“Bring me that bottle, whore.” Pitón pointed to the bottle ofcocuynear his feet.
If she did as he asked, she would be in easy reaching distance.
She sat, tucking her legs beneath her. “No, Eduardo. You’re drunk enough.”
He stomped over to her and grabbed her by her hair, his hand fisting in her veil as he dragged her painfully to her feet. “How do you know when it’s enough? You’ve never been drunk.”
Snickers.
He forced her over to the bottle. “Pick it up.”
She did as he demanded, handing him the liquor. “Drink your soul away, if you wish. It won’t make you feel better about killing Topo.”
Gasps.
He jerked the bottle from her hands and backhanded her, the blow splitting her lip, leaving her dazed. “Watch yourself,Hermana. You don’t think I’ve killed women before?”
Gabriela licked the blood from her lip and willed herself to meet his gaze. “I’m certain you’ve committed a great many mortal sins.”
He raised the bottle to his lips, took a long drink. “Where’s the music?”
Caballo Viejo, an old folk song, started playing over small, tinny speakers.
He sank into a lawn chair, pointed toward his feet. “You sit here.”
She did as he demanded, turning her back to him.
Nearby, El Cebo and two others sat on their blankets playing poker, US dollar bills piled high in the center. Two others sat on the stairs that led to the loading dock playing a Venezuelan card game calledtruco. Another tried to change the music.
“Leave it alone!” Pitón shouted.
Gabriela spent the next hour or so as Pitón’s servant, fetching him water, lighting his joint, bringing him food—and ignoring his filthy mouth and slurred words.
“I bet if you got laid, you’d give up the Church.”
“Jesus can’t do for you the things I can do.”
“Have you ever sucked a man’s dick? No, you probably haven’t. Have you even seen a dick?”
Couldn’t thismalparidojust pass out?
She hugged her knees to her chest, rested her chin on her knees, and pretended to sleep, her senses trained on the room around her.
The reek of alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, and unwashed bodies. Theclickof a lighter. One of the men snoring.
How he could sleep with music blaring and the lights on—
The door opened, bringing her head up.
She caught a glimpse of men in battle gear and would have thrown herself flat onto the floor if Pitón hadn’t yanked her to her feet and forced her to run.
Behind her, the spec ops team opened fire.
Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!
“One of the tangos has Sister María and is running toward the rear entrance.”
What about Dianne and Tim?