The Hustle (Irreparable #4) (19 page)

I
pop my head into Eduardo’s office. He looks drained, the stress of his work showing in his tightly pinched brow.

“My parents are heading to the beach this morning. Can they take Javier?”

“Fine,” he waves me off. “But tell them to take Marco, and they need to be back by four?” He finally lifts his head, looking at me with skepticism. “Are you not going?”

I smile, shaking my head. “I’m working on someone’s birthday surprise.”

His face lighting up is laughable. The only birthday surprise I have in mind is a pine box. The truth is, I want to be home, in case an opportunity arises to text Tug.

“You remembered my birthday?”

After the time I spent in Tug’s arms, pretending has become easier because I know how short-term it is. “Of course, I’m your wife.”

“Yes, you are.” He smiles as his gaze lowers to his desk, cuing me that I’ve been dismissed. As I walk to the door, he says, “Don’t you ever forget that, Maria.”

After my family leaves for the beach, I workout in the gym to keep busy before I find an excuse to go see Tug. Our plan to be together is so close to happening. I can’t risk making a mistake now. I increase the speed on the treadmill and run until my legs burn.

As I stroll into the foyer, walking off my run, the doorbell rings. Housekeeping is busy preparing lunch so I call to Rosita that I’ll answer it. I open the door to a stranger in a black suit with a blue tie. “Hello, Mrs. Montez. Manuel told me it was okay to come up. Is your husband home?”

“Yes, please, come in.” I open the door wider, gesturing inside. “May I tell Eduardo who’s here to see him?”

“Mr. Guerra, and I’ll try not to be hurt that you don’t know who I am.”

His smile tells me he’s being playful. I smile in return. Mr. Guerra’s ego seems to be as large as my husband’s. His being here is curious but I don’t ask. “My apologies, Mr. Guerra. Of course I know the name, but I try to stay out of Eduardo’s business.”

“Ah, good woman, Mrs. Montez.”

I lead Mr. Guerra into the front room to wait. Eduardo’s on the phone as I enter his office.

I whisper, “Mr. Guerra is here to see you.”

“Really?” His puzzled expression alerts me to the fact the visit from Mr. Guerra is unexpected. He holds the phone to the side and I notice he appears worried. “Fix him a drink and tell him to give me fifteen minutes.”

I return to the front room to deliver the message. As I speak, I realize this is the opportunity Tug needs. This is the coincidence he’s been looking for to drop the bomb on Eduardo. What better time than an unplanned visit while my husband is preoccupied.

On wobbly legs, I make my way closer to the cartel leader, worried that Eduardo will appear before I can speak to him. If he finds out what I’m doing, it won’t end well. I’ll either be dead or he’ll take me and Javier far away and I’ll never see Tug again. I can’t think about it. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for to bring Eduardo down and cleanse him from my life for good. I must be strong.

Swallowing my fear, I grasp on to the love I have for Tug and say, “Mr. Guerra, I feel I need to tell you something and I hope you’ll understand.”

“I’ll do my best,” he says, his eyebrows lifting.

I glance at the office door, praying mercifully that it doesn’t open as I say, “My husband has only recently come to learn that he has a son. Do you have children?”

“No.”

His eyes are black, as if he knows what I’m about to say. The coldness in his gazes makes me shiver. I swallow, looking at the office door again. I’m so close. I can’t quit now. “Well, you see, a child changes you, as it has Eduardo. He wants a better life for our son, but he may have done something foolish to attain it.”

His eyes narrow as he takes a step closer to me. “What would that be?”

I breathe out slowly. This is it. There’s no going back now. “His intentions were good, but I can’t support him if it means we have to run our whole lives, which I know we’d need to do.”

“Why is that?”

“Promise you won’t hurt him.” I lay on the concerned wife act thick. “He meant well.”

“You’re trying my patience, Mrs. Montez. Tell me and I’ll consider what your husband’s motives were.”

My plan of betrayal is going over smoothly. Mr. Guerra buying every word gives me confidence. “He invested a large sum of money without telling the cartels. He was going to pay it back and use the profit for us to move away. I know it was wrong, but he did it for his family. Please go easy on him.”

“Go easy on a man who stole from me?”

His furious response works in my favor. My personal hell is almost over. “He thought it was for his family.”

His anger doesn’t diminish as he says, “Thank you for answering the question I came to ask your husband.”

He heads to the front door in a hurry and goes outside. Eduardo will never escape this. Tug’s plan was pure genius.

I run to Marco’s room with my limbs still shaking vigorously. A little from fear, but mostly excitement. I reach under the bed for the cell phone. It takes me a minute to find it and I send a text to let Tug know we succeeded.

M: I found your coincidence. The cartels know about the money Eduardo used.

T: What? How?

M: Mr. Guerra showed up here to speak with Eduardo. I played the concerned wife. He bought it.

T: Find Marco and Javier and get out of the house now.

M: Javier’s not here, but we have time. Guerra will meet with the other cartels to determine a punishment.

T: No he won’t. GET OUT OF THE HOUSE! It wasn’t Torrente Cartel money I used. It was Guerra’s. Get out of there.

Oh, my God . . . What have I done?

Worried they’ll return to the house, I send Marco a text, telling him to take my parents and Javier to meet me and Tug at
Café Infinito
immediately. I don’t know how much time I have until Guerra’s men storm the house, so I leave everything and sprint toward the foyer.

Before I reach the front door, Eduardo grabs me around the waist. “Where are you going in such a hurry?”

“I thought I heard my father’s car. I was going to see Javier.”

There’s no hiding my fear and my lie isn’t believable. Eduardo sneers as he pulls me close. “Really, and here I thought you were leaving me for dead.”

His fingertips dig into my arm as he drags me to his office. My heart lodges in my throat. Eduardo knows. Shit . . .
the cameras.
He must have been watching. My skin hums with fear as he shoves me into a chair in front of his desk. He points a gun at me, his eyes dark as night, and any love I ever saw in them has long vanished. Pure hatred reflects back at me.

“There’s only one way for you to live through this, my dear wife.”

“How?” I grip the sides of the chair for support, allowing myself a moment for my thoughts to settle so I can think of a way to escape. There’s one door and he’s armed. I’ll never make it, so I try and turn the tables on him. “What’s done is done. You should run and hide before Guerra’s men find you.”

“No. You will tell Mr. Guerra that it was your father who transferred the money. That he wanted to set me up so he could have the cartel back.”

“They’ll kill him!” I scream, bolting from the chair. He commands me with the gun to sit back down. I do because I know he’ll kill me.

“Yes, they will, but Guadalupe and the kids will be safe. You have my word.”

As if his
word
means anything to me. His heart is pure evil. He’ll never concern himself with the safety of my father’s family.

“And if I don’t,” I say, challenging him. I have nothing left to lose and I refuse to be submissive.

“Then Javier will be an orphan.”

“No,” I protest. “It’s you they want. Not me. Not Javier.”

His sinister laugh sends a shiver down my spine. “So naïve. Do you think when Guerra’s men get here they’ll spare anyone? Don’t you know better by now? When they come, Maria, they’ll execute everyone in this house, including you.”

“Then you have to let me go. Do the right thing for once in your life. You can’t do this to our son.” Pleading for Javier is my only option, but his face remains angry and I know our son is not a strong enough bargaining chip.

“I’m not doing this to Javier. The choice is yours. Our son or your father?” He holds out a cell phone. I shake my head unable to take it.

How foolish I am to believe for a second Eduardo loves Javier enough to let me go. His ego won’t allow him to release a procession. One thing’s for sure; I have a choice, and I choose both my father and my son. I won’t let my father pay for Eduardo’s mistakes and I won’t allow Eduardo to turn my son into a miniature version of himself. He thinks I’m desperate enough to kill my own father, but he’s wrong. My father is a changed man and devoted father and grandfather. I love him and I can’t be the one to betray him.

Eduardo lifts the gun and points it directly at my head. I’m not afraid. I’ve been ready to die since the moment I met him. “You make the call or so help me, Maria, I’ll kill you. Don’t make me do this. Our son needs his mother.”

There’s the little flaw in his threats I had been waiting for. His losing his mother young nags at him as he tries to pretend he’ll do anything to save his skin.

“No
my
son needs his freedom to grow up in a world other than this one, even if it’s without me.” While the pain in my chest is heavy, I will do what I should have done when Eduardo confronted me in the lobby at Tug’s. “You’re going to have to kill me because, I won’t murder my father to save you. You did this the day you raped me all those years ago. You deserve whatever Guerra has planned.”

Rage flashes in his eyes as his skin turns a blistering shade of red. “You would die to protect a man who left your mother? Who abandoned you?”

Fate has caught up to me, but also to Eduardo. There is no escape. I close my eyes as the cold steel presses into my forehead.

The first time I met Eduardo, he swept me off my feet, but it was only days later that I knew he’d eventually kill me.

Maybe this is God’s plan. While my prediction is coming to fruition later than expected, there’s nowhere left to run or hide from the inevitable.

Dying is the only way to protect the people I love. It always has been. I’d been delusional to believe there was another way. That I could forget where I came from. Or was I? The thing with the hustle that Tug missed and I’d forgotten, is when it fails you have to be quick with another one.

I tried Javier and failed. I played on Eduardo’s conscience and failed, but I have one more hand to play. His true weakness. Me.

“Wait!” Vulnerably creeps across his brow as he lowers the gun. “Do you remember the vow I swore to you in Mazatlán?” He nods faintly, his forehead creasing tight as he struggles to maintain my gaze. “I meant it when I told you I would be yours forever. That I’d love you all the days of my life. Every word was true.” He lowers his gaze, but I see the pain sweeping across his features first. “Do you remember what you said to me?”

He lifts his head, his nostrils flaring with irritation. “Yes, but that was before you betrayed me.”

“That wasn’t betrayal. I was trying to fix a mistake and save our family.” I’m pleading with a man who feels nothing more than deception, but the softness of his expression shows me he wants to believe the lie. “I thought Guerra would understand.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does,
Cariño.
It does, because what you said that day made me realize what kind of man you are in your heart.”

“Maria.”

“You said you would die to protect me. That you’d give your last breath to keep me safe. I believed you. I know you love me that much. Please tell me you meant it. Please help me find a way out of here and back to our son. Don’t allow him to suffer the fate you suffered as a boy. Look what it did to you.”

“I do love you that much,
Querido.
I do.” We exchange small smiles. Through a moment of complete silence, I wonder if Eduardo’s father had loved his mother as much if he would have taken a different path. His father allowed the cartel to take his mother when she borrowed money she couldn’t pay back. Eduardo was just a boy. His father was trying to protect him, but the wedge between father had son had been firmly cemented.

As gunfire rings out in the mansion, Eduardo grabs my hand and pulls me up from the chair. “Hurry. You must move quickly.” He looks me directly in the eyes. “Maria, tell our boy how much I loved you both. Don’t let him remember the man I used to be.” A tear falls as I squeeze his hand and nod softly. “Go through the side yard by the pool. You can make it to the stables. Ride Shadow through the canyon. I Love you.”

I kiss him softly on the lips. “I love you, too.”

“Go!” he commands.

In the end, Eduardo is a man I love deeply, who sacrificed his life for me. Knowing that will leave a nasty scar, but our boy will know his father died a hero.