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“We use it to our advantage until the prick is caught. He has the men and the fire power. We cannot afford to go at this half-assed if it’s Esteban,” Gauge challenges.
“Maceo?” Josephine asks with a weary face. “Esteban is the guy who coordinated the kidnapping of the governor’s daughter, right?”
“Yes.” I know where her mind is going. I had hoped to put this conversation off until I was ready for it. Time’s up it seems.
She looks up at me. “Why is he coming after me, then?”
And there it is. The question I had hoped to never have to answer. I sigh and look at my brothers. They don’t need to be told I want the room cleared. They walk away silently, giving me the privacy I need. They know the story, some more than others, but they know enough.
Once alone, I turn to her and take her hands in mine. “I need to give you the story about my parents. You know they were killed in a home invasion. My father was an active Navy SEAL. My mother was an American nurse who worked for Doctors Without Borders. They met when my dad was stationed in Colombia for an assignment, trying to infiltrate a drug ring. My mom was there providing medical services to people in need. She was half Colombian and spoke fluent Spanish, like my father. My mom was a real beauty and my dad fell hard. It was love at first sight.”
My throat is thick with emotion and I have to swallow before continuing.
“Neither of them knew my mother had caught the attention of the fastest rising drug lord, Esteban Moreno. What Esteban wanted, he took, but he wasn’t fast enough to get my mom. He tried to win her heart, but she outright refused him, seeing him for the criminal he was, putting the people she treated in medical need to begin with.
“Then my dad came along, this badass SEAL who was there to hunt Esteban down, and my mom fell head over heels for the hero he was. They had this whirlwind romance—guess it’s where I get it from. She left for the states to marry my dad once his recon assignment was complete. They were extremely happy from what myabuelatold me, full of hope for a new future together as husband and wife. Shortly after they married, my mom found out she was pregnant with me and they were excited to start a family.”
Josephine grips my hands to comfort me. She knows how difficult this is for me to talk about, otherwise I would have already told her.
“Word somehow got back to Esteban that not only had my mother run off, but she had married a man who was trying to bring Esteban’s establishment to its knees. He tracked them down and saw my mom was pregnant. He tried to convince her to leave my dad and go with him. She rejected him. He approached her a second time after I was born in the hospital, offering the world, but she said she already had the world with me and my dad. He left before my dad could take him out.”
My heart rate escalates and my breath stutters.
“When I was a couple months old, Esteban sent a team to kill my parents. I guess he thought if he couldn’t have her, no one else could. Why I wasn’t put on the hit list, I’ll never know.”
Josephine chokes on a sob and I pull her into my arms, hating how she’s crying for me. I kiss the top of her head and rock us. “Please, baby, don’t cry.”
“This is why you’re obsessed with taking him down,” she states, understanding.
I take in a shaky breath. “Yes. He killed my parents, and he has been fucking with me ever since.”
“What do you mean ‘ever since?’” she asks on a sob.
“He’s been watching me over the years. He would send birthday gifts every year when I was a child, to remind me of what he had done. On the anniversary of my parents’ death there would always be a huge flower arrangement delivered to my mother’s grave from him. He would on occasion sneak into the country and come watch my baseball and soccer games when I was kid living in Florida. Myabuelawould curse and scream at him. I always knew when he was there. It’s like he wanted to taunt me, to scare me andabuela.
“As I got older, he was more reclusive, but he would call my school to find out how I was doing in my classes. He tried to give me a scholarship for some college in Colombia to play soccer. It was fucking weird, like he felt guilty for what happened and grieved for my mom.
“The last straw for me was when he sent flowers to myabuela’sfuneral. I snapped. The fucker was taunting my poorabuelaeven in death. I joined the Navy and became a SEAL like my old man, wanting to have something in common with him. I wanted to become a machine capable of taking Esteban down and making him pay for what he did to me and my family.”
“But why did he approach me?” my pixie asks with worry laced in her tone.
“To fuck with me, of course. I have personally stopped his drug advances into this country for the past two years. I was so fucking close to nabbing him the last time I was in South America,” I say, lifting my fingers to show an inch. “This fucking close. He thinks he can get to me through you. Well, the fucknut has another thing coming. He willnevertouch you. As close as he got to you today, he will never get anywhere near as close again. No one is taking you from me.”
Josephine shakes her head. “Maceo, I want you to stay the hell away from him. He’s not worth losing your life over,” she pleads.
“You’re right, he’s not. Butyouare. Now that he has shown interest in you, I need to stop being on the defense and go on the offense. I will lay my life on the line to protect what is mine, to protect you, and keep you safe by my side always,” I murmur into her hair.
She pulls away from me hastily, new tears streaming down her face. “I don’t want you dying for me, Maceo!”
I reach for her, but she backs away and runs out of the garage.
Fuck. She’s running again.
I sprint after Josephine, knowing she may have the endurance to go on and on, but she doesn’t have the speed I have to run her down. I catch up before she hits the road and grab her by the waist. She shrieks and kicks and slaps at me, but I hold onto my little hellcat until she peters out. She cries and leans forward and I lower us both to the ground on our knees where I hold her from behind.
Slowly her tears come to an end. A voice in the back of my head yells at me to reassure her all will be alright, but another part of me worries she may be better off without me involved in her life. I never was close to a woman until Josephine. My short rendezvous with the opposite sex is what kept them all safe from Esteban. Josephine is the first woman I’ve ever loved, who I have completely given myself to. Of course this would make her a target for Esteban.
A small part of me thinks of letting her go, but a bigger part of me is too selfish to consider it, and it argues she’s safer with me since Esteban would know she still holds my heart even if I let her go. My mind is settled. She’s mine for the keeping.
