“I don’t know yet, but I’m supposed to help plan it,” Juan responds. “I’ll keep you updated, obviously, but shit is going to clamp down for the foreseeable future. It’s obvious the location of the wedding was leaked, and ‘we’ are desperately looking for the perpetrator. I’ll try to hold them off as long as possible, but our communications are going to have to be kept to the bare essentials for the next little while, okay?”
“Yeah, I understand.” Juan seems to pick up on the hesitancy in my voice.
“What’s the matter?” he asks.
I sigh and slink further away from the door that leads back to my tiny slice of domestic bliss. Before I turn down the first corner, I look back and my heart kicks. “We should get Cat and Oscar out of the city first, before shit hits the fan.”
Juan grumbles on the other end of the line. “There’s no escaping this, Angel, you know that. Either we win, or we all die.”
Juan’s words are no surprise, but still, hearing the truth said out loud like that cuts through me like a switchblade. “How’s your family?” I ask, maybe a little more aggressively than I should have. There’s no doubt in my mind that Juan knows what it’s like to want to protect your family at all costs, but I feel like I need to remind him that, as far as I know, his family is safe, while mine isn’t. Would he be making the same decisions if his family were still in the line of fire?
A tense pause follows. “I’d rather we not talk about that over the phone... but they’re fine.”
“Good.” I’m truly happy for my friend, but I won’t be happy until I can say the same for my family. “Formulate a plan to get Cat and Oscar out of here. I’ll stay if I have to, but some things are more important than countries and empires.”
“This isn’t about empires,” Juan argues. Water drips from the tunnel ceiling as I pace back and forth in the darkness. “This is about change. If I could have gotten Cat and Oscar out of the city before you ever even showed up, I would have, but it was impossible then and it’s impossible now.”
I sneer in frustration but I’ve had enough conflict for the day. There’s no point in arguing with Juan. He may disagree with me, but I know he’s just trying to do what he thinks is right. Well, so am I.
“I have to go,” Juan says, and I let him off the hook. “We should be happy for today. Despite the carnage, it was a success. You have Cat back and we’re all alive to keep fighting.”
“You’re right,” I grumble, pinching the bridge of my nose. The humid air outside seems to build in pressure under these tunnels. There’s a mighty headache lingering just behind my forehead—I do my best to push the pain away. There’s so much to do, but right now, I just need to concentrate on one thing: keeping my family safe.
Juan and I hang up and I take the long way back to the underground bunker. My mind whirls with contradicting plans and hopes and desires. Fury rips through my pounding head at the thought of Dante ever getting his hands back on Cat, and I nearly explode from the thought of anything ever happening to Oscar. Juan is right; there’s no way to sneak out of this mess. Dante has the city on lockdown, and it’s a miracle I even managed to get in—getting two people out would be next to impossible... but that doesn’t mean I can’t try.
My success as a revolutionary seems secondary to the health and happiness of my family. Still, I have to fight to remind myself that they’re inextricably linked.
But that doesn’t mean that Cat and Oscar have to do any fighting. I can carry that burden for the three of us. With them safe, I would be free to throw myself fully into this war that I’ve started for them. With them safe, I could die knowing that it was for my family... but how could I die before knowing that they were taken care of?
As long as they’re in the city—hell, in the country—I can’t take the necessary risks I might need to take in order to bring Dante to his knees. I built my original empire without having to worry about the death or pain of others, everything had already been taken from me—well, almost everything. Sure, I had to fight to keep my brother out of it all, but no one ever came after him. I was the only target my enemies would ever take aim at, and that was fine with me. Now, though, everything has changed, and I’m not so sure I can do what needs to be done while my family is forced to hide under the nose of the very devil I’m trying to destroy.
Cat’s awake by the time I return. Her hands are in the sink as she quietly cleans dishes in the kitchen, careful not to wake up Lady or Oscar. “What’s wrong?” she whispers, when our gazes meet.
She must be able to see the worry in my eyes; the conflict raging in my soul. “Nothing, everything went as planned today,” I grumble, wrapping my arms around her tight little body from behind.
She sighs as I plant a kiss against the most tender part of her neck. Her ass pushes into my crotch and I pin her against the kitchen counter. “Not here,” she says, and I agree. Oscar gurgles from his nearby crib and I’m satisfied just holding the woman I’ve fought so hard to get back.
“Your arms,” I point out, as my fingers trace invisible lines across her skin. Cat has changed out of her wedding dress and into baggy sweatpants and a long t-shirt—they don’t smell like her and I imagine they belong to Lady, but the short sleeves expose the marks left on her tender arms.
At first, I’m gentle and sympathetic—my baby has been hurt—but then the thought of how she got hurt fills me with a fury that tightens my grip around the woman I’ve sworn to protect.
Dante...
“Angel, you’re hurting me,” Cat’s whisper snaps me back from the fire’s edge.
“Sorry,” I mumble. “What happened to your arms?” I almost don’t want to hear it. Dante had her under his grip for so long, and I remember what he used to do to his girls...
“It was my own fault,” Cat insists.
I don’t like the sound of that. “What? You spoke back when you shouldn’t have? You tried to escape? Don’t ever blame yourself for what happened—”
“No,” Cat interrupts. “It’s nothing like that. I’d never blame myself for something that monster did to me. I got these cuts on my own accord, running back to my cage like a scared house cat...”
It’s still there, that guilt in her voice. Cat isn’t the one who should feel guilty. I heard what she had to go through to make sure she could keep visiting Oscar. “You were smart and brave,” I tell her. She leans backwards, into me, and I can feel a lightness come over her body. Though I’m sure she’ll never admit it, I know that being absolved means the world to her. I can’t imagine the weight that she’s had to carry while I’ve been away. Now, it’s my turn to take that weight from her.
I support Cat’s body as we gently rock back and forth in the tiny underground kitchen. Then, my eyes fall on something else. “The ring...”
Cat lifts her hand up and the jewel shimmers faintly under the dim lighting. “He let you keep it?” I ask, surprised.