Easter's Lilly (20 page)

“
How do you know they don’t speak English?” Jorge replied.

“
How long have you been working for Jorge?” Max asked them. They said nothing.

“
Okay, so maybe they only know a few words,” Jorge continued. “Why protect Lilly from them?”

“
She doesn’t need to know them,” Diego answered.

He said something in Spanish to Hector and Hector took my arm and led me away. We went into the living room and I asked, “What’s going on?”

“
He doesn’t want them to get too familiar with you.” He looked back to see how close they were. “Rape is always a scary thing when we have unknown hit men in our house.”

My eyes opened wide. “Rape?” I freaked out. “Oh no, Hector!”

“
Shhh…” he said. “I get a bad vibe from these guys. Promise me you will behave and stay close, Okay?”

“
No problem there,” I agreed. I began to feel sick. “Hector,” I said. “Do you want to come with me to the bathroom?”

He smiled. “No, but I will.” We went to the bathroom and he actually held my hair while I threw up. “You do this on purpose, don’t you?” he asked smiling.

“
Yeah, sure I do,” I answered. I sat on the floor of the bathroom. “Hector are we going to make it through the night?” I was feeling so helpless.

“
Definitely,” he answered. “Max and I are the best in the business.” Then he picked up my chin and I looked into his eyes. “Lilly, they are both crazy in love with you. Any one of us would put our lives on the line for you.” My eyes welled up with tears. “Any one of us,” he repeated. Then he helped me up off the floor and he hugged me. “You are very important to me too,” he said. “You’re my brother’s girl and you’re carrying his baby. I love you for that all by itself.”

“
Thanks Hector.” I hugged him back. “What do you think they’re talking about?”

“
I think Max and Diego are feeling them out,” he answered. “We’ll be fine, I promise.” We walked back into the living room. “Have I been wrong yet?” he asked.

“
No,” I answered. “Not yet.”

Night soon fell and Max and Hector checked the house with guns drawn for intruders. Miguel and Felix were stationed outside the bedroom door and Max and Hector put blankets and pillows on the floor with guns ready to go by their sides. Diego and I lay down in the bed and he put his arms around me, in protection mode. “Diego,” Max looked over at us, “if we hear something outside, push Lilly behind the bed and get in front of her.”

Diego reached behind him and showed Max his gun. “I’m as ready as you are.”

“
I don’t think there is any danger of my sleeping tonight,” I told them.

“
Remember what I said, Lilly,” Hector reminded me. “Any one of us.”

“
I’m okay Hector, I remember.” I smiled at him as he winked at me.

“
I’m going to take the first shift,” Hector said, checking his gun. “Max you need the rest.”

“
Yeah right,” Max said. “Like I’m going to go to sleep with her in here.” Hector and Diego laughed at that. My face turned red, I’m sure. I hid it under the covers. We sat and waited for sounds. It was grueling. Hours went by before we heard anything. Suddenly there were voices outside the door speaking in Spanish. Diego did exactly what Max told him to do and translated for me as the conversations went on in a whisper. Max and Hector both drew their guns, as did Diego. I was never so scared. Diego whispered, “Max and Hector are missing, we need to see Diego.” That is what the men outside the door were saying to Miguel and Felix. Then he said, “Jorge ordered a hit on the boys.”

Then Diego said, “Miguel is telling them not to disturb me and my wife while we are in bed. The men are saying Jorge ordered them to find me. Miguel is telling them that they don’t work for Jorge. One of them just pulled their gun.”

Hector moved towards the door and looked at Max. “Not yet.” Max motioned for Hector to wait. “Miguel can hold his own. Wait a few more minutes.” We heard a loud BANG and a thud and then again, a BANG and a thud. Max opened the door slightly and Miguel walked into the bedroom. Everyone lowered their guns and breathed a sigh of relief. “Here’s something new,” Miguel said. He held up a needle. “This is what he was going to kill you with.”

Max picked it up and looked at it. “How do you know?” he asked.

“
He held it up and tried to stick me with it,” Miguel answered. “But Felix shot him.”

Diego was helping me up and asked me if I was all right. “How’d the last guy die?”

“
Same way,” Miguel said. “Went after Felix with a needle and I dropped him.”

“
Good job boys.” Max patted Miguel on the back. Diego walked outside the room and I ran to the bathroom to throw up. I was lying on the floor when Miguel walked in. “Should I get Max for you?” he asked. That surprised me. Why would he say that?

“
No,” I answered. “Diego will be back soon.”

Max walked in and nodded at Miguel. “Thanks, but I’ll take it from here.” He pulled me off the floor and got on his knees beside me. He put me in his lap in front of the toilet and held back my hair. “Its okay baby girl, I’m here now.” I threw up in the toilet and Diego walked in.

“
Don’t worry,” Max said. “No sex, just morning sickness.”

Diego made a face and said, “Yeah, thanks Max,” and walked out.

Max laughed as I puked my brains out. Then I lay back on the floor. “What a devoted husband,” I mentioned.

“
I told you,” he reminded me. “Just throw up and you’re all mine.” I laughed as he lifted me up off of the floor and put me into bed. “I so want to lay with you,” he told me. “I so want to taste you.”

“
You are a crazy man,” I said smiling. “I am sick as a dog.”

“
You are glowing with beauty,” he told me. He reached under my nightgown and glided his hand over my thigh and then removed it quickly. I sat up. “What are you doing?” I asked.

“
I just wanted to feel you,” he answered. “One more day is an eternity.”

He looked around the room and kissed me slowly on the lips. “Oh Max,” I whispered. “I was just sick a minute ago.”

“
Oh Lilly,” he whispered back. “You taste like honey.” I started to get a little excited. But as luck would have it, Hector came back in and dragged Max out of the bedroom.

“
Good night Lilly,” Hector said smiling. “Say goodnight, Max.” He blew me a kiss and they left me. Diego was back in a minute but made no attempt at intimacy. I think my vomiting made
him
a little sick.

“
We’re okay now Lilly,” he told me. “At least for a while.” We slept in each other’s arms until Sunday morning. And when I awoke, Diego was gone.

Chapter 18

It's Time to Tell Olivia

The house smelled like chorizo, a Mexican sausage they often cooked. Diego and Hector had already gone and Max and I were alone. “As much as I would love to take advantage of you right now, we have to eat and get moving.”

I smiled. “Leave it to you to feed me first,” I replied.

“
Hey, you’re pregnant. Food is important.” I laughed. “Besides,” he said. “I am waiting for Leticia. She will be coming with us to watch little Diego.”

“
Why Leticia?” I asked.

“
She’s a cop,” he answered. I sat down almost impulsively when he said that. “What?” I asked.

“
She’s a cop and I need her watching the baby as we get the hell out of here.”

“
I think you have a lot of explaining to do,” I told him.

“
Yes, Lucy, I do.” He laughed. “Please trust me, baby girl.” He put eggs and some chorizo in a tortilla and put it in front of me. “You need to keep up your strength.”

We ate, got dressed and got our bags together. Max put me in the car and put blankets over Leticia, the baby and me as we drove off of the property. He told the guards at the gate that he was going to the meeting after all and had left Miguel with me. Miguel was waiting in the house to give us time to get away. When we got a safe distance from the house, he called Miguel to let him know. We stopped the car at the Flamingo hotel and picked Hector up by the service entrance. “How’d you get out?” he asked.

“
Bathroom.” He smiled. “The men are all in the back room and the women are having dinner,” he told us. As we drove away I could see huge amounts of black sedans and men dressed in black shirts that said, “FBI” on them. They were running into the hotel.

“
Step on it!” Hector shouted and Max peeled out of the parking lot onto the highway. My hands were shaking as I strapped Dieguito into his car seat. “They are already at your house,” Hector said. “Miguel called and said they had arrested everyone.”

“
Okay, what the heck is happening?” I asked frantically. “Max, what’s going on?”

“
Max, you haven’t told her?” Leticia asked.

“
I didn’t want her to lie for us. I was afraid Diego might try to beat it out of her if he got suspicious,” he answered. “But I guess it’s time now.”

Hector pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and handed it to me. “Look inside,” he told me. I opened the wallet and saw some identification that said, “Hector Montiago, FBI.”

“
No way! Are you kidding me?” I asked. “Seriously, you too Max?”

“
Yes baby, me too.” He turned his head and looked at me for a reaction. “I’m sorry, please don’t be angry with me.”

“
You had your reasons,” I answered. “You
do
love me, don’t you? Was that part real?”

He turned his head again. “That part was real,” he answered. “It was all real, baby girl.”

“
If you are FBI, how did you get away with killing Johnny?” I asked. Leticia laughed.

“
He’s not dead,” Hector answered. “We put him in the Witness Protection Program. That’s why we were gone for so long.”

“
But when you came back, Max was all weirded out,” I answered.

“
We’ve been infiltrating their organization for five years, now.” Hector paused. “We know what kind of behavior they expect from us after certain jobs get done.”

“
So, John is going to testify against Jorge and Diego?” I asked.

“
That’s how it works,” Leticia responded. Then she showed me her FBI identification.

“
One more question,” I asked.

“
Baby, you have earned the right to ask me as many questions as you want,” Max answered.

“
Why?” I paused. “Why turn in your brothers like that?”

Max sighed. “They had our mother killed.”

“
Papi was married to their mother first, obviously I guess, and got our mother pregnant with me,” Hector started. “He eventually left Elena for our mom.”

“
Then they had me,” Max continued. “Everything was fine until Hector turned about 12 and I was 10.” He took a breath. “Diego was 17 at the time. That would make Jorge 23. They killed our mom, Amelia, in order for their mom to get Papi back into her … good graces.”

“
Oh no,” I replied. I put my hands over my mouth in absolute shock.

“
They had her brutally raped and murdered. Then our dad re-married Elena and we had to live with them until we went off to college. Our mom’s family put money away for us and we decided to see justice done when we graduated.”

“
So that’s what this is about? Revenge?” I asked.

“
After we grew up a bit, we realized that we had to stop the organization from expanding. They sell drugs to kids and Jorge is a brilliant businessman. The organization is beyond huge. It became more about ethics after a while.”

“
How did they ever let you in?” I asked.

“
Long story short,” Hector finished. “We played dumb about our mom’s murder and they were never caught. We got out of school, went for FBI training and went to our brothers and begged for work. They took us in and the rest is history.”

“
Aren’t you afraid that they are going to kill us when they figure this whole thing out?” I asked.

“
Lilly, they would have killed you eventually if you had stayed there. He would have found someone younger and paid her with drugs to sleep with him and you would have been in the way,” Max continued. “I had to get you out of there.”

“
I know, Max.” I corrected myself quickly. “I couldn’t have stayed in that marriage any longer than I had to.”

“
For goodness sakes you were threatening to kill yourself.” He looked at me again. “We had to speed things up.”