Las Hermanas

by Raedene Jeannette Melin

  Adi studied him as he refused to look away from her. She didn’t have to think hard to figure out what Thiago wanted—it was the same thing they all did. But as he sat there in his fragile, emotional state, she wasn’t sure she should tell him. “Yes,” she replied.

  He nodded and was quiet for a while before he spoke again. “I want...” he stopped. “I need you to help me. I need you to help me kill him.”

  His measured words rang clearly through the air and Adi watched as Rodrigo took a couple steps closer, an uncertain look on his face. While she had made a similar deal with Jacobo just a couple days earlier, she knew that what Thiago was asking was different. He didn’t want to entice the man; he wanted to hunt him down and kill him. It was simple. No waiting, no games. While both options were risky, what Thiago was suggesting was without a doubt more dangerous, downright foolish even. They would be in enemy territory, taking on a man who had endless resources and absolutely no moral limitations. If they failed to kill him, they would not get a second chance.

  As she thought about it, perhaps that’s what made it so appealing, knowing that after it was over, only one of them would still be breathing. She would either die or get to live in a world without him. As she looked at her brother’s grave beside her, she knew what she wanted to do.

  She expected some resistance when she told the others, but as she surveyed the serious faces standing around her, she got none. Even when she started to explain how slim their chances were, she was stopped midsentence when Catalina placed a hand on her cheek, letting it rest there for a moment before she gave her a small smile and walked away. As the others left, needing no instruction on how to prepare, Adi remained where she stood and found herself alone with Lupita.

  Never before had Adi seen such a tormented look on her face. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” she said. “You can go with Nayara. You don’t have to come.”

  Adi knew how much Lupita hated being touched, but seeing the tears suddenly fall down her soft cheeks was too much and she dropped to her knees, gently placing a hand on her arm. The moment she touched her, Lupita took a deep breath and quickly wiped the tears away.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, the words almost bursting out.

  Adi didn’t understand.

  “Benito, I...” she stopped and steadied herself. “I couldn’t save him.”

  Adi wanted to give her a smile and tell her that it wasn’t her fault but when she opened her mouth, nothing came out, so she simply nodded.

  When she took her hand off her arm, Lupita stepped forward, gave her a quick hug, and disappeared into the trees.

  Adi had no strength to push herself off the ground, but as she watched everyone diligently preparing for a fight that wasn’t their own, she buried the overwhelming sadness and stood back up.

  She spent the rest of the day with Jacobo discussing how they were going to do it. Upon hearing the new plan, he flat-out refused to participate, but when Adi told him that they were doing it with or without him, he reluctantly agreed. It was the best chance any of them had at getting what they wanted.

  Jacobo surprised her with how much he knew about the area, producing several semi-recent maps. It took over an hour to update them, Adi relying on what she had seen on Helena’s map and Thiago adding in what he knew, but when they were done, she was pleased with how much information they had. It was more than she expected.

  Adi grimaced as Nayara pressed the rag against her swollen face, taking a small sip of the hot drink in her hand. The night was quiet and she could see small groups of people huddled together against the destroyed buildings, others sitting silently around the fire. She stared at the tea, watching the small bits of leaves float around for a while.

  “Are you scared?”

  Nayara didn’t answer, taking a minute to finish cleaning the cut on her cheekbone. Adi didn’t doubt that it was broken, the swelling almost forcing her right eye shut. Her stomach was still sore and would be for a few more days, but she was grateful that she could at least keep her food down.

  Nayara sighed as she rinsed the rag in the bowl, slowly ringing it out, her face illuminated by the moonlight. “I feel,” she said finally, struggling to find the right word, “torn when I think about tomorrow.” She gently scrubbed some dirt off Adi’s chin. “I’m sad, but mostly I’m just tired.”

  Adi listened to her friend, noticing how much she had changed. She tried to permanently etch Nayara’s face into her memory. While her face was beautiful, it was her soul Adi was trying to capture, and as she watched her talk, she hoped that when the time came to say goodbye, she’d be able to take a piece of her with.

  She rinsed the cloth once more. “Are you?”

  Adi didn’t know what to say, although she thought she knew the answer. She should be scared—she was going to try and kill an invincible man—but she wasn’t, and that was what frightened her. She was about to answer when a shadow fell over Nayara’s face.

  A few moments of awkward silence passed before Nayara stood and handed him the bowl. “I’ve already done her cheek,” she said, her tone clearly conveying how she felt about him. “Her lip still needs cleaning.”

  Adi looked down and smiled as Nayara angrily walked away. Her reaction had caught him off-guard and he stood there surprised as he watched her go.

  “Think she’ll ever forgive me?” He sat down, a hint of a smile on his face.

  “Doubt it.”

  Thiago quietly studied her, his brow scrunching together in a knot.

  Although it was dark, Adi could read him easily and she knew why he was there.

  He sighed and reached down into the bowl. “Do you think my abuela would forgive me?” he asked as he rung out the rag and gently placed it against her lip. “For what I’ve done to you?”

  There was something different about the way he was talking to her, a kindness she didn’t expect, and as the cloth began to loosen the dried blood on her mouth, she reached up and took it from his hands.

  “I’m sorry.” He held her gaze. “For all the shit I threw at you.” He was about to continue when she stopped him.

  “Okay.”

  When she said nothing else, he asked, “So, does that mean you forgive me?”

  She could tell he was a bit afraid of the answer, as if he expected her to say no, so she looked away for a moment and took a breath.

  She didn’t punch him as hard as she should have, her fist landing squarely on his eye, but she made sure the blow drew blood and she sat there for a minute, enjoying the sight of him hurting as he grabbed his face.

  “Now I forgive you,” she said. She scrubbed the remaining blood off her mouth.

  The sad regret covering him had turned to shocked anger, and Adi smiled as she rinsed the rag in the bowl.

  “Everyone’s packed and ready to go,” she said as she leaned forward, pressing the cloth firmly against his eye.

  He winced but didn’t back away.

  “Nayara and Talita will take the little ones up to that abandoned village, the one Helena showed us.” She rinsed the cloth again. “They should be safe there for a while at least, even if we don’t make it back.”

  She dropped the rag into the bowl for the last time. Taking a sip of her tea, she offered it to him, watching with amusement as he reacted to the unpleasant taste. But when the sadness returned to his face, she said solemnly, “You need to be ready.”

  The sound of her voice grabbed his attention and when he looked at her again, she continued.

  “If you’re not, you shouldn’t come.”

  He paused, taking a long drink of the tea before passing it back to her. “You should get some sleep.”

  As Adi watched him walk away, she sighed. If only it were that easy.

  Chapter Eighteen

  She barely slept but that didn’t come as a surprise, her mind full of her brother as she lay alone in the dark. Although today wasn’t the day she would face the man, she knew she needed to get Benito out of her head be
fore she did. Grief was dangerously unpredictable and as she watched the darkness fade into the morning light, she threw off the blanket, determined to leave Benito behind, if only for a little while.

  “I’ll see you soon,” she said as she knelt, her hand feeling the dirt that covered him. For some reason, she expected leaving to be easier, but it wasn’t, and as she forced herself back up, it felt like she was slowly being torn in half.

  “Come on,” Rodrigo said, seeing that she was struggling. He walked over, wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gently steered her away. “We’ll be back before you know it. Besides, we got some assholes to kill.”

  Adi smiled and took a deep breath. It was time.

  They silently travelled through the jungle, all thirty-two of them. While they were being careful and quiet, it was almost impossible to be stealthy when a group that large was moving quickly through the trees. As they stopped to take a break a few hours south of the town, Adi realized it didn’t matter. Whether he knew it or not, they were coming for him.

  “We can’t be seen here,” Jacobo said as he sat beside her, munching on some smoked caiman wrapped in a cloth. “This town is full of people who work for the rancher, officially and unofficially. They even have an ammunitions factory here.”

  At the mention of the warehouse, Catalina coughed and Adi had to suppress a smile.

  “What?” Jacobo asked as he looked at the two of them.

  “Nothing,” Adi replied and so he continued.

  “I have a friend who can help. She owns a small farm just north of here.”

  “And you trust her?”

  Jacobo nodded. “I once tried to arrest her, back when I was a government official.” He smiled at the memory. “But she was too smart, and a Sister, so she was impossible to find.”

  “What’s a Sister?” Giovana asked.

  Jacobo grunted, realizing he needed to explain. “It’s what the members of Las Hermanas called themselves. If you were a Sister, you were practically invisible.”

  Adi felt Thiago looking at her, the hairs on the back of her neck prickling, but she ignored it. “You’re sure she’s trustworthy?”

  “Yes.”

  He led them around the town, taking them straight west and then north. It was late-afternoon when they arrived and as Adi spotted the little house in the clearing, they stopped.

  “Wait here,” Jacobo said. He took off his bag and tucked his handgun under his shirt. Adjusting his cap, he casually stepped out of the trees and walked towards the house.

  He was inside for much longer than Adi liked, making her wonder if something had happened. When she heard someone whisper, “He’s coming,” she stood.

  As soon as he was back beneath the trees, he approached her. “We can stay in one of the barns, but only for tonight. We’ll move when it’s dark.”

  His eyes held hers as he stopped talking, everyone else returning to what they were doing before. “Strange things have been happening in the town,” he said quietly, just for her to hear. “The ammunitions factory is gone. Someone burned it down with the bar.”

  She said nothing, her face unreadable.

  “They’re looking everywhere for the person who did it,” he continued. “Rumour is, it was a woman.”

  Adi didn’t flinch.

  “$2000 American dollars for her capture.”

  Although she knew Jacobo was suggesting something, she refused to give him anything. What she had done cost her more than she could fathom, and if she had known the consequences of her actions, in that moment and as hard as it would have been, she would have walked away. “Good thing we avoided the town then.”

  He smiled. “Yes. Good thing.”

  They waited until dark, slinking through the trees towards the barn that sat against the tree line. It was tight fitting all of them in, but as Adi lay up in the loft, squished in between Lupita and Catalina, she felt relaxed. They would arrive tomorrow, which meant they were nearing the end, and for the first time since Benito died, she felt a small flicker of satisfaction.

  She woke up to angry voices, getting louder as they entered the barn. Peering down through a crack in the floor, she watched as Jacobo’s men pushed five people dressed in camo into the centre, forcing them onto their knees.

  “What’s going on?” Giovana groaned irritably as she woke up.

  Adi shook her head, struggling to hear the voices below.

  She watched Jacobo walk over to them, squatting on his haunches in front of a woman. He stayed there for a few minutes talking with her, until he suddenly looked up.

  “Adelita. You have a visitor.”

  Adi didn’t move, a feeling of uncertainty passing over her. She wasn’t sure what bothered her more, the fact that Jacobo had used her full name, which he never did, or that there were strange people asking for her. As she looked at the faces around her, Catalina giving her a quick nod, she pushed herself off the floor and climbed down from the loft.

  He met her at the bottom of the stairs, giving her a knowing look as he handed her a piece of paper.

  It was a good drawing, the likeness uncanny. There was only one man who knew her face this intimately and she smiled. She was looking forward to their meeting. They had a lot to talk about.

  “So what?” she asked. She looked up, handing the paper back. “You gonna turn me in?”

  A smug smile spread across his face as he answered. “No, I’m not, but they might.”

  He stepped out of her path and she walked forward, feeling the eyes of the barn as she approached. While they could try to kill her, and maybe even do it, they wouldn’t make it out alive. She found that thought comforting as she stopped in front of the people kneeling on the ground.

  “It’s you.” A smile spread across the woman’s face.

  Not knowing what she meant, Adi remained silent. Rodrigo casually leaned against the wall behind her while Catalina walked around the captives, her hands resting comfortably on her knives as she slowly sized them up. Adi could tell that Catalina was making them nervous, and as she watched their reactions, their eyes anxiously trying to keep track of where she was, she relaxed.

  “And you are?” she asked, looking back at the woman.

  “Melina,” she answered, eager to tell her. “I’m Sofia’s daughter.” When she could tell that Adi didn’t know who that was, she said, “The woman who owns this barn.”

  Adi nodded. “What do you want?”

  Melina opened her mouth to say something, but then shut it, pausing for a moment. “When I saw you sitting there on the ground this afternoon underneath the trees, I knew it was fate.”

  The first part did nothing to calm Adi—knowing she had been spotted without her knowledge—but the second part interested her and she chose to focus on that. “Fate?” she asked skeptically.

  “Yes.” Melina nodded. “You see, ever since they started putting up these posters around town, I knew that one day we would meet. We are fighting the same war, you and I.”

  Adi folded her arms across her chest.

  “I moved back here five years ago,” Melina continued, “when they revoked my law license for trying to put together a land rights case against a well-connected businessman. It took me much longer than I care to admit to realize that the government wasn’t interested in hearing about farmers being pushed off their land. By the time I did, it was too late. They told me I would never practice law again so I came here, trying to do some good.”

  Catalina had stopped circling and Adi caught sight of Giovana, her legs swinging back and forth over the edge of the loft, Lupita practicing her knife jabs beside her.

  “What I came back to was not what I expected.” Melina was staring at her. “Did you know that the rancher’s men do whatever they want here?” Adi could feel her anger as she spoke, and Melina paused, trying to regain control. “One of them even lived with a family for an entire month, raping their twelve-year-old daughter every night. Do you know what that does to a person?”

  Adi di
dn’t answer, knowing it was rhetorical. Nothing she said would provide comfort and she couldn’t help but think of Nayara and Talita with all those kids, making their way to the mountain alone.

  “When he finally left, her parents went to the police, but they told them there was nothing they could do. They wrote to the government asking for help, but again, nothing. When they finally came to me, asking if there was any legal recourse they could take, I knew I couldn’t turn them away.”

  “What did you do?” Adi asked.

  She looked back up at her. “What could we do? We killed him.”

  It was not the answer Adi expected.

  Melina smiled at the memory. “We made it look like an accident, crashing the jeep and sending it into the river. But really we tricked him into stopping at the side of the road and put a bullet in his brain.”

  Melina almost chuckled at the surprise on Adi’s face. “If my mama only knew the things I did...” She paused for a minute before she spoke again, remembering why she was there. “When you blew up that warehouse, everything changed. It was like people finally woke up and realized that things could be different. For the first time in a long time, they’re actually willing to fight for something—for themselves. When I saw you in the trees just outside my house, I knew it was fate. We were meant to meet. We were meant to help each other.”

  “How exactly?” Catalina asked, stepping in front of them. Adi could tell that she was wary of Melina, unsure of what to make of her, but Adi stayed quiet, content to let the two of them work it out. “How exactly are we supposed to help each other?”

  A confident smile spread across Melina’s face. “What do you need?”

  Catalina laughed. “We need an army.”

  Adi looked back at Melina, expecting her to falter, but she didn’t.

  “What else?” she said.

  Adi smirked. This was going to be fun.

  •

  By the time they worked out the particulars, Adi wasn’t so excited. What Melina wanted in return was nothing short of a miracle, as if their own goal wasn’t hard enough. But seeing as she had given them an army of over fifty people, a hidden camp near the ranch to prepare, and years of information on their defenses, movements, and habits, Adi didn’t have a choice. She’d get her the rancher or die trying.