Page 12 of To Have and To Hold

I tried to get a feel for what would be required of Isabella’s bodyguard. “I assume she’s staying here with you?”

Jano rolled his eyes.

Mia replied, “Her father wants her here. I get the feeling that she’s intimidated. Uncle Carmine and Aunt Aurora don’t have high opinions of the cartel. I told her she could stay with Liliana if she preferred. She has an apartment at Estate 3301.”

My eyebrows rose. “High-end real estate.”

“She’s been through a lot. It’s a three bedroom. José and Renata Pérez are her bodyguard and her live-in help. That leaves one free bedroom if Isabella would be more comfortable there.”

“I know José. I didn’t realize he was married,” I said.

Jano answered, “They had previously been with Gerardo and felt protective of Liliana. They’re a married couple in their forties. From what I hear, Renata is almost as good of a cook as Viviana.” That would be Silas’s wife.

Mia stood and lifted her eyebrows. “I thought you were going to say almost as good as me,” she said with a smirk.

Jano wrapped his arm around Mia and tugged her toward him. Whatever he whispered caused her cheeks to flush with crimson before she kissed his cheek.

I cleared my throat. “I volunteer.”

Jano turned to me. “No.” He released his wife and moved back around the desk. Strewn over the surface were paper maps, ones I knew he’d studied backward and forward. “I need you. I need you on the streets and at Wanderland. Shit went down last night. You have connections throughtupadre,and you’re one of the best hackers I know next to Rei. It would be too much of a loss to have you babysit Isabella.”

“But it’s not a loss if Silas does?” Mia pleaded.

“This house is safer than Fort Knox,” Jano said. “Silas can be gone during the day and once Isabella is done at the apartments, he will be back with us.”

“What if she lives with Liliana?” she asked.

“He can still return. José is capable of keeping two girls safe in a luxury apartment.”

Mia wrapped her arms around herself. “Do you know the last time I heard that saying—safer than Fort Knox?”

Jano let out a breath. “Bella.”

She nodded with tears in her eyes. “Bella.”

Jano came around the desk, leaned against the surface, and pulled his wife between his long legs and into his embrace. “What happened out there will not happen here.”

“If we hadn’t taken so many of the guards…Jorge was left shorthanded.” She palmed Jano’s cheeks. “Por favor, estoy asustada.”

El Patr?n’sAdam’s apple bobbed as he turned to me. “Find a soldier we can trust with Isabella.”

“You can trust me.”

“Em, find me a soldier and have him here by noon. Isabella arrives after two. He can accompany Silas to the airport.”

I wanted to argue my case. I could also see the turmoil Mia was still experiencing from what happened to Jorge Roríguez I. Mostly, I understood that I’d just received a direct order fromel Patr?nhimself. As a soldier myself, I wasn’t in a position to argue.

My thoughts filled with capable soldiers. We had them—men who would lay down their lives for Jano, Rei, and the cartel. This wouldn’t be that simple of a request.

Cue the other important person running through my mind—Isabella Luciano. She was famiglia. Whomever I chose would have to swear to protect her as if she were cartel. One day, she would be.

After all, Isabella was coming to me. I’d concede that I wasn’t the exact reason she was coming to California. Nevertheless, I had one month to show her that I wasn’t the monster she’d been led to believe. I’d show her that in essence the cartel and Mafia famiglia were more similar than she realized. We had different products and similar products. We both worked in an underground world that everyday people chose to ignore.

The Mafias of the past were renowned, filled with the lore of honor and duty. The likes of Al Capone, Carlo Gambino, and Frank Costello romanticized the realities of their livelihoods. Movies such asThe GodfatherandThe Untouchablesmade mere men into legends.

The cartel needed to up its public relations. As we witnessed with the news and social media coverage of the death of Jorge Roríguez I, cartels were viewed with less allure.ScarfaceandSavagesportray us as cruel, greedy, and bloodthirsty.

The reality was that the Mafia and cartel were different sides of the same coin. No one could claim that either organization was filled with boy scouts. We both dealt within the illegal world of drugs, prostitution, and extortion.El patr?nwas especially bloodthirsty to avenge his father. Yet the man the world never saw was the one who moments ago made his wife blush, showed her compassion, and listened to her concerns. Perhaps the world would never see that side of the Roríguez cartel.

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