Malo - Page 29

All I can think about is my father. Now that we’re so much closer to the spot I last saw him, it’s impossible for me to deny how worried I am about him. Anything could be happening to him right now, anything—that is, if he’s still alive at all.

I’ve been trying not to think on that possibility for too long, but what choice do I have? I know what El Serpiente and his men are capable of. And I can still see, all too clearly, the terror on my father’s face when that evil man dragged me to his compound to see what my father was being forced to do.

After I’d been forced into my first meeting with El Serpiente, he’d insisted on taking me to see my father. And I had been torn, because I wasn’t sure I would really want to see him in the state he was in right then, but at the same time, I had to know he was okay. If I was going to do what El Serpiente wanted from me, then I needed to make sure that there was a reason—that my father was still alive, still hanging in there.

I had been driven across the city in the back of a car with tinted windows, El Serpiente across the seat from me. He kept his eyes on me the whole time, but I couldn’t even bear to look at him. He had been sickly-sweet to me since I’d arrived, though we both knew it was nothing more than an act.

“A pretty girl like you shouldn’t be traveling all alone,” he remarks mockingly. I know I shouldn’t take an attitude with him, but I can’t stand the way he’s talking to me.

“I’ve traveled alone plenty of times,” I shoot back. “I don’t need anyone looking out for me.”

“You know how men can get,” he says with a smirk on his face, glancing toward the front seat of the car. I follow his gaze, and my stomach drops when I see his driver looking back at me, a grin on his face.

“Anything could happen,” El Serpiente adds. Is that a threat? Is he trying to make me fear some kind of attack from his men? I retreat into myself, wrapping my arms around my body, trying to hide myself from the lecherous stares of the men in the car.

I’ve tried to trace our route, committing it to memory, in some futile hope I will be able to use the information to get my father out, though I know the chances of that are slim. I have to cling on to some kind of control, some kind of belief that I can get him out. It still doesn’t feel real to me, like some kind of twisted joke at my expense. Who would do something like this to my father? To my family? We’ve never caused trouble with anyone, and now, we’re being tormented by a man who so obviously enjoys forcing us to play by his rules.

Eventually, the car draws to a halt outside a large compound, with concrete walls reaching up to the sky on every side – whoever they keep in there, they obviously don’t want them getting out. Two heavily-armed guards on the door nod at El Serpiente in greeting, and the gate swing open to let us inside.

It looks like a prison—barbed wire around the perimeter, guards on every door, and complex locks to keep the place safe. El Serpiente guides me through the compound, and I hurry to keep up with him, not even wanting to think what he might do to me if I fall too far behind.

“You want to see your father, don’t you?” he asks, pausing outside what looks to be a rundown closet. I nod. Is that a trick question? Of course I want to see him. I need to see him, make sure he’s okay. I feel as though I’m going to burst into tears at any moment, but I manage to bite them back, knowing the bastard would probably enjoy it too much. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction.

El Serpiente gestures to one of his men, who unlocks the door before us, and, when it swings open, I clap my hands to my face in horror.

My father is there on the other side—alive, that has to count for something. But he looks awful. His face is mottled with bruises, as though he’s been violently beaten, and one of his wrists is chained to a small table in the center of the room, scattered with papers and vials. When he sees me standing there outside the door, his face loses all color.

“Maria, carino,” he gasps. “What are you doing here?”

“I-I…” I blurt out. I don’t even know where to start. I just want to throw my arms around him, give him a hug, tell him how sorry I am that I wasn’t here to stop whatever this is from happening to him, but my feet feel as though they’re rooted to the spot.

He tries to take a step toward me, but one of the guards grabs his shoulder, pinning him to the spot. Not like he could go far, anyway, with that shackle on his wrist.

“Your father has been helping us with the development of some new product,” El Serpiente explains. “Isn’t that right, Jose?”

My father ignores him, staring at me. His eyes are riddled with sadness and grief.

One of the guards nudges him, as though reminding him that he needs to give an answer, and my father blinks and nods.

“Yes,” he mutters, lowering his eyes to the ground in shame. Product? Like… drugs? It doesn’t make sense to me. My father has never worked in that side of the business, in recreational products, though God knows he’s been offered money to consider it over the years.

“Some bastards back in the U.S. burned down some of our warehouses, so we’re running short,” El Serpiente continues. “We need something else to keep people interested. And that’s where your father comes in.”

“You shouldn’t have come, Maria,” my father whispers to me. I can see the pain in his eyes, the agony as he tries to will me away from this mess before I can get pulled into it, but it’s far too late for that, and he knows it. Both of us are trapped. Both of us have been drawn into this world that neither of us could ever have imagined before, and now, we are at the mercy of this man who seems willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants.

“I just wanted to know you were okay,” I reply, my voice cracking. El Serpiente smiles as he listens to the conversation, clearly enjoying himself.

It seems so stupid now, having come all this way just to put myself in the middle of this mess. I should have known better, I should have been more careful, but how could I, in a million years, have guessed that this is where we would end up? I want to go back in time and undo it all, call in for back-up before I came here, but it’s too late for that, too late by miles.

“Don’t worry, both of you will be just fine,” El Serpiente interjects. “Just as long as you both do what I tell you.”

My father and I exchange a look before one of the guards grabs my arm and yanks me away from him.

That is the image that is burned into my brain, the sadness, the exhaustion, the terror in his eyes. It’s that look that’s torturing me right now, as I lay next to Malo. I feel like I could almost reach out and touch my father from where I am now, but at the same time, we are so far from one another.

El Serpiente told us that we would be safe as long as we did as he said. What if he’s found out what I’ve done? What if he’s aware that Rayo is already dead? The thoughts nag at my mind, over and over again, the pain and weight of it pressing down until it feels as though it might crush me.

I can’t just lie here and do nothing. I know Malo and Blue have some plan in place, some carefully-crafted operation to make sure that everything gets dealt with in the most effective way possible, but here, now, it’s not enough for me.