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“Did you know Marío had her?” he asks him instead of acknowledging the sentiment.
“If I had, she wouldn’t be dead.”
“Good.” Vicente blows out a breath and sits straight, running a hand through his hair. “So I’m José Vargas’ grandson.”
His question is a statement, making Alvaro jerk his eyes to the young man where he really looks at him, before looking back at me.
I nod my head. “You see it too, don’t you?”
Alvaro scoffs, taking out his phone as he answers. “How did Inotsee it?”
He searches for old newspaper headlines before showing Vicente a picture of the old Don. With his eyes glued to the older version of himself, he asks what anyone would ask. A question no one really has an answer to.
“What happened to him?”
I blow out a breath and think back to the stories I’ve heard.
“We weren't alive for the brutal wipeout of the Vargas cartel, but it’s a story that is sung in songs to this day.Corridos—the detailed songs of cartel stories—sing about the familia’s ending. As the story goes, José Vargas went to war with the Delagos cartel over a woman nicknamedLa Llorrona.My father once said it wasn’t the Delagos who tore the empire down, but a woman who did it single handedly. Other versions of the story say it was a woman inside the Vargas cartel who opened the door for the Delagos to sneak in during the night. Whatever the truth is, the ending is still the same; the Vargas cartel was wiped out...or at least, they weresupposedto be.”
Alvaro nods. “I remember hearing about how thesicariosset upon the Vargas mansion onPlaya los Tules, killing every person inside but leaving José for last. His chopped body was found in the streets the next day. The myth is thatLa Muertecame to collect on the lives he had ended during his reign.”
Still, Vicenta’s mother made it out somehow? Did José know he and his family were facing an unstoppable force and sent her away? She had to be an adult at the time, maybe around twenty or so. Perhaps she was already out of the country, maybe studying in an American school when he heard the news of her family's death and went to great lengths to stay hidden?
It’s the only thing I can think of.
I lean forward as Vicente hands the phone back to Alvaro who stands and moves around the house as though the air reeks of painful memories and he needs to keep moving.
“I know you said your mom doesn’t talk about her past in Mexico, but does she ever talk about her early days in America? Did she go to college under a different name before she had you and your sister? There is no record for Alma Vargas in Mexico or the United States. It’s as though she died right alongside her family.”
Vicente shakes his head. “There’s no way my mom went to college. Don’t get me wrong, she’s smart, but I just can’t picture her navigating college in America while running from some cartel that killed her entire family.”
The picture his words paint does make it seem unlikely that we’d find a record of her in college, and if I’m honest, I don’t really need anymore information on Alma; it’s just the curiosity that has me wondering more about the woman who escaped the wrath of Delagos.
What we really need to know is what Marío planned to do with Vicenta. Was she even going to be his wife or was Marío hoping to marry her off to Delagos in hopes for an alliance?
“Entonces?” Vicente asks when no one speaks again. “What’s the motherfuckin’ plan?”
“Vicenta is the plan,” Alvaro says and I nod in agreement. “Marío wants her, so let’s get him to believe she’s given herself up.”
The plan is a simple one but we still need to getDiabla’s okay but knowing her like I do, I know she’d rather do it this way than an all-out war break out on the streets of unsuspecting people.
I run through the details of what I’ve been thinking. “We’ll have Vicenta contact Marío that she wants the killings of her friends and loved ones to stop by giving herself over to him. We’ll set a trap for theputa madrebefore he can even get close to her.”
Vicente shakes his head. “And you think he’ll just believe her?”
“You don’t?” Alvaro asks him.
“Listen, I know you two are in love with her, but that’s exactly what makes you guys blind—what makes you the wrong guys for plan making. Marío doesn’t care about her and she has already run from him once, so he won’t take her word for shit.
“Think about it and put yourself in his place. Imagine that you don’t care for Vi, that you want to only use her as a tool. Wouldn’t you have already figured out the bluff the minute this stubborn, strong-willed woman suddenly decided to hand herself over to you? That wouldn’t make you suspicious at all?”
Fuck, he’s right,I think to myself as he continues.
“You guys would one hundred percent fall into this trap because she has you both twisted so hard around her fingers. But for a piece of shit like Marío; he’ll bag and grab her before pulling a page from Delagos playbook on the rest of us.”
Alvaro stares at me, his brows raised. “He makes sense.”
“Entonces?” I throw Vicente’s words back at him. “What do you suggest?”
