The man growled but didn’t say anything else.

Lola noticed Papo staring fixedly at the enclosure, but she brushed it off as him doing his best to not startle either man.

“Keep your gun on them,” the first one said before walking around to the driver’s side of the car.

The second man pointed the gun right at Lola, figuring she was the one to worry about. He was right. She was ready to tear him apart with her bare hands.

The moment the first man dropped the hand holding the gun to open the door, there was an explosion of movement from the dumpster enclosure as Leo Vega launched himself at the man.

Lola lifted her keys and sprayed the second man in the eyes, before he could turn his face away. At the same time Benny dropped to the ground, dragging Rosie and Papo with him and covering Rosie’s body with his own. She knew that she was supposed to run away. It was the first thing she’d learned in Krav Maga and the first thing she taught her students, but she wasn’t going anywhere without Rosie or the others, so her only option left was to fight.

Silently thanking her mother for making her take Krav Maga, Lola used a move she’d practiced hundreds of times to disarm the guy in front of her while he was still wailing in pain. She hit his arm to knock the gun away from anyone, but she didn’t let go. She grabbed the barrel with one hand and used the other one to punch him in the throat. Because he instinctively loosened his grip to grab his injured throat, it was easier for her to rip the gun out of his hand. She tossed it behind her and then used all of her strength to kick him in the knee.

The sound of a gunshot boomed in the alley, followed immediately by a shout of pain.

Lola spun to see the other assailant running down the alley, abandoning his fallen friend. She didn’t see Leo. He had to be on the other side of the car. She didn’t know how it was possible for her stomach to drop when it was already in her feet, but it did.

The back door to the restaurant was thrown open and people spilled out. There was a horrified scream and shouts for someone to call 911 even though the blaring sirens were already close. Someone was yelling Leo’s name over and over. For some stupid reason all Lola could think about was how Leo had just called her one of them and now because of her, he might be dead.

23

Saint looked around Gabi’s transitional designed office, with its perfectly balanced mix of modern and traditional styles, and wondered yet again how he’d gotten stuck there.

It had all started when Saint had stepped out of the office bathroom and almost ran right into Gabi and Alex. Both women had been standing legs akimbo and arms crossed over their chests. If their stances hadn’t told him that he was in trouble, their faces for sure had.

“We need to talk,” Alex had said.

“My office. Right now,” Gabi added.

“I’m supposed to meet Lola for dinner at seven,” he said, trying to get out of whatever shitstorm was coming.

“You better call and let her know you’ll be late, because we are handling this now.”

They’d moved as a unit toward Gabi’s corner office, probably to give him some privacy to make the call, but Gabi had turned at the last second. “If you aren’t here in three minutes we will come find you.”

Saint almost shivered. Dear lord, why was he just now noticing how scary his cousin could be.

After having yet another awkward conversation with Lola, he’d stepped into Gabi’s office only to be completely blindsided by the very first question out of Alex’s mouth.

“You want to explain to us why we just found out that our company is in charge of the renovation that kicked those kids out of their only homes and sparked the very protest we were at yesterday?”

Now here he was an hour and a half later and he was still nowhere near being done explaining. He’d tried to get them to understand that by helping El Hogar find a new place, they could make things right. He’d tried to tell them that he’d just been doing what their father had asked him to do, but that had opened him up to questions he couldn’t answer about why. Thankfully, Tío Luís had arrived to save him from the reaming he’d been getting and had finally told his daughters about his diagnosis. Unfortunately, Eva had come with him, which added a whole other layer of tension to the situation as the sisters were still circling each other warily like a group of fencers.

“Papi, I just don’t understand why you’d keep this from us,” Gabi said.

Saint’s phone vibrated in his pocket. It was probably Lola wondering where he was. He ignored it in the hope of not calling attention to himself.

Alex, always willing to be the blunt one, added, “You have a chronic illness that will affect your mobility and you run a construction company. How did you think this was going to go? Did you think we wouldn’t notice until you were on-site using a motorized cart and one of those grabby things like a viejo at the grocery store?”

Tío Luís opened his mouth to reply, but Alex wasn’t done.

His phone stopped buzzing only to start again. Lola was probably pissed and justifiably so. He slowly slid his hand into his pocket and started pulling his phone out.

“You always tell us how valuable we are to you and to Cruz and Sons, but when it came down to it you completely disregarded us. Instead, you put your faith in Saint. On top of that, you have him and everyone else hiding it from us like we are two fragile little girls who can’t handle reality. Do you have any idea what a slap in the face that is? You might as well tell us to go to the kitchen and make you a sandwich.”

The phone quieted right as he finally pulled it free of his pocket. Saint discreetly checked his screen. He had multiple missed calls. None of them were from Lola. They were all from Kamilah.

“Alex, I don’t think he intended—” Eva began only to get cut off.