“You can put the weapon down. I mean you no harm,” Diego says to Riku. “Why don’t you pull up a chair, and I’ll get you both a drink. I guess we need to have a conversation.”
I snort. “You think?”
A wry grin crosses his mouth. “Jesus, you remind me of your mother when you say that.” I feel myself grimace, and he rubs a hand across his jaw, wincing. “Yeah, I guess we have a lot to talk about.” He gets up and goes inside. Riku doesn’t put his gun away until he returns with two more beers in hand. “Come on, I won’t bite.”
He hands us each one, and Riku finally holsters his weapon. The cigar smoke drifts around us as he takes a couple of puffs while we find a seat.
“Are you Dragos Bucataru?” I ask him, not wanting to wait anymore.
“Yes, Jacinta, I am your father.”
Holy shit.I giggle hysterically at my very ownStar Warsmoment. Jax is going to be bummed he missed it.
“While Jacinta gets her brain under control, why don’t you explain to us how you ended up here?” Riku suggests. “You’ve obviously seen the news and know that you have kids, so why didn’t you come forward? What are you doing in South America when you could be living back in the US?”
Diego sighs. “I guess you know by now what kind of man my father really was.” He’s not asking a question that requires an answer, so neither of us speak, letting him continue on.
“As a kid, I idolized my father. He was everything I wanted to be when I grew up, and not having a mother, he was really my only parental figure. But by the time I was a teenager, I had started to realize the kind of man he truly was, and I was sixteen when I really learned how depraved he was. He started inviting me to his sex parties and offering me drugs. For a week or two, I indulged. I mean, what sixteen-year-old wouldn’t take a little advantage of a free opportunity to party? But then I invited Brad and Chuck to join me, and they both freaked out. It was their reactions that made me rethink what I felt about Dad.”
He stops to take a sip, avoiding our eyes like he’s worried he’ll find judgment if he looks at us. “After that, I tried to stay as far away as possible. I didn’t want to be involved with his illegal dealings. I spent all my time at the Summers’ place, but then he introduced me to Carmen. He told me she was an old friend of the family and asked me to show her around LA. It wasn’t long before I found myself head over heels in love with her, but I didn’t want her caught up in my father’s lifestyle, so I made plans for us to run away together. I was going to raid the vault and steal enough money for us to live off of until we could find jobs and establish new lives. I didn’t even tell Chuck and Brad, just made our excuses as to why we couldn’t visit Chuck out in Connecticut.”
“We know most of this,” I say harshly, wanting to get to the bit that’s still a mystery. I know he can’t understand the baggage connected to my mother’s memory, but hearing him talk about her—loving her, wanting a life with her—just makes me a bit… unsettled. I don’t want to think about what could have been, what my life could have been, if they had actually succeeded in his plan.
“And you know that Carmen wasn’t actually an old friend but one of my dad’s girls?”
“Yes, just tell us what happened when Julia shot you.”
“Well, Julia and Dad were waiting in the vault when I went down to steal from it. Dad and I were arguing when Julia grabbed a gun and aimed it at us. She made demands. She wanted my father to marry her and make her the heir to his fortune, but he just laughed in her face. Told her no two-bit whore was going to ever inherit his kingdom. It was the weirdest thing. I expected her to throw a tantrum or something like that, but she just… smiled and said ‘We’ll see,’ and pulled the trigger. I couldn’t believe she actually hit him because she was coked out of her head, but when he collapsed with the hole in the middle of his forehead, I turned and ran. I heard the gun fire again and felt a blinding pain in my back, strong enough to make me stumble and hit my head. I blacked out. When I came to, the vault was closed, and Julia was gone.”
“Okay, so what happened next?” I lean forward in my seat, finally getting the answers to one of the questions that has plagued me since we found only one body in the vault.
“There’s another way out of the vault, but it’s carefully hidden, and if you don’t know it’s there, you’ll never find it. It leads to a small tunnel into the back of the walk-in freezer. When I came to, I used this exit to leave. It was late at night, and there was no staff around, so I got in one of our cars and just drove. I had a bullet wound in my shoulder, and I needed it removed. My father’s connections spanned far and wide, so I made a call to the South American lawyers you met earlier this morning. They arranged for a private plane to pick me up at the Mexican border and transport me here, where I’ve lived ever since. They are the only people who know I’m alive.”
“That explains how shifty they were this morning,” Riku says, his beer sitting untouched because he won’t drink it. Instead, one hand is braced on his knee while the other stays close to where he tucked away his gun.
“I had no idea Carmen was pregnant, and I had no intention of returning to the States. She had betrayed me, and my father was dead. This was my way of getting a fresh start.”
“Why here?”
“When Pablo Escobar was shot in the early nineties, my father had taken over his substantial drug network, but unlike Pablo, who was flashy and indiscreet, my father was smarter. When he disappeared, gangs in the area tried to take a piece of that network. It started to become messy. I decided that being the Bucataru estate manager was a good cover, so I took over his business holdings here under that guise. I phased out the flesh business and scaled back the drugs, only dealing with supplying enough to keep all the cartels happy and off my back. We have a good arrangement. I’m not a good man, like Brad or Chuck, but I’m not filthy like my father was.”
“And that’s why you never came forward when the twins’ origins hit the newspapers. You’re protecting them.” Even though I think I have to agree with Riku, there’s still a little bit of skepticism within me.
“Yes. As far as I’m concerned, Dragos Bucataru died that day. You are the only living heirs to that fortune. I want nothing to do with any family legacy. Though I wouldn’t be opposed to getting to know you.” His voice lifts in hope as I think about everything he told us.
“I can’t keep this a secret from my family. Jax deserves to know,” I tell him flatly, not entirely sure how I feel about all of this.
“I understand. I trust Brad, and I’m sure his children are just as trustworthy. But if we could keep it a family secret, not breaking this outside the Summers, I’d appreciate it. I wouldn’t want any of my enemies in South America getting wind of you being my child.”
I stand up. “Yeah, look, I’ve got a lot to think about. Thank you for being honest with me.” Without a backward glance, I head back up to the main house. I hear Riku and Diego murmuring to each other before Riku hurries to catch up to me. He wraps a comforting arm around my shoulders.
“Want to talk about it?” he asks, and I shake my head.
“Not at the moment.”
“Okay, but we’re here if you need us. Remember, getting it out is a good way to keep it from festering and turning into some kind of poison. The negative feelings will gain power if you let them, and we will support whatever you need to do to take care of yourself.”
“I think I’m going to go to a meeting and call my therapist,” I tell him as we get back to the house. Dolce leaves the little bed someone has put out for her and comes running up to me, so I scoop her up in my arms. The guys are nowhere to be seen, and I appreciate them giving me space for the moment. “Just give me until lunchtime, then come find me. I’ll be okay, I promise.”
