After exiting the elevator and arriving at his door, he checked his handmade security features to make sure no one had disturbed them.
Mierda!He looked left, then right, then walked down the hall to the wall sconces on his left. The hallway was far too bright, and he needed shadows to enter his apartment in case whoever had tripped his warning signals was still inside. At each one, he reached inside and unscrewed the light bulb. He did the same all the way down the right-hand side of the hall. Only then did he open the apartment door, closing it quickly and quietly behind him. Without turning on the lights, he silently put his bag on the floor, then slid his gun out of the holster at the back of his pants as he made his way into the living room.
When he arrived two steps out of the short hallway, he stopped, his gun aimed at the far wall. The scrape of a match was deafening in the silence. A flame flared to life, providing minimal sight to the man lighting a thin cigar. Steel didn’t lower his gun.
“Ildefanso.” The voice was raspy. Not friendly. But for right now, it was nonthreatening. The floor lamp turned on. “Is this any way to greet yourtío?”
“I have no uncles. My family is dead to me.”
“About as dead to you as you are to them. For a long time, we believed you’d met your maker. Imagine our surprise when we found out you were still alive.”
“How did you know?”
The other man tsked his displeasure. “It matters not. The important thing is that we know, and we are not simply going to allow you to run around doing good deeds under the guise of this… Tribe Corporation. Enough is enough, Ildefanso. It is time to return home to your legacy, where you belong.”
How the hell did they know about Tribe? A reason tried to push forward in his brain, but he shoved it back. He couldn’t afford to be distracted rightnow.
“It’s not my legacy. I never wanted anything to do with that life. I made no secret of that.”
His Uncle Maico sighed, then sat down in the chair beside the floor lamp. “I’m not going anywhere, Ildefanso, so you’re either going to have to put up with me, or you’re going to have to shoot me.”
Steel popped the safety on his gun. “I don’t mind the latter.”
“Even if it’s in regard to Livia?” the intruder asked.
Steel put the safety back on and lowered his weapon, though he didn’t put it away. Inside, his stomach was twisting in on itself, but outside, he knew it wouldn’t show. “She’s dead. How could this possibly have anything to do with my mother?”
His unwanted visitor made a clucking sound with his tongue. “Sobrino, you may be able to lie to most of the world, but you could never lie to your family.”
“I told you. My family is dead.”
“You are very wrong. We are very much alive, and we very much want you to come home.”
“You are not my family. This is my home now.”
The older man tsked again. “Ildefanso, you must learn to leave the past in the past. Your father is getting old. He wants to see his son again before he dies. Do you understand just how long it has taken us to track you down?”
“Not long enough. I’m not going back. He’ll just have to be disappointed.”
Maico frowned. “Don’t make me do this the hard way,sobrino. I know where she is. I know who is with her. I do not want to use them against you.”
It wasn’t possible. He couldn’t know where they were.
“If their freedom won’t sway you, I have something else you want. Something you have been looking for.”
“There’s nothing you could possibly have that I want.”
“Even if it is your friend, Kent Leech? The one they call Ka-Bar?”
Steel sucked in a breath.
A boy crying. Gunfire. The boy’s tears cut off, then immediatesilence. A woman screaming the boy’s name, then calling out his name.
“Where is he?”
“More concern for your friend than yourmadre? Interesting. Somehow, I think it’s more the surprise that I know his whereabouts than worry over the woman’s safety.”
Fuck this man. He owed him no explanation.
