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“I…don’t know why I called,” I said honestly. “I really wanted to hear your voice.”
Her breath came out in a stutter. “Oh,” she said. “I missed you.”
There was no way that she did. “Really?”
She hummed over the line. “Your sister has been kicking my ass across the mats in the gym all morning.”
“Why?”
“She’s teaching me self-defense,” she said. “I thought I should learn.”
While I didn’t like the idea of anyone putting their hands on my wife, even if it was my sister, I couldn’t deny that some self-defense training was a good idea. “Don’t let her get too many hits in,” I said. “I’d prefer it if I didn’t find you bruised when I came home.”If I come home, I added in my head.
She laughed. “I’m doing my best. It’s my first day doing this, after all.” There was a pause; I listened to her breathing. “Angel, seriously, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,mi esposa,” I said. “Go have fun with Lili.”
I could practically hear Emma rolling her eyes. “Oodles,” she said. “See you at home later?”
“Later,” I agreed and hung up feeling more unmoored than before. Why did I call her? Why did I need to hear her voice like that? I had been perfectly content to exist without Emma for years before I met her. Her voice shouldn’t give me that kind of relief.
“Mijo.” I turned around, and my father’s hand flashed out, making contact with my cheek. It rocked my head to the side and split the inside of my cheek. “Come with me to my appointment,” he said. “We need to talk.”
The inside of my mouth filled with blood. I spat it out on the ground. “Si,” I said. “Did you drive, or did Tío Andre drop you off?”
“You’ll drive,” Padre said.
We climbed into my SUV and I started the engine. “Are we going to Sylvester Comprehensive or Baptist Health?” Padre had been to both, to get second and third opinions, and he never included anyone on his treatment days, so I wasn’t sure which hospital had gotten his business.
“Sylvester,” he said. “That other doctor didn’t know what he was talking about; he’d given me a prognosis of less than six months, and it’s been seven.”
“Doctors aren’t fortune tellers, Padre,” I said.
“Do I need to split the other cheek?” he spat in return.
“No, Padre,” I said. “Lo siento.”
He harrumphed. “We’ll just see about that.”
CHAPTER20
Angel
“What were you thinking,mijo?” Padre demanded. He hadn’t spoken for the entire ride to the treatment center. While we were checking in, he had to play the part of a normal man, and so it wasn’t until after the nurse had left us alone that he spoke to me directly. “That show of disrespect?”
If we were standing in his office, surrounded by the men who were sworn to do his every bidding, my nerves might still be as bad as they were when I walked out of the restaurant. But seeing my father seated in a hospital chair, hooked up to the bright red bag of chemo, Padre looked old and frail.
It would be easier if you died,I thought. I toyed with the idea of holding a pillow over his face. How long would it take the nurses to come running? Long enough for me to finish the job and run away?Probably not.
“The Rojas family is dangerous,” I said. “They’ve shown us time and time again that they want us dead. Why would Luis suddenly turn over a lucrative part of his own business? That doesn’t make any sense, and I refuse to put our family in danger.”
“Yourefuse?” Padre asked. “¿Te he oídobien?”
Punching him might not kill him, but feeling his nose crunch under my fist would be so satisfying. “See some sense, Padre,por favor,” I said. “Luis will betray us. It’s a guarantee.”
“Luis is a kicked dog,” Padre argued. “He’ll cow to our demands if we apply the right kind of force. We could take over all of their business in one fell swoop.”
Sothatwas my father’s angle: let the Rojas think we’ve agreed to peace, and then sweep in and take it all. “And what if he has the same idea?” I countered. “To try and take what’s ours?”
