And then, his knees buckled, and Dimitri fell to the floor.
19
Maggie
Dimitri was still and lying on the floor. I could make out his feet and the curve of his leg as I fell to my knees, holding Mateo against my chest. “No…no.”
Something splintered inside me.
Little fractures that had been my heart frayed further apart as I watched him lying there, not moving, ignoring my silent prayers begging him to get up.
Dimitri … please...
Alejandro tried pulling me to my feet, but I slapped his hand away, the movement making Mateo scream. Then, he tried again, this time using the gun under my chin.
“That gringo is dead. I put two bullets in him.” His voice was clearer now, and I recognized the tone, understanding what he’d been doing with Reynolds next to the monitors. Whatever he needed to keep him sharp also kept him lethal and Dimitri had paid for it.
He slid the gun to my throat, his voice sharper as he yelled at me, spittle hitting my cheeks. “Now…don’t…if you…you wanna join him go. But you’re not taking my son. Get in this fucking boat.”
Please get up.
It was only Mateo’s clutching hands on my shirt and his loud cries of “mama!” that made me move. That was scarier to me than the muzzle at my throat.
“Where…where are you…taking us?” I asked, finally getting to my feet.
“Reynolds isn’t the only one that can make connections. Go. Move,” Alejandro said, waving the gun.
I flinched every time he did, curving my body, pulling Mateo away from the end of that gun. He seemed to know we were in danger because his cries got worse, his sobbing doubling. I stopped walking, pulling my son against my chest, trying to sound calm as I whispered in his ear.
“What’s the problem?” Alejandro said, darting toward us, the gun still in his hand. “Here, give him to me.”
“Don’t touch him! He doesn’t know you!”
“And whose fault is that?” He pulled at my hair, his behavior erratic, even for him, before he pushed me down the pier, leading me by the hold he had on my hair.
Tears pricked in my eyes and leaked down my face as the pain from my scalp intensified. As I continued to pray for a miracle. Please get up, I begged Dimitri.
Alejandro glanced at me, pausing to look at my face. “You’re stupid, crying over that gringo. Men like that, they get bored fast. You’re better off with me…we’ll be a family. Us and our son…finally.”
“We have a family…with Dimitri and his parents and Vi and our town.” I elbowed him in the ribs, making him drop his hold on my hair.
He was a damn junky. There was no way I’d let him jerk me around like that. There was no way I’d let this pendejo think I’d go away with him without putting up a fight.
“That’s Mateo’s family. Dimitri is his father. He’s the only father he knows, and Mateo loves him. They love each other!”
“Shut up! Shut your mouth!”
But I wouldn’t.
I had to fight.
The boat was ten feet behind me. That boat would lead us nowhere. If we got on that boat, we’d die. All of us. If we got on that boat, we’d never see our family again.
“You don’t want us, Alejandro. You…you…killed Dimitri.” A sob stuck in my throat and I wiped my face, ignoring how his nostrils flared, how he pushed me farther down the pier. “You can leave and have whatever those people offer you for kill…killing him. All the drugs you want and…”
“No, Maggie…I won’t leave without my boy. He’s my son. Mine.”
The boat was anchored next to two kayaks, one of which floated halfway in the water. Alejandro grabbed my arm, jerking me toward the boat, making like he’d help me onto it, but I pretended to slip, spotting the paddle barely dangling to the hanging kayak sticking out of the seat.
“Hurry!” he yelled, his voice croaking as he moved to unhitch the tie, not paying attention to me as I got to my knees.
Mateo clung to my shirt, his fists in a death grip on the fabric and his hot, wet face dampening my neck. I stretched an arm toward the paddle and slipped it out of the kayak.
“Maggie! Now!” When I didn’t move fast enough for him, Alejandro pulled on my neck, yanking me back.
I turned with the paddle tight in my fist. One, two jabs of the wood into his gut. Then another across his jaw and my ex fell back, the gun slipping out of his hand and behind him on the pier.
He wailed, cursing me as he rocked on his side, fingers reaching for his back pocket. I moved, adjusting Mateo to my other hip, taking a chance that I’d hurt Alejandro enough to keep him immobile.
I was four steps away from him, staring at the figure running up the pier when something caught my ankle, pulling it. I fell, turning so that I landed with Mateo screaming and shaking on my chest.
“Stupid puta!” Alejandro screamed, his cheek bloody, lip split. When he tried pulling Mateo from me, I fought him, locking my arms tight, the baby’s face against my collarbone, his terrified, sobbing screams echoing on my skin. “Give me my son! Now!” Then something cool, hard and sharp slid on my skin.
I went still as my ex-husband pushed a large switch blade at my throat.
His eyes were wide, frantic as he stared at me. Blood dripped down his chin and over my face, his cheeks shaking as he moved closer. “He is mine and I’m taking him.”
“Ne…never…”
Gritting his teeth, Alejandro moved his hand, pivoting his wrist so the tip of the blade cut me. The sharp sting tearing against my skin. I kicked out, catching him in his nuts, then landed another jab in his gut.
He screamed, rearing back, raising the knife overhead.
A livid, loud voice screamed, “Don’t do it, mother fucker.”
Alejandro jerked his gaze up, his expression shocked, disbelieving.
My ex-husband was a stubborn man.
He didn’t listen.
It cost him.
He lunged forward, and the blade came right for me, getting closer and closer. I turned away, covering the back of Mateo’s head with my hands, saying a quick prayer that might save me from this death or forgive me in the next life.
But the pain didn’t come.
A bullet did.
The first caught him in the chest. Alejandro staggered, growling like an animal too amped on adrenaline to know it’d been tracked.
The second went straight into his neck and the blood gushed from him like a geyser, spraying down his shirt and all over the pier.
Mateo still cried, but the sound had lowered into a quiet sniffle.
I sat up, kissing him, hugging him. “My love,” I told him, turning to find Dimitri standing ten feet from us. Then I scrambled up, hurrying when he went down to his knees. “Sweetie! No, please!”
“It’s…fine,” he said, not fighting me when I pulled his head into my lap.
“You…got shot. Oh… no.”
“Grazed me…the first time,” he said, waving off my hands when I yanked his shirt open. Mateo crawled away from me, sitting between us, leaning down near Smoke’s head. “He’s…a good boy. Strong… tell him I…”