Chapter 18 Omar
Omar
“You look like you were hit by a truck, hermano,” I said, leaning against the doorframe of Angel’s hospital room.
Emma turned, though she didn’t let go of Angel’s hand, and a smile bloomed on her face. “Omar! You’re home!”
“How are you feeling?” I asked her.
She looked back at Angel, and her smile became blinding. “I’m fine,” she said. Her words were more for Angel than me, but I didn’t mind.
When my older brother first fell in love with Emma, it was comical to watch him, but uncomfortable too.
Angel Castillo was not a romantic soul. He was violent and cold, and the only ones who ever saw his warmth were Lili, Manny, and me.
My father had molded him into the perfect heir.
Falling in love shouldn’t have been possible.
But here he was, staring at Emma like she hung the moon and stars in the sky. He would hand her the beating heart from his chest if she asked for it. I didn’t get it before. I couldn’t imagine allowing anyone to have that power over me.
Thinking about the possibility of Lyse ever smiling at me like that, though, made my heart flip-flop in my chest. I’d never thought myself capable of love before, and I wasn’t sure if that was what I was feeling now, but Lyse was mine.
I wasn’t going to just give her up. Maybe that was how love started.
I sat down in the empty chair beside Emma, and my sister-in-law leaned into my shoulder for a moment in greeting. “You took on the entire Rojas family?” Angel asked. “By yourself?”
There was no point in lying about it. I wasn’t ashamed. “I would do it again,” I said. “Trust that.”
Angel glared at me, but there was a smile hidden in the corner of his mouth.
He might have to reprimand me for being brash, but my older brother wasn’t upset that so many of the Rojas family were dead.
“I know you would,” he said, “but I need you to be smarter in the future. If something happens to me—”
Emma smacked his arm lightly, but the sound still echoed in the quiet room. “Don’t talk like that,” she reprimanded.
His expression softened. “Lo siento, mi esposa.” He brought her hand up to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “I do need to speak to Omar. Do you want to wait outside?”
She glared at him. “I would not.” She laced their fingers together and settled back into her chair. “You both talk. I’ll stay out of it.” When they were first married, Angel would have insisted that she leave. He didn’t trust her around their business, but now, she was truly the queen to his king.
“You can lecture me,” I said, “but I’m not going to apologize.”
“I don’t want an apology,” Angel said. “I want you to use your head. We’ll take care of the Rojas family in due time. They’re all snakes; we’ll have another opportunity. You know they turned on Padre, right? They killed him after I lost consciousness.”
My muscles tensed. “The Rojas men turned on Padre?”
Angel’s eyes met mine. “Someone put a pillow over his face,” he said. “Who else would do that but the men who attacked me? If Padre and I were dead, and they could arrest you for your idiocy, then the Castillos would be no more.”
“Gee, thanks.” I turned to see Lili in the doorway. “You don’t have any confidence that I could keep things together?”
Angel didn’t look apologetic. “Temporarily? You did an amazing job, Mija,” he said. “But in the long run?” He frowned. “How were the Tíos?”
“Pains in the ass,” I answered before Lili could downplay their behavior or outright lie. “They wanted her to step aside and let someone else take the lead.”
Angel’s jaw clenched, and Emma patted his arm. “They didn’t do anything, love,” she assured him. “They made a lot of noise until Lili threatened to shoot them. That’s all.”
“They need another lesson in manners,” he grumbled.
I chuckled. “You can’t keep killing our Tíos, hermano. There won’t be any left.”
Angel made a noise like he couldn’t care less about that, but before he could say anything, a nurse came in squawking about the end of visitors’ hours.
Emma gave her a flat glare when she insisted that everyone in the room leave.
“We can call security,” the nurse said and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Try it,” Emma snarled. Pregnancy and nearly losing Angel had made her savage. It wasn’t a bad look on her. Lyse is like that, my mind whispered to me, and I did my best to shove the thought away. Now wasn’t the time: Angel might not be able to read minds, but he was incredible at reading people.
“She stays, Margie,” Angel said. “She won’t sleep if she’s forced to go, and I need my girl strong.” His eyes shifted to Emma and dipped down to the swell of her belly.
The nurse threw up her hands. “Fine,” she declared, “but no one else, understand?”
Angel nodded. “Perfectly.” The nurse looked at him, suspicious, before she left the room. We had maybe five minutes before she returned to see if we were gone. “We’ll get our revenge on the Rojas,” he promised. “Just stay away from them for now. We don’t want to invite any more scrutiny, yes?”
I nodded, although I had no intention of staying away from Luis Rojas.
If Angel found out about my meeting, I would face a punishment later, but I had taken many such punishments over the years from our father.
Physical pain would be worth the trade-off for revenge; I was built and trained to withstand it, after all.
“Sleep well, hermano,” I said.
Lili repeated the sentiment. “I’ll take care of this idiota,” she promised and patted me on the shoulder. She kept a hold of me until we were out of the hospital completely, like she was afraid that I would disappear in front of her. “Coming home to sleep?” she asked.
Sleeping in my own room, in my own bed, sounded amazing…and it wasn’t like Lyse was going anywhere, right? I could cancel my meeting with Felix and Luis and wait like Angel thought we should.
But I had promised Lyse that I would be back before sunrise, and I didn’t relish breaking that promise. She had looked so hopeless at the idea of being left behind.
“I think I’m going to check on a few things,” I told her. “I haven’t done my rounds in almost two weeks.”
Lili rolled her eyes. “You can’t wait until tomorrow? I haven’t seen you in two weeks either.”
Damnit, Lili. “You need to rest, Mija,” I said. “You haven’t been sleeping well. Go home and get some rest. There will be plenty of time for us to hang out.”
She eyed me. “You’re going to meet a woman, aren’t you?”
“What? No!”
“You don’t have to be so touchy,” Lili teased. “If you want to go see one of your zorras, who am I to stop you?”
I held back the insult that had jumped to the front of my mouth.
It wasn’t unusual for Lili to be derisive about the women that I had previously chosen to share my company with…
but Lyse wasn’t like that. Lyse was somehow sweet and timid and fierce all at once; she was a brilliant artist. She was beautiful for so many reasons, and she didn’t deserve to be thought of as anything less.
She doesn’t know Lyse, I reminded myself.
No one in my family could know Lyse…at least not until I figured out how to tell them in a way that wouldn’t get her killed.
“Gracias, Mija,” I said through my teeth.
She glowered at me, and we parted ways. As I left the hospital, I checked the location for my meeting with Felix and Luis Rojas again. It was in a downtown high-rise, probably Felix’s office. Though it was well out of the way of either Rojas or Castillo territory, it still felt like a risk.
But, as it was nearly eight o’clock already, it would be difficult to demand a location change now. They would assume that I was planning an ambush, and as much as I wanted to put my fist through Luis Rojas’s chest, Angel had been right. I needed to use my head.
I couldn’t jump to violence, no matter how much I might want to.
I had seen Luis Rojas more than a few times over the years. As Padre’s, and now Angel’s, enforcer, I was expected to accompany them to most meetings. I wasn’t expected to speak or even listen, really; I was there to be the muscle, and I was very good at my job.
The older man stared at me like I was the Devil, and it made me smile, sharp and ugly. I wanted this man to be afraid of me. I wanted him to know that I would be his demise for what he’d done to my brother…and for what he’d done to Lyse.
His son, Matteo, sat at his side. I hadn’t seen him the night I attacked Lyse’s engagement party; he must have gotten Luis out of the ballroom while I was distracted killing as many of the Rojas as I could.
He had changed from the last time I’d seen him: he’d built up some muscle, and his face was arranged into a somewhat neutral expression but I could see the anger in his eyes.
Lyse said that he was in training, and it showed.
Felix Suarez, on Luis’s other side, seemed to be the only calm one, which was surprising for a man whose fiancée was being held hostage.
“Senor Castillo,” Luis greeted me with a snarl. “I hear that your brother is going to make a full recovery.”
Someone at the hospital talked. They’ll be dealt with, I promised as I tried to shake off the red haze that threatened to seep across my vision. “Angel is stronger than a couple of your Rojas lackeys.”
Luis puffed up like a toad, but Felix reached out and put a hand on the man’s shoulder.
I watched in utter fascination when the man calmed.
“You called me here, Castillo,” he ground out, obviously biting back whatever he wanted to say.
“What more could you possibly want? Felix has erased your crimes with the police. Your brother is alive, and the one responsible is dead from what I understand.”
“I’m not satisfied.”
“You're a free man after committing a public slaughter. I ask again: what more satisfaction could you want?”
I rolled my shoulders, making the nearly-healed injury pull slightly. “We want territory,” I said. “I have plans to build another club, and I want it near Elíseo, but the location is within your borders.”
“You want to exchange my sister for our most profitable piece of real estate,” Matteo gritted out. “El hijo de puta.”