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By then he’d been gone for three years. I knew of the bad blood between him and my father but never suspected it had gone so far. Never realized it was different than when we were kids. That the damage Alessandro could do was much more deadly now.
But when they set the house on fire, the house where we grew up, that’s when I came out of the attic. My father, miraculously, wasn’t dead yet. I found him on the floor behind his desk in his study, gunned down but breathing, and somehow, I got us both out of the house, glad the assassins had run off to celebrate. They hadn’t waited to watch the house burn, watch all those memories turn to ash. That was a godsend. I managed to get us to safety, to a doctor who my father trusted. He kept him hidden and tended to his wounds. We knew right away there was no hope for him. He would live, but the bullet to the head, it had taken away the essence of the man I knew as my father. Still, I couldn’t abandon him.
Nan and I sit down at the kitchen table, and she pours us both a cup of tea. The smell of it takes me back. Back to a happy time. But a look at her face tells me she’s afraid.
“Tell me everything.”
“They came in the morning. Three men. Americans, or at least they spoke English like Americans. Dark hair and olive skin, but not Mexican.”
“You’re sure?”
She nods.
“Then not Alessandro’s men?”
“I don’t know. Italian maybe?”
“Italian?”
“Maybe. They rang the doorbell, and when I opened the door, one man smiled at me, said his name but too quickly and they all move inside, the man smiling taking my hands and holding them but making sure I know I should do as he says.” She stops to sip her tea, and I see how she’s aged today. How the lines on her face are a little deeper. I can’t do this to her. I can’t expect her to put herself in danger to take care of my comatose father.
“I’m sorry, Nan. I shouldn’t have left you here on your own unprotected. I’m so sorry.”
“No, child. I love that man like my own family.” She cups my head, strokes my hair. “You are like my own daughter.”
“Go on with your story, Nan.”
She nods, takes another sip of tea before continuing. “The men, they looked around the house. They all wore dark suits, and I knew they had guns because I saw one under the jacket of the man who was sitting with me, talking about something but I don’t know what. He was trying to keep me calm, I think. They don’t want a hysterical old woman shrieking, I suppose.”
“I suppose.”
“When they found your father, I started to tell them he was my brother. Asked them what they wanted with him. But they ignored me and take a few photographs and the whole time, your father just lay there like he does. God bless him. I thought they would hurt him, but they left. They simply said good-bye and told me to lock my doors tight and left.”
I rub my shoulder, the back of my neck. I’m tense, everything feels stiff. “They never said who they were? Didn’t leave anything?”
She shakes her head.
“I think if it was Alessandro’s men, they would have hurt him.”
“But who else? We have to get him out of here. I’ll make arrangements as soon as possible. I’ll stay here with you tonight. Do you still have the gun I gave you?”
She points to the kitchen drawer and nods. “I won’t use that. And you shouldn’t either.”
I get up, open the drawer, take it out, and check that it’s loaded. “I will if I have to. I’m not going to let anyone hurt us.”
I spend the day thinking about all my options, weighing everything, knowing I have exactly one. By the time I decide to do it, we’ve already had dinner and it’s late. “Why don’t you go up to bed. I just need to make a few calls.”
I have to think about this as an acceleration of my own plans. I meant to come here today to tell my father and Nan that I’d be leaving. That I’d be having my father moved as soon as I settled somewhere. But now, I have to do things differently. I have to get him to safety first. Get Nan to her own family. And maybe I can’t leave. Maybe I have to pay the devil. Maybe I have to accept Giovanni’s help. His protection. But will he help me when he sees what I’m hiding? Who I’m hiding? Even if my father is no longer the head of the Estrella cartel, they are far from friends.
