The cement stairs took us a while as Carlos moved well but not swiftly. We finally sat in the room now, eating our food.
He kept groaning and munching.
I finally laughed aloud. His appreciation for the fast food was as hilarious as anything else he did. Who knew he was so funny? Then again, I remember years ago when Alex used to tell me that Carlos was acrack-upas he called it. I could almost hear Alex’s laughter in my head. I pushed the sadness away. I know it had been years, but I still missed him. And maybe being with Carlos had caused that?
“Are you okay?” he asked quietly.
I nodded and crunched up the hamburger wrapper.
“So, I have a few questions,” Carlos said.
“Bien, I bet.” I smirked. “Let me see…First answer: the waiter was a hitman. I have a hit out on me by the Muriello Cartel. I killed their top well… killer. I had no choice. They showed up at one of our warehouses and attempted to jack our stock. He shot at me and I shot back.”
“Si, that is the way it happens,” Carlos replied with total understanding.
“So now, his brother has a reward out on my head. Then yesterday, I decided to move us. I got that feeling, ya know?”
He nodded. “The one where your belly does this little flip and you feel like you left the stove on at home?”
I smiled. “Yes. So I knew we needed to move. Then question number two: Your spleen. I was there the day you got a bullet. Plata O Plomo. I have been watching you for a long time.”
“Wait, you were the unknown shooter that saved my life?”
I looked away.
“Bien… fuck. Selena, that was—”
“—selfish. You might have known where the kids were, so I saved you. And you were his best friend. So I needed to know if…”
“If I was in on it? Or did I approve of my father killing him?”
I let out a troubled sigh as I again nodded.
“For about five years, I never knew what happened to him,” he explained. “I was in America training and working the deals as my father ordered me to do. I had been forbidden to talk to or see Gabby. So, I was just as clueless as your family was. Then one night, me and…Santiago got into a huge argument. Over Gabby. I was angry that he forbade me to see my own sister. In a rage, he then admitted that he had done away with Alex. I couldn’t even pretend to not care. No, I wanted him dead right then and right there and I went for it. We got into a hand to hand fight. He called out and had two of his men take me down. He locked me up for a month. Then he came in one day and showed me pictures of the kids. Who were only six or so by then, I think?”
“Mierda.” I sucked my breath in. This wasn’t what I always believed. Far from it.
He nodded. “Yes, and I felt like a bus had hit me. Not knowing about them at all. And they were all we had left of Alex. So that was the day he established the pattern of real control over my life by using Gabby and the kids. The day I knew I would never be free of his control until he died.”
I stood and grabbed the trash from our meal. “On one hand, you are free now. Then on the other, we have a dangerous mission ahead of us.”
“I know.” Carlos sighed. “He has them well protected too and the place he keeps them is almost unapproachable without being detected.”
“So, he pays the people keeping them?”
“I’m unsure.”
I stared at him. “What do you mean?”
“I think he placed them with a pair of women. I could only get that much information on them.”
“What?” I asked as I felt a little disappointed.
“I only got the name of the place and the information that two women take care of them. Anything more might have exposed my contact. I have someone there locally that I have paid over the years to watch them.”
“Oh, ok. I understand that.”
“When our tracker gets here, I will give him all the info I have then he can pinpoint them for us. Then our knight can make a plan.”
