Page 60 of Cartel Viper
“I know, Javi. But it’s not as simple as just opening my mouth and letting all the secrets I’ve been punished for knowing come tumbling out.”
That makes me pause. My gaze skims over her, and it would be easy to pretend I didn’t see the bruises on her wrists days ago or how she shied away when I brushed my fingers over her kidneys at the reception. My life is like a theatrical performance every day since I reinvent myself depending on the situation. I can pretend anything does or doesn’t exist depending on how it serves me. But there’s no forgetting what Drew’s done to Maddy, and I barely know any of it.
“He forced you to know his secrets, then punished you for it?”
“Yes. It’s part of how he controlled me. He put me in situations where I couldn’t help but learn his secrets, then he’d threaten me if I ever told them. He’d blame me for things that made no sense, but he’d try to gaslight me. I didn’t buy into it being my fault, but it didn’t change how I had to react to avoid him lashing out.”
“How did you react?”
“I’d tell him?—”
The windows rattle, and we look toward the helipad that’s visible outside the kitchen. The door slides open as the helicopter touches down. The blades haven’t slowed by the time Jorge and Joaquin jump out, bent low toward the ground.
“Shit!”
She scrambles to grab her clothes and rushes to put them back on as my brothers run toward the dining room glass doors.
“I’ll let them in and keep them in there until you join us.”
I hurry through the pocket door and slide it closed behind me. Just as I open the left French door, the security system beeps. Someone’s at the first gate.
“Hola, mano.” Hello, brother.
Jorge gives me a loose hug, and I return it, but I’m looking toward the driveway. There’s no way I can see it with half the house in the way.
“Hey. Did you see anyone pulling up to the gate?”
Joaquin glances in the gate’s direction, but he can see no more than I can. “No. Did one of the guys run out to town?”
“They were all accounted for when I checked the video feeds when we got here.”
I checked them while I turned on the bath. Every room has screens with the surveillance feeds, so you know where everyone is at all times. There aren’t cameras in the main house’s bedrooms, but there are ones right outside the doors. There are cameras in all the rooms in the guards’ bunkhouse. They aren’t afforded the same privacy my family gets.
The alarm beeps again, and we know that means whoever arrived just made it through the second gate. I don’t like this.
“I need to get Maddy.”
Jorge and Joaquin pull their guns from their lower backs as they spin around and step back onto the patio. Jorge fishes in his pocket and pulls out an earpiece he tosses over his shoulderto me. My brothers and I all put ours in, knowing they’ll operate on a different frequency from the ones our men use. But we can easily flick them over to that one. We can hear everything the men say, but we can also communicate privately.
We won’t speak Spanish either. We’ll useMacaguán, one of sixty-five Amerindian languages spoken in Colombia. Only about five hundred people still speak it and almost exclusively in a remote region near the Venezuelan border. It’s my family’s ancestral language and great for keeping things private these days.
I watch my brothers move back-to-back as they creep toward the end of the patio before I slip back into the kitchen.
“Javi?”
“Something’s going on, Maddy, but I’m not quite sure what. We need to get you in the safe room.”
“Drew?”
“Possibly, but I don’t know for sure. Come on.”
I reach for her arm and wrap my hand around her right elbow, but before we can move toward the door that’ll lead to the foyer, all hell breaks loose. The sound of automatic weapons firing blasts through the air. My grip tightens on Maddy as I tug her toward me, pulling a gun from the drawer closest to me. We have weapons scattered throughout this house, in places people are least likely to imagine.
“Javier?!”
“In the kitchen, Jorge.”
My brother’s voice bellows at me, even though the tone is neutral. His volume makes me realize those gunshots weren’t fired by anyone on our side. Both of my brothers burst into the kitchen, not having made it far down the patio before turning back to find Maddy and me.
