Every time the door opened, my heart jumped. When my phone rang just after lunch and Lucas’s name lit up the screen, my stomach dropped straight through the floor.
“Marisol,” he whispered. “They followed the SUV. They know I’m being watched. They said they’ll hurt you if I don’t finish the job.”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know what to do.”
My hand shook as I pulled up his location on my phone. He was by a park on the outskirts of town. “Stay put, Lucas. I’m coming.”
I called Caleb as I ran for the exit.
“I know,” he said before I could speak. “Lone Star is sending a unit to you now. Do not leave the hospital.”
“I’m not waiting.”
“You are if you want to see your brother alive.”
I skidded to a stop just as a black SUV pulled up to the ambulance bay.
A man stepped out and flashed a badge. “Marisol Vega. You’re with us.”
I arrived to find my brother standing on the shoulder of the road, his face pale and drawn, his eyes wide with fear. Two Lone Star vehicles had blocked the sedan before it could reach him.
Caleb was already there and had one of the guys by the collar. He held him there, his boots planted in the gravel, his teeth clenched so hard a muscle jumped along his jaw. His hands shook with restraint, the kind that came from a man who knew exactly how much damage he could do. He leaned in close and whispered something I couldn’t hear. But the other man’s face went white.
“You picked the wrong family,” Caleb said, his voice low and lethal. “And you just ran out of warnings.”
The man swallowed hard.
I felt it then… the fear… the safety… the heat that curled low in my stomach at the sight of him standing between us and the world.
Caleb released the guy with a shove and turned toward me. His eyes found mine. They were dark and dangerous, but I wasn’t scared of him. I nodded my thanks and ran to Lucas.
He broke the second he saw me. “I didn’t want them to use you. I tried to quit. I swear I tried.”
I held him while he shook, his arms wrapped tight around me like he was afraid I might disappear. Behind us, Caleb was already on the phone, issuing calm, clipped instructions that carried the weight of command.
When he finished, he looked at me. “We’re moving him tonight. He needs to be in a secure location. No more chances.”
I nodded because I didn’t know what else to do. There was no way out except to do what Caleb said. In a world where I couldn’t count on another living soul, I trusted him.
Back at the house, Lucas was locked in his room with Lone Star posted outside. The sight of armed men on my porch made my chest ache. It made everything feel too big, too dangerous, too far beyond the life I’d been trying to build for us.
I sat on the couch and stared at the wall. That was when my body finally caught up with everything that had happened.
I cried until my chest hurt. I cried for the boy I helped raise. I cried for the choices he never should have had to make. I cried for the life I was trying to hold together with sheer will.
“I can’t keep him safe,” I said. “I’m failing him.”
Caleb sat down next to me, close enough that our thighs touched. I could feel the warmth of his body through his jeans.
“You’re the only reason he’s still alive,” he said.
I turned toward him, my heart pounding.
He lifted a hand and brushed a tear from my cheek, his thumb lingering just a second longer than necessary. “You’re not weak,” he said. “You’re so brave, Marisol. You’ve been carrying this alone for too long.”
Something inside me cracked. I leaned into him before I could think better of it, my head resting against his shoulder, my fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt. His arm came around me, careful and steady, holding me like he’d been doing it his whole life.
