They look so sweet!”
Rafa craned his neck to get a better view and was surprised to see the bride and groom were both elderly. They might have been nearing their twilight years, but they had the energy of teenagers awash in the heady newness of young love. They were surrounded by friends and family showering them in bubbles while a mariachi band serenaded them with Mi Linda Esposa .
As his family clapped along with the wedding guests and shared in the infectious happiness, Rafael gently took Jasper from Sky. She smiled with relief at the weight being transferred off her shoulder and rose on tiptoes to kiss his cheek.
At the last moment, he shifted and managed to sneak in a real kiss. She giggled as he claimed her mouth, and he relished the taste of her. She slipped her hand along his chest, stroking lovingly, and her smile promised a night neither would soon forget.
“I think Jasper will sleep through the night,” Sky said hopefully, moving closer so he could hear her over the music and raucous crowd. “His ears have been so much better, and we kept him busy today. He had a big dinner, too.”
“We can offer him a top-up bottle,” Rafael suggested and glanced around the small crowd gathered around them. “Like the pediatrician—.”
Something caught his eye. A glint of metal. A fast movement. Something that didn’t belong.
He instinctively reached for Sky, grasping her hip to push her behind him and turning to shield Jasper.
“Gun!” Someone shouted.
“GUN!”
“Get down!”
In a blur of activity, the security guards leapt into action. A gunshot cracked, and then another and another. Someone slammed into him—probably a guard—and he stumbled into a nearby vehicle. Sky clutched at his hip and leg, guiding him toward the ground where she crouched. He pressed Jasper into her hands and covered them both with his body, hoping his back would be enough to stop any stray bullets that came flying their way.
Screams died down, and the chaos faded. He lifted his head long enough to take in the scene. Lola and Camila were only a few feet away, both on their knees by an idling car and shielded by a security guard. Dina and his mother had been pushed back toward the restaurant entrance. Two guards were on them, forming a wall.
Police officers who must have been stationed nearby ran toward the scene. More sirens wailed in the distance. People were crying now, and Rafael tried to understand what was happening. Had the shooter targeted his family or the wedding?
“ Hijo de puta !” Beto’s angry voice broke through the panic. Spewing profanities, Beto straddled a man—the shooter—and beat him senseless. A handgun rested just out of reach, and police officers raced to secure it. Another officer tried to haul Beto off the shooter, but they weren’t strong enough to fight him.
“Rafa!” Sky shouted, her voice tinged with horror. “Rafa, the blood!”
“What?” He swung his attention back to his wife—and the color drained from his face. Blood coated her hands and stained Jasper’s outfit. Their nephew cried hysterically and pawed at Sky’s hair and neck. “Is he...? Where did he get hit?”
“No! It’s not Jasper!” Sky hurriedly handed Jasper to Lola, who had scrambled to join them. “It’s you, Rafa!” She pressed her hand to his chest, and he hissed in shock and pain. “You’ve been shot!”
“What?” He glanced down at her hand, watching the blood spurting from a wound in chest. “Oh.”
“We need an ambulance!” Sky screamed and pressed even harder against his injury. “We need help!”
“I’m fine,” he assured weakly. His thoughts were becoming a little fuzzy, and his heartbeat felt strange. “It’s fine. I’ll be fine.”
“Rafael!” Sky smeared his blood on his face as she cupped his jaw. “Just hold on! Hold on!”
“Here.” Beto skidded to a halt right next to them. He shucked his blazer and balled it up before pushing it onto the wound. “Hold on, brother. An ambulance is coming.”
Realizing he was in big trouble, Rafael snatched his brother’s hand, forcing him to make eye contact. “Take them back to the house. All of them. Lock them down.”
“I’ve got it handled,” Beto promised. “Don’t worry. Just stay calm.”
It was easier said than done, especially with a hole in his chest.
“Rafael.” Sky took hold of his other hand. She gripped it tightly and then kissed his forehead. “I love you.”
“I know.” He wanted to tell her something else, something important, but he was damned tired all of a sudden. “Just need...rest...eyes.”
“Rafa? Rafa!”
Sky’s panicked shouting was the last thing he heard.