“Javier Almanza. The Almanza Family Kingpin,” the words rolled off his tongue. “The bastard boy grew into the untouchable man.”
The venom in his words was not hidden. The disdain for which he felt carried through in his tone. The sinister smirk he wore reflected back in my lenses and I swear he liked what he saw.
Lifting my aviators, I allowed him to lock his gaze to my eye. I wanted him to see my hatred burned as deep and bright as his. The venom he spewed wasn’t half as much as the toxic shit I felt coursing through my veins for him.
“You took from me.” I spoke with gritted teeth. “The first ride when we were just little boys, nine years old, you pushed me down to deliver the tags to Paco. I should’ve known then. You always wanted to be my leader. I let you too. Like a dumb fuck moving up the ranks it was always known that Javi was the right hand to Maricio. But you know what everyone saw that I didn’t see at the time.” I stepped in closer. “I was strong and you were weak. They saw that Maricio wasn’t made to build an empire, but I was.”
“They saw it all wrong.” He ground out back at me.
“Look at me now! Look at me, you fucker!” I yelled knowing no one would hear us.
I removed my jacket and all my weapons, setting them on the counter where he could see.
He laughed calmly. “Ahhh, this again. You’re so determined I die by your hands it gives me my escape every fucking time.”
“As much as it has pained me to wait. Patience is a virtue, Maricio. And as a reward for being patient, I will enjoy taking your life even more. The time has only furthered my resolve to make this painful.”
“You won’t kill me.”
I laughed. “And why is that?”
“If I die there is no one to protect her, keep her, and take care of her.” He stressed the word her like the female he referred to held power over me. His sister had nothing left. I saw the pictures, she was comfortable and accepting of her life. I had been played long enough by the Dominguez siblings, they had nothing left to taunt me with.
I raised my hands up to the heavens and brought then back to my chest as if I were to pray. “Her. Funny you mention her. Mari Belle, your beautiful sister is upstairs, Maricio. After my men got you, they got her too. Aurelio delivered her safely to my house the day after you arrived. She is well. That is until I finish with her. No worries for you Maricio, she will join you in hell shortly. Consider it a family reunion in the after life.”
“The her I’m referring to is not my sister.” He smirked proudly at me like a fucking peacock fluffing his feathers.
The silence in the room was maddening as he watched me carefully.
He blinked slowly like he was delivering a death blow with his gaze. His eyes came to mine. My world stopped. “You are a father.” I couldn’t breath. “You have a daughter. And I am her keeper.”
No! The panic, the words. It couldn’t be true. “Fuck you!” I roared letting the emotions grab me like I knew I shouldn’t.
“I even set her up at school with Anna,” he told me plainly. Anna was my niece. Luciana’s daughter with Frederick, her husband that she left Juarez with so long ago. I paid for Anna to go to school. Frederick even handled my East Coast books so that I could ensure my sister and her daughter were cared for. He knew too much. How did he get to my niece? While I didn’t hide my family from the world like Maricio, I took great measures to protect them. Anna had a life that was supported by my organization but I didn’t have her in my business at all. In fact, Frederick ran my books for the East Coast and reported to me directly. I kept him out of anything heavy to protect my sister and her daughter.
I had a daughter, he said.
He spoke again as everything tumbled around inside my head trying to sort out what was real. “But do not worry, the girls don’t know of each other. I just wanted you to know I could always get to your familia if you were to touch mine.”
My head spun on his words. “You’re a desperate man looking for a way to save your skin.”
“If that is so, kill me now. Your daughter will miss her Tío. She will never forgive you for taking me from them. I have given her a world of comfort. You have given her mother years of unshed tears. You are the enemy and she knows it.”
I studied him. Maricio was unpredictable and could lie, but in my gut it was almost like I felt her. This piece inside of me that for so many years didn’t get pissed that Maricio was still alive seemed to know he was indeed taking care of my child. It made me sick.
But I believed him.
I was a father. And he knew it all along. I was someone’s dad. What the ever loving fuck did that mean?
Chapter Fifteen
Mari
I was in a bedroom. A guest room, I thought. There was a bed, a dresser, and while the space was large, it was blank. The tan walls were a light shade to the dark green comforter on the bed. Nothing about this place felt like home. I was locked in the room, but free to roam where nothing could be found. There were no clues to even help me be aware of where I was or who had taken me. It brought back memories from the early days with Maricio before I had Yesnia and earned his trust.
I didn’t know how long I had been here. I arrived drugged and unconscious. The last thing I remembered was going outside to check the mail. A man was walking down the sidewalk which wasn’t unusual. He rushed up to me jabbing me in the neck with something. The drugs instantly hit my system and I couldn’t fight the blackness.
I woke up here. That was it.
I didn’t know who had me, why they had me, or what they knew of me. I could only hope that Yesnia was still in North Carolina packing for her return from school. Maricio promised me he had measures in place that protected her at all times. It was the only reason I allowed her to go so far away for college. Maricio said it was the best school for the set up he could provide to keep her safe and away from his enemies as well as Javi’s should someone figure out who she was.
My head pounded harder the more I tried to think or the more I stressed over my daughter. Whatever they had injected me with gave me a hangover type of feeling. My mouth was dry like I swallowed cotton, my stomach felt like it was floating, and my head continued to throb. I was trying to take everything in while clearing my mind. I needed to have my head on straight in order to escape.
Listening, I heard noises coming down the hallway in my direction. I was not prepared as Javier Almanza rushed into the room.
I froze.
After all these years, he still looked the same. His shoulders were broad. Muscles in his forearms rippled. His face was still stern with a strong jawline that was ticking in contained fury.
He yanked his sunglasses off and his eye flickered in pain, anger, hatred, and so much more. The energy rolling off him was dangerous.
My palms were sweating, my hands shook, and my heartbeat raced.
“Tell me the fucker in the basement is lying!” He roared and instantly I knew.
I just knew what he was talking about. There was only one thing that would cause Javier Almanza to look at me with murder in his eyes. The he in the basement had to be Maricio. And Maricio always said Yesnia was the key to everything. There was no doubt in my mind he would use her to save his own life if that’s what it took.
“Yesnia is your daughter,” I whispered. I could feel it, he found out about my baby girl who was now a beautiful young woman. I need not lie, especially if I wanted to protect her in any way.
“You fucking bitch!” He yelled so loudly I thought my ears would bleed.
“Javi, I didn’t know I was pregnant until he took me.” The tears fell down my face in steady streams. He didn’t care what I had gone through.
Javier Almanza didn’t look at me with love. He looked me dead in the eyes with nothing but hatred. Raw unhidden, unashamed, disdain, it was all there.
“I tried to escape.” I rambled needing to explain myself. “He told me about the bargain. You were going to marry me on an order. How does that make you any better tha
n me or him?”
Javi began to pace the room, but I didn’t dare get close to him.
He glared at me. “I was going to marry you to save you and because I fucking loved you! I loved you!” He threw his hands up in frustration. “Mari, I didn’t look at other girls like I did you. I agreed, but only if you were willing to marry me. I never agreed to force you into it. I wanted you to want me, fucking hell.”
My body shook. The emotions were too much. Up, down, left, right, I didn’t know if my heart was coming or going. I couldn’t figure out if it was crumbling, shattering into a million pieces, or trying to be glued back together. For all these years, I didn’t think he loved me. Brick by brick, I built these walls around my heart. I told myself what we shared wasn’t real. Now, I felt nothing but regret, sorrow, and sadness.
The emotions inside me were at war. Conflicted.
“Where is she?” He ground out.
I weighed my options. For a moment, I thought about keeping the information to myself. I looked at Javi. I wondered if he would hurt me. How far would he go for the knowledge of his daughter’s whereabouts? In my gut, I could trust him. My mind however screamed to keep her away.
How far would I go to protect her?
But who was I protecting her from?
Maricio was a wild card. With me gone, I didn’t know what he would do to drag me back to the fold. Because I didn’t know if he thought I left on my own or I was taken. I tried to think of Javi’s words. He had him in the basement, possibly. If it wasn’t Maricio it was Paco, I wasn’t sure.
“Where is my brother?”
“He’s the fucker in my basement who told me I had a daughter.” Okay so I was in Javi’s home. He continued, “The only reason he’s still breathing is because I can’t trust you. If you lie to me, he will be the one to tell me. Either way, I don’t give a single shit if either of you die. Just know, I will have my daughter’s location by the time the day ends so I can end you both.”
Chills ran through me and a lump formed in my throat. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind I would die by Javier Almanza’s hand. Did I trust Yesnia out on her own alone? She didn’t even know the truth.
All the lies over the years we had told her about family, her father, and even my own mother’s death killed me. She thought everything was different than what it really was. I needed to be the one to explain.
“If I tell you, can I see her before I die?” I asked words no mother ever wanted to ask. In my mind I began to prepare my goodbye. “I know you hate me. I know there is so much that hurt us both. But Javi, I love my daughter. Please let me have a chance to tell her one more time. Let me hold her one more time.”
He studied me as I fell apart inside. I blinked thinking of her long dark hair and how even now she still asked me to braid it. I inhaled and in my mind I could still smell the vanilla of her favorite soap. I remembered the first time she told me she loved me. I thought about the time she scraped her knee trying to ride a bike and I told her she had to push on no matter what life gave her.
Would she remember the little lessons I gave her? Would my love be tainted by my lies?
“If what you say about her location brings her to me then I will give you time with her. If what you say is a dead end, you will die in the bottom of Lake Michigan where she will never see your body or give you a proper service.”
Anything we once shared was gone. In its place was a distrust and hatred that ran as deep as a river was wide. I swallowed hard. I wanted to curl into a ball and cry the world away. I couldn’t. Because this was my only chance to be the one to tell my daughter the truth about her life myself. This was the only hope I had to say goodbye to the girl I loved more than my life itself.
“She’s in North Carolina. UNC- Charlotte. She just graduated from college.”
Javier glared at me for one second before he rushed from the room locking me back in my cage.
In a few moments he returned. My stomach was in knots.
He held out a phone in his palm.
“Hola, Tío Maricio,” Yesnia greeted from the other end of the line. She sounded normal and my heart sank for what she was about to learn.
“Yesnia, this is not your beloved Tío. I am a very important man, though.” Javi’s voice was stern and commanding. “For the safety of your mother, I request your presence in Chicago.”
“What is wrong with my mother?” I could tell she was fighting to remain calm.
“She’s tied up at the moment.” His words cause chills to run down my spine. “But I have your code word so you know to go with the man who will be arriving to pick you up soon.”
“My uncle will come for her,” She muttered trying to be strong.
“Your uncle holds no power over me.” Javi’s sinister laugh radiates through the phone. “I am Javi Almanza. Your mother, she is with me.”
She had been told her entire life that Javier Almanza was dangerous, he was the enemy.
And he had me, her mother.
“My mother would never give you the word, nor would she want me with you.” The code word. This was a proud mom moment that she was firmly sticking to the safety measures I had given her. No one knew the code word and without it she wouldn’t leave.
“Muñeca, you need to listen.” I gasp at his use of my code word for Yesnia—doll. How did he know this? “Now, I have someone coming for you in an hour. You will pack a single bag with the necessities only. The rest of your belongings will be picked up by my associates tomorrow.”
He ended the call without another word.
“How did you know the word?”
He smirked. “It was the very word I gave you when we were young in the event something happened to Maricio or myself. I wanted you to know whoever came for you was someone you could trust.”
“What happens next?”
“I send a video to our daughter. One where you are going to tell her to go with the man on the motorcycle coming of her. You will tell her she will see me tomorrow.”
I did as he requested because this gave me hope that I would see my daughter one more time.
Hush little baby don’t say a word, momma’s gonna buy you a mockingbird. I hummed the lullaby I used to hum as I bathed her when she was first born.
The many promises I made and never could keep ran through my head.
I had failed her again.
And this was a failure I wouldn’t get a chance to make right.
Chapter Sixteen
Yesnia
My nerves ran high. Four hours ago, Axel Crews dropped me off with a promise to come for me should I need him. It was all too much to process. We never discussed my father. I never honestly cared to ask. My childhood never felt lacking in any way. I was loved. I had a stable home where for the most part my mother and I were safe. Occasionally, my uncle Maricio got out of line striking my mother, but he never touched me. Even when he was upset, angered, or frustrated, he always gentled himself for me or my mother sent me away to keep me safe. My mother was a pillar of strength that kept close tabs on me. She was everything a mom should have been and so much more. She was my very best friend.
At the time, I didn’t feel like I would need Axel or an escape.
Now, I am tempted to make the call. My nerves are too much.
Javier Almanza was my father.
A man who was feared by many and loved by none, was my father. The man my Tio, my uncle, said was the devil himself was my dad. I couldn’t handle it. Every trait I was taught to fear in a human being was tied to him. Lying, cheating, stealing, killing, there was a story about Javier Almanza to go with it. He had not a drop of goodness inside him. And he was my father. His blood ran through my veins. The other half of my DNA came from a monster.
Not only did I look just like him, so there was no denying he was related to me, I felt him. I felt him connected to me from the moment I laid eyes on him.
Walking through the door to his home, my mother apologized for keeping us apart. But I saw the fear in
her eyes. The pain was deep, but mostly she was afraid.
My mother was never afraid.
Mari Belle Luisa Dominguez was stronger than anyone. She was a superhero. When my uncle would go into his fits of rage at her, she would tell me to run. I would hide in the closet and listen to her take hit after hit. His flesh smacked against hers. She never once cried out, she never let one tear shed. Even with the bruises, she would look at me later and tell me never to fear a man. No matter how hard he hits you, no matter the words he said, you never gave him your fear.
For fear was as powerful as love.
To have your emotions she believed was to have you, and you never let a man have all of you for they would all fail you and break your heart.
She knew it well. And now it made sense, for Javier Almanza was her heartbreak.
Javier asked me to stay in this room while he had time to speak with my mother. That was hours ago. Bravely, I went to the door and turned the knob.
It opened.
I wasn’t trapped.
This surprised me.
This was a powerful man who controlled so much, but he left me to freely roam his home. Things didn’t make sense. I wandered the halls of the place. It was large. The place was bland and void of memories like most family homes of this size. While the colors on the walls were a shade of taupe, they didn’t have pictures or decorations. The entire place felt empty.
I wondered if this was what the man was like—void.
Room to room, hallway after hallway I couldn’t find anyone. Not my mother, not this man who was my father, or even a person cleaning the place.
Going down stairs, I heard a laugh and followed the sound. Nervously, I followed the sound. I should have gone back. I knew it, but I couldn’t make myself turn around. I reached a closed door where it sounded like someone was talking but no one was replying. Walking into the room, I saw my uncle chained to a wall. Closing the door behind me I tried to access the situation. He was talking to himself like a madman.
The gasp escaped me as the shock took over and my uncle looked up to meet my eyes.
Cartel B!tch: Almanza Crime Family Duet Page 11