Page 77 of Liar

I’m about to disconnect when he picks up, and I’m greeted with a gruff string of curses that ends with, “Hijo de puta, pick up when I call. Is my sister safe?”

I swallow hard. Safe, sí. Punched, knocked down, baffled? That’d be a yes, too.

“Answer me, pendejo,” he grinds out in a tone I’m certain would terrify Javier, whose phone I’ve borrowed. “I’ve been calling all morning.”

“Ever hear the expression that sugar goes farther than hot sauce?”

“Joder, Luciana?”

“I’m fine.” Fine. Not great. Not lying injured on some stage.

“Thank God. Are you at the Hole?”

“Yes.”

I hear him inhale sharply. “I’m safe, Diego. It’s you I’m worried about.”

“I’m in hiding. The Bastard called late last night and told me to terminate the two Z22s I was with then to disappear until I’m told to return.”

“Late last night?” I murmur. “What time?”

“What does it matter. I can’t be in Loreto to protect you. This is exactly why I’ve been pushing you to go away to school. I even sent Aunt Gretchen a letter.”

“What?” I hiss.

“And now I’m told to leave the only person I love in the middle of a motherfucking war zone.”

I don’t know whether I’d hug him or knock him on his ass if he were here. Joder,is right. What. The. Fuck. He sent Aunt Gretchen a letter? It takes great strength mixed with all my worrying about him, to respond. “The Hole is heavily guarded. Updated with a new security system. I’ll be okay here until things settle down.”

“That’s what he said.”

He, meaning the boss. War was breaking out, and Hayden thought of me?

Maybe, just maybe, Diego is going to have a bigger fight on his hands if he persists in this sending me away nonsense.

“The Z22 will retaliate.”

“Then stay hidden and stay away,” I reply.

“This isn’t about me. My actions are insignificant.”

“You killed two Z22s. If Marifer learns it was you—”

He snorts, interrupting me. “Me? Listen carefully, Luciana. You’re living inside a beehive that’s been hit with a big fucking stick. Who do you think started this war? Who, without warning, took it upon himself to tear open his sweetly guarded hive and leave the honeycomb exposed?”

“Hayden doesn’t want war. He’d offer up his firstborn child to keep the peace.” Be patient. Wait for the plan to unfold. Allow that pendejo, El Calaca, to terrorize good Samaritans ... wait. No. He wouldn’t.

Diego is silent. The longer it lasts, the more apprehensive I become. “Oh, the Bastard started it, all right. With his own bare hands.”

Everything seems to stand still. “What did he do?”

The Bastard, not Boss.

“What did he do, you ask?” Diego snorts. “He cut the pendejo’s dick off and shoved it down his throat. He isn’t hiding it was him, either. Let the motherfucker scream until his vocal cords shredded before choking on penis-pie. The Bastard made sure everyone knows this was his doing. All the times I was ordered to turn a blind eye while Marifer got in cozy with the Colombians. All gone with one brutal hit.”

I shift on my feet, desperately attempting to remember what Javier said when he picked me up.Hurry, before The Bastard drags me into a back alley and cuts off my verga.

“I would have killed him myself, months ago. Yet he ordered me to wait. That we couldn’t risk breaking the peace. That killing the pendejo was less important than respecting the alliance.”