Chapter 30 Omar
Omar
Iknew we’d left the house way too easily. Lili stood in the doorway; she looked angrier than I had ever seen her. “I didn’t know that you were home,” I said.
Lili let out a bitter laugh and then launched herself at me.
She socked me in the gut, igniting all of my other bruises so that my whole body throbbed.
Vaguely I heard the car door open, and then Lili was being wrenched away from me.
“Get off!” Lyse cried, putting herself between me and my sister.
Lili looked ready to slap her, but Lyse held her ground.
“You don’t get to hit him,” she said firmly, calm now that she wasn’t actively trying to fight off a raging Lili.
“You can’t go,” Lili said, ignoring Lyse. “Angel is recovering; he needs you now more than ever!”
“Angel gave us twenty-four hours to clear out.”
She shook her head, clearly shocked. “No, that can’t be right. Why would he want you to leave? He needs protection! He needs—” She looked at Lyse again. “Who are you? Why are you here?”
“Lyse Rojas,” she introduced herself. “I think you know my brother Matteo.”
There was something flat in her tone that made my stomach drop. I stared at Lili. “Mija?”
Lili blinked rapidly, shaking her head almost violently. “I don’t know a thing about Matteo.”
Lyse lifted her shoulder. “I guess that was my mistake.”
What in the hell was that? “Does someone want to tell me what’s going on?”
Lyse studied my sister for a long moment and then shook her head. “It’s nothing.” She nudged me toward the car. “We need to go.”
Lili watched us for a second before she seemed to remember that she was trying to stop me. “Wait! You can’t!”
“Angel doesn’t want us here,” I told her. “I’m not going to wait around and test if he’s going to actually shoot me or not.”
“If you go, you’re leaving him vulnerable. The Tíos were already trying to make moves. And what about Luis Rojas? If Angel looks weak, they’ll all move in on him.” Tears gathered along her lash line.
While she wasn’t wrong, Angel had a fleet of security guards who were loyal to him. They would move Heaven and Hell if he ordered them to do so. “He’s going to be fine,” I said. “He came out of a two-week coma, and he’s back at the helm like nothing happened.”
“But it’s not like nothing’s happened,” Lili insisted. “You haven’t been here; you haven’t heard the way the guards talk.”
It’s not my business anymore, I thought, even as I started compiling a list of the guards that needed to be interrogated and weeded out.
I sighed and put my hand on Lili’s shoulder.
“Get rid of the ones that you’re worried about,” I said.
“Look after Angel even if he tells you that he doesn’t need you to. ”
Her eyes were round. “Are you asking me to be his enforcer?”
I shrugged. “I’m asking you to do what I can’t.” I gestured for Lyse to get back in the SUV, and she did, eyes never leaving Lili. “I’ll try and call you soon to let you know where we are.”
The light seemed to switch off in her eyes. “You won’t,” she insisted. “If you leave, I’ll never hear from you again.”
I hugged her. “You will,” I insisted. “I promise that you will.”
Then I let her go and climbed behind the wheel of the SUV.
This time she didn’t interrupt as I turned the car on and made a beeline for the security gate.
I made the mistake of looking back as we went through the gate: Lili was crumpled on her knees, obviously crying.
The image would forever be burned into my brain.
Once we were on the road, Lyse looked at me. “Where are we going? Your brother said to get out of Miami, but what does that mean? Are we returning to the island?”
“No, we can’t. Angel owns that island; he did even before he took over for my father.” I drummed my hands on the wheel, racking my brain for an idea of where I could take her. “When you were little, where did you always want to go but never got to for one reason or another?”
Lyse thought about it for a minute. “New York City,” she said finally.
New York. The Vitalis were in New York. Lorenzo didn’t particularly like me…but he didn’t really care for Angel either. I could call in a favor. “Why there?”
“When I was younger, I wanted to go see the Statue of Liberty, you know? Do touristy things with my family, but Apá didn’t like traveling with us. When I got older, I wanted to go because of the museums and the theater district. I thought I might go to school for something artistic.”
She can do that now. I took out my phone and scrolled to the end of my contact list. In two rings, there was a gruff, “What?”
“Nice to hear your voice too, Elio.”
Lorenzo Vitali’s younger cousin and his enforcer, scoffed. “Shouldn’t all calls from the Castillos go to my cousin, Lorenzo?”
My stomach pitted. “If I were calling as Omar Castillo, you would be right,” I said. “But right now, I’m just Omar.”
There was a pause. Then, “And you’re coming to the Cosa Nostra for…help?”
“Yes.”
Elio let out a muttered curse. “You know there will be strings.”
“I’m aware, but I have to leave Miami. Now. Is New York safe?”
It wasn’t a fair question to ask Elio; I should have contacted Lorenzo, or at the very least, his vicecapo, Damian.
But Elio understood me more than either of them.
He and I were both the nightmares behind the scenes: we were the bogeymen.
“Yes,” Elio said eventually. “Send us the information for your arrival. I’ll get you set up. ”
“Gracias, Elio.” I hung up and took Lyse’s hand and brought it up to my mouth, brushing her knuckles with my lips. “New York, it is.”
Lyse smiled at me, beaming and beautiful. It was the kind of smile that a man would do anything for. “Look at flights to New York,” I said, handing her my phone. “If there isn’t one that leaves soon that we can get tickets for, look at Amtrak.”
She nodded and spent the next few minutes scanning on my phone. “There aren’t any flights until tomorrow,” she said, “but we could leave on the train in an hour.”
I started mapping our way to the Amtrak station and turned down the next street: we were headed in the wrong direction. It took thirty minutes to reach the station. We were cutting it close.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” Lyse said as we wove our way through the crowd to stand in the line at the ticketing office. “Are we really doing this? Starting over?”
I nodded, and a part of me was just as stunned and excited as she was.
Lyse wasn’t the only one who had thought about what it would be like away from the cartels.
I had plenty of good memories of my life, but there were four times as many memories that were filled with violence and pain. My father had made sure of that.
But what if Lili was right? Angel was more vulnerable right now. It would take months for him to recover, and who knew what would happen in that time? No one would stand against him if I was there at his back…but without me, who would Angel turn to? Who was most loyal? Manny?
The thought of my fifteen-year-old cousin becoming Angel’s enforcer was as nauseating as it was laughable.
Lili would be a better choice…not that Angel would ever allow that to happen.
He, like Padre, wanted Lili to train and be able to protect herself in an emergency, but he’d never actually allow her to put herself in danger.
Lyse was rocking on her heels at my side, trying to calm herself down, and I rested my hand at the small of her back, letting her lean against me.
It felt good to be with her like this, like we were a regular couple on a regular vacation.
It was how life should have been for us…
how it would be once we were in New York.
My stomach cramped at the idea. Life with Lyse will be good, I told myself. We could get to know one another for real and not worry about anyone trying to kill us. I could get a regular job: a bouncer, maybe. I had experience with that.
The longer we stood in the line, however, the more time I had to consider Lili’s words.
When the people in front of us finally moved, I walked to the counter, ready to ask for two tickets…
but I couldn’t make myself say the word “two.” Instead, with a glance at Lyse, I said, “One one-way ticket to New York City, please.”
“Omar?” Lyse said, squeezing my forearm.
The woman keyed in the request, and I paid for it with a swipe of my credit card. Angel could track the card if he wanted, but I didn’t think he’d want to.
Lyse blinked down at the single ticket, dragging me out of earshot of the other passengers. “What’s going on?”
It was hard to look at her. “I can’t go with you.”
“But…Angel threw you out! You can’t stay here. He’ll kill you!”
I shook my head. “I don’t think he will.”
Lyse was pissed; I didn’t blame her. She shoved at me, little jabs with her fingers that actually hurt…not that I would ever admit that out loud. “You’re leaving me in the hope that your brother doesn’t spread your limbs all over the damn Everglades? ?Estás hablando en serio?”
“Look, Lili was right. If Angel is left vulnerable, there’s a good chance that he’s going to be taken down. If not by one of my Tíos, then another cartel in a push for our territory. I can’t let that happen. Not after he’s worked so damn hard and survived a two-week coma.”
She looked like she wanted to swing at me again. “He kicked you out; he said you weren’t a Castillo anymore. You picked me. Why would you turn back now?”
I cupped her face in my hands, and even as mad as she was, Lyse didn’t pull away. She grabbed my arms. “If I leave my brother alone, I’m not the man that I thought I was,” I said. “I wouldn’t be the kind of man who deserves you.”
Tears trickled from her eyes, wetting my fingers. “What’s the point of deserving me if you’re not going to be with me?”
“Because I plan to be with you,” I said. “Angel won’t need me forever. He’s going to recover.”
“That’ll take months. Years, maybe, until he’s returned to full strength.” The silent if he ever is lay between us. “If I get on that train, I’m never going to see you again.”
I pressed my mouth against hers, trying to bury myself in the softness of her lips so that the twisting and tugging as my heart wrenched in my chest didn’t overwhelm me.
“I will see you again one day,” I said and pressed the ticket and credit card into her hand.
“Until then, enjoy your freedom. Go to art school. See the museums.” I let her go, rubbing absently at my chest; it ached, but I knew it wasn’t the kind of pain that I could take medicine for.
“I have…friends in New York. By the time you get there, I will have someone waiting for you at the platform. They’ll help you get situated, keep an eye on you for me. ”
Lyse looped her arms around my neck, keeping me close. “If you get yourself killed, I am going to kick your ass.”
“My conejita has claws,” I murmured against her hair. Checking the time, I reluctantly drew back. “You need to go, or you’ll miss your train.”
Lyse glared at me, resentful, but she did what I asked: she headed for the terminal with her shoulders straight and her head held high.
God, but I love her, I thought. I would find a way back to her when the time was right.
Until then, I would do whatever I had to do to earn Angel’s trust again.
I would do anything to keep my brother safe.
They had a viewing window in the station, and I watched Lyse cross the platform and board the train. It hurt watching her go, but it would keep her safe. That was what mattered. A few minutes later, the train pulled out, and Lyse was on her way to New York City.
I pulled out my phone and called Lili. “What?” She sounded absolutely miserable.
“I just put Lyse on a train,” I said. “I’m headed home.”
“Really? You’re not going to leave?”
I sighed and started for the parking lot. “Where else am I going, Mija? I’m a Castillo, through and through, even if our older brother is cabezón.”
She laughed wetly. “I think that’s a family trait.”
“You’re probably right.” I gave it a breath. “Want to tell me about Matteo Rojas?”
“Not for all the money in the world, idiota.”