Chapter Fourteen
Javi
As I left Aurelio to deal with cleaning up my mess with Paco and Milano, I was filled with dread. I wouldn’t let him see it. No, Maricio lost my sympathy years before. The boy deep inside me, the boy who trusted Maricio Dominguez with his life wished with everything he hadn’t grown into the spiteful, venomous man he did. He gave up on the friendship we had and our family. He turned into a man who could not be respected.
Day of reckoning, we all had ours coming, today would be Maricio’s.
The drive home had me conflicted as to whether I ended Maricio first or went to Mari Belle. She betrayed me too. We were supposed to have this life together and yet, she stood behind him, hid with him. That was what I had learned. While in the beginning he held her captive, in the end, she stayed by choice. Loyalty meant everything in my world and she had none.
At least not to the right person.
In the information I had gathered about the last few years, she was no longer chained to a bed. While Mari Belle didn’t have a license and never drove a car, there were reports of her shopping. That certainly was not the behavior of a women who spent years chained to a bed.
Before I made the arrangements to have her brought to me, I sent a man down there to watch, observe, report, and even send pictures. Mari lived a life in the suburbs where she said hello to her neighbors, she spent evenings in the backyard gardening, and she never missed the local grocery store meat truckload sale on Wednesday. There was not a doubt in my mind she was worried about her brother. There were pictures of them shopping together. So whatever had gone down, she had forgiven him to take her place at his side.
The reality of it stung. She didn’t worry for me when she chose to stay with him. I wouldn’t believe it even if she said it.
For years, they lived in El Paso, Texas just a short distance from Juarez. I had learned it all now. In fact, the Devil’s Due MC had sent me copies of everything they had after I reached out with my request. They didn’t even ask for a marker in exchange.
Trapper said, “We believe in justice. We believe in righting the wrongs of the past. Wrongs that don’t see a courthouse or a corrupt judicial system. While you are a man of immense power, wealth, and an illegal enterprise, you have been wronged by Maricio Dominguez. You took care of Michele in your way, acceptable to your world. She wasn’t harmed like many other women were. Rowdy asked that you be given this. Michele said things could have been worse for her and you didn’t allow it. So Rowdy offers this as a token of gratitude. We’re even. You don’t cross us, Almanza and we won’t cross you.”
That was it. They gave me everything my own people weren’t able to give me for years. All because I used Michele Forbes for my business needs, but I didn’t abuse her.
It was my code, but in my world rarely did men have one so I guess it again won me the prize.
Mari Belle, she was a woman who in any other circumstances would have been harmed in this lifestyle. I did what I could to protect her from an early age and she didn’t even know it.
If I hadn’t agreed to marry her, Miguel Silvia would have sold her. Maricio and I wouldn’t have been able to stop it. Even with Silvia gone, she was a target. If Maricio hadn’t taken her hopping from place to place dealing drugs to get by, she would have ended up on the streets. If I hadn’t put the word out with the marker that Maricio was to die by my hands alone, he would’ve been killed, leaving Mari to struggle on her own. She wasn’t effected by the shake up he caused. Not in a way that I felt hurt her enough.
She should have found a way out. If not an escape, a way to reach out to me. I was a man who stayed visible to the people in my world. Paco knew this entire time. She didn’t reach out for his help. She didn’t do anything and I couldn’t understand it. The information in the sheets of paper didn’t explain why she stayed. It had to be loyalty. It plagued me not understanding the reasons why. I could only chalk it up to displaced loyalty. No other explanation made sense.
She lived a life in the comfort and quiet of the suburbs like drugs and murders didn’t support her financially. Maricio maintained the two of them by taking jobs and pushing drugs. He just never did it close to home so I could track him, track them. I even tried to hire him for a job once only for him not to show up at the last moment. He was good, but I was better. They both fucked me over and they would feel my wrath.
Should I allow the vixen to watch her big brother, her protector, her hero die? Let her see the power I truly held. The thought crossed my mind.
With each passing mile, my need to destroy grew. Following my gut, I went to the basement, where Maricio stood shackled to a wall in the far bedroom of the space.
I entered and took in the scene before me.
He was a mess. Too many years of drugs had taken a toll on his body. It was pathetic.
He was pathetic.
Maricio lifted his head. His eyes searched for mine behind my glasses.
“Javier Almanza. The Almanza Family Kingpin,” the words rolled off his tongue. “The bastard boy grew into the untouchable man.”
The venom in his words was not hidden. The disdain for which he felt carried through in his tone. The sinister smirk he wore reflected back in my lenses and I swear he liked what he saw.
Lifting my aviators, I allowed him to lock his gaze to my eye. I wanted him to see my hatred burned as deep and bright as his. The venom he spewed wasn’t half as much as the toxic shit I felt coursing through my veins for him.
“You took from me.” I spoke with gritted teeth. “The first ride when we were just little boys, nine years old, you pushed me down to deliver the tags to Paco. I should’ve known then. You always wanted to be my leader. I let you too. Like a dumb fuck moving up the ranks it was always known that Javi was the right hand to Maricio. But you know what everyone saw that I didn’t see at the time.” I stepped in closer. “I was strong and you were weak. They saw that Maricio wasn’t made to build an empire, but I was.”
“They saw it all wrong.” He ground out back at me.
“Look at me now! Look at me, you fucker!” I yelled knowing no one would hear us.
I removed my jacket and all my weapons, setting them on the counter where he could see.
He laughed calmly. “Ahhh, this again. You’re so determined I die by your hands it gives me my escape every fucking time.”
“As much as it has pained me to wait. Patience is a virtue, Maricio. And as a reward for being patient, I will enjoy taking your life even more. The time has only furthered my resolve to make this painful.”
“You won’t kill me.”
I laughed. “And why is that?”
“If I die there is no one to protect her, keep her, and take care of her.” He stressed the word her like the female he referred to held power over me. His sister had nothing left. I saw the pictures, she was comfortable and accepting of her life. I had been played long enough by the Dominguez siblings, they had nothing left to taunt me with.
I raised my hands up to the heavens and brought then back to my chest as if I were to pray. “Her. Funny you mention her. Mari Belle, your beautiful sister is upstairs, Maricio. After my men got you, they got her too. Aurelio delivered her safely to my house the day after you arrived. She is well. That is until I finish with her. No worries for you Maricio, she will join you in hell shortly. Consider it a family reunion in the after life.”
“The her I’m referring to is not my sister.” He smirked proudly at me like a fucking peacock fluffing his feathers.
The silence in the room was maddening as he watched me carefully.
He blinked slowly like he was delivering a death blow with his gaze. His eyes came to mine. My world stopped. “You are a father.” I couldn’t breath. “You have a daughter. And I am her keeper.”
No! The panic, the words. It couldn’t be true. “Fuck you!” I roared letting the emotions grab me like I knew I shouldn’t.
“I even set her up at school with Anna,” he told me plainly. Anna was my niece. Luciana’s daughter with Frederick, her husband that she left Juarez with so long ago. I paid for Anna to go to school. Frederick even handled my East Coast books so that I could ensure my sister and her daughter were cared for. He knew too much. How did he get to my niece? While I didn’t hide my family from the world like Maricio, I took great measures to protect them. Anna had a life that was supported by my organization but I didn’t have her in my business at all. In fact, Frederick ran my books for the East Coast and reported to me directly. I kept him out of anything heavy to protect my sister and her daughter.
I had a daughter, he said.
He spoke again as everything tumbled around inside my head trying to sort out what was real. “But do not worry, the girls don’t know of each other. I just wanted you to know I could always get to your familia if you were to touch mine.”
My head spun on his words. “You’re a desperate man looking for a way to save your skin.”
“If that is so, kill me now. Your daughter will miss her Tío. She will never forgive you for taking me from them. I have given her a world of comfort. You have given her mother years of unshed tears. You are the enemy and she knows it.”
I studied him. Maricio was unpredictable and could lie, but in my gut it was almost like I felt her. This piece inside of me that for so many years didn’t get pissed that Maricio was still alive seemed to know he was indeed taking care of my child. It made me sick.
But I believed him.
I was a father. And he knew it all along. I was someone’s dad. What the ever loving fuck did that mean?