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Leo held out Judith’s chair, then mine right next to hers, before taking a seat himself on my other side. Right away he held my hand in his, and I relaxed, enjoying the splendor of a warm desert night in a fabulous setting.
While Leo poured the wine, and I chowed down on chips, Judith told me how her family had immigrated from a beautiful coastal city in El Salvador when she was in her early teens, and how she had trouble fitting in with her upper-class peers in America. One boy had been giving her a particularly tough time about her heavy accent when Jose had overheard then beat the bully to a pulp. From that point on, they’d been inseparable, and many years and three children later, they were still deeply in love.
By the time she finished her charming tale, I’d sucked down a glass of wine and was feeling rather mellow, yet giggly. We were waiting on her husband and other sons, who were on their way back from a business meeting, and passed the time chatting and laughing. Leo looked on fondly while I answered her questions about myself, flattered by Judith’s genuine interest. As we talked, he leaned in his chair so he could put his arm around my back, his hand softly rubbing my shoulder, the warmth of his palm welcome in the cooling night air.
“Sorry we’re so late, Mom,” a husky male voice said from behind me.
I turned in my chair to find Ramón with men I assumed were his father and two brothers. All four men were cut from the same cloth, tall, dark and handsome, but there were slight differences between them. The man I thought was Jose had shaved his head bald, his salt-and-pepper eyebrows standing out on his tanned face. Next to him were two men in their early thirties I was sure were Diego and Fernando. Both Leo and Ramón had mentioned them before, so I knew they were twins, but they sure as hell didn’t look like it.
The guy on the right had hair so long he wore it in a braid down his back, giving him a vaguely Native American look. His copper skin glowed with good health and he filled out his khaki shorts and white t-shirt nicely. The man next to him was lean to the point of being unhealthy, a scraggly black beard matching his scraggly hair. His clothes were clean, but something about him just seemed…wrong. Maybe it was his overly bright eyes, or his jerky motions, but his presence set me on edge.
He completely ignored me and instead took a drink from a flask he pulled from his pocket, smacking Diego’s hands away when he tried to take it from him.
Frowning, Jose cleared his throat. “Fernando, not now.”
Fernando finally looked at me, and when he did, it was with such contempt that my entire body broke out in a cold sweat. “Why, afraid I’ll scare off the pendejita?”
Leo started to stand, but Ramón was there. He whispered something in Leo’s ear that took some of the fire out of his eyes, but boy was my man pissed. I’d never seen him this mad, and it was a terrifying sight.
My heart raced as anxiety took hold, and I wondered how I should handle the moment. Fernando was obviously sick, probably an alcoholic, and I could see how utterly mortified his family was by his behavior. And he was so thin, I hadn’t really noticed how bad it was until his virile and healthy father and brothers stood right next to him.
“That’s enough,” Jose growled out, deep red burning on his cheeks as he glanced over at me with an apologetic look.
“What the fuck does it matter? He can just do his voodoo shit again and turn her back into his good little puppet.” For a brief moment, sympathy crowded out the empty anger in Fernando’s glazed, bloodshot eyes. “Why the fuck would you want to taint something so good with our filth? What the fuck is wrong with you people? When will innocents stop dying for our sins? People…demons like us don’t deserve her.”
“Fernando, controlate!” Judith said in such a loud, pissed-off voice, I couldn’t help but swing around to look at her.
A loud crash came from behind me and I jumped, but Judith and Leo were already out of their chairs, blocking me. I tried to see around them, to figure out what the commotion was, but I couldn’t see beyond Leo’s broad form from my seat, all I could hear were angry male voices speaking in a mixture of English and Spanish.
Fernando was now yelling—no, screaming something in Spanish that was so rage-filled, it made me instinctively cower into a ball.
Judith said something in Spanish in a loud voice and Fernando’s crazed shout got closer, switching to English as he said, “Like I give a fuck about meeting his mindless little sheep, like having some braying woman at my side is going to make everything better! She’s nothing more than a puppet, a little whore puppet. Fuck this—leave me alone and let me rot in peace!”
