"Do you have a choice, Rosalind?" Leon asked, the question a silk-wrapped blade.
Rosa rose, fingers curling around Cecilio's sleeve. "I made a mistake coming here," she said, voice low and urgent. "We'd like to leave now." She hauled at Cecilio, ready to guide him toward the exit. Parez and Jacinto followed, already moving when cold steel kissed the nape of their necks
Leon's men had their pistols leveled before anyone had taken three steps.
Rosa's jaw tightened. She had not wanted violence tonight, yet she had always moved toward men who hated her, toward the heat and the danger as if pain itself was a tutor.
Now the lesson had a cost. Her thoughts flicked to Cecilio: he had just learned his father had murdered his mother. If she lost him here, she would lose the only tether she had left.
Leon's laugh filled the room, too loud and too pleased. "Do you think you're walking out of here like you walked in? Who do you think you are?"
Rosa pulled the duffel from under her arm and tossed it toward him. "Fine. Keep the money."
Leon shook his head as if disappointed. "You still don't understand." He tapped a finger against the rim of his glass. "Money is nothing to me. Give me something valuable, give me a life. Leave Cecilio with me. After all, Antonio assumed he would belong to me."
Cecilio's face had gone flat, as if the world had erased his features and left a blank page. Rosa felt the blood go cold. She could not...would not..... abandon him.
"I'll do whatever you want," she said finally, the words a rope thrown to save them. "Just let us go."
Leon's smile returned, slow and shark-like. "Good girl. Don't try to play me for a fool, Rosalind. If you run, I'll hunt you down like a lion hunts a rabbit. You understand?"
"Yes," Rosa whispered.
"Excellent." Leon clapped once, theatrical. "Behold...the heir and the daughter of the almighty drug lord, reduced to my puppet and my shipper. Antonio would turn in his grave." He bowed mockingly to no one.
Leon allowed them to leave, with conditions. He handed them a supply of product and the promise of distribution, but on one condition: everything must be moved in his name, and the shipments must be traced back to Rosa. She signed to the arrangement with a small, forced nod. The alternative had been worse.
They left the compound in a silence that dragged like chain. Parez and Jacinto fell behind; Leon's men accompanied them only far enough to ensure their disappearance. On the drive back to the city, Cecilio sat inert in the passenger seat, eyes shuttered against the sun. When they reached the house he simply collapsed on the couch as if his body had been emptied of will. Rosa took the chair opposite him and watched him as if she could read the pieces of him like a map.
"You okay?" she asked at last.
Cecilio's brow knit. "Mm," he said, a small, absent sound.
Rosa opened her mouth, closed it, then spoke with a steadier voice. "I'm sorry about today. I shouldn't have gone to Leon. I didn't mean for you to hear that.....about Mary." she swallowed.
"I actually already knew. I've had nightmares all my life. I kept telling myself I wanted more reasons to hate him. Today Leon gave me one I can't ignore. It's not your fault." cecilio said calmly.
Rosa rose. "I just wanted to make sure you were....."
"You're the reason I'm here," he cut in quietly before she could finish. "I have a dream, Rosa. I can't reach it without you. Please.....get out of this whirlpool while you can."
She didn't answer. She walked away with a careful face. Why does he say things like that? she wondered. How am I supposed to react when he says I'm the reason he stayed? The truth was slipperier than words.
Later, Rosa called Parez. "Did you deliver?" she asked over the line.
"Yes, ma'am," he replied.
"Good. Come back now
and whatever you do, don't let Cecilio find out."
"Understood."
Cecilio drifted into the room and she ended the call. "What do you want?" she asked, sarcasm sharp by habit.
"Just checking on you," he said. Rosa frowned and tried to leave.
"Don't do that," Rosa said suddenly. "It's creepy."
cecilio stepped in front of her stopping her from leaving
"Do you have anything to tell me?"he asked
She studied him a long moment. "No."
"If you say no, then I believe you," he said.and He watched her go.
That week, Cecilio had been tracking an old customer of his father's, a man named Toribio
middle-aged, hollowed by addiction after the accident that killed his wife and daughter. Cecilio had tried to help him, pushing for rehabilitation, offering money and support; the man refused, swallowed by the needle. A week earlier, Toribio had called asking if the shipments of Antonio's product were back in the market or if it was only rumor. Cecilio suspected Rosa's involvement. He went to see Toribio, to ask the questions face to face.
The alley near the park smelled of rot and stale beer. Shadows gathered in doorways. Junkies slouched on benches; a stray dog fought a paper bag for a scrap of food. Cecilio pushed through the dim, and when he found Toribio the man beckoned him to sit on a bench in the small park.
"Why did you come alone?" Toribio asked.
"Was I supposed to bring company?" Cecilio shot back. "I thought you wanted to quit."
Toribio rubbed his temples, the skin around his eyes pulled tight. "You keep talking about freedom, boy. But you bring your father's specter back into the market. I don't understand."
Cecilio looked up at the moon, a white coin in the sky. "Maybe I don't understand me either. Maybe I loved something...someone....too much to give up the one thing that freed me. Or maybe I stayed because I believed I could change things."
Toribio's voice dropped. "You shouldn't be here. Leon's been asking after you and Rosa. Leave before somebody spots you."
They rose; Cecilio murmured a goodbye and headed off. He felt eyes on his back. Footsteps quickened. He picked up his pace. The sound behind him grew from caution to chase. He broke into a run.
A wooden bat swung. It struck his face with a thunderclap. He crumpled, the world folding to black.
********
When his vision returned it came with the thunder of memory
a small boy clinging to a man he didn't yet know how to name as his father. "Papa, will mum be OK?" the child had cried. A man's voice, cold, final, had answered: "It's a fair game, sonny, and she lost." Then lighter, gasoline, the roar of flames. The child had screamed, "Mama! Get up! The fire will get you!" and been held back, helpless.
A rush of cold water
his headache,bwrenched him awake. "Hola," Leon said close to his face, angular in the doorway. "I thought you died."
Leon tossed the bat aside. "You're mine," he told Cecilio with a smile that contained no warmth. "You understand?"
Rosa stood between them, the room tight with tension. "I thought you were going to kill him," she said softly, voice taut.
Leon's eyes tracked her. "You came crawling when you heard I had your boy. Have you forgotten? In our world there is no weakness. Antonio would be disappointed." He picked the bat up again and drove it into Cecilio's stomach. Cecilio folded and cried out, breath leaving him like someone had pulled the plug on his life. The bat rose and fell across his spine. When Cecilio lifted his head the sight of Rosa halted Leon for a heartbeat
the expression on her face was not the fierce mask she usually wore. It was fear. She looked like someone who might break.
Leon cocked an eyebrow. "How long until you find your breaking point?" he asked, amused.
Rosa's voice cracked in the room. "Stop. Please. I'll do anything. Just.....stop."
Bingo, Leon said to himself. "That's more like it." He leaned close until his spit hit her cheek. "Pay me ten million dollars by the end of the week."
Rosa stared at him. "Ten million? The shipment isn't worth that."
"Doesn't matter," Leon said. He drove the point in with a slow threat. "Get me diez millones de dólares!!!!!!
(ten million dollars)
or I'll finish what I started. You comply?"
Rosa swallowed the world down like a bitter pill. "Yes," she said, quietly, the word a crack in the armor.
Leon smiled, satisfied and cruel. "Good. Remember
everything moves in my name now. You owe me more than product, Rosalind. You owe me loyalty."
Cecilio lay gasping on the floor. Rosa crouched beside him, fingers trembling as she checked his breathing, the reality of the price she'd just agreed to settling over her like a net.
Outside, the city hummed, oblivious. Inside, a new ledger had been opened
one written in threats, blood, and the iron currency of debt. Rosa had a week.