Page 5 of No Darker Temptation

“Fuck Sandro,” Diego interjects. “Alejandro just killed a De La Vega.”

“A random fourth cousin six times removed.” I unlock the front door and step into the foyer. The lights are off so I turn one on. “If he was really that important, they wouldn’t have sent him to do Sandro’s dirty work.”

“Alejandro?” Abuelo appears at the top of the staircase in a pair of slippers and a night robe. “¿Que está pasando aqui?”

“Nada, Abuelo, go back to sleep.”

Lettie follows me through the house and to the kitchen where I turn on the sink. I wait till it fills with water and soap before pushing my shirt sleeves up to my elbows and dunking my arms inside. “That’s the third time this week Sandro’s put tails on us.”

“I know.”

“So what are we going to do about it?” she demands. “He’s going to keep provoking us until he gets the reaction he wants. And he wants you to lose control in order to justify a retaliation.”

“Lettie’s right.” Diego follows us into the kitchen, Abuelo close on his heels. “It was a mistake killing the De La Vega kid. Sandro’s testing your limits. Next he’ll send one of Lopez’s men to see if you’ll kill that one too. Then a Villazimar and then a Caceres and so on and so forth until you kill the wrong fucking person and start a war between the twelve families!”

Abuelo listens intently, his blue eyes darting between the three of us. I ignore my siblings and scrub the blood off my arms and hands.

“He’s poking the bear, Alejandro. Be wiser than that,” Lettie warns. “Don’t give him the reaction he’s looking for.”

Diego nods his agreement. “Since we pulled out of legitimization, the balance in the city has been thrown off for the second time in five years. We’re on thin ice, Alex. If you keep acting recklessly, someone’s going to hit back.”

The water runs red. I empty the sink, fill it up, and watch as bubbles form. “I’m not acting recklessly.”

“You broke Don Rubin’s son’s nose,” Lettie snaps.

“I’m not apologizing. He deserved it.”

Abuelo’s gaze lands on me. “Alejandro.”

“Sandro will get over it,” I tell them. “He’s just pissed his sister helped us take care of Ibanez and Montenegro.”

“How generous,” Abuelo muses aloud. “Esa Regina. She was always so generous…”

I cease my hand washing.

“Leave me alone with your brother,” he commands.

Lettie is the first one to leave, never disobedient toward our grandfather, and eager to evade his wrath. Diego lingers in the doorway for a beat too long and Abuelo stares him down until he finally leaves. When it’s us two, Abuelo makes his way around the kitchen island and stands across from me, no less domineering in night clothes than he would be in a suit and tie.

“The family has been in your care from a very young age.”

“I know. You said you could trust me.”

“Can I still trust you?” he asks. “Or are you allowing matters of the heart to poison the logic of the mind?”

“Such little faith you have in me,” I remark.

“I have the utmost faith in you. However, I do not have faith in the temper you inherited from your father. It was what made him such a terrible Don.”

“I thought it was his desire to legitimize.”

“No, it was his inability to keep his hands to himself.” His eyes narrow. “This is about the girl, isn’t it?”

Leave it up to Abuelo to strike my Achilles heel.

I turn off the faucet with more force than necessary. “This has nothing to do with her.”

“If she’s means this much to you, why’d you let her leave?”