I sucked in a deep breath. “Alv—”
Gunshots rang out from the front of the house.
“Get down!” Selena placed her arm over the kids to protect them.
I kept looking around to be sure no one was approaching us. Or shooting at us. Then after a few minutes, my phone beeped. I took it out and read Rain’s text,‘They are down. It is safe now.’I raised my head and gave Selena a nod. “We can go now.”
She nodded and they all stood.
When we came around the corner, we rushed the kids to the van.
The young woman helped them in and Selena guarded the door.
Henry gave me a hand wave as he stood guarding the driver’s side of the van.
I looked around.
Rain knelt over someone on the ground by the front patio.
I walked over and as I got close, I saw who laid there. Miguel Castillo. He was dead for sure. Next to him was Alvaro. These two men were my cousins. Both of them were bad seeds just like my father.
Alvaro's chest was bloody as he looked up at me and scoffed. “You are alive?”
I knelt and gave him a nod. “And you are dead.”
“Your father...” He spat up blood and couldn’t seem to talk.
I cocked my head at him. “He is dead too.”
He laughed and then coughed as he died.
I shook my head as I stood and looked over at Rain. “You guys did good here. Taking them out so quickly.”
Rain shook his head and motioned to the front patio. “Wasn’t us… It was them.”
Looking over, I gasped when I saw them.
Approaching me were two more Castillos, also my cousins. Luis and Ignacio.
They smiled at me as they looked happy to see me and reached their hands out.
I shook each of their hands. They had always been good guys in a bad world. I made them promise me years back that they would look after Gabriela in my absence…My forced absence.
“I am so glad to see you alive. We waited for this day,” Ignacio told me. “We never knew what happened to you.”
Luis nodded as he said, “Alvaro forced us to leave you there at the hospital. He had men watching us.”
Ignacio then added, “He planned for your death, so that you could never take over.”
“I don’t want that spot. I never did,” I told them. “But I do want this. For the kids to finally be reunited with their mother.”
“I have been in contact with her,” Ignacio informed me. “I told her we would bring them when it was safe.”
“And now it is.” Luis nodded.
Epilogue
Selena
