A shot rings out, hitting the cliff behind Matias, and then all four of us have guns to our heads.
A voice comes over a speaker from the boat still banging against the dock.
“Fenici party of four, your table is ready.”
Sasha snorts, but then the little red laser dot appears on James’ chest. “Let him go, Matias,” the voice in the boat says. “Or I’ll shoot him right now. And if you make me shoot my friend, I’m gonna shoot you next, motherfucker.”
“Shoot him!” Matias calls. “It’s a mercy killing. Because we’re going to set him on fire. Right here on this beach.” A man approaches from the stairs carrying two cans of gasoline and Matias walks over to meet him, his arms outstretched.
“See how efficient we are?” He stops and looks back at James, who is strangely calm for a man whose fate involves going up in flames in a haze of accelerant. “But don’t worry, dog. I’m not going to kill you, cabrón. I’m going to makes sure you live to feel the pain, just like you did me.” He points to another man who is holding a fire extinguisher. “I don’t want you to die, dog. That’s too easy. I’m going to make sure you live to feel the humiliation at being disfigured.”
“Stop,” I shout. “Just stop. This is not happening. You are not doing that.” I point to Matias. “I won’t let you.”
“You won’t let me?” He walks forward, pushing Sasha out of the way as he approaches and then he grabs me by my hair. I twist under his arm and spin around his back, my hands ready to clamp down on his throat, when a shot rings out at my feet.
Matias pushes me to the ground and then smacks me in the face.
“That’s enough, Matias,” James says. “Touch her again and I take someone out. Let her go and you can do whatever you want with me. But you’re gonna let her go first.”
“As if you can negotiate,” Matias spits.
James smiles. I can see it even in this dim moonlight. “You know I can, motherfucker. You know I can. I’m playing ball with you right now because these girls are here. But you hurt one of them, and I’ve got no reason to be compliant. So let them go. Let Nick Tate walk them up the dock so that boat can take them away. And I’m yours.”
“No,” I say from the ground at Matias’ feet. “James, I’m not leaving here without you.”
“Take her away, Nick.” James looks at my brother and they stare hard into each other’s eyes.
Sasha stands in front of me and offers her hand. I accept and she helps me to my feet. “Let’s go, Harper. Before he changes his mind.”
But I shake off her grip and walk towards my new husband instead. There’s protests in Spanish from the gang members, and probably Matias himself, ordering me to stop. But I don’t stop. I walk right up to James and wrap my arms around his neck. “I’m not leaving you here. I’m not. I refuse to leave here without you. I can’t live. I told you, I can’t live. I’d rather die than live without you.”
His hands wrap around my neck and he threads his fingers into my hair as he pulls me tight to his chest. “I love you.” And then he sighs.
“Wait,” Nick says off to my right. “Wait, Matias. I have another option for you.”
I don’t want hear the option. I really don’t want to hear the option. Because I know what he’s going to say, just by the tone of his voice.
“Take me instead.”
Sasha screams. “No! No! That was not our deal!”
Matias laughs, looks at James one more time, then my brother. He’s considering the options. He’s considering who Nick is. How he might help him.
“I have information, Matias,” Nick says quickly. “Information James does not. Information that you will want.” Sasha is still screaming and there are several men holding her back from running up to ruin this deal. Nick’s voice is strained. “The Company isn’t dead, only subdued. I can get you all their assets. I can offer you resources you will never get on your own. I can give you more power than you’ve ever dreamed of. Just let James go. Let him take my sister and the little girl. And don’t ever look for them again.”
Everyone goes silent. Even Sasha stops her wailing to wait for the answer. I count the number of times the waves crash as the deformed man stares down my brother.
Does he want a way forward into the future? Or does he want revenge for the past?
He walks over to James and stands a few paces off and laughs. “I’ll tell you what. You apologize to me. On your knees. For what you did. And I’ll consider this deal.”
James shakes his head and gets to his feet. He walks towards the gang leader, his hands in the air. “Jesus fucking Christ, Matias. It was a job. OK? A fucking. Job. It was never personal. I didn’t kill your family. Hell, I didn’t even kill you. I missed motherfucker. Why do you fucking think that is?” James stops right in front of Matias and I wait for the shot. I wait for the retaliation and the vengeance that will take his life. Take him from me forever. “Did you ever, after all this time, ask yourself why I fucking missed Matias? Did it ever fucking occur to you? Did it ever cross that pea-brain of yours that I missed on purpose?”
What?
Matias shakes his head and laughs. “You want to face me, after all this time, and say what you did was merciful?”
“Dude, I was a kid. In a fucking war zone. Your brothers strung me up. I never even got to talk to you about it. You never came to me after you recovered and asked about it.”