Page 97 of A Dish Best Served Hot

After what felt like forever but had probably only been a few minutes, his dad threw his hands up in the air. “¡Puñeta! ¿Es que nadie aquí nos puede decir nada?”

Mami rubbed his arm distractedly.

The door to the treatment area of the emergency department opened and Kamilah walked out still in her chef whites. Everyone stood and rushed over, talking at the same time.

Kamilah had to raise her naturally loud voice to be heard. “Abuelo is fine. They say they are pretty sure it was just the adrenaline, but they are going to run all of the tests anyway. I’m sorry I didn’t answer any calls. I think I left my phone in the ambulance. I can’t find it.”

Mami grabbed her hand. “Y Leo?”

Kamilah shook her head and shrugged in helplessness. “I tried to get information, but they wouldn’t tell me anything. They just keep saying that they’re treating him.”

“I just don’t understand,” Eddie said. “If it was a robbery, why try to take them?”

“Because it wasn’t a robbery,” Cristian’s voice said from behind them. They turned to see him standing there in his police uniform. Liam followed behind and bypassed them all to go to Kamilah, who had picked up Rosie and was rocking them both.

At his side Lola’s body went as still as a statue.

A terrible thought popped into his head, but he brushed it off. There was no way. There was no way this had to do with Rafael León and thus Lola. There was no way she’d know it and not tell him so immediately.

“What do you mean it wasn’t a robbery?” Tío Rico asked.

“It was an attempted kidnapping.”

Kamilah gasped and tightened her hold on Rosie. “You mean.” She stopped and looked down at Saint’s daughter.

“No,” Liam said, brushing a hand over Kamilah’s head. “They were after someone else.” He lifted his eyes and looked right at Lola.

Saint didn’t think it was possible for her to go even more stiff.

“My partner called me,” Cristian said. “They got one of the perps to talk. He said their orders were to get Lola at any cost.”

He couldn’t even imagine what they’d wanted her for. And to say that they were to take her by any means necessary. His daughter was with her. Rosie could’ve been hurt. She could’ve been killed.

Saint felt sick. This was all his fault. He should’ve never let her out of his sight. He shouldn’t have let her get so close to Lola, not when he knew that the past could come for her at any time.

“Saint,” Lola murmured at his side. “I’m sorry. I would never have put anyone in danger on purpose, especially not Rosie. You know that, right?” She squeezed his hand.

Saint turned to look at her. The woman he loved. The woman he’d welcomed back into his life with open arms. “Did you know they were still after you?”

“What?”

“You told me that your brother had revoked your privileges. This was why, wasn’t it? Because you were still in danger and he was trying to protect you.”

The guilt was written all over her face. “When I saw Guillermo Hernandez, he made some vague threats, but I didn’t think—”

He shook his head in disbelief. “You didn’t think that one of the most dangerous gang members the neighborhood has ever seen had the means to make good on his threat? You didn’t think to tell me about this threat so I could be forewarned? You didn’t think before you went wandering all around the neighborhood yesterday protesting with a bunch of innocent people including your friends and my family? You didn’t think before you tookmy daughterout in public with you with only two old men as escorts?” he scoffed. “Of course you didn’t think, because you’re Lola León and you don’t have to think. You just act because you already know everything, and whoever doesn’t like it can fuck off. Right? Isn’t that how you work?”

“That’s not fair,” she said.

“Fair? When you hid this from me and now I don’t even know if my brother is alive right now?”

“I have never once hidden who I am or what I’m about from you. You have known that since we were teenagers.”

“So now it’s my fault that you lied to me, because I should’ve known better?”

“That’s not what I—”

“You’re right. I should’ve known better. It’s like the story of the scorpion and the frog and I’m the gullible frog who put you on my back.”

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