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Helena, the summer caretaker, met us in the wide, airy foyer. She didn’t live on the island year-round, but she was able to travel here quickly from Key West. The Castillos took care of the entirety of her bills whenever she wasn’t working. It kept her quiet and returning to the island each summer. “I wasn’t sure if my sister had called you or not,” I said by way of greeting.
Helena shrugged. “She called, and I came,” she said. “Just like always.” Her eyes roved over me. “You look awful.”
Gracias, Liliana, I thought again. Of course, my sister would know that I would come here. I looked at Lyse, who was looking around at what she could see of the house in surprise. Like she thought it would be dank and dark inside. Maybe she did. “Get her settled upstairs,” I told Helena, who still seemed to be categorizing my wounds. “To a room with an outside lock.” Looking at Lyse, I added, “Behave for her,conejita.”
I watched both women ascend the stairs before heading to the office that was tucked into a back hallway. Opening a desk, I pulled out one of the burner phones that we kept stocked and dialed Lili’s number. She picked up after a single ring. “Omar?!” Her voice was shrill.
I winced. “¡Cálmate!” I said.
“Are you safe,idiota?” she asked, her voice no longer in danger of shattering glass.
“I’m safe,” I assured her. “Are you and Emma going to be okay for a little while on your own?”
Lili was quiet for a moment, and then she sighed, soft and sad. “Emma is falling apart,” she said. “I tried to get her to come home with me, but she refused. I don’t think she’s going to leave the hospital unless we load her into the car by force.”
“Do it if she refuses to come home tomorrow, all right? She can’t just sit at the hospital and waste away.”
Lili snorted. “Sure thing. I’ll further traumatize our pregnant sister-in-law, shall I?”
“Lili—”
“Save it,” she barked. “What were you thinking? Going to that hotel? The police were here asking questions.”
“That’s standard. They have to go through the motions, remember? How many times did they come to question Padre over the years? Nothing ever comes of it.”
“This was different, Omar. If these officers knew Angel or our deal with them, they didn’t act like it. They kept threatening to get a warrant to come back and search the house for you, and I think they meant it.”
My sister was a strong woman. She was only twenty-three years old, but she had proven time and time again that she could handle the pressures of being in a family like ours. She trained harder than the bodyguards most days, and even if I was reluctant to admit it, she was a better shot than me. Lili wasn’t easily frightened by anything…but she sounded scared now.
My heart stuttered in my chest. “Lo siento,Mija.” It wasn’t often that we spoke softly with one another—our relationship was far too antagonistic for that—but I couldn’t muster up the usual ire.
“Why were you so reckless? It’s like you didn’t even think.”
“I didn’t,” I admitted. “I was angry, and I wanted revenge. I still do.” My thoughts touched on Lyse, upstairs under lock and key. “I’m going to fix this, okay? I’ve already got a plan in place.”
Lili scoffed. “No offense, but your plans tend to suck if you’re not carefully monitored by an adult.”
“Fuck you,” I said without any real heat. She had a point. I was not the planner of our family; I was the executioner. Angel was the cool, level-headed one; I was the muscle. It had been that way since we were kids, and I’d grown half a foot taller than him. “I promise that I’ll fix this, okay?”
“You better.”
I was more than happy that she didn’t ask exactlywhatI had planned. It was harebrained at best, I’d admit, but I didn’t need her to point that out to me. Instead, I asked, “Is there any change at the hospital?”
Lili sniffled. I could picture her rubbing at her eyes in annoyance; she was never one for tears, my sister. “Angel is out of surgery. They removed his spleen altogether, and they patched some bleeds in his liver that they thought they fixed earlier, but they reopened.”
“Has he woken up yet?”
“Would you be hiding away somewhere if he was?” Her tone was snide, but I chose to ignore it. For now. “The doctors said that it would take some time for his body to heal, and it would be best if we kept him sleeping while it did.”
“They’re going to keep him sedated?”
There was a pause. “I don’t like it, but I’m not sure what else to do. They said if he woke up while he was still healing and freaked out, he could undo all their work. Emma signed off on the breathing tube and the medicine to keep him under right after you left, as part of the paperwork she had to sign for the surgery. I think that’s part of what got her all worked up.”
What a fucking mess. Just two days ago, we were celebrating Manny’s birthday and eating Emma’s fried plantains. Now, I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to see my eldest brother again, and I was stuck in a time-out in the middle of the Caribbean.
“Keep an eye on Emma’s blood pressure, okay?” Angel had told me that at the last visit to their doctor, Emma’s blood pressure had been a little elevated, and while I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, I knew it couldn’t be good.
“I’m already on it, but coming from you, that’s actually one of your better ideas,” Lili admitted.
