Page 38 of Punished

I’ve seen a lot of shit in my twenty-two years of life. Patricio has been preparing me to one day take his position running the finances of the company, as well as take on the Financial Networking of the Houston Cartel Connect. Making it in a male-dominated world has never been easy, but I’ve learned to separate my emotions from the violence I am surrounded by. I am numb to it. But yesterday was something personal, and not for Calavera Hotels, or even the Consuelo family, but it was a personal messagefor me.

Conejo saw it first and stuffed the note in his pocket. It was lying next to a massive pile of burning baby dolls on the border of Patricio’s property. When he told me about it, I cringed at what the message could mean, but then I saw the note.

What did you do with the baby, Thalia?

A personal message and a direct threat. I needed to figure out where it came from. I needed to talk to my tio and let him know the attack very well could not have been Los Bandoleros, but rather, someone from my past. The knocking on the door becomes louder, and when I finally get up, I see my brother outside the door and narrow my eyes.

“¿Qué quieres güey?” He arches an eyebrow at me, clearly offended at my harsh greeting. He ignores my question as he pushes past me.

“Nice to see you, too. No time for a family breakfast?” His tone is playful but arrogant.

I walk to the kitchen and throw a Pop Tart at him.

“There, now get out.” He rolls his eyes and Luca has already heard him and runs in to hug him. Adrian has already embraced Luca and all his weird quirks. La sangre llama, my grandmother used to say. The Spanish phrase about our bloodlines calling to one another has made more sense since Adrian showed up. Luca has little sense ofsocial skills, and avoids most people he meets, disregarding their presence, yet, he followed and clung to Adrian from the moment he met him. The same way he did to Olivia, Lucia, and myself.

“What happened last night? You looked shaken up. Did you find something on the property?” He opens the package and hands one of the Pop Tarts to Luca.

I debate what and how much I should tell him. Maybe, had we actually grown up as siblings, this would be easier, but we are both fucked up estranged children of Ivan Consuelo.

“There was a threat,” I finally confess. “A personal one. For me.”

I tell him about the note and the display, wrapping my robe around myself as I sit down on the couch next to him. Feeling defeated about the whole thing and scared of letting him in on this detail of my life. I never know who I can trust, and therefore, I trust no one outside my family.

“I don’t get it? Who would want to hurt you?” I close my eyes and brace my inner child to take cover so I can open up to Adrian.

“When I was sixteen, my–I mean, our–father arranged me into a marriage with the son of a Kingpin. He wanted to form an alliance with the Los Reyes de Tamaulipas, who, at the time, had control over Reynosa. Our entirefamily fought against it, but in the end, I was dragged to the altar.”

My eyes wince at the memory of one of the most pivotal points in my life. “The day after we consummated the marriage, his entire family was arrested on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering.” Adrian looks at me, confused, as he takes in the information.

“What happened to your…husband?”

“Ivan had betrayed the entire family, set them up, and even killed the ones who went to jail. He used Olivia’s ex-boyfriend, who was an informant at the time, and brought them down at my wedding. He used the wedding to gather them all together. Those who were tried and arrested died after he bombed the bus that was transporting them. My… husband… was arrested alongside them. It grew into a messy war that took years to straighten out. For my safety, I was taken to California, to Tia Adriana’s Ranch, where she has maximum security due to her husband’s status. Aurelio, her husband, held rank with Los Reyes. He made a deal for my protection, and within a few years, our father’s head was cut off and sent to Don Vicente.”

“Then what changed?”

“I’m not sure. I couldn’t see Los Reyes retaliating. Not with whatever deal they struck with Aurelio. They controltheir territory, and we rarely cross paths.”

Another knock sounds at the door, and Adrian looks at me as I move to open it. Standing outside is my cousin Ariella, holding her demonic-looking dog, Guapo. Looking the very essence of a narco princess, dripped in a short brown designer dress, designer bag, and heels. Her lighter complexion is flawless and her green eyes are twinkling with mischief, as always. Adrian walks behind me to the door and gasps at the ugliness of Guapo and crosses himself before walking out. Ariella looks puzzled as he walks past her.

“Um. Rude!” she yells behind her. “You really pick them well, Thalia.” I laugh at her confusion.

“That is actually Adrian, my brother,” I say, and her mouth drops. Adrian has always been a whispered name in our family. Most of us were convinced he was a ghost who we would never see.

“I’m going to need all the tea!” she says, and I hope she has a few hours because I’m going to need it to explain everything.

It should be illegal to own a dog that ugly. My grandfather’s birthday party is still a month out, and family I have never met are flying in left and right. I am relieved when I reach Enrique’s office to see he is alone. He had messaged me to meet him down here, and I’m assuming he’s found more information on Constance.

“You look like you’ve seen La Llorona,” he says when I walk in.

“More like a demonic dog.”

“I take it you met Guapo, then,” he laughs. “Your other cousins are parading around here. Adan was able to get me the phone records on Constance. It appears we were right: that call she made was to Bryan.” I had already figured as much. I had more important things to figure out before questioning Bryan myself. With this new informationThalia shared with me, I feel like there is a much larger threat hanging over us than whatever Constance and Bryan are scheming.

“There’s more. Don Mario caught Bryan snooping around here, meeting one of the sous chefs after hours.”

“Where’s the sous chef?”

“Axel got in last night and was bored, so he asked if he could torture the poor soul. The guy confessed that Bryan was paying him to get samples of DNA. Your DNA, Mireya’s DNA, and even Thalia’s. I went back through the hotel security footage and found him collecting hair, a glass you had drank out of, and the sick fuck even had one of Thalia’s tampons.” I cringe at the desperate attempts.

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