I duck, hiding behind the altar as he shoots again.
He pushes Mother aside so hard she falls to the ground, but he doesn’t even care. All he’s focused on is shooting at me and everything surrounding me.
When he momentarily stops, I shoot back, hitting the wall.
I duck again before he has the chance to blow my brains out. From the corner of my eye, I watch the kids huddle close behind a bench while Laura’s holding her phone against her ear, probably to call the police.
She must’ve been worried about me or Mother, and that’s why she came here. But I wish they hadn’t. They’re a liability. I have to keep them safe.
After Julio fires another shot, I take aim at his gun and shoot. It bounces away from his hand, and he growls from both pain and shock as it tumbles to the floor.
His eyes widen when I crawl out and get up, pointing my gun straight at him. Not once do I think before I pull the trigger.
And then I realize I’m shooting blanks.
The look on his face changes from raw fear to rage as he charges at me in full force, ramming me like a bull.
He slams me to the ground, and a fist lands on my face. My vision gets blurry, but Laura’s scream keeps me wide awake. I hit back, punching him in the gut, but it doesn’t get him off me. He lands another punch on my shoulder, and I howl in pain.
“I’ll show you why they call me El Campeón,” he growls, hitting me again.
Each fist hits like a truck, forcing the air out of my lungs. I can barely breathe.
Another fist to the mouth and blood flies around.
But the fearful faces of Bruno and Diego give me strength, and I fight back, kicking him in the balls. If I have to play dirty to win, so be it, but I’m not going to lose to this son of a bitch. No fucking way.
“Stop!” Laura yells, her voice sounding more like a cry than anger.
We roll around the floor, punching each other, kicking and throwing fists wherever we can. However, when his hands wrap around my neck, I know I’m done for.
“Dad, don’t!” Diego yells. Even he’s on my side now. But it’s no point if I’m choked to death.
Then I remember the knife I had in my pocket, and I swiftly pull it out to try to stab him. He pushes me back and gets up from the floor. I do too, and I swing at him with the knife, making him walk backward. He slips on the carpet and falls. Perfect.
I jump on him and try to shove the knife down his throat, but his hands are in the way. He props himself up and punches me so hard in the gut, I heave and feel the bile rise. He grabs my wrist and twists. The knife falls from my hand as I groan in pain. Then he kicks me so hard I literally fly across the hall.
Fuck.
Landing against a wall with your back is painful. So painful, I can barely breathe.
God, everything hurts, and it’s so damn hard to focus. I feel around the floor to get a grip of where I am, at which point my hands reach for something odd.
Something metallic.
Julio’s gun.
But then, from the corner of my eye, I spot Bruno pushing Laura away, freeing himself from her grasp.
“Bruno, no!” she calls out to him, but it’s too late.
He’s running … to me.
“No, stay away,” I mutter, but I can barely pronounce the words. My throat is clamped, and he can’t hear me from afar.
Too late. Everything’s going so quick. It’s like time has sped up and now he’s already at my side. “You gotta get up and fight,” he pleads, hugging me tightly. “I believe in you.” He pushes me with his little hands like a child trying to wake his parents.
It unravels me.
Until I see Julio appear behind him with my goddamn knife … and he grabs him.
“No!” I scream, immediately crawling up.
But it’s too late … Julio has Bruno in a tight grasp, holding the knife dangerously close to his neck.
“Let him go; he’s innocent!” I yell.
Laura approaches us with Diego, but Julio’s roar stops them in their tracks. “Don’t come closer!”
“Dad, no! Don’t do it!” Laura screams with tears running down her cheeks. “Why? He’s just a little kid.”
“This is it, Frank,” he murmurs, looking directly at me. “Say goodbye to your goddamn son.”
“No,” I hiss, and I grab the gun from the floor, aiming it at him. “You can kill me for all I care, but you will let him live.”
Bruno’s eyes grow big as he struggles in Julio’s arms, muttering, “Son …?”
I swallow away the lump in my throat.
Never in a million years did I imagine he’d find out this way.
If it were up to me, it’d be different, but I was too careless. Too distracted from what really mattered. And now I’ll pay the price.
“I’ll kill him faster than you can shoot, Frank,” Julio barks, pushing the knife even further into the boy’s skin. “Don’t even think about it.”
“No … Please …” Laura falls to her knees in front of us, tears streaming down her face. “Please, don’t do this.”
I don’t know whether she’s talking to him or me, but I respond anyway. “I have to shoot him,” I say. “It’s the only way to save Bruno.”
“Don’t let him make you a killer again, Frank,” Laura says through gritted teeth. “It’s not worth it. There’s gotta be a way out.”
“There isn’t,” Julio hisses. “He has to die.”
“No!” she yells.
“I have to take the shot,” I hiss.
“You can’t! You’ll hit Bruno,” she shouts, angrier than I’ve ever seen her.
Still, I try to perfect my aim. “It’s the only way …”
“Stop! Just fucking stop!” Laura screams.
Suddenly, Julio’s eyes roll into the back of his head, and he falls down to the ground, releasing Bruno with it, who runs off to Laura’s arms.
Only when Julio’s body hits the ground do I realize what happened.
Mother smacked the back of his head with a giant cross she pulled off the wall.
“I thought he’d never shut up.” She spits on his body. “Shame on you! No one will forgive you for your sins, not even God himself,” she growls.
I gape with my jaw unhinged, wondering if what I’m seeing is a figment of my imagination, but it doesn’t appear to be.
Not when I see Diego’s wide-open mouth and Laura’s wide-eyed glare.
We’re all stunned.
Completely and utterly stunned by this old woman beating the crap out of Julio, the brawler. El Campeón.
Who’d have thought Margaret would save the day?
No one.
30
A few minutes later, the cops have arrived.
I put some rope around Julio’s hands and tied him to one of the pillars, so he wouldn’t try to escape. I’m still not sure whether I should be glad I didn’t kill him, but at least Laura’s content. It’d be hard on her to watch her daddy die. I just couldn’t do it to her, and luckily, Mother took the choice away from me.
I’m still a bit mad over it.
Hell, I would’ve loved to shoot him instead.
But this … this is better.
This doesn’t make me a monster again.
We tell the cops exactly what happened: Three armed men tried to rob the church, one of whom was Laura’s father, which is the reason she came. She knew he would do it, so she tried to warn the people inside the church. And I tried to stop it, using any weapon I legally had in my possession, and they were eventually overpowered.
The cops actually believe us.
Of course, it’s a bit skewed from the full truth, but they did come in uninvited and threaten to kill an old lady in a church. No one, and I mean no one, likes that. It’s like some unwritten rule that you never attack a granny.
Who does that anyway?
Julio motherfucking Espino, that’s who.
And I’m so damn happy they’re dragging him away in cuffs.
“When I get out, you’re gonna pay!” he yells at me.
“By the time you get out, we’ll both be dead.” I snort as they pull him through the church doors and shove him into their car.
More men come in to assess the remaining bodies and bag them up while medics come in to tend to our wounds. I’m poked with needles and stuffed with medicine, which I fucking hate, but at least it numbs the pain a bit.
“Thanks,” I say with a gritty voice as they tend to me.
“I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to take you to the hospital.”
“Aw, c’mon …” I sigh, looking at Laura and the kids. “Really?”
“Yes, we need to check for internal damage.”
“Right.” I nod. “But can I at least say bye to them first?”
“Sure. Why not,” the medic says, and he and his buddy go check on Mother first.
I look at Laura and the kids who all go down on their knees beside me so they can get on my level. I’m still lying against one of the pillars for support, too fatigued to get up. Besides, the medics don’t want me to move. Probably afraid I have a fracture or something, but if that was the case, I’d probably feel it, and I don’t.
Still, to say I feel like shit is to put it lightly.
“How are you feeling?” Laura asks, grabbing my hand.
I chuckle. “I’ve been better.” I squeeze her hand and look her in the eyes. “But at least you’re all alive.”
She immediately wraps her arms around me and hugs me tightly, unable to keep her emotions at bay. “Fuck, I was so worried, Frank. I thought you died. I really thought you … and then Ricardo showed up at our doorstep, telling us you sent him to take care of us. Of course, I asked him if you were still alive, and when he told us where you were, so I immediately came here.”
“Of course, you did.” I snort. “You left him there, didn’t you?”
“Well, I told him to watch our fish,” she muses, making me laugh.
“Since when do you have a fish?”
She shrugs. “I don’t, but at least it’ll keep him busy looking for it. Sorry.”
I roll my eyes. “I should’ve expected as much.”
“What? Of course, I came here as soon as I heard.” She smacks me. “You terrified the shit out of me, Frank! God, I almost thought you died.”
“So you admit you don’t want me dead?” I muse, raising a brow.
She gives me another smack on the leg. “You asshole! Of course, I don’t want you dead! Who gave you that idea?”
“Maybe that knife you tried to pry out my guts with?” I say, hinting at our furiously sexy battle in her kitchen.
“I was upset, and you know damn well why.” She puts her hands on her side like it makes her murder story more understandable. “And by the way, you could’ve at least let us know you were alive. Or, you know, that you were planning to escape.” She scrunches up her face. “You kept us out of the loop on purpose.”
“What else was I supposed to do? Tell you all my secret plans right in front of Julio so he could sabotage them?”
She raises a brow. “No, but you could’ve called.”
“I was a little busy if you hadn’t noticed.” I look around us at the mess the three men caused.
“Yeah … well … you’re lucky you survived.” She playfully punches me again, right on that painful spot.
I cringe, and she immediately softens her look and her touch. “Oh, shit, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” I mutter, smiling. “I’m just glad we’re all alive.” I reach for her face and caress her cheeks softly. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if you’d … if you’d …”
“Jesus Christ, can you please stop the lovebird act? It’s driving me insane,” Diego grumbles as he gets up from the floor.
We both laugh about it. “I’m happy you’re alive too, Diego,” I say.
“Thanks.” He shrugs. “For saving us, I suppose.”
“It’s the only thing I could do after causing all this trouble.”
“Damn right.” Laura puts her hands against her waist. “I should scold you some more, but I’m too happy that we’re all still in one piece.”
“Hey, your dad’s the asshole here, okay? He tried to murder Bruno, and he even kidnapped his own children. If that isn’t the next American Psycho, I don’t know what is.”
She sighs and shakes her head. “Oh, Frank … when will you ever learn that nothing will ever come between family?”
“Does that mean you still care about your father? After everything he did?” I ask.
“Well … he is my father …” She looks away, tentatively biting her lip before glancing at me. “But I’m glad he’s in jail. He should pay for all the things he’s done.”
“Good.”
“What about you?”
“How I feel about it?” I point at myself, and she nods. “Well … I suppose I’m happy. I mean he can’t hurt anyone where he’s going, so that’s good.”
“Still looking for revenge? Even when your son is alive?” She looks at Bruno, and when I follow her gaze and find his sheepish eyes gawking at me, I melt into a puddle.
“No.” I reach for him, grabbing his tiny hand to hold him tight. “I’m okay now. It’s over. It’s done now.”
Tears well up in my eyes, but I push them away, smiling brightly.
I’m done crying. I’ve shed enough tears. It’s about time I let them go.
“Hey, buddy.”
“Hey,” he says, a little awkward.
“Thank you,” I mutter.
“For what?” he asks.
“For being here.” I don’t mean literally here … more like … alive. But I don’t want to scare him, so I don’t say it out loud.
My finger brushes along his cheek as I try to memorize what he feels like. If it’s the same as I remember … back when I first held him as a baby. And as I stare into those beautiful eyes, I finally see him for who he really is.
Mine.
“Sorry.” The paramedic coughs. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but we really have to go now.”
I look up to see they’re wheeling Mother out on a stretcher, and the medics place one beside me too.
“Oh, right …” I clear my throat as I look up at Laura and Bruno. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” She smiles. “Let them fix you. You’re no use to anyone if you can’t even walk,” she jokes, making me laugh but even that hurts.
The medics push the stretcher underneath me and roll me over it, strapping me to it and putting a nice warm blanket on top.
“Well … see you all later then, I guess,” I say, as they lift it up.
“We’ll come visit you in the hospital.” Laura picks Bruno up. “Say bye,” she tells him.
I grab his hand and squeeze tight. “Will I see you later, bud?”
He nods, probably still shy about the whole situation. I don’t blame him. I mean coming face to face with the fact you have a completely different father can be quite the shock … if he even remembers. He’s such a young kid. Gosh, we’ll have to explain that all to him.
But now is not the time.
Now is the time for mending and for making peace with our mistakes.
And as I’m rolled out on the stretcher and placed in the ambulance, all I can do is smile. Not because it’s painless because it’s not. But because I’m finally free of the burden I carried all this time. Free from the coils entangled around my heart.
31
Hospitals are so damn boring.
Really, you just sit around and do nothing all day while you stare at a television and drink some juice. If I was still drinking alcohol, this would be amazing, but unfortunately, doing literally nothing is not that big of a deal when you’re sober.
Shame.
Lucky for me, they put me in the same room as Carl. He looks a lot better now that he isn’t lying in a pool of his own blood. He already showed me his scar from where they took out the bullet. Like he’s proud
of it or something. Oh well, you know what they say about scars … wear them like a war medal.
He can’t seem to shut up about my epic battle with Julio, though. I regretted telling him the whole story the moment I finished. This dude is like the ultimate fan. Well, except for the fact that I’m not a fucking celebrity, and I don’t wanna be. But I get it. He needs a role model, and I’m pretty much the best he can find.
That either says a lot about his life … or about me.
Take your pick.
Either way, he seems pretty impressed with my escape stunt.
“I can’t believe you actually held your breath for that long. Two minutes? Man, I can’t even keep my head underwater for more than a minute.”
“Well, it’s not like I had a choice now, did I?” I say.
“Yeah, but that’s so cool!” He gives me this huge smile, which inflates my ego, big time.
“Learned from the best,” I muse, taking a sip of my drink.
“Who?”
“Myself.” I grin, and he laughs at my reply.
“So you told Ricardo where to dig you up?”
“Well, I didn’t know what they were going to do to me, but I had an idea. So I gave him a list of things, including finding a mound that had fresh digging marks.”
“Wow …” He nods like he’s trying to picture it.
“Yep.” A pause follows, and I take another loud sip of my juice, which goes through a straw, by the way. I specifically requested one.
“Jesus, Frank … why do you keep doing that?” Carl asks, hinting at my straw.
I take another sip and say, “I love it when everyone can hear the annoying sounds I make. It’s another battle strategy. Did I mention I want to get out of here as soon as possible?”
He laughs, shaking his head. “You’re one weird motherfucker.” He holds up his hands. “I mean that in a good way.”
“Thanks.”
“Besides. Who wouldn’t want to get out of a hospital as quickly as they can?” He twines his hands behind his head as he relaxes on his pillow.
“Exactly. Especially when all you’ve got is a few bruised ribs, a slash in your lip, and a black eye.” The hospital staff wanted to keep me for a night, just to make sure my organs weren’t damaged from the hits I received.
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