arrived in the kitchen and grabbed a piece of the succulent green banana and pork patties left over from Paula’s delectable meal the night before. She’d been cooking all his favorites lately. The worse things got, the more Paula cooked. As he savored each bite, he decided to make a renewed effort to get her and Silvio off the island. And, of course, Antonia. His thoughts wandered to the tiny bungalow.
He wondered if she had been warm enough. Perhaps he should have lit a fire or brought her a snack.... He mentally chided himself. Over and done. She’s not yours to worry about. As he wrestled the front door open to round up boards and nails, he stopped short. A boat was moored next to his. An expensive cabin cruiser that looked out of place against the rickety dock. He froze, thinking whoever had been after Antonia the night before had come to finish the job.
He’d sprinted a yard down the path toward the bungalow when a voice stopped him.
“Slow down before you hurt yourself.”
His brother stood at the side entrance to the hotel, a cigarette held between his slender fingers. He flashed a lazy smile. “We need to talk, brother.”
Reuben sighed in relief and joined Hector on the veranda, where he got a better look at the bruise darkening his cheekbone. “What happened?”
Hector shrugged and shot a look at the roiling sea. “Inside. No need to stand in the rain.”
“Lose the cigarette,” Reuben said.
Hector did so without the usual flippant comment.
Reuben followed his younger brother inside, suddenly colder than he had been moments before. The hotel lobby was gloomy, quiet, as though the old building itself was waiting for the storm to land.
Hector paced in front of the bay window, and Reuben let him do so without interruption. You couldn’t hurry Hector, no matter how hard you tried.
When he’d gazed out at the wind-lashed palms for a while, and then seemingly studied every inch of the pine molding and floors, he turned around. “There’s trouble coming. I tried to keep it from you, but it’s bigger than me.”
Reuben braced himself. That his brother would admit to weakness was the most telling thing. He was not talking about the storm. “Who?”
Hector broke off, eyes narrowing as the floorboards creaked. “Who’s that?”
Gavin came into the room, his expression sheepish. “Sorry. Didn’t want to interrupt.” He held up his pack. “Thought the boat was leaving.”
Reuben introduced Gavin to his brother.
“A pleasure,” Hector said in a voice that indicated it was anything but.
“I’ll just go back upstairs. Call me when you’re ready to go.” He left.
Hector waited a long moment before he resumed. “It’s Garza. He wants Isla.”
Reuben steeled himself. “He’s always wanted it.” It was the perfect hub for him to get his drugs into Florida. The Garza family, led by Frank Garza, was in tight with the Colombian drug lords who flew their products to the Bahamas, using a number of ingenious methods to get it to prearranged spots in the ocean where speedboats would pick it up. What Garza needed was a piece of land with few people to interfere, within close proximity to the mainland, from which he could set loose his fleet of speedboats for any given operation, so many that the coast guard could not possibly nab the one vessel that held the illicit cargo.
“He’s decided it’s time to acquire it. Now.”
Reuben groaned inwardly. Plenty of dark shallow shoals around Isla where boats could lead authorities on a goose chase if it came down to it. Isla was perfect. Garza had sent people before with offers to buy. When he’d declined, one of Reuben’s bungalows had mysteriously burned down and his best boat had been scuttled. “I told him to his face that Isla was mine and I won’t sell it at any price, and he’s not going to bully me into handing it over.”
“And he believed you,” Hector said with a wry smile. “That is why he means to take it without your permission.”
Reuben studied his brother. “So he’s asked you to persuade me?”
“I refused, of course. My guy, Benny, arrived before they got too far into trying to convince me, but he knows we are close and so he asked me to tell you as a courtesy. I guess he thinks since we were in the same business together once, I will understand the urgency of his request. I do. He’s dead serious, Reuben.”
“I can’t believe this. I’ll go to the cops.”
“If you wish, but you and I both know that’s a waste of effort. You can never get any proof to stick on Garza. He’s like Teflon.”
Reuben’s mind raced. He forced himself to say it. “Hector, you’re clean, right? You weren’t trying to leverage your way back into the business using Isla?” He waited for his brother to face him, to look deep into his eyes and proclaim he had not returned to running the cocaine trade that had made his father rich.
Hector’s eyes burned, and Reuben knew he’d made a mistake. “It was not enough to have my wife almost kill me because she didn’t believe me? I’m to repeat it over and over to you, brother?” Hector closed the gap between them. “I made a promise to you. I was out of it. I promised Mia, too, but she wouldn’t believe me, and now I have no wife and she took my child.” His voice cracked slightly. “My wife, my daughter. Don’t tell me it will cost me my brother, too.”
Reuben gripped his brother’s shoulder. “No, it won’t.”
Hector allowed a tight smile, his gaze wandering around the aged kitchen. He touched the bruise on his cheek. “Isla is a wreck, you know. Maybe it’s not worth it.”
Anger flamed inside Reuben’s gut. It was worth everything. The old hotel and the island on which it barely stood were their mother’s legacy, the shining piece of hope she held on to when her husband took up drug running, when he turned into someone she could no longer respect. “I won’t let it go.”
“Our mother wouldn’t, either,” Hector spat, “and now she’s dead.”
The past crackled between them like lightning. “We’ve been through this. She wanted more for us.”
He shook his head. “She ran.”
“She felt she had no choice.”
“Our father loved her, worshipped her, like I did Mia.”
“Our father worked for drug runners.”
“Yet she did not mind the nice clothes, the private schools for her boys, the trips. She didn’t protest about those things, did she?”
“She stopped respecting him, Hector, and that was the end.” He added quietly, “You can’t force someone to love you.” That lesson was ground into him, at least.
Hector did not answer.
A palm branch slapped against the window. Reuben took a deep breath and stepped back. It was not the time. “I’m not giving Isla to anyone.”
Hector
