Malo - Page 65

Until earlier tonight, when I’d heard gunshots cracking in the air, my head snapped up from the uneasy half-sleep I had been in. What was happening? I tried to scramble upright, get a look out of the window, but there was nothing—no way I could reach it. Just darkness outside.

And then, the door that had trapped me flew open. I sprang back, ready to face one of the men who had beaten me black and blue over these last few weeks, but instead, it was someone I hadn’t seen before. A young man. His eyes shining with adrenaline.

“Jose?” he demanded. I nodded, and he grabbed my arm.

“We need to get you out of here,” he told me. “Come on.”

I didn’t have it in me to fight, or even consider whether this was a bad idea or not. I just knew that I was being offered a chance to escape, and I was willing to take whatever I could get. Anything that would give me a chance to get out of here. I followed the man, stumbling on my aching legs, toward the back of the building, where two of the guards were lying dead by the door. I averted my gaze quickly, fighting the wave of nausea that was threatening to overwhelm me. I’d heard about death since I had been here, of course I had, but the reality of being faced with it was more than I could take.

Near-delirious, I let him take me to a motorcycle parked outside. I had always hated motorcycles, sure they were more danger than they were worth, but the smell of the fresh air spurred me on. It had been so long since I had been let out into the real world, I couldn’t pass up the chance. The man handed me a helmet, and I slipped it on, my fingers brushing over my hollow cheeks as I did so. I hardly recognized myself. But still, all I could think of was her. Was Maria here? Was she close? Was this her doing, somehow?

He tore away from my prison, and I clung onto the bike for dear life. I didn’t turn to see what was going on behind me, I didn’t need to. I kept my eyes fixed forward, on the road ahead of me, and told myself, as many times as it took, that I just had to keep going. I had to keep moving forward. It was better than being locked in that cell, forced to work for men who used me to bring harm to the world around me.

I wasn’t sure how long we were on the back of that bike for, but I didn’t care. The road beneath me felt like freedom after so long locked up. Was I just being taken to another cartel, used there, as I had been used by El Serpiente? I knew nothing of this world or how it worked, but it seemed likely. Maybe it would bring me closer to Maria, I didn’t know, but I was willing to find out.

Eventually, he drew the bike to a halt inside another fenced property, this one larger and a little more lived-in, a large house sat in the center with a front porch that overlooked the front of the property.

“Where are we?” I croaked to him, as he helped me to my feet.

“Houston,” he replied. “Don’t worry. You’re safe now.”

“Maria?” I asked him. I didn’t even know if he was aware of who my daughter was.

He didn’t reply, just grinned, and nodded past me.

I turned to see what he was looking at, my heart pounding in my chest, hardly daring to hope. A few more bikes pulled in, each carrying one or two men in leather jackets or vests emblazoned with the same insignia—Ruthless Kings—that’s what the letters declared them to be.

And then, I saw it. A figure I recognized at once, even with the helmet on. My heart slammed into my ribs, the last bit of hope boiling over in my system. No… it couldn’t be… I couldn’t believe it, not after all this time. I couldn’t let myself even begin to believe it.

But then, she pulled the helmet off, and I knew it—it was her. She looked different, not physically, but in the way she carried herself, exhausted, as though she had been wrung dry. I couldn’t call out to her, too shocked she was still alive to get the words out. Slowly, she turned, and her eyes fell on mine. Her hand flew to her mouth, as though she had seen a ghost.

And then, she called out to me. “Papi!”

And she ran into my arms, and I threw them around the daughter I had been sure I was never going to see again.

CHAPTER 45

MARIA

He’s thin. Too thin. There’s barely any meat on him. And he looks a decade older than when I last saw him. His hands were shaky, his eyes marked with deep creases at the sides, dark circles beneath them.

He pulls back and looks at me for a moment, a smile crossing his lips.

“Maria,” he murmurs. And then, before I can say anything back, he slumps to the ground.

“Help!” I cry out, as I do my best to catch him. He’s so frail, I’m able to keep him upright by myself, but Malo sprints over to me and puts his arm around my father’s shoulders.

“It’s all right, I’ve got him,” he assures me. I feel like I am going to throw up. I plant a hand on his chest, making sure I can still feel the steady beat of his heart, and it’s there but it’s weak.

“We need to get him checked out, now,” I tell Malo. “Where’s the doctor?”

“Stitches?” Malo replies, as we lead my father around the clubhouse and to the medical shed. “Come on, I’ll take us to him.”

My father is barely awake as we bring him to the infirmary where Malo was just a day before. He seems so strong now, so capable, it’s hard to believe he went through all of that. But I can hardly think about anything else other than my father right now.

Stitches clears a bed for him, instructing a few of the others on binding and cleaning the wounds of some of the Kings who were injured in the battle with the cartel. Malo lays my father down carefully on the bed, and he looks so weak, so thin, it almost brings tears to my eyes.

“It’s going to be okay, Papi,” I tell him, grabbing his hand and planting a kiss against it. “It’s going to be okay.”