58. Chapter 58
Rosalina
As soon as we made it out of the cellar, my father and Diego started making calls. I was at a loss. I needed to get to Nico, but we were trapped in this house, surrounded.
Diego saw my confusion. “Don’t worry, Rosa.
We got this. Lorenzo was overconfident. The island is criminally short-staffed.
” He chuckled at his own silly joke about criminals and motioned to the camera feed on his phone.
“There’s only the two guards at the gate.
No one else is here. Well, other than those poor omegas locked up in Rafael’s room. ”
My mouth dropped open. “What? Locked up?” I didn’t remember anything like that, but I was busy being knocked out and drooling on the tile most of the time that I’d been in there.
Maria bobbed around the kitchen as if there weren’t a basement full of dead bodies down the stairs right behind her. “There are plenty of guest rooms. I’ll take care of them until we can find somewhere safe for them to go.”
This was the life I didn’t want. I didn’t want to clean up dead bodies, or find homes for trafficked omegas, and sometimes nearly become both, but here I was.
I’d tried to run from it, but the harder I fought, the harder it was to leave.
Just like with Nico and his pack. There was no way out for someone like me.
My life began in blood, and it looked like it was going to end in blood at this rate.
Maybe this really was right where I belonged all along. If so, I had shit to do.
If Lorenzo was a double agent, Nico, Oliver, and Cruz were in danger. Nico needed to know what Lorenzo had said about his father, and that he was walking into a trap.
While Maria cooked, I hopped in the shower and threw on some clothes that were left in my mostly untouched room.
As I dragged the red tank top over my head, a flash caught my eye.
My cellphone sat on my bedside table, plugged in.
It was as if someone plugged it in on the off chance I’d come home and had then forgotten about it.
I unlocked it. There were a million missed calls and texts that I didn’t have time to sort through right now, but at the top of the list was a message from an unknown number from a short time ago.
Nico: Lena, baby. Are you okay?
My stomach tumbled over itself. He was checking on me, but what did I tell him? He’d never believe me if I tried to explain. He’d need to see the proof, so I typed out the only thing he needed to know right now.
Rosa: I’m coming.
Content with that, I tucked my phone into the back pocket of my jeans and rummaged through my untouched closet, grateful that it hadn’t been pillaged like the rest of the house.
At the bottom of a shoe rack I found a pair of sturdy boots, and for the first time in I don’t know how long, slipped into a pair of shoes that actually fit me.
With a sigh of relief, I hurried back into the kitchen just in time for Maria to set a plate of French toast in front of me. It was heaven.
I guessed this was my life now. Criminals, murder, and French toast.
My dad called in backup from wherever Lorenzo had sent them, and Diego had already dispatched the two guards at the gate. If they were willing to turn their backs on their loyalties, they had no place on this earth breathing our air. It was as simple as that.
I ate quickly, knowing I’d have to leave soon.
Maria understood and patted my hand. “Good luck, dear.”
I hopped out of my chair after swallowing my last bite and gave her a big hug. “I’ll be back soon, I promise.” At least I hoped I would.
We were going to have a long cry over Javier and everything else that had happened once I got back from wherever I was going.
First, I tracked down my father, who was pacing in his tacky, newly redecorated office.
When I came in, he wrapped up the call he’d been on and set his cell down.
“Rosa.” He’d changed into a new suit, and the stink of blood was gone, replaced with the cigar and whiskey scent I was used to, but his face was still mottled with bruises.
“Hey, um.” Fuck, why was this so awkward? “Were you actually having an affair with Mariposa Moreno?”
I might have imagined it, but a slight tinge of pink colored his cheeks. “It’s complicated.”
“There’s no time like the present, Dad,” I huffed. I needed to hear the truth before I talked to Nico. I needed as much ammo as I could get.
He glanced around, pulling up an ultra-modern, chrome desk chair and offered it to me before dragging the equally uncomfortable-looking chair from behind the glass desk and lowering himself into it with a groan.
“I met Mariposa in high school. We’d dated.
Everything seemed perfect, but then she went to college and met Francisco.
I met your mother, and the rest is history. ”
“The rest is not history. She wasn’t murdered because of a high school fling.” My eyes drilled into his. This was the first time I’d ever seen him nervous or evasive. He’d always been so naturally in control of everything around him. This was the first time that the facade slipped.
“That is true. We ran into one another at a function a couple of years after you were born. It was instant and became immediately obvious she was my scent-match then, but it was too late. She’d joined the Moreno pack, and I had you and your brother to think about.
We met a few times right after that, but decided that with our established relationships, there was too much risk.
I didn’t see her again until about a year ago.
Your mother was long gone, and any love she had for Francisco had been beaten out of her by then.
” His hand curled into white-knuckled fists.
“I should’ve gotten her out of there, but she wouldn’t leave her boys.
If she’d just broken her bond and come to me, I would have protected her.
” Tears shimmered in his red-rimmed eyes.
I’d never seen him like that before, not even when Mom left.
“But she would have lost her children.” My words were nearly a whisper, putting the pieces together.
“She would have, and that was something I understood. You are the most important thing in my life, Rosa. My love for you blinded me to so much. You are more capable than I ever dreamed you would be. I never wanted you to suffer, but you have, and it’s my fault.
” He stood from his chair and went to Lorenzo’s desk, rummaging through the filing cabinets.
“If you want it, I’m turning the whole operation over to you.
I was wrong to think you couldn’t do it.
I’ll be here to help you for as long as you need, but if you want to learn the business, we can make it happen. ”
New hope glittered in his eyes. He was offering me the one thing I’d never wanted. I’d run from this life every chance I could, but now that I understood what was possible. I could see the draw.
Bad people killing bad people for the right reason. Cruz saving trafficked omegas just because I asked. If I had control, I could do that. I could do anything I wanted. But first, I needed my pack.
“There’s something I need to do first. Can I borrow a couple of guns?”
“If you wait an hour, I can send alphas with you. Good men. You don’t need to go anywhere alone.” He picked up his phone to make another call.
“I do need to do this alone.” If I couldn’t do this on my own, I probably shouldn’t be running a crime family, either. The idea of it sent a thrill down my spine. Fuck, I was really gonna do this.
He pulled out the nine millimeter he had holstered on his hip and slid it across the desk toward me. “All right, I trust you. Anything else?”
“Yeah, a couple more things.”