Easter's Lilly Read online

The house smelled like chorizo, a Mexican sausage they often cooked. Diego and Hector had already gone and Max and I were alone. “As much as I would love to take advantage of you right now, we have to eat and get moving.”

  I smiled. “Leave it to you to feed me first,” I replied.

  “Hey, you’re pregnant. Food is important.” I laughed. “Besides,” he said. “I am waiting for Leticia. She will be coming with us to watch little Diego.”

  “Why Leticia?” I asked.

  “She’s a cop,” he answered. I sat down almost impulsively when he said that. “What?” I asked.

  “She’s a cop and I need her watching the baby as we get the hell out of here.”

  “I think you have a lot of explaining to do,” I told him.

  “Yes, Lucy, I do.” He laughed. “Please trust me, baby girl.” He put eggs and some chorizo in a tortilla and put it in front of me. “You need to keep up your strength.”

  We ate, got dressed and got our bags together. Max put me in the car and put blankets over Leticia, the baby and me as we drove off of the property. He told the guards at the gate that he was going to the meeting after all and had left Miguel with me. Miguel was waiting in the house to give us time to get away. When we got a safe distance from the house, he called Miguel to let him know. We stopped the car at the Flamingo hotel and picked Hector up by the service entrance. “How’d you get out?” he asked.

  “Bathroom.” He smiled. “The men are all in the back room and the women are having dinner,” he told us. As we drove away I could see huge amounts of black sedans and men dressed in black shirts that said, “FBI” on them. They were running into the hotel.

  “Step on it!” Hector shouted and Max peeled out of the parking lot onto the highway. My hands were shaking as I strapped Dieguito into his car seat. “They are already at your house,” Hector said. “Miguel called and said they had arrested everyone.”

  “Okay, what the heck is happening?” I asked frantically. “Max, what’s going on?”

  “Max, you haven’t told her?” Leticia asked.

  “I didn’t want her to lie for us. I was afraid Diego might try to beat it out of her if he got suspicious,” he answered. “But I guess it’s time now.”

  Hector pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and handed it to me. “Look inside,” he told me. I opened the wallet and saw some identification that said, “Hector Montiago, FBI.”

  “No way! Are you kidding me?” I asked. “Seriously, you too Max?”

  “Yes baby, me too.” He turned his head and looked at me for a reaction. “I’m sorry, please don’t be angry with me.”

  “You had your reasons,” I answered. “You do love me, don’t you? Was that part real?”

  He turned his head again. “That part was real,” he answered. “It was all real, baby girl.”

  “If you are FBI, how did you get away with killing Johnny?” I asked. Leticia laughed.

  “He’s not dead,” Hector answered. “We put him in the Witness Protection Program. That’s why we were gone for so long.”

  “But when you came back, Max was all weirded out,” I answered.

  “We’ve been infiltrating their organization for five years, now.” Hector paused. “We know what kind of behavior they expect from us after certain jobs get done.”

  “So, John is going to testify against Jorge and Diego?” I asked.

  “That’s how it works,” Leticia responded. Then she showed me her FBI identification.

  “One more question,” I asked.

  “Baby, you have earned the right to ask me as many questions as you want,” Max answered.

  “Why?” I paused. “Why turn in your brothers like that?”

  Max sighed. “They had our mother killed.”

  “Papi was married to their mother first, obviously I guess, and got our mother pregnant with me,” Hector started. “He eventually left Elena for our mom.”

  “Then they had me,” Max continued. “Everything was fine until Hector turned about 12 and I was 10.” He took a breath. “Diego was 17 at the time. That would make Jorge 23. They killed our mom, Amelia, in order for their mom to get Papi back into her … good graces.”

  “Oh no,” I replied. I put my hands over my mouth in absolute shock.

  “They had her brutally raped and murdered. Then our dad re-married Elena and we had to live with them until we went off to college. Our mom’s family put money away for us and we decided to see justice done when we graduated.”

  “So that’s what this is about? Revenge?” I asked.

  “After we grew up a bit, we realized that we had to stop the organization from expanding. They sell drugs to kids and Jorge is a brilliant businessman. The organization is beyond huge. It became more about ethics after a while.”

  “How did they ever let you in?” I asked.

  “Long story short,” Hector finished. “We played dumb about our mom’s murder and they were never caught. We got out of school, went for FBI training and went to our brothers and begged for work. They took us in and the rest is history.”

  “Aren’t you afraid that they are going to kill us when they figure this whole thing out?” I asked.

  “Lilly, they would have killed you eventually if you had stayed there. He would have found someone younger and paid her with drugs to sleep with him and you would have been in the way,” Max continued. “I had to get you out of there.”

  “I know, Max.” I corrected myself quickly. “I couldn’t have stayed in that marriage any longer than I had to.”

  “For goodness sakes you were threatening to kill yourself.” He looked at me again. “We had to speed things up.”

  “If you hadn’t fallen in love with me, would you have left me there?” I asked.

  “I was in love with you within the first five minutes I saw you,” he answered. “From the moment your pretty eyes met mine. We were locked in, remember?”

  “Of course I do.” I smiled. “I saw your… yes I remember.”

  He laughed a little. “So, there’s no doubt, you were destined to be stuck with me.” I reached over the seat and grabbed his hand. “I would never say stuck,” I answered. “I can’t wait to…” I paused. “Be alone again.”

  “Still in the car,” Hector said. “Leticia and I are still here.”

  “I can’t wait either,” Max responded. “But it’s a long drive to Arizona.” Hector picked up the phone and called, of all people, my dad. “Mick, is Olivia there yet?” Let me talk to her.” He began a long conversation in Spanish and then started talking to my dad again. “It went just like you wanted. We’re clear and we’ve got Lilly, the baby and Leticia.” He hung up the phone.

  “Okay, not my dad,” I said. “He’s the chief of police for Sedona.”

  “Yes he is,” Max answered. “He is also in charge of narcotics for the FBI. You’re going to find this very amusing, I’m sure,” Max continued. “But he’s our boss.” I was floored. “I have to say that I’m a little mad at him for not introducing me to you sooner,” Max continued. “Didn’t he know what a great couple we’d be?”

  “Your boss?” I was still in shock. “So many things are starting to make sense now,” I said. “Like when my mom died and my dad sort of turned to you. I always thought that was strange.”

  “Hey,” Max said in his usual smart mouthed tone, “I am quite charming.”

  “Always the clown,” Hector added. “Always the clown.”

  When we got to Sedona, Dieguito and I were sound asleep in the back of the car. Leticia carried the baby inside and when I opened my eyes, Max was trying to carry me out of the car. “You’re so cute,” I said. “You could just wake me.”

  “You are too beautiful when you sleep to disturb.” He helped me out of the car and we started for the front door. My dad opened it and hugged me first and then Max. Hector was already in an embrace with Olivia inside the living room. My dad put his hand on my stomach. “Oh no… why didn’t you tell me what that filthy dog did to my b
aby?”

  “No, no, Mick. The baby’s mine,” Max confessed. “I hope you’re okay with that.”

  “Are you sure?” he asked. “I mean, really sure?”

  “I’m pretty sure that you don’t want the details, so let me just say, yes I am very sure,” Max answered. He hugged Max and kissed me and said, “I am so happy for you. What a wonderful day!”

  “You don’t mind that I’m having a baby with a man who I’m not married to?” I asked.

  “This is just a temporary situation,” my dad stated. “Right Max?”

  “I’d marry her today if Diego wasn’t an issue. Lilly is everything to me.”

  “I know that,” my dad answered. “I’m just messing with you.” He patted Max on the back. “I think I knew you were in love before you did.”

  “Not possible,” he responded. “I fell in love with her from the first moment I met her.”

  “It’s time to tell Olivia,” Dad said. “She doesn’t know.” He looked at Max. “Does Lilly know?”

  “We told her in the car,” he answered. “The FBI in the parking lot tipped her off.” He laughed.

  “Are you angry, sweetheart?” he asked me.

  “No, dad, I’m not angry.” I thought about it for a minute. “Maybe at you for keeping this a secret for so many years.”

  “I know, I am truly sorry.” He took my hands. “Keeping you safe has always been a priority.” He sighed. “Then you got all mixed up with Johnny and here we all are.”

  “I’ll take care of her, Mick.” Max looked very sincere. “She’ll be fine.” We all sat down in the living room and Olivia looked at me curiously. “What’s going on?” she asked. “What are you not telling me?”

  Hector pulled out his badge and showed it to her. She got up and smacked him across the face. “How dare you!” she shouted. “How could you not tell me something so important? I had no idea you were having them all arrested.”

  “I knew bringing her here was a mistake,” my dad added. “She’s not on our side.”

  “You’re damn right, I’m not,” she answered. “I have to be loyal to my husband and Diego.”

  “What?” Hector asked. “Since when?”

  “Since you threw them both in jail,” she replied. “You had them arrested tonight, didn’t you? It was you!”

  Just then my dad’s phone rang. He picked it up and went into the kitchen so he could be out of earshot. When he came back in, he sat down. Then Olivia’s phone rang. “It’s done?” Max asked him.

  “Done,” he repeated. “They are asking for their wives.” My cell phone began to ring just after Olivia’s.

  “Don’t answer it,” Max told me. But Olivia picked up hers. She walked off with it but Hector followed her, to make sure she didn’t give them up just yet. My phone rang and then beeped that there was a message. I looked at it as though it was going to burn me if I picked it up. “Go ahead,” Max, said. “Check the message.” I put the phone on speakerphone and hit messages. “Lilly,” he said. “Someone ratted us out to the FBI and Jorge and I are in jail. I need you to call my lawyer. The number is in the top drawer by the coffee maker.” He paused. “Make sure you call Max and Hector and let them know. All the leaders are in custody. It doesn’t look good. I love you.” Max closed the phone.

  “They don’t know what happened yet.” He looked over as Hector and Olivia walked back into the room. “It’s just a matter of time.”

  “She gave us up,” Hector blurted. “She wants to leave.”

  “I’ll call her a cab,” my dad answered. “They were going to find out eventually. I was just hoping it wouldn’t be from one of you.”

  “How could you, Lilly?” she asked me. “Diego is your husband.”

  “What about Hector?” I asked her. “Aren’t you carrying his baby?”

  Max and I sat on the couch together while my dad went to call a cab. Hector and Olivia were standing by the door face to face. “It’s not even your baby, Hector.”

  “What?” he asked. “Of course it is.” Max and I looked at each other in shock.

  “No, it’s not.” she repeated. “I was hoping I wouldn’t have to tell you.”

  “Was there someone else?” he asked.

  “The baby belongs to Max,” she answered.

  Hector and I looked at him and my dad walked back into the room and said, “It better not be.”

  “It certainly is NOT!” Max spouted. “Olivia, why would you even say something like that? You and I have never slept together.”

  “Come on Max, it’s time to come clean.” She walked towards him and he quickly stood up and walked behind the couch away from her.

  “That is not my baby.” He looked at Hector. “Brother, you don’t doubt me, do you?”

  “No, I know you wouldn’t…” he paused, “didn’t.” He stopped. “Olivia, what are you doing?”

  “How does it feel to be lied to and betrayed?” She looked at me. “Now, you’ll never be sure if I’m telling the truth or not, will you Lilly?”

  “I’m sure,” I answered. “You’re a liar.”

  “Look, I don’t do casual sex, you know that,” Max blurted.

  “What about Darla?” she asked. “That was pretty casual.” He stepped back and swallowed hard as he looked at me for a reaction.

  “That’s why I don’t have casual sex anymore,” he said in a defeated tone.

  “What’s Lilly?” she asked.

  “Everything,” he replied. “She is my everything.”

  “The baby’s Diego’s,” she sputtered, suddenly changing her story.

  “Diego’s?” Hector asked. Now we were all really confused.

  “Diego’s?” I asked. “When did he have time?”

  “Doesn’t feel good to be cheated on, does it little white girl.” I was stunned. It was hard to watch her flip out like that. The cab came and she pushed Hector back. “Don’t follow me, policeman. We’re done!” She slapped him across the face a second time and walked out the door. Hector looked at Max and said, “What the hell was that?”

  “I don’t know,” Max answered. “Maybe she is sleeping with Diego. I just don’t know.” We watched her from the window get into the cab and then we heard machine gun fire. Max grabbed me and threw me to the ground before he got on top of me and covered my face. My dad and Hector also hit the floor. When the shooting stopped Hector screamed out Olivia’s name and ran out the door. “Hector, no!” Max shouted.

  “I’ve got Lilly, you go after him,” my dad demanded.

  “No,” Max said, “I’m not leaving her.”

  “She’s my daughter, for God’s sake, go after him!” My dad came over and sat on the couch beside where I was on the floor and Max went after his brother. “Stay down a little longer,” he said. “I want to make sure it’s over.” We waited and then he picked me up and sat me on the couch. “Are you two all right?” he asked.

  “Fine, dad, we’re fine.” After a few minutes Max walked back into the house covered in blood. His hands, his face and his shirt were saturated. It was obvious that he had been hugging his brother trying to get him out of the blood filled cab.

  “She’s gone,” he said. “Olivia… the baby…” he paused, “my brother is holding her body… he’s devastated.”

  “Lilly,” my dad said. “Go clean him up.”

  “Yes sir,” I answered.

  “I’ll go get your brother.” He left us and walked out the door. I took Max into the kitchen and sat him on a stool. I grabbed a towel, wet it and started cleaning the blood off of his hands. Then I put it up to his face and cleaned the blood off of his cheek and forehead. I put the towel down and started unbuttoning his shirt. I pulled it off and started cleaning off his chest. He put my face into his hands and kissed me. I kissed him back and he pulled me close. I had never seen him like this before. I was afraid he was going to try to make love with me right there on the kitchen floor.

  “Lilly,” he said. “Show me your old bedroom.”

  �
��Now?” I asked in surprise.

  “Right now,” he said without hesitation. I took his hand and walked him to my bedroom. I could see a certain amount of vulnerability in his eyes. He walked me in and locked the door behind me. Then he wasted no time in getting my clothes off and making love to me. Every time I called out his name, he seemed more motivated to make me do it again. When the loving was over he collapsed beside me and we were both out of breath. “Are you all right?” I asked him.

  “We just never know,” he said, still trying to catch his breath, “how much time we have.” He kissed me. “I wanted to make sure that I was with you… one more time.”

  I kissed him and pushed myself into his arms. “This was not the last time,” I told him. “We will be forever.” We held each other for a few minutes. I think this was the only time we made love in less than two hours.

  He kissed me and pulled me up off of the bed. “I’m sorry it’s so fast,” he said. “But your dad will not be happy with me. Let’s go check on Hector.”

  We walked out of the bedroom and my dad was just closing the bathroom door. We could hear the shower going, so we knew Hector was cleaning up.

  “I apologize, sir,” Max started. “I mean no disrespect to you or your daughter.” My dad looked at him with a look of assurance. “I guess I just…” He stopped for a minute. “I think I just lost control.”

  My dad patted him on the back. “It’s okay son.” He shot him a smile. “I have lost control so many times.” He took a few minutes to collect his thoughts. “I have come back from a job where someone was senselessly murdered and came home only to take Bobby into my arms and make love to her all night.”

  “Too much information!” I told him.

  “Then hold your ears,” he said to me. “Sometimes you think to yourself, ‘how much time do I have left?’ I get that.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Max replied.

  We heard the shower go off and my dad said, “Come on, let’s get to the kitchen. I don’t want him to feel self-conscious. Give him his privacy.”

  When Hector finally joined us, Max poured him bourbon and I wrapped my arms around his neck from behind. He grabbed my hands and said, “I’m sorry about that Lilly.”

  “Sorry about what?” I asked.

  “You don’t think he slept with her, do you? Because I really have no doubts.”

  “No, Hector, I know better,” I assured him. “He loves me.”

  Hector turned around and kissed my cheek. “I wish we had what you do. But now I’m not sure what we had.”

  “I am so sorry about the baby,” I told him.

  “Yeah, me too,” he said. “I’m not even sure it was mine.”

  “They will check the DNA when they examine her,” my dad reminded him. “We need to know who might have put the hit out… Diego or Jorge.”

  “Isn’t it the same thing?” I asked.

  “Well,” dad said. “I’m not sure anymore. What if Olivia and Diego were lovers? Isn’t this going to affect his relationship with his brother?”

  “It would affect mine,” Max added. Hector laughed.

  “Maybe Jorge put the hit out on Olivia, thinking the baby was Hector’s. Obviously she didn’t know you were having them both arrested.”

  “I should’ve told her what was going on,” Hector said in retrospect.

  “No, you shouldn’t have even brought her here,” my dad reiterated. “Just think about what would have happened if you told her the truth. One or all of you would be dead.”

  “I need to know,” Hector said. “I really need to know.”

  I’ll call and put a rush on the results,” dad said. “Maybe we’ll know in a few days.”

  My phone rang just after that. It was an unknown number from Las Vegas. “I think it’s the jail,” I told them. “What should I do?”

  “Go ahead,” dad said. “See what he wants.” I picked it up and said, “Hello?”

  “Put me on speakerphone, baby,” was all I heard. I hit speakerphone and put the phone down on the kitchen table. “Max, you’re looking good these days.” It was definitely Diego. “Lilly, I always thought you looked lovely in white.” Max began to look around. He and Hector started checking the furniture for bugs or cameras. “My beautiful Olivia did a very thorough job. You will never find them all. I even planted some in Lilly’s bedroom.”

  I sat down and covered my face. “Diego that is disgusting, even for you.”

  “I see the two of you couldn’t keep your hands off each other long enough to peel Hector away from his dead mistress.” Max grabbed my hand. And stood in front of me.

  “I think it’s sweet Max, that you are still so protective of my wife. But don’t worry; there are no guns. I want the baby alive and well when I take it from you.”

  “Olivia planted the bugs?” Hector asked. “How’d you pull that off?”

  “I discovered that she was going out there to be with you. I chose not to tell Jorge if she would choose to plant the cameras.”

  “Were you sleeping with her?” Max asked.

  “Were you?” Diego asked.

  “No,” he answered calmly. “Were you lovers, Diego?”

  “I hear the baby may have been mine,” Diego continued. “That was an unfortunate consequence.”

  “I have to know, Diego,” Hector asked. “Did you take it from her or did she give it to you?”

  “She gave it to me whenever I asked for it. She was most generous,” he continued. “I did not order the hit and we both assumed the baby was yours.”

  “Great job,” Hector said sarcastically.

  “I guess that makes you brother number three,” Diego said, laughing like a mad man. “I won’t let Lilly go, so please return her intact. Oh and keep your hands off her.”

  “I’ll never go back to you, you bastard!” I screamed.

  “Sure you will,” he replied. “When I kill your lover and steal your baby, you’ll be begging me to take you back. Begging…”

  “Diego?” Max asked calmly. “Where are you?”

  “Right where you left me, bro.” He paused. “I can kill you from here, but I won’t. Not yet.”

  “Still in prison, making a phone call and watching us on camera… I don’t believe you.”

  “I’m a powerful man, mi hermano. Jorge is even more powerful than I.”

  “Just go away and leave us alone,” I cried.

  “Now what fun would that be?” he continued. “I think I may play with my little brother for a little while longer and then… I’ll come back for you. Don’t we all tell you that, Lilly? We’ll come back for you?” I lost all feeling in my legs; I could not stand or breathe. “Aren’t you our Easter Lilly?” Max looked at me for a reaction. “You still belong to me,” he continued. “Oh and Hector… watch your back.” Then he hung up the phone.

  “What the hell was that?” Max asked. “Olivia, cameras, death threats… I think he’s finally gone mad.”

  “I’m scared, Max. What are we going to do?” My hands were shaking and tears were falling out of my eyes. Hector came up behind me and hugged me. “We are the best there is, he doesn’t stand a chance.” Max and my dad had their heads together in the corner.

  “What about Olivia?” I asked. “That could have easily been me!”

  “She didn’t listen to me,” he answered. “If she had just listened to me and stayed here, she would still be alive.”

  “Oh crap,” he said. “Guys!” He called to my dad and Max. “We need to sweep the house for bugs.” They turned and looked at him. “Seriously Mick, we need to do it now.”

  “You’re right,” he agreed. Then my dad took his cell phone and walked out the door making the call. Max walked over to me and picked me up off of the chair so that I was standing in front of him. “Do you trust me querida?”

  “Of course I do,” I answered.

  “We will keep you safe,” he replied. “Do you believe me?”

  My knees were weak. All he had to do was touch me and I w
as useless. He put his lips against mine and I let out a moan. “Gross!” Hector said as he walked out of the kitchen. We stood in there kissing until my dad came back into the room.

  “Trying to piss him off?” dad asked.

  “Maybe,” Max answered. “Maybe he should get what he pays for.”

  My dad made a face. “Maybe you two should stay apart until we sweep the house,” he suggested. Max laughed.

  “I’m not going to let him see her, don’t worry. We waited almost four years, we can wait a few more days.” He kissed me. “Kissing is allowed though, right?” Max laughed, knowing very well the answer to that question. His smile could light up a room.

  “Kissing is fine if you must,” he answered. “But seriously, try to refrain.” Hector walked back in. “When will they be here?” he asked.

  “In a few hours,” dad replied.

  “Thank goodness,” I said, unaware that I said it out loud. Max gave me a knowing look of why I wanted those bugs cleared.

  “In the meantime,” Hector said. “Let’s go out for a while.”

  “Aren’t you afraid someone will come after us out in public like that?” I asked.

  “Lilly,” Hector smiled. “You’re with Max and me. Even with four FBI agents standing behind us at the restaurant, you wouldn’t be safer than with the two of us.”

  “Especially me,” Max added.

  “If he doesn’t say so himself,” Hector replied.

  “I’m a sharp shooter,” Max reminded me. I remembered all the times I had seen Max and Hector decimate gunmen before. “I have uncanny reaction time.”

  “He means no reaction time,” Hector corrected him. “You know when you watch TV and some guy grabs and girl and puts a gun to her temple?”

  “Yeah,” I answered, waiting in anticipation.

  “All the people in the room hand over their guns in fear that he will shoot her.” He took a breath. “Then the crazy guy makes off with the girl?”

  “Yes, of course,” I answered.

  “Max is the guy who blows his head off before he actually has the girl.”

  “Thanks for the mental image,” I replied. It was actually a little disturbing.

  “Hector’s the guy who sweeps the cars and defuses the bombs,” Max added. “But don’t sell him short. Hector is an amazing sharp shooter too. I have never met anyone better than we are.”

  “Long story short,” my dad interrupted. “These egomaniacs are very good at what they do. You will be very well protected.”

  I grabbed my purse and dad took us out for dinner. It was nice to feel safe, even if it was only for a few minutes.

  CHAPTER 19

  “Right,” Max said. “Focus…”