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My father clearly thought this was the most ridiculous thing that he’d ever heard. “Luis had to hire a man to get the jump on you. His men couldn’t stand against ours if it came down to a fight.”
The six dead men from the attack on Eliseo wouldn’t agree with him. “Padre, we don’t need the Rojas’s business,” I said. “I’ve secured us a direct line to resources in Venezuela. No more going through suppliers. Then, we’re going to work our way into markets where we can charge triple the price for our product. Nothing the Rojas have will be worth a quarter of what we could get.”
I would never be sure if I actually impressed the man, or if the chemo was slowing his reaction time, but he stared at me, just blinking, for the next two minutes. “You have big aspirations,mijo,” he said finally. “But I don’t want you to hook yourself into wax wings and fly into the sun.”
“If the deal with Miguel and Ademir falls through, we aren’t in a worse spot. They don’t want Miami for themselves; they’re happy with their kingdoms in South America. If we lose to the Rojas, we’ll lose everything.”
“Luis Rojas could not take what is mine,” Padre said with conviction. It came off as unhinged, like he wasn’t entirely in his right mind.
“Padre,” I said. “It’s foolhardy to get involved with the Rojas, and I won’t.”
“Angel —” He was turning red. It had been years since I’d been this defiant to my father, but he wasn’t swarming in guards right now. It was just me and him, and he was going to listen to me.
“No,” I said, putting some force behind my words, “Padre, I won’t be involved with the Rojas or with trafficking.”
My father’s eyes narrowed. “Sothat’sthe problem!” he crowed, as if he’d discovered something.
“It’s not the whole problem,” I argued, “but it is part of it.”
“It’s a little late to be having issues of morality,mijo,” he said.
I shook my head. “I’m not worried about my morality, Padre,” I said. “But it’s not an avenue I’m interested in pursuing. I don’t think it would benefit the family, and it would bring a lot more trouble to us. Drugs are easy; they don’t fight back. They don’t have families. They don’t try to escape.”
Padre was quiet for a long while. I thought he’d fallen asleep, but then he said, “That woman has made you soft.”
I scoffed. “What are you talking about?”
“You think I haven’t noticed how you stare at her? You think weallhaven’t heard the sounds that come from your rooms?” he asked, tone challenging. “Whenever you’re in the same room with her, your brain isn’t on our business.”
“Emma isn’t to blame for this,” I said. “She’s been nothing but accommodating since we’ve gotten married.”
“She’s made mistakes,” Padre said, as if the handful of small errors were unforgivable. “She’s weak.”
“If you believe that,” I said, trying and failing to hide my anger, “why did you want me tomarryher? I could have sent her away; I could have a protection detail on her 24/7. I could have done a hundred different things to keep her safe and fulfill my life debt, but you decided marriage was the best option.”
Padre seemed to puff up in his anger. “I thought marriage would be good for you,” he said. “You need to secure your legacy as I did mine.”
“It’s only a matter of time before Emma gets pregnant,” I said. “But why can’t I enjoy myself with her? Why can’t I —?”
My father looked absolutely vicious. “Youloveher, don’t you?” he asked and almost sounded gleeful. The suddenly joyous tone crawled up my back like spiders.
“I don’t see how that’s important,” I said.
He sneered. “You can’t even lie about it, can you?”
I sighed. “Whether I love Emma or not isn’t important,” I said. “I’m in this marriage because you ordered me to marry her. I’m making the best of it.”
His disgusted look only deepened. I had seen my father enjoy women before. He never brought anyone back to the compound, of course, but he wined and dined for years. “You’re letting her get to your head,mijo,” he reiterated. “She’s going to ruin you.”
A nurse knocked on the door, halting our conversation. “How are we doing?” the woman asked cheerily as she began to poke and prod at the various things they had hooked to my father.
“Ready to head home,” my father replied gruffly, side-eyeing me. He was planning retribution, I knew. I was fairly certain he wasn’t actively planning to kill me, but if I escaped what waited for me with a few broken ribs, I would count myself as lucky.
“You’re just about done,” the nurse said. “Remember, this ‘Red Devil’ cocktail that we’ve got you on is nasty, so you’ll probably want to spend the rest of the evening and, probably, most of tomorrow in bed.” She looked at me. “Can I count on you to get him to relax?”
She absolutely couldn’t, but I smiled and agreed regardless. “I’ll make sure he takes it easy,” I promised.
“He should expect —”
