Garcia

I’m no quitter but enough is enough. I’ve dialed Kimber’s number over a hundred times, literally. I tried to count the attempts but lost track. If she doesn’t want to talk to me I can’t force her.

I wish she would at least text me and tell me she’s okay. I know where she’s at now so I’m not as concerned about her physical well-being as I am her emotional state. India called to tell me she’s coming to stay with her for a while. She hinted around trying to figure out what happened between us but I didn’t say anything. If Kimber wants her to know she will tell her.

The house was too quiet without my family so I’m hanging out at Drake and Tiana’s across the street. We ordered pizza, it’s the only kind of takeout we have in Jewel Falls but it doesn’t matter to me, I can’t taste anything anyway.

I’ve had three beers but Tiana cut me off. She says drinking won’t make my problems go away and that it’s better to feel the feelings and get past the hurt. She’s seen too many therapists since her brother went to prison. She’s starting to sound like one.

“Have you heard from her yet?” Drake asks and Tiana shoots him a dirty look as if he could see it. “Oh stop, he’s a big boy, I’m not going to hurt his feelings or anything am I, Garcia?”

“How’d you know she gave you a look?” I ask.

“I know her. And I can still see a little movement in my peripheral; she just whipped her head so hard I’m surprised she didn’t break her neck.”

I chuckle and pick up my empty beer bottle. “One more? Please?” I ask her dragging out my please. She sighs and goes to the kitchen to get my forth beer in a little over an hour.

It’s hardly enough to make me drunk, I’m a big guy and if I really wanted to drown my sorrows I’d just go home and drink my own beer.

She rolls her eyes and hands me the open bottle. “You’re a great hostess, T, thanks.”

“Oh, shut up.”

Drake arches one eyebrow high. “You two are sure getting along great.”

“My fiancé left me with my baby today. What’s your excuse?” I ask her.

“I’m sorry, I know this must be miserable but she will be back. She loves you and she knows how much you love her. There has to be a way around this family thing. I refuse to believe it’s over between you two.”

“I’m glad you’re so optimistic but you don’t know her like I do. She’s fiercely protective of Grayson. She’s one of those moms that would step in front of a train for her kid, ya know?”

Both of them are quiet. Do they know? I should know better than to assume they had wonderful loving mothers, I sure as hell didn’t. I know Tiana’s brother killed their parents in a house fire in the UK when she was a little kid. Drake has never mentioned his.

“Speaking of mothers, you should try to call Kimber’s mom and check on her,” Tiana says after the long awkward pause.

“Yeah, she should be settled in by now, good idea.” I drag myself out of Drake’s comfortable recliner and step out onto their deck to make the call. It rings twice before I remember it’s after nine o’clock. They might already be in bed, especially after a long day like today.

India picks up, “Julián? It’s late, is everything okay?”

“I’m sorry, yes, everything’s fine I just wanted to check on Kimber and Grayson. She still won’t return my calls.”

She doesn’t say anything for so long I think we have been disconnected. “India? You still there?”

She heaves a deep sigh. “Julián, I don’t know what’s going on between you two and I won’t ask for details. But whatever it is has driven her back to Caleb. She never made it here, he intercepted and they’re staying at his house.”

“Wait, what? Kimber, my Kimber and Grayson are living at Caleb’s house?”

“Yes, son, they are. I don’t like it either but that’s where she chose to go and that’s where they will probably stay unless you do something about it.”

“Oh, I’ll do something about it alright. Call you tomorrow, India, thanks.”

I hang up and nearly crush my phone in my hand. That weasel took advantage of Kimber’s weakened state and got her back, unbelievable!

I’m not going back into the house. I don’t want to talk about this to anyone, the time for talk is over, now it’s time for some action. I take the deck stairs and walk around the house and across the street to our house.

Our house, they belong here with me not at that mini Taj Mahal Caleb calls home. I open the front door when my phone buzzes in my hand. My first thought is finally, she’s calling me back.

But it’s not a call, it’s a text and it’s from a number that isn’t in my contact list. Curious I open it up and find a picture of my family, my world, curled up on a couch together sleeping.

I don’t recognize the furniture or the surroundings but after talking to India I assume it’s Caleb’s house. Kimber’s dark hair is spread out over a cream colored pillow and she has one arm around Grayson and the other above her head. They look like angels sleeping on a white cloud.

A message follows the photograph.

Thanks for taking care of them for me. I really appreciate it, man. But they’re home now, where they belong and as you can see they’re happy. Go find your own family. Oh, and thanks for the bruises on my neck, I’ll be showing them to the authorities. Don’t try to deny it either, there were at least fifteen people in that diner watching you try to kill me today. Have a nice life! Oh, I almost forgot, you should really turn on the news and check out what’s happening with your real family.

I lay the phone on the kitchen counter and back away so I don’t throw it across the room against the wall. That evil son-of-a-bitch isn’t taking my family. He tossed them aside and I took care of them. I loved them and built my world around them, I wasn’t the fucking babysitter watching them until he decided to get his shit together.

He’s the same man he was ten months ago, greedy, selfish, and shady. He’s living in a house of cards and one of these days it’s going to all come crashing down around him. He’s a fraud and I’m going to find out what he’s up to if it kills me.

I have no idea why he wants me to watch the news but I go into the den where we keep our only television and turn it on to the twenty-four-hour news channel. Standing in the room with my arms crossed over my chest, I watch the ticker on the bottom of the screen scroll by. Garcia family compound taken down by DEA today after a two-year undercover investigation reveals a billion-dollar drug and human trafficking ring based out of Manuel Jesus Garcia’s home. Manuel Jesus Garcia was taken into custody last week by authorities and is being held on multiple charges including murder, drug trafficking, racketeering, and human trafficking to name a few. Authorities say Mr. Garcia gave up his family in exchange for dropping some of the charges. Family members in custody now are Camilla Garcia charged with drug trafficking, Isa Garcia charged with racketeering and money laundering, Adriana Garcia-Leon charged with procuring and prostitution. Family members still at large are Sebastian Garcia wanted for murder drug and human trafficking and Diego Garcia wanted for murder and drug trafficking. Julián Garcia, another of Manuel’s sons, is wanted for questioning in relation to his family, although, not charged with any criminal activity.

And then the ticker begins again. The footage being played is of my childhood home being burned to the ground. Black smoke billows for miles into the sky, men in full body protective gear scatter around the compound with machine guns while everything on the property glows red and orange from the flames.

After I have read the ticker three times, all the way through, I sit down on the floor in front of the television in shock to watch the video of my house burning to the ground and listen to the newscaster talk about it like it’s the most exciting thing that’s happened in the world since the end of World War Two.

It’s over.

It’s actually over, my father the dictator is going away forever and the house I learned to despise is a heap of ash.

But my brothers are still out there. That’s why Seb and Diego were here for two weeks. They weren’t here just to torment me, they were hiding out, giving themselves an alibi with the only non-criminal member of their family.

What a couple of idiots. As if spending a couple weeks in my general vicinity could void out all the horrible things they have done over the years. The police are a hell of a lot smarter than that.

I wonder where they’ve gone now that everyone else is in jail. Underground I’m sure. There is always someone willing to hide criminals for the right price.

Why haven’t the police contacted me about questioning? When did all of this happen? I look at the timestamp on the video being shown it says one o’clock today, Central Daylight Time. They must have known the walls were closing in at home and stopped by my house in a last ditch effort to ruin my relationship with Kimber.

I’ve been running around all day looking for her, I haven’t even checked my messages, I’ll bet there are a few from the police.

Sebastian and Diego did what they set out to do, they got their revenge. They fucked with my family, it worked, but what those two morons don’t understand is that Kimber and I love each other and even through all of this that hasn’t changed. She may be upset at me for not telling her the truth but I’m confident that she can forgive me. All I need is a few minutes with her to apologize and remind her of how perfect we are together.

My dangerous family was the obstacle that would have kept us apart forever and now that they are all behind bars, well almost all of them, the danger isn’t relevant. Sebastian and Diego are nothing without my father and his financial support. Those two don’t have enough brain cells between the two of them to build the Garcia Empire back up. It won’t be long before they slip up and get caught, they don’t know how to survive the real world. It feels good to know that they’re finally learning what I’ve been saying my whole life, crime doesn’t pay.

Now I can concentrate on getting my family home. It turns my stomach knowing they are sleeping under Caleb’s roof tonight. He was an idiot to tell me about my family. Now there’s nothing keeping Kimber and me apart. He thought it would hurt me to see my family home burn to the ground and to know my family had been put behind bars but he couldn’t be more wrong.

I’m thrilled as fuck.