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He braced his elbow on the armrest and rubbed his face with one hand, keeping his coffee in the other. “I don’t know what to do anymore. This has been going on for so long, it needs to stop, no matter what.”
“No. Not ‘no matter what.’ It matters how we end it. It matters a lot. But we can only do it together. Trying to keep Mia out of this isn’t only unfair. It’s stupid.”
He sighed in distress. “There’s a lot at stake, way more than we can handle. I can’t take this kind of risk under the premise she’ll fix it all if things get hard. I can’t keep this going counting on her putting her life on the line if needed. I know she will, and that’s what scares me.” He rubbed his mouth and muttered, “Not only that.”
At his cryptic words, I questioned, “Is there anything else we should know?”
He glanced at me and opened his mouth, just to close it right afterward. Shaking his head, he ignored my question. We drank our coffee in somewhat comfortable silence until he broke it.
“Would you keep them safe?”
“Them?”
“Haley and Gabe. Well, and Mia. Would you keep them safe?”
“I don’t think Mia needs our protection.Cristo, until this is over, I bet she’ll save our asses more than we’ll be able to repay,” I snorted, and he smiled weakly in agreement. “But, of course, I will. I just don’t understand why you aren’t stepping up to protect them yourself. You know we all know you’re together, right?”
“It’s just...the timing doesn’t seem right. Haley needs time to be comfortable with it. And I...some things need to be taken care of first.”
“Like what?” When he didn’t answer, I pressed. “Let me in on whatever it is. Let us in. You could get there faster.” At his continuous silence, I pushed softly. “You deserve it, you know? You all do. Just take the needed steps and make it happen for you, Haley, and Gabe.”
“I wish it were that simple. Some things need to happen first, and I’m not sure I’m strong enough to go along with them.”
“What things?”
We stayed in silence again for a while. I had no hope he’d answer my question. And I was right.
“Ben is a wonderful man. But he’s impulsive. He jumps headfirst without checking the depth or if the well even has water.” I laughed at his on-point description. “Just try to keep him alive.”
“Okay?” What was he getting at?
“Mia isn’t impulsive. She’s strategic and sharp. But she lacks self-preservation.” He shook his head in disapproval, yet his eyes softened with love. “She runs to the eye of the storm, no questions asked. Sometimes I wished she took the time to ask more questions before bulldozing into an impossible situation.”
“From what I figured, she’s always been like that. She jumps into thingsa tumba abierta.”
He chuckled fondly. “It was hard growing up,” he joked. “Between helping Ben control his impulses and keeping Mia from burning evil to the ground, I felt like I needed to protect both from the ugliness of the world.” He smiled at the photo of the three of them he kept on his desk. “Ben started the wars, Mia ended them, and I was running after the two putting out fires.” He shook his head. “No, that’s unfair. It sounds like all they did was create trouble, and that’s not true.”
“They’re passionate,” I volunteered. “Ben lives his life always looking back, wondering if one day his past will get the best of him. He acts first and asks questions later so he can keep his demons away.” Zach pondered my words and nodded in agreement. “Mia is a protector. She sees someone being wronged, and her instinct is to right it, to save whomever.” I sipped my coffee again, smiling behind the cup. “I wonder whom she got that from.”
He chuckled. “I was never that reckless.”
“No. But you, yourself, are a protector; and a wise one. From what I’ve heard, since you were all young, you were the one trying to keep everyone safe, making sure everyone was alive at the end of the day. Not for anything, you were our commander in the Navy. You’re a leader. And a good one. But even leaders need a break. Thank God for Haley. It seems to me she’s the one to take care of you.”
Not even trying to contain his smile, Zach beamed at her name. Pulling a drawer open, he picked a framed photo from it, the one we all knew he kept safe in there. From my position, I saw the upside-down smiley faces of Haley, Gabe, and Zach. He wore a proud smile and had one arm over Haley’s shoulder as she hugged his torso. With the other arm, he supported Gabe, who was attached to Zach’s neck. The image of the happy family.
“You love them,” I stated. No question about it.
“They’re my home,” he admitted softly. “The ones I’ll always come back to, no matter what happens.”
“Then we need to make sure you can come back. For that, we need all hands on deck.”
He squeezed his eyelids shut. “I’m scared.” His voice was barely above a whisper. For him to admit that he must’ve been terrified.
“Let’s handle this together, then,” I urged.
He opened his eyes to study me. “If I haven’t said it already, you’re one hell of a friend, Delgado. I should say that more often. I’m deeply grateful for you and your friendship.” Letting torment come back to his eyes, he stressed again, “Please, take care of them. Just...just until everything settles back to normal. We can’t let the cartel take them away from us.”
That was the last time we talked before being assaulted.
