Page 18 of Ravaged Hearts
We drove in silence. No sounds but the song on the crackly radio and the wind buffeting the cabin. My chest tightened. For most guys, riding in a car with their girl beside them probably seemed mundane, but for me, this moment of normalcy was a gift.
“What are you going to tell Daphne?”
The doc had texted Hope this morning asking where we were, because she’d arrived back at the house early. We’d hoped to beat her home from her weeklong humanitarian road trip to remote villages.
Hope shrugged. “The truth. She’s too shrewd not to sniff out a lie.”
Her phone rang, so she dug it out of her purse and checked the screen. “It’s Mari. She’d better not be calling in sick so she can spend the day with some new guy.” She answered on speaker. “¿Bueno?”
“Tu amiga está muerta.”Your friend is dead.
The man’s emotionless voice made my grip tighten on the steering wheel.
Beside me, Hope froze, staring into the phone.
I snatched it from her hands. “Who the fuck is this?”
There was a beat of silence. “Are you the asshole who stabbed my son?”
Fuck. I guessed those cartel fools had gone home andblabbed about their beatdown after all, and now Papa Bear was pissed.
I sneered. “You’re going to have to be specific. I’ve stabbed a lot of people’s sons.”
“You and the girl had better be at Javi’s restaurant in ten minutes, or I’ll begin executing every last motherfucker in this village, starting with the hostages here.” He hung up.
Slowly, Hope’s unblinking eyes came to mine. Her chest rose and fell with each rapid breath she took.
I stomped on the gas. We were fifteen minutes from town if we stuck to the speed limit. We’d have to do a hell of a lot better than that.
“Do you think Mari’s really dead?” Hope asked.
“I don’t know. Could be a bluff.”
Unlikely. There’d been no bravado in the mystery caller’s words. Only an unflustered statement of facts, which made me believe we were dealing with a stone-cold killer.
“It’s over,” Hope said, dragging her hands through her hair.
I didn’t like the finality in her tone. “Like hell it is.”
Her face whipped to mine. “The cartel hunts in packs, Vaughn. What are you going to do? Kill them all?”
“That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Which presented a huge problem, because taking out the PCC’s men would set events in motion that were impossible to contain. But what other option did I have? The guy on the other end of that call wasn’t bringing us in for a friendly chat. And now that the eyes of the cartel were firmly upon Playa de la Palmera, we’d have little choice but to defend ourselves and the people in this community.
“It doesn’t matter if we win this fight. They’ll send more men. They won’t stop coming until they’ve gotten what they want. How many innocent people will be slaughtered in the process?” Hope’s hands balled into fists in her lap. “I can fix this. I can make this all disappear.”
I frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m going to do what I should’ve done years ago. When we get to Javi’s, I’ll tell them who my father is. I’ll tell them everything that happened to me and demand they leave you and this community alone. I won’t let anyone else die because of me.”
“No fucking way,” I growled.
She’d martyr herself to save the hostages? As soon as Hope revealed her identity, it’d be game over. They’d take her to her father, and I might never get her back.
No. I didn’t accept that outcome. Not in a million fucking years.
“Vaughn, please. You have to?—”