Page 77 of Brutal Enforcer

Emma looked at Angel, and the very clearnot on her fucking lifethat was shared between them nearly made me laugh. “Are we like that?” I asked, looking down at Lyse.

She was watching my brother and his wife too, considering. “I don’t think I’m that easy to read,” she said and almost sounded sad.

Lili hummed from beside her. “Emma didn’t grow up like we did,” she said. “She didn’t have to learn to hide what she was thinking or feeling.” She bumped into us. “Doesn’t mean that we don’t feel as deeply.”

Lili was a lot like me: she used humor and sharpness to throw off anyone who might get too close, but every once in a while, she allowed someone to see her soft underbelly. I was glad that she’d found Lyse trustworthy. It helped to know that one of my siblings saw what I did.

After Manny cooed over Miri for a few minutes, he carefully handed the baby back to Emma. “That’s about as much as I trust myself with something that small,” he said, making everyone laugh.

Emma came over to us, and while I fully expected that she would hand the baby to Lili, she held her out for Lyse. “Say hi to your Tía Lyse.”

Lyse blinked, surprised, but she took the baby into her arms with a soft, pleased sound. “Aren’t you a beauty?” she cooed. Her body began to rock-bounce to a gentle rhythm, and the baby’s eyes drifted shut.

“Where did you learn that?” Emma asked, impressed.

Lyse smiled, eyes never leaving the sleeping girl. “I am the oldest of all of the children in my family,” she said. “I’ve been soothing babies since I was old enough to hold them on my own.”

Angel reached over and gently plucked the bundle out of her arms. She kept her face neutral, but I could tell that she was disappointed. But before I could say or do anything, Angel handed Miri over to me. For all the hubbub about her being a big newborn, she weighed next to nothing; she was incredibly tiny in my arms. My muscles locked up, and the women around me laughed.

“Big, bad Omar afraid of a baby,” Emma teased.

“Hey,” I said, barely glancing in her direction, “I don’t want to drop your kid before she’s big enough to bounce, all right?”

Lili scooped her from me then. “That’s enough of that,” she said, practically dancing away from us. “You just come with Tía Lili,” she said, ignoring Emma’s panickedLili!

“Go with them,” Angel said, looking at Lyse.

She leaned into me. “Uhm.”

I patted her hip. “Go,” I said. “Soak up all the baby cuddles.” I looked at Angel. “I need to talk to my brother.”

Once Lyse had trailed after Emma and Lili — and she was welcomed into their group with an arm casually slung across her shoulder — I was able to let go of the breath I was holding.

“You married her.”

I nodded, not bothering to deny it. “We’ve been talking about it for a few months,” I said. “I didn’t want to lose the opportunity.”

I hated the tension between us. Even when we had fought growing up, Angel had always been the person I could go to when everything became too loud or too overwhelming. He was the first person who knew how to talk me out of those red moods that could end in so much carnage. Now, he felt like a stranger: I wasn’t entirely comfortable standing next to him.

“I’m not going to send you away again,” he said, clearing his throat. “Emma wants you home now that the baby is here. She would feel safer with you here with us.”

Affection for my sister-in-law welled in my chest. “Lyse would be welcome too?”

He grimaced, but he nodded. “She’s not a Rojas anymore,” he said. I expected him to walk away after that. “But we have a bigger problem.”

I winced, knowing what he was about to say. “The Corazón Syndicate. I’m surprised this hasn’t come up sooner.” Fucking Jesus. I wished I could kill him all over again.

Angel looked at me, his expression hard. “It has. I offered to reimburse them for the lostmerchandise.”

I whistled under my breath. This was my fault. If I hadn’t kidnapped Lyse and dragged her back to the island, the weapons might still be there and we wouldn’t find ourselves beholden to Venezuela’s version ofel Coco,or the boogeyman.

“What did Ademir say?” Since we were having this conversation, I knew that he didn’t accept Angel’s offer. “Should I turn myself in to the Syndicate?”

At that moment, I caught sight of Lyse, standing next to Emma. She was all smiles and my heart ached knowing what it would do to her if I gave myself to the Syndicate to save my family.

“No. I’ll deal with the Syndicate and Ademir. You stay out of it.”

I knew what he wanted to hear from me. “Sí,jefe.” Then he turned his back on me, and I didn’t seek him out further.

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