20. Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

Dante sat with Prince on the cement steps that led down into the cave. Staring at the door, like his mind could wish the thing open, the clock ticking until his brother arrived.

"I found the signal," Prince said, quiet but excited. "The feed is going out to a phone."

"How the hell can you know that?"

"It's not difficult," Prince said humbly. Dante doubted the young man would know how to brag. "It's a phone app. I use an app cloner on my computer, one I came up with. I can see anything he does, but what I need to do is cut off his access. He was also using a cell phone and internet killer. It knocks out signals. I already took that down, but since we're not getting calls from inside, either no one has a phone or the walls are too thick."

"Probably both."

"My guess as well. Okay, so what my system is working on right now is cutting off access to him and giving it solely to me. Once I have that, I can get the code, and we can open the doors."

Dante was amazed, being he'd only used computers at Prince's age to look up porn. "Fascinating."

"See them?"

Dante looked at the computer screen and saw hallways, a main room, and the front and back entrances. "I don't see Selestino."

"He's there. He was in the hallway a couple of minutes ago. There," he said, pointing to the main room that had three camera angles. "He's fine, by the looks of it."

"I wish we could communicate with them."

"There is a phone line, but it's not set up. We don't need to speak to them. If we get them out of there, you can yell at him all you want."

"I'll do more than that. I'd like to smack him, but I suppose he's too old for that."

"I'm sure my father would disagree. If I were anywhere near him, he'd smack me, or he'd very much want to."

Dante patted his back. "You're in my family now, Prince. No one will ever hurt you again, if we can help it."

After climbing out of the cave, he found Blaine pacing. "BB, are you okay?"

"He's still out there, Dante. And who knows, this might not be the only other bunker."

"We'll find him. Somehow, we will."

Prince hollered, "I think I have it!"

They all rushed in a group toward the entrance, but Dante pushed through them to get down the few steps first. "Prince?"

"I locked him out and changed the code. With this program, I can make it so he can never change the code again. Let's say there's a code inside the code."

"Computer people make little sense to me, Prince, but I adore you. Let's get them out of there."

Dante let Prince do the honors, and as soon as the tumblers sounded and a great racket happened in the wall, he finally heard a click, and the door came open an inch.

He rushed in, Lonnie and Tango on his heels. Down a short hall to the main room they'd seen on the screen, Sel was standing near the television, and he smiled tiredly. "Uncle!"

Dante went to him and practically tackled him in a hug. "I'm so angry with you, but so glad you're okay."

"I know. And I am. Fine, that is."

Prince ran inside and jumped into Dex's arms, and Ruben and Dallas came in soon after, smothering Marius between them.

Blaine followed Dante's hug with one of his own, and Dante noticed Bennie heading right for him. "You protected him anyway."

"No, Dante. Tell me it wasn't the things he did that saved us."

Dante realized he was right. If it wasn't for Sel's blatant ignoring of his orders, they'd have been lost, and likely killed. "Still, Bennie, he could have…" His own argument sounded pitiful to himself. "Yeah. He's…he's ready, whether or not we are."

"He is, sir. I believe that."

Prince was busy kissing Dex, but Dante knew he'd give the man a million-dollar bonus when he came up for air, and the others were dancing around, so happy all their people were okay.

Dallas hugged Avery and Jim next, then they were all escorted out of the bunker, the two doctors waiting outside to look them all over as Sel walked out with Dante.

"Uncle, I know I fucked up, but I had a feeling. It was eating at me, and I couldn't just sit and do nothing. Bennie told me, though, that…it's not just from your love that you want to keep me safe. You really are counting on me to take over one day."

"It's mostly from love, I assure you, Sel, but…you've been ready to take over since you were a small child. You knew things, understood things that a little kid couldn't or shouldn't."

"I won't place myself in danger if I can help it," he said as they stood in the sunlight. "But I'm also not going to hide from it anymore. If I'm going to ask others to put their lives on the line, I'd be a shitty leader if I wasn't willing to do the same."

Dante had never been so proud of anyone before in his life as he was in Sel at that moment. He hugged his nephew close, but had to admit, "I called your parents."

Sel laughed. "I figured you'd have to. I'll deal with them."

He pulled back to look into the face of his handsome nephew. "You'll have to. I'm going to be killed the minute your mother sees me."

*****

Sel waited for his parents to drive to Dante's trailer. He sat on the steps to the small porch and pet Ming, who adored getting scratched behind her ears. "Ming, you make sure you bite my mother if she goes for a gun."

Blaine came out of the trailer right then. "Sel, she won't shoot you. I hope."

Sitting with Sel, Blaine sighed and said, "Indio."

That was a shock to him. He tried to play it off with, "What about him?"

"Don't act like I'm dumb. I was in love with a dangerous man more than once. I was your age or a year younger."

"I remember Uncle Troy," he said, then shook his head and whispered, "Sorry. He was never really my uncle."

"You grew up with him. I understand."

Sel remembered the man, how he towered over Antonia and Sel, scowling unless the other grownups were around. "He never liked me or my sister. I never liked him. I still don't know why my father trusted him."

"They grew up together. He was like another brother to Antonio, but finally, when Antonio saw him for what he truly was, all that ended. Thankfully. Then, well, your dad felt a lot of guilt. For Dante, for me, for Devin, too. But even though he felt bad for me, he let me know, didn't really mince words, that if I ever hurt his brother, your dad, I'd be dead."

"Damn. That's harsh."

"Scared me. It did, but I was already in love with Dante. Terribly so. It makes me think, though. What would I do for those I love? Anything. That includes you, Sel."

In a not-so-subtle way, Blaine was telling him he'd hurt Indio himself if Indio hurt him. "I like him, Blaine, but I don't know if he likes me. There's nothing to worry about."

"I'll be the judge of what I worry about."

The SUV approached, and Blaine kissed his cheek before heading into the trailer. Selestino stood tall, not shrinking in on himself. He had to stand his ground.

As soon as the vehicle stopped, Sel watched his mother opening the door so she could get out and run to him, blonde hair flying backward, her eyes leaking tears. That shook his resolve, as did the hug she gave him as she collided with him. "Sel! Sel, my boy, you're okay. You're okay, thank God, you're okay."

His father was next. Antonio growled in his ear, "I wish you were still small enough to put over my knee."

"You never did when I was young enough, Dad."

"I should have," he laughed. After he pulled back to look over Sel's face, he said, "You look okay. Maybe a little more mature."

"Maybe I am."

They all went into the trailer and the two brothers squared off, but then Antonio went to Dante and hugged him. "I know this wasn't your fault. Thank you for getting him out of there."

"Wasn't me. I just hired the ones who perform the miracles."

When Antonio turned his eyes back to Sel, he knew what was coming. "Son, sit down."

"Dad, I already know. Bennie…he told me. I know I'm the one that will take over the family, but I already knew that. I've always known Dad. I'm ready to learn, which is why I wanted to come here."

"To…your uncle?"

Sel said, "Dad, I love you, respect you, and more than that, I admire that you stepped back and let Dante run things while you were a dad to me and the other kids. Dante's been running things, and I'll learn from him. I'll also learn from you."

Patting his face, Antonio said, "Fucking punk."

Selena hugged her son on the couch while they visited with Dante and Blaine. His mother kept kissing his cheek, squeezing his hand.

Antonio was trying to be all business, but he, too, kept looking over at Sel, like he had to keep assuring himself he was really there.

"This asshole, is he caught then?"

"No. He's a slippery fuck, but we've got all precautions in place again, and no more using our people as bait. We underestimated him, but he did the same with us."

"The feds?"

"Still aren't here. They're coming from Salt Lake. Had to be formerly asked by Vic Meyers, our sheriff, of course, but they're taking their sweet time."

Antonio mentioned, "It's the way it's always been, Dante. We had to become our own police when we came to this country, learning it from doing the same in the old country. Fuck the feds. We'll take care of our own."

Dante agreed heartily. "With our new computer man, we'll know where he is if he dares to try to leave the country again. We've sent men up near the Canadian border, down to the Mexican, too. If he tries to leave this area again, Prince Rose will know it from the software, and we can send out the alert with the make and model of the car and all."

"Good. I'm glad. I wish we could stay for his capture. Cesar is, I'm afraid, in trouble again."

Sel hid a smile behind his hand. His little brother was a menace. He'd been terribly spoiled by the entire family, but mostly by his siblings. Sel and Antonia lavished affection on him and constantly took the blame for all his mischief.

"What is my nephew up to now?"

"Went out with those hoodlum friends of his. They went out to a party in the valley, didn't come home until three, and when he came home, he was in the back of a cop car."

Dante's jaw dropped. "Cesar? I just can't believe he's…"

"Believe it," Selena said. "Little brothers always cause a lot of problems," she added, pointedly staring at Dante.

"I was a peach," he argued.

Blaine stuck up for Selena. "He is now because of me. He was a pain in the ass before that. I remember the tail end of it."

When his parents left that evening, he was kissed, hugged, and warned a dozen times to behave and stop placing himself in danger. Sad to see them go, he waved as the SUV pulled away, feeling like he should have said more.

Dante was beside him and threw an arm around his shoulders. "I hope you don't think they are ditching you."

"No. I'm sad they had to come at all. I just realized I really miss them. First time I've felt like…like I live away from them. Weird?"

"No. At college, you went home for holidays and breaks. While it'll always be home, Sel, you don't really live with them any longer."

"I guess so. I really love my parents, Uncle Dante. I never want to disappoint them."

"You made them proud, Sel. It was all you. You saved those men by leaving that tracker and tablet outside of the bunker. We might have found none of you. And going in there, armed, you might have been stuck, but you would have still saved those men that were in there."

"Maybe, sure, but…"

"But nothing. Go back to the farmhouse and celebrate with your new friends. Just don't steal their fucking trackers again."

"No, sir."