32. Thirty-two

When Gabriel tells me everything I didn"t want to hear the first time, it all clicks into place, and I realize I"ve been taken for a fool. I finally put the rest of the pieces together. How eager Julia was for this wedding and all the times she would disappear. The moments she spent in the kitchen or the back office with Santiago, telling me it was all wedding preparation. Then I saw her emails to several of my enemies. One being Gilbert Alvarez. She was behind the explosion that nearly killed our son. She"s gone too fucking far. I"ve only kept her alive all this time for Mateo"s benefit and she"s no good to him anymore.

I was too busy focusing on getting my family out of the hole I buried them in that I didn"t notice her disloyalty. Turns out I didn"t bury myself alone. Others played a huge part in it all. People in my own home. Clicking my jaw, my gaze drops down to Gabriel"s pleading eyes. I"ve seen that look before. I"ve worn the same expression and felt the same heartbreak when I was told what happened to Marcus–when my father-in-law wore a smile on his face, saying he had to do what was best for the family. Words I"ve repeated many times before.

I tried running to him, to stop it from happening. They held me here in this same basement, pleading on my hands and knees. Baring all my weaknesses while they showed me the video of Marcus"s house burning, after watching him walk inside. I was never the same after that.

Then my oldest was killed and my youngest son was taken and carved up like a fucking pumpkin. That was the end of weak Miguel Juventino. A name I never wanted to take. It wasn't common for a man to take his wife"s last name. But everything I was before died the moment I walked down that aisle and sold my soul to the devil.

"What is your plan?"

Gabriel peers up at me, sweat dripping down his brow. "I was thinking the thing that goes best with a white wedding is the color red."

I smile, tilting my head to the side. "Red has always been my favorite color."

I head up the stairs and Gabriel follows behind me. When I open the door by pressing the code into the keypad, I am met face first with the barrel of a gun. "Not so fast there, Miguel. Looks like today is my lucky day. Never did I think I would have the almighty Miguel Juventino at the other end of a gun." The man was one I recognized as someone I"ve tortured for information in the past. He wore his thick black hair slicked against his head, and his dark green eyes pierced mine. The long, rigid scar going down his right cheek was dark and angry. One I put there many years ago. "Daniel Benson. I see you finally learned how to use a gun. Or at least how to hold one."

He smirks. "Make all the jokes you want. In the end, I"ll have the last laugh."

There"s a piano playing in the background. "The wedding has started. I should go be at my son"s side. It"s not every day your kid gets married, eh?"

When I try to move, he hits me in the face with the gun. "I think you and I both know you aren"t going anywhere."

"Weird. Someone should have shared that information with me." A man I've never seen before appears behind Daniel, pressing a gun to the back of his head. "Drop your gun, pendejo."

Daniel does what he"s told and lifts his hands in the air. "You will regret this."

The mystery guy laughs. "The only thing I regret is letting you talk for as long as you have."

He slams the gun into the side of Daniel"s head, and I jump over to the side while he kicks Daniel"s already falling body down the steps. The man smiles Gabriel"s way, sliding his gun back in his holster. "Miss me, hermano?"

Gabriel laughs and runs up the stairs. "Always, you cocky bastard. Now let"s go stop a wedding."

"I sure hope you plan on wearing something other than that. You don"t want to go back to Mateo looking like shit, do you?" He tosses a duffel to Gabriel. Before I can ask where all the guards are, Gabriel"s brother glances around and back at me with a shit-eating grin. "By the way, I did a little silent clean up when I entered the house. It won"t take long for more to come, so we better hurry."

When we reach the living room, I search around, noticing all the dead guards are Santiago"s, not mine. The floors are slick with blood. All it took was for the wrong person to come back into the house and take a look at the mess to sound the alarm. It was messy, not the way I usually did things. But I guess there was no time for any other way.

A few guys run down the stairs, and as they get closer, I recognize them as my own guards, or what"s left of them. Gabriel"s brother smiles my way. "Oh yeah, these are the few of your guards who are still loyal to you. The few Santiago didn"t kill or turn."

"It"s not his side they"re on," I mutter under my breath.

Gabriel stares my way, eyes full of curiosity. "Whose side are they on, then?"

I release a long sigh. "Hers."

He lifts a brow and then his eyes brighten with realizations. "Your wife. She"s the one running the whole show, isn"t she?"

I nod. "She"s the one who killed your father. She set the fire. She"s wanted me dead for years and thinks today will be her day of glory. The day she will take my place."

His nose flares as he tugs on a clean shirt from the black bag. "Then let"s make sure she doesn"t get what she wants."

"How do you suggest we do that?"

His brother turns around with a smirk on his face. "By beating her at her own game. The Castaneda way."

"She already has everything."

Gabriel shakes his head. "As long as you"re still alive, she has nothing. All we have to do is make sure you stay that way and that Mateo doesn"t marry Santiago." He switches his dirty pants for a pair of clean ones, not caring he"s out in the open.

"What if it"s already too late by the time we get there?"

Gabriel"s brother"s eyes brighten with certainty. "Let"s just say I have that covered and I have a feeling many of the guests will be objecting to the wedding. You may have enemies, but turns out Santiago has way more."

Gabriel digs in the bag again, sliding a holster over his shoulders, loading each side with guns. He pulls a sports coat over it, straightening his posture. "How about we go add a few more out there?"

There is no possible way I could ever second guess the man beside me being Marcus"s son. He carries the same drive and passion in his eyes. When he loved, it was with his whole heart and it was apparent in every action he took. This man loves my son and that alone is enough for me to fight along his side. We both want the same things. To stop the wedding and take down the people who threaten my family. Mateo is all I have left, and I won"t let anything else happen to him. I couldn"t keep his brother here, but there"s still time for things to end up differently for him.