Victor gave a curt nod and followed Warren out. Esteban watched them leave, not sure what was going on, but he knew he had to tell MaMaLu. He had never seen Warren look so worn and dejected.
Esteban waited until the house was quiet before coming out of his hiding spot. It was dark by the time he made it back to the staff wing. As he approached, he saw Victor exit their room. Esteban ducked behind a tree as he walked by. Victor had not been back since MaMaLu had turned him down. Something was going on and Esteban did not like it. He waited for MaMaLu, but fell asleep before she got in.
She drew the covers over him and kissed his cheek. Her heart pulled when she realized he’d probably gone to sleep hungry. “Mi chiquito.MiEstebandido.”
MaMaLu set the alarm early. She was going to make him a big breakfast. Pan de yema, a soft sugarcoated bread made with lots of egg yolk, dipped in a bowl of thick, cinnamon-infused hot chocolate.
But Esteban never got his breakfast. He woke up to the harsh glare of flashlights in his face. It was the middle of the night, and the room was full of men in dark clothes.
“Esteban!” He heard MaMaLu yelling, but he was blinded.
“MaMaLu.” He stumbled after her voice, but they were dragging her away.
Someone grabbed him by the scruff of his neck. Esteban struggled to free himself, but all he could do was watch as they put her in a car and drove away.
“You’re coming with me.” It was Victor.
“Where are they taking MaMaLu?” Esteban shrugged out of his grasp and glared at him.
“If you want to see her again, you’ll do as I say.Entiendes?”
Esteban nodded. He knew this had something to do with what had happened that afternoon, so he followed Victor into the other car.
“I’m taking you to your uncle, Fernando. You’re to stay there until the situation with MaMaLu is resolved.”
“What situation?” Esteban shivered in his nightclothes as they drove past dense, dark trees to Paza del Mar. He’d left his shoes behind.
Victor did not answer.
When they got to Fernando’s, Victor instructed Esteban to wait outside. Esteban could hear the two men talking. Fernando staggered out. He smelled of piss and cheap liquor.
“Look at what Señor Sedgewick gave me to look after you.” He had a stack of cash in his hands. “Come, my little jackpot. Come hug yourtío.”
Esteban walked past him. He hated everything about Fernando’s place—the dankness, the cold cement floors, the memories of him and MaMaLu cowering in their room. Why had Warren sent him here?
“Where’s MaMaLu?” he asked Victor.
“Your mother should have accepted my proposal, but she didn’t think I was good enough for her. And now she’s exactly where she deserves to be, with no one to protect her.” His smile gave Esteban the chills.
“Tell me where she is!” Esteban shouted after him as he drove off.
“Shut your mouth.” Fernando put his hands to his ears, nursing his perpetual hangover. He folded up the wad of cash Victor had given him and started heading out. “Go to sleep. Your mother has been taken to Valdemoros and there’s nothing you or I can do about it.”
Valdemoros.
Esteban was horrified. Valdemoros was a women’s prison, a few miles north of Paza del Mar. Esteban had no idea why they’d taken her there or how long it would be before she got out. He opened the door to the spare bedroom and sank into bed. The mattress was thin and the sheets were foul. He doubted if Fernando had washed them since he and MaMaLu had left for Casa Paloma. MaMaLu’s new job had seemed like a blessing at the time, but now Esteban felt like it had been the start of a disaster neither of them had seen coming.
VALDEMOROS WAS AN ENDLESS CONCRETE wall, topped by rolls of razor wire and punctuated by sentry towers. In the center was a heavy metal gate that opened to let armored cars in and out of the facility. At the far end was an adjoining structure—a sad, diminutive visitors’ entrance. It looked like a misplaced wheelbarrow trailing a giant gray train.
Esteban felt small and helpless as he stood in the shadow of the ominous wall. Correctional officers with sniper rifles manned the towers. At the main gate, armed guards patrolled the windowless barricade. MaMaLu was somewhere behind this impenetrable front and Esteban had to find a way to get her.
Esteban stood in a long line at the visitors’ gate. The guard overlooked him several times when it was his turn.
“Excuse me,” said Esteban, after he’d let yet another man through, “I’m here to see my mother.”
But the guard pretended not to hear him. Esteban spent the whole day getting shuffled around, but he wouldn’t give up. When the guards changed, his hopes soared, but the next one ignored him too.
“Here.” A man who’d been waiting there almost as long as him gave him a paper cone filled with roasted peanuts. “They don’t let you in unless you pay them.”
