He raised a brow as he stared at Merc. “Because I have seen the alternative, and I like it not at all. Leave your backpack here. We’ll step outside and have a cup of coffee.”
When they were seated, a servant brought out a tray with two steaming cups.
“So, are you here because of your woman?” Lautaro asked.
“I don’t have a woman.”
“That’s not what the grapevine says.”
“You know better than to listen to grapes.”
Lautaro laughed. “I only listen to the truth.”
Merc sighed. “No. I left a mess here. I have to do something about it, but I haven’t a fucking clue as to how to cancel a curse. Do you?”
Lautaro thought about that for a long moment. “I told Liege that I’ve come to believe everything happens for the reason. I guess look for that reason.”
“Fuck. Now you sound like Santo.” And maybe he was right, but that was too damned cryptic to unravel at the moment. “Any updates on Santo’s whereabouts?”
“No change. I sent some of my men in to get a closer look at that mine you discovered. They can’t break through the protective shield Flynn’s got on it.”
“Right. Got my work cut out for me.”
“I’ve also learned that the government is sending a team back to clear out the mass graves again.”
“Good. Maybe that will end the curse.”
“We’ll see.”
They sipped their espressos. The table they sat at was in the big, round corner of the veranda, overlooking verdant rows of coffee bushes that stepped down a steep hill toward a wide valley where a small village was. Lautaro’s workers came from that village. Everywhere Merc looked, the land was lush and vibrantly alive.
It should have been a good place to rest for a bit, but Merc couldn’t seem to ease the tension in his chest.
Lautaro set his cup down and focused on Merc. “Tell me what happened when you were down here before.”
Merc sipped his coffee. “Nothing happened.”
“You know, they say one of the world’s largest organisms is an aspen forest, because miles of trees are all connected by their root systems. I say the Legion is bigger, because we are all connected via our energetic links. We all know what happened.”
“Then you have your answer.”
Lautaro conceded that point with slight nod. “I asked the question poorly. Why did it happen?”
Merc set his cup on its saucer and stared at it. “I was done, Lautaro.”
“We held you together, all of us in the Legion, here and everywhere, until Liege could come to your aid.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“Just as our lives belong to the Legion, so too do our deaths.”
“You’re all wankers, then, mate. I’d finally gotten the courage up to do what I had to.” He met Lautaro’s eyes. “You may have stopped me, but you didn’t save me.”
“Perhaps not, but stopping you saved us. If we ever stop believing in the work the Legion does, we end.”
“Maybe we should.”
“Maybe you should take time off.”
“Has anyone ever left the Legion?”
“No.”
They sat in silence for a few moments. Merc emptied his mind, then let it fill again with the sounds of the plantation. Workers calling to each other. Birds chattering. The breeze wending its way through the veranda, bringing the sweet scents of dirt and plants and flowers to him.
Lautaro broke the silence. “Tell me about the girl.”
Merc met his curious expression. “Girl?”
“You really do underestimate the reach of our connections. The Matchmaker has been busy in your corner of the world.”
Merc scoffed at that. “You believe in that BS?”
A sadness washed over Lautaro’s handsome features. “I wouldn’t, had I not experienced his curse.”
Fuck. Merc shouldn’t have gone there. “It started with you, didn’t it?”
“I can’t say for sure. All I do know is that I wasn’t prepared for what was given to me, nor was I ready when it was taken from me.”
“I don’t want to love again.” Hell, Merc didn’t even want to live.
“But it matters to the others who’ve been hearing about what’s happening in Colorado and want to have that for themselves. We lost everything when we were changed. Liege and Summer, Bastion and Selena, those matches give the rest of the Legion hope they might have somewhat normal lives again.”
“And you think love fixes everything? It doesn’t. It only makes it worse. You have new fears, new sections cut out of your heart.”
Lautaro smiled. “So it’s true. You love her.”
“Not at all. I just don’t want her dragged into this. She’s an innocent. She deserves to have her life and her freedom, not be half of a curse.”
“Ah. Of course. Your resistance means your death. It seems you’ve found your way out after all, my friend.”
Merc got up and wandered over to lean against a support beam as he looked out over the vista. He shoved his fingers into his pockets. The breeze cooled the sweat on his neck and back. How crazy was it that he missed Ash?
What had made her go to Valle de Lágrimas, anyway?
Merc looked at Lautaro, who was watching him. If he were honest with himself, Merc had to admit that a ribbon of jealousy slipping back through him did make him glad he’d caught Ash’s eye first. Who could resist Lautaro’s lambent gaze and wide set of very white teeth?
“I’m flattered, Merc. Believe me, you are lovely, but not at all my type.”
Merc laughed, but just as his humor slipped away, a new edginess knifed through him. He straightened.
Lautaro stood. “What is it?”
“I have to go.”
“Want me to join you?”
“No. I want you to stay here and not get caught up in this. Flynn’s here, and where he is, so are his monsters.”
Lautaro gave a gruff laugh. “Of course they are. His labs are here.”
Merc frowned. “You know where they are?”
“No. We haven’t found them yet. I know they’re somewhere here in Colombia, but whether that’s in the city, a small town, or the bush, I don’t know.”
“I didn’t see anything that looked like labs in my exploration of his cocaine compound. But that may have been by design.”
Lautaro stood. They shook hands. “I’m here if you need me. If you feel you’re on an edge you can’t step back from, just open yourself to me. Liege doesn’t have to know.”
“He knows everything.”
“Perhaps.”
Merc watched as trucks were backed up to the pit, one at a time because it was too narrow a dirt road for two-way traffic. Men in yellow biohazard suits lifted each body out. There were so many layers of dead and mostly dead that the workers had to stand on bodies to get the remains out.
He could hear the crew’s shock when they would pull out a living individual, some with insects in their ears or mouths, some with their flesh consumed by a jungle predator, animal or insect.
None of the living taken from the pit moved or spoke. Sometimes their eyes were open and fixed, staring into space. Sometimes their eyes connected with the workers.