Chapter 26
Omar
THWACK!
The wooden siding of the dry dock exploded into splinters, and I hit the ground, falling back inside the door. Whoever was shooting at me had missed and blown their cover. Too bad for them, I thought, and a cruel smile worked its way onto my face.
This was just the sort of thing I needed today. Someone to tear apart with my bare fucking hands.
I reached inside the dry dock and grabbed a large steel wrench that was on the workbench, wishing I had time to open one of those crates stacked to the side.
When I peeked out the door, I saw two men.
One had a gun plain in his hand, the other did not.
Pendejo. They weren’t my brother’s men. Angel had yet to see to his promise to send men after me, though I doubted he would be sending anyone to shoot me.
So that meant they were sent by Luis Rojas.
Using the doorframe as cover, I aimed at the gun-wielding lackey first and let the wrench fly.
It struck him in the forehead and he sprawled on the ground.
Before the other had time to react, I burst through the door and tackled him to the ground.
I grabbed the wrench from where it had fallen and brought it down again and again until the man’s face was unrecognizable, and my face and chest were spattered with blood and other viscera.
I picked up the dropped handgun. If there were these two, there would likely be more.
I stood, and on the beach, farther away than I would like, was a man who had a gun trained on Lyse.
I raised the gun in my hand, aiming, and while I could hit a target at this distance, I couldn’t risk hitting Lyse.
Instead, I bellowed and started running. The man jerked at the sound, and Lyse sprang immediately, tackling him around the middle, knocking him off his feet. My girl is so damn clever, I thought. My chest swelled with pride.
I hit the sand, and it slowed me down. Goddamn it. Lyse grappled with the man for his gun, but he rolled them, getting the upper hand. He attempted to hit her with the butt of the gun. He didn’t get a chance before I was on him.
“You think you can touch her, fucker?” I spat, dragging him back and throwing him down. He tried to raise the gun against me, but I put my knee into his forearm and rained my fists down on him. “Did Luis send you?” I demanded, and all I received as a response was gurgles.
He went limp, and with the amount of damage to his face, I assumed he was dead.
I looked at Lyse, who was lying on the sand, panting.
I looked down at the body I was kneeling on.
He didn’t stir; his face looked concave.
I got off of him and went to her, helping her to her feet.
There was a small cut on her cheek. It was enough to make me want to kick the bastard again. “Your cousin?” I asked.
She nodded, looking at him. “Jesus.”
I sighed. “I keep killing your cousins, conejita.” I wondered if I should start apologizing.
“He was going to kill me and blame it on your brother,” she said. “He deserved what he—” Lyse let out a scream and pushed me as hard as she could at the same time as I heard the booming explosion of a gun going off. I hit the sand with Lyse on top of me.
Jesus wasn’t quite as dead as I thought…but he was a shit-poor shot. Jesus tried to aim the gun again, but he collapsed back onto the sand. Lyse was trembling on top of me. “It’s okay, conejita.”
She shook her head and pointed. I followed the direction of her arm and froze.
Helena was standing farther up on the beach, clutching her shoulder.
Bright red was gushing down her arm and dripping into the sand.
“Mierda!” I scrambled to get up, and I pulled Lyse with me.
I needed to deal with Jesus…but I couldn’t abandon Helena.
I looked down at the bloody mess of the man and took his gun. I popped the clip and emptied it before tucking the gun into my pocket. “Helena,” I called to the woman, practically dragging Lyse up the beach.
“Is he dead, jefe?” Her teeth were chattering together. She was going into shock. Shit.
“Dead,” I said, “or mangled beyond all recognition. His own family won’t know him.” We reached Helena, and I saw immediately that the bullet had ripped a hole in her shoulder, but at the very least, she had both an entry and an exit wound. No exploratory surgery in the kitchen this time.
“Come on,” I said. “I’ll show you how—”
“Omar!”
Lyse was pointing. Somehow, Jesus had gotten into his boat and was currently taking it out into the deep water. Mierda. “Go after him,” Helena panted as she clutched her arm. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine,” Lyse said. Her voice bordered on shrill. At this rate, both women were going to go into shock.
“She’s right,” I said. “We need to take care of you. I’ll take care of him later. He’s not likely to get far in the condition he’s in…he may even die before he gets back to whatever boat he launched the dinghy from.” It was a vow to them both.
“Do you think there’s more of them?” Lyse sounded horrified.
“I took care of two others already by the dry dock.” I didn’t want to imagine what would happen if the Rojas knew we had all those guns here.
I picked Helena up in a bridal carry, and we started for the house.
“If there’s any more, they won’t come here until they’ve regrouped and replanned.
” I glanced at Lyse. “Your father’s men are vastly underprepared. Who trains them?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Matteo has a private tutor who takes him to the range, but I’m not sure if the others are given the same opportunity.”
“I’m going to say no.” Typical shitty leader, I thought. Padre, at the very least, insisted that the men be trained. When I hit a certain number of kills — though I wasn’t sure what that magic number was — Padre had made it my responsibility to make sure the men were in fighting shape.
If Matteo was still being trained himself, it meant he wasn’t in a position to teach anyone else yet. So, what, Luis was just hoping that his men trained enough on their own without any support?
“The first aid kit is back in the pantry,” I told Lyse. “Grab it for us.”
She looked almost relieved to have something to do, and she ran to fetch the kit. Helena was pale, but her eyes were bright and clear. She smiled at me. “This is the first time that we’ll be doing this in reverse,” she said.
I hummed. “It better be the last time.”
She raised her eyebrow at me. “I think I’ve said something like that to you before, mijo. It never quite seems to work that way.”
“Yes,” I said, “but it’s my job. It’s yours to stay in the house when bad things are happening. Safe, away from the danger.”
“I saw that man point his gun at Lyse. I couldn’t let him hurt her.”
“And what, pray tell, could you do about a man with a gun?”
She brought a knife from her pocket. It still had the guard on it. “I was going to sneak up behind him if I could.”
I wanted to hug the woman, but I didn’t dare for fear of hurting her shoulder. “You’re very brave.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Just bandage me and get me one of your good pills. I want to sleep for the next decade.”
Lyse returned, and I had her help me gently lift the sleeve of Helena’s blouse out of the way so that we could get a look at the wound.
Like I’d suspected outside, it was a through and through, but the flesh was red and torn.
“If I stitch this, it’s going to be ugly.
” I sighed. “I should have Efrain take you to a hospital.”
Helena shook her head. “Just close it,” she said. “I’m fine.”
“It could get infected,” Lyse argued.
For once, Helena gave her a look that wasn’t entirely friendly. “I don’t want to argue with either of you. Get it closed and let me go to bed.”
“Okay,” I gave in.
Lyse opened the kit. “Let me,” she said. “I’m good with traditional stitches.” She looked at the wound with distaste. “This is too much for liquid stitches or Steri-Strips.”
I was hoping to avoid that, but she was right. I distracted Helena while Lyse worked the medical-grade thread through her skin with the hooked needle. For her part, Helena took the pain like a champ: she gritted her teeth through most of it.
“Done,” Lyse said, and her voice sounded faraway, like she was barely holding on to reality.
I took the gauze from her. “I’ll do the rest,” I said and wrapped Helena’s shoulder as quickly as I could without jostling her. Lyse was going to have a breakdown here soon, and I couldn’t handle the both of them at once.
When Helena was bandaged, I dug an unlabeled, orange prescription bottle out of the cupboard near the sink and produced two white pills. “What is this?”
“You asked for the good stuff,” I said. “These are the best I have.”
She eyed them, as if they were going to jump up and bite her somehow. “I’ll sleep?”
I let out a laugh. It was creaky and full of rust, but it was a laugh all the same. “We’ll wake you up for dinner tomorrow.” She tossed both pills into her mouth and swallowed them dry.
“?Ay!” I couldn’t help but be impressed. I wouldn’t have been able to do that.
“I want to go to bed,” she said. “The faster they get in my system, the faster I’ll sleep.”
“Do you need help to get to your room?” I let her hold onto me as she climbed off the counter, and I kept holding onto her while she steadied her feet under her.
“No.” She glanced at Lyse, who was staring at nothing, and her hands were shaking the tiniest bit. It would get worse. “Help her. She seems worse off than me.”
“I’m fine,” Lyse argued, but her voice was small and distant.
“I’ll take good care of her. I promise.”
Helena snorted. “Considering all the work I put in so that she wouldn’t leave your stupid ass, you better.”
I kissed her cheek. It was a surprisingly soft gesture between us, and she blinked at me, owlish. “Thank you for convincing her that I wasn’t a total loss.”
Lyse huffed, indignant. “I’ll be the judge of whether or not her little pep talk worked, won’t I?”