AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Maybe,” I said. “We’ll see.”
Lara’s mouth fluttered in an almost-smile. “Tell your father that dinner will be ready in an hour.”
“Gracias,” I said.
True to her word, Lara had the table set within the hour. She’d prepared moro de maiz with chicken and a batch of plantains, just as requested. It smelled lovely. She stayed long enough to pile Padre’s plate with food and set it before him. She eyed me, wary, but I waved her off. “Go, Lara,” I said. “I can serve myself.”
I could tell that she was attempting to not roll her eyes at me as she left. “You let her get away with too much,” my father said as he took a small bite of his rice. “She doesn’t respect you.”
She respects us both far too much, I thought but, wisely, kept to myself. “She’s been loyal to our family for years,” I said. “She deserves to be critical.” Padre made a noise of derision, but he kept whatever thought came to mind to himself. Instead, he reached for the plate of plantains, and I noticed his wince. “Padre, are you okay? Do you need your pain medication?”
My father snatched the edge of the plate and yanked it toward him. “I’m not an invalid,” he said and sounded so remarkably childish that I almost laughed. “I’m not dead yet,mijo.” He picked up a spoon and looked at his tiny, upside-down reflection. “Even if I’m starting to look it.”
He wanted me to assure him that he didn’t look like a corpse, but I wasn’t feeling charitable, so I lifted my wine glass instead. It was dark and dry, my favorite from the wine cellar: Lara was a softie at heart. She could never be mad at me for too long.
“Angel!” Lili came sprinting into the dining room; her eyes were wide and shocky. I could see the tremble in her hands. “Angel, David is —” David was on security for Emma; I had passed him when I stalked out of her room earlier. I clenched my fists around the cutlery in my hands.
“Liliana,” Padre cut her off, startling her. She turned her wide eyes to him, as if she only just registered that he was seated at the table as well. “It’s rude to interrupt when others are eating.”
“I’m…I’m sorry, Padre,” she said. “But I need to —”
“Get a plate,mija,” he said, cutting her off again. “Lara made plenty of plantains, and I know you like them as much as I do.”
Lili shook her head, eyes sliding back to me. She didn’t know how to cut him off without being rude; I was the only one who could get away with it. “Lili, what’s going on? What’s wrong with David?” I asked, and I could see her sign in relief.
“David is dead.”
“Dead?” I stood. “Where? How?”
“There’s blood everywhere, Angel, I don’t know exactlyhow,” she said. “Emma is missing from her room.”
“Did your wife kill your cousin,mijo?”
Lili couldn’t fight back the sarcasm. “With what? Everything in that room that could be a weapon is nailed down. She didn’tbreak outof her room; the door was open like someone had the pin.”
I jumped up. “I’ll check the cameras; we’ll see —”
“Why bother?” Padre asked loudly, talking over me. “Now that that bitch and her brat are gone, we can get back to our lives. This is a blessing in disguise, trust me.”
I felt like I had been dunked in ice water. I looked at my father. “Padre?”
The man shoveled another bite of rice into his mouth. “What? Did you think that I wouldn’t find out about the pregnancy? People talk,mijo.”
No one would talk about this; I had made sure of that with David. “You have my office bugged, don’t you?”
“I’m your father,” he said instead of answering. “I need to know these things.”
Regardless of what he “needed to know,” his nonchalance was deafening. “What did you do with my wife?” I demanded. Padre continued to eat and didn’t say anything. “Are you really going to do this? Sit there like a child and refuse to speak?”
“Watch your tone,” he growled at me. I reached behind and pulled my 9mm out of the holster at the small of my back and aimed it at him. Lili screamed my name, but my father didn’t flinch. Instead, he stared at me like I was a teenager having a tantrum. “Put that ridiculous thing away,” he said. “You’re not going to shoot me.”
I clicked off the safety. “It would be anhonorto watch you die,” I said.
“Angel, stop,” Lili begged, and I could hear the tears in her voice, but I didn’t look away from my father.
“Tell me where Emma is.” My finger touched the trigger, and then a big hand was wrapping around mine.
“What the hell are you doing?” Omar shouted, trying to disarm me, but I held on.
