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Geraldo didn’t throw Sean off. Sean rolled off. Pushing with his feet against Geraldo, Sean slides away, holding the weapon in both of his shaking hands.
Geraldo groans in pain, clutches a large, point-blank wound in his stomach. Blood pours from the wound. His face has gone white.
Sean gets to his feet.
I watch, unable to speak as he moves toward me, weapon down, hands bloody. I begin to tremble.
“Luv,” he says, and I’m surprised by how calm his voice sounds. “I need to see if you’re okay. Please. Put down the gun.”
“What?”
“The gun, luv,” he repeats.
Oh, I’m aiming my weapon at Geraldo, who’s moaning and grasping at his stomach. There’s no reason to point my weapon at a man who is helpless.
I lower my gun.
Sean is beside me immediately, putting a hand to my bleeding head. “Are you okay? What day is it?”
“I’m…” I blink my one eye and see the tears rolling down his face. “Mi amor,” I say, realizing what he did, what he had to do, forme… because I dragged him into this. “Lo siento. I’m so sorry. I’m…”
“No.” He shakes his head firmly. “No, luv. Fate offered me the choice. Life or death. Live with the woman I love or die with her. I chose. I chose for us.”
He kisses me firmly on the mouth. Tears block my throat before they fall from my eyes. I want to sayI love you, too. I want to say I’m sorry, but I can’t force my voice through the lump of emotion blocking my throat.
“Ayudame,” Rosa says, and her cry for help breaks us apart. Sean goes to her.
I move over to Geraldo. My knees land in his blood. “Let me see your wound.”
“Stay away.” His bloodied hands swing at me. After a lifetime of using anger and force, he expects them to simply keep working.
Not anymore. When he swung, I saw his wound. He’s bleeding out. There’s nothing that can be done.
Perhaps realizing this or seeing it in my eyes, he begs, “End me.”
I have no intention of doing that for him. I will, however, give him something he has never given others. Hope. “Answer me and I will.”
He nods and I ask, “You killed her. Your fiancée. Comandante Javier was right.”
Again, he nods, seeking my eyes, seeking the person he thinks will end his pain. “Yes.” He bites out the word through pain clenched teeth. “He wanted to arrest me.”
Although there are still many details unanswered, some of it clicks into place for me. “You made a plan to throw Javier off the trail. You had Armand beat you up to make it look like you were attacked.”
Geraldo looks down at his stomach, at all the blood, and says, “He enjoyed it, beating me. Nearly killed me.”
“But it worked,” I say. “You came out of it as a man who’d almost died looking for his fiancée. And, with a brain injury—a fake injury.”
“You are both monsters,” Rosa says, and I startle, realizing Sean has freed Rosa and both are right behind me.
“Mama.” Geraldo begins to tremble. “So cold. Cold.”
I grab for Sean’s hand and he’s there. I squeeze. “Not long now,” I tell Geraldo. “Not long.”
Geraldo closes his eyes. “Empty and cold,” he whispers, and inhales deeply, so deep it rattles in his chest before he goes absolutely still.
28
DADA
