“I focused on Alejandro and keeping him distracted when Matáis would leave. Luciana andTres J’swould come over once they moved here. Now that it’s theniñosleaving, I have Matáis and Luciana. We distract each other.”
I look toward Luciana who’s sitting on a sofa between Madeline and Anneliese. I shift my gaze to where Luis and Margherita sandwich Florencia on their own sofa. Elle and Enrique share another loveseat.
Their living rooms are all enormous. I’ve never seen homes that can fit so much seating in one room.
It’s an odd observation, but I noticed it at Enrique and Elle’s, and it’s the same here. Both homes have enough bedrooms for everyone to stay comfortably. It’s a huge house for a family of three. I realized quickly that it wasn’t their affluence that prompted them to buy the mansion. It was to have room for the family to gather.
Luciana’s house is the same—we drove past it—and only she lives there now. But apparently each of her sons still spends the night there at least once a week. Two of the three now have wives and one has a fiancée who join them. It’s not because she can’t live on her own. The men, and now their wives or fiancée, enjoy her company.
“I feel so badly for Luciana.”
“She definitely has it the hardest, but my little sister is the bravest person I know.”
Alejandro explained how rivals with a longstanding grudge murdered Luciana’s husband, Esteban, in front ofTres J’swhile the men were still young boys. They remained in Bogotá for several years after Esteban’s death. However, the situation became untenable. Street gangs targeted the brothers, and men kept attempting to force Luciana into marriage. They moved to the States as the brothers became tweens. Now, whenTres J’sleaves, Luciana is alone. She stands to lose all the men she loves most.
Could I wind up in the situation?
There’s only one answer to that.
Yes.
“I admire your sister’s dedication and fortitude.”
In the month we’ve spent waiting, Alejandro and I have talked about what a future might look like for us. We talked about marriage and children, even though both still feel so foreign to me. I accepted I would have neither when I became a mercenary. They still seem like such hypotheticals rather than certainties.
Alejandro admitted he hopes we only have daughters. His cousins feel the same. They’d love nothing more than for the Cartel to end with their generation. That the women in the family be untouchable to whichever family takes over and that no more Diaz men have to serve the Cartel. The genetic lottery makes that unlikely, but, apparently, it’s in all of their daily prayers.
“Faith helps.” She offers me another kind smile that has a wistful note.
Turns out Catalina, Luciana, and Margherita are devout Catholics. Elodie and the men are lapsed like I am. Picking which commandments to follow makes our relationship with God complex. But they say there’re no atheists in foxholes. In the Four Families—three Catholic and one Eastern Orthodox—that’s true. It’s the same for mine. We’re all more than C and E—Christmas and Easter—Catholics, but the hypocrisy and duplicity aren’t lost on us.
“I—”
The burner phone buzzes in my pocket. I pull it out, not recognizing the number. I set up my regular phone number to forward calls to this one. I’ve used Alejandro’s secure line atour condo—I’ve gotten used to thinking of it that way—to speak to my parents a few times. They’ve just been quick check-ins, a silent agreement among us not to discuss anything that puts me in the middle.
Everyone looks at me as I rise. I walk over to Enrique and show him the screen. He frowns and shakes his head while shrugging.
“Do I answer it?”
“If you want.”
Well, that doesn’t help much.
“Hello.” I answer with the call on speakerphone.
“SeñoraDiaz-to-be.”
That’s a fucking odd greeting.
“Who is this?”
“A neighbor to the north.”
An Eastern European sounding neighbor.
I watch Enrique’s face, and I know he recognizes it. So does Elle.
A knot forms in the pit of my stomach. It’s bad enough that Enrique knows who this is. That Elle does too makes me want to vomit. That’s not a good sign.
