Rafael (The Santiago Brothers Book One) (17 page)

Rafa deflected an arm jab, not taking the
chance a blade would be at the end of it. He landed a solid blow to
the chin and a grunt followed. Rafa rolled on top and fisted the
man’s face again. In the blink of an eye, the moonlight revealed a
flash of metal springing up from the floor. Rafa grabbed the wrist
and pounded it into the floor until the knife slid out of the hand.
Rafa’s left fist made contact with the intruder’s face and the man
groaned. When he lay still on the floor, Rafa jumped up and sped to
the front room, where he saw Genie struggling to get up from the
floor.

“Are you alright?” He pulled her up quickly.
He saw her wince in pain and rub her chest.

“Yes, I think so.” Her voice shook with
doubt. “Where is Diego?”

Suddenly the rest of the room came into
focus. His ears picked up Flores’ crying and his eyes only saw the
three of them in the room. “Stay here.” He pulled out a set of
handcuffs. When he reached the kitchen, the man on the floor was
gone, and so was the knife.

****

“
It
happened so fast.” Flores moaned from her hospital bed. She
suffered a slight concussion from a fall she took during the
attack. “Something came through the window and the door busted open
and I saw your partner fire her gun.
Aye
, it was so loud! Like firecrackers or something, no?” She
put both hands to her ears for dramatic effect. “Then your partner
got hit and she landed on the floor, hard. Diego tried to help and
he struggled with the guy.” Her eyes began to fill with tears again
for the fourth or fifth time since Rafa had entered the room not
fifteen minutes earlier. Clearly the woman was distraught, and the
thought of her brother must have played heavily on her mind. “I
tried to help, too! I jumped on the man, but then I fell and my
head started throbbing.” She closed her eyes and put a hand over
them.

“It’s okay, Flores. Don’t tire yourself out.
Take your time.” Rafa frowned as he watched the young woman take a
few deep breaths, her chest shaking from the sobs she kept bottled
up.

Rafa remembered how she’d cried out for her
brother before being put in the ambulance for transport to the
hospital. Diego had disappeared, along with the two assailants. A
few of the local uniforms began a search of the neighborhood, and
Rafa gave a description of the black sedan he saw earlier, but
without definitive details on either the men or the car, finding
them would be next to impossible.

Rafa gently eased Flores’ hand away from her
eyes so he could see them. “Can you remember anything after you
were knocked to the ground?”

Flores whimpered and sniffed. She shook her
head. “I don’t know! How many times do I have to tell you?”

“
Flores!”
He laid a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “
Tranquila.
Flores, please calm down. We’ll find your
brother. I promise.”

“You promise?”

Rafa sighed at the look of hope in her eyes.
In times like these, he wished he didn’t feel the weight of his
past indiscretions. But the more he could do to help someone in
need, the more God could forgive him, and perhaps he could forgive
himself. “You have my word.” He prayed he could keep it.

Tonight, two killers literally took two
police detectives by surprise. Lieutenant Winters arrived at the
hospital in time to see Genie being admitted for her injuries. The
look on Winters’ face had made Rafa wince. He could understand
Winters’ reaction. All he thought about as he struggled with his
attacker was her safety. If those gunshots were aimed at her, if
she were dying only feet from him… Dread had filled him and surged
him to fight as hard as he could to get to her. But Flores said
Diego had fought the second intruder. Had he been injured? Had he
caused injury to Genie’s attacker? Hospitals and clinics in the
local area had received pictures of both Huera and Montenegro. If
either of them had checked in, the police would be the first to
hear of it.

Regardless of their attackers’ injuries, with an officer
wounded, a possible witness missing, and two killers still on the
loose, Rafa knew he and Genie were in hot water. Winters would
expect a full report later on that night with the official
browbeating to begin first thing in the a.m.
I wouldn’t be surprised if
Winters was on the phone with my boss right now
.

“How is your partner? What’s her name?”

Genie.
“Detective Green.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right. How is she? She got
slammed into the wall pretty hard. I don’t know how she was able to
walk into the hospital.”

“She’s tough.”

Flores nodded. “A beast.”

Rafa bit back a grin. He wouldn’t exactly
describe her as an animal, but on some days the characterization
was definitely close, but he’d never tell her. “She’ll be fine.
Just got the wind knocked out of her. In fact, I should go check in
on her so we can discuss how we’re going to get your brother out of
this.”

“That would be nice.”

He grinned at her sarcasm and patted her arm.
“You get some rest and we’ll keep in touch. There’s a guard outside
your door. Yell if you need anything.”

Flores nodded and yawned. She settled back
into crisp white pillows and closed her eyes. Rafa studied her
face. Although her breathing settled, lines of worry still creased
her forehead and her lips were pulled tight. She wasn’t at peace;
with her brother gone and Huera and Montenegro still on the loose,
none of them could rest.

****

Genie
groaned as she sat up in the hospital bed. She didn’t want to come,
but Rafa insisted she get checked out. After lying still for the
last couple of hours, she now realized how hard of a hit she took.
Genie leaned over to reach her toes, stretching her tight muscles.
She took her time sitting up straight again, conscious of how her
head swam. But despite everything, she still had a job to do.
Unless she was shot and on her deathbed, she couldn’t afford to
rest. The attackers and Diego were gone. Flores was injured and
Rafa… she hadn’t seen him for hours.
He’s supposed to be my
partner
. “Argh, where is
he!”

“Right here.”

He walked in and relief washed over her. He
stood on his own two feet, and except for a slight bruise forming
on the edge of his chiseled jaw, he seemed unharmed. He stopped at
the edge of her bed and pulled a chair over. Sitting down, he
stretched his arms over his head. Genie watched as his black
t-shirt strained over his taut stomach. He drew her attention to
his hair when one hand combed through it. Loose curls fell where
they pleased, much to Genie’s pleasure. But his cloudy eyes and
hard jaw betrayed tension.

She resisted the urge to scan his form, yet
again, and focused instead on the bruise coloring beneath the
stubble on his chin. “You’re okay?”

“I’m fine, Genie. Got clubbed a bit but the
other guy is much worse, believe me.” He chuckled and rubbed his
jaw. He then noticed the redness of his knuckles and smirked.

Genie
rolled her eyes.
What a macho, macho
… She dared not finish the thought. It wasn’t supposed to
go that way in the first place. First she ogled him and now… She
stared and he dimpled. Genie rubbed the small knot on her right
temple to hide her eyes. “Well, good. At least you know you injured
your attacker.” Genie scowled. “I think I fired twice, and I’m sure
I hit the guy, but he kept coming.”

The attack happened faster than she realized
and only now could she remember minute details. A brick, or
something extremely heavy, was thrown through the glass window into
the front living area. Flores screamed at the top of her lungs.
Diego tried to quiet her down, but then the door burst open. A huge
black figure came at Genie. It was all she could do to get a couple
of rounds off. Weight bulldozed her into the wall and she slid to
the floor, stunned.

After she finished relaying her story to
Rafa, he filled her in on what he had experienced, including seeing
a black sedan before they entered the house. “So you think this
sedan might have been the car they were driving in?” she asked
him.

“Well, Diego did say he was being followed.
Of course, I didn’t know that at the time I saw the car. I only
noticed the car because it seemed to slow down when it neared
Flores’ residence, but then it continued to pass.”

Genie’s brows scrunched. “I don’t recall the
previous surveillance detail mentioning anything about a black
sedan canvassing the neighborhood.”

“Neither do I. It could be it never did until
Diego showed up.”

“I don’t believe in coincidences.”

“I’m with you on that one. It was too dark to
get the license plate, but I gave as good as a description as I
could to the officers. All the units will be on the lookout
for—”

“A commonly used vehicle,” Genie finished
with another groan. She didn’t get any sort of look at her
assailant either. So a positive identification was out of the
question. “How is Flores?”

“A slight concussion, but other than that
she’s fine. I left her sleeping.”

Genie felt a pang of sympathy for the woman.
Flores was caught in the middle of an assassination attempt. If
Genie and Rafa weren’t at her home that evening, she might have
been killed along with her brother. Regardless of what role her
brother played in the murders, Flores was an innocent. “She was
pretty hysterical about Diego earlier.”

Rafa sighed audibly. “Yeah, she was, and I
think she’d still be that way if she wasn’t so exhausted. When she
wakes up, we need to ask her what her brother knows. If he’s told
her anything at all, it could help with our investigation.”

“Do you think she knows something?”

“If Flores has been harboring her brother,
I’m guessing he may have told her a thing or two. He’s been
expecting the executioners. He wouldn’t leave his sister in the
dark without some way of protecting her.”

Genie agreed. Diego did say he would’ve left
town if not for his sister. But that decision risked a lot more
than his life. “I wish we knew what he knows.”

“Me too,” he said quietly.

For a few minutes, neither of them spoke. The
day had been long, and the night would be longer as soon as
Lieutenant Winters arrived to berate them both for putting Ms. Cera
at risk. Anger flared towards Diego. If he would turn himself in,
the police could protect him. At least she and Rafa could avoid
future unexpected run-ins with Huera and Montenegro.

“How long do you think we have until the
lieutenant shows up?” Rafa asked.

“Not long!” Lieutenant Winters stood in the
doorway, hands lost underneath the folds above his hips, his face
flushed with anger. “What in the world happened tonight? This was
supposed to be a simple surveillance and here I find some young
woman has a head injury and one of my officers is laid up in the
hospital.”

“Sir, I’m not laid up.” Genie swung her legs
over the side of the bed to stand, but a warm hand on her knee
restrained her. Already out of his chair, Rafa’s eyes told her to
take it easy. For a second, she forgot her boss stood a few feet
away, watching her every move to see whether she was fit for duty.
As warmth traveled up her thigh, her gaze lingered on the dark
pools before her.

“You sure look laid up.” Winters broke the
spell.

Genie closed her eyes in frustration.

Rafa faced his temporary boss. “We had no
idea Diego was being followed until after we began talking to him.
By then it was too late.”

Winters’ gaze tightened on Rafa. Genie’s
throat went dry. He wouldn’t blame Rafa for what happened, would
he? Would Lieutenant Winters ship him back to California?

“
Look,
Santiago, I appreciate you coming all the way from California and
all, but Detective Green is one of my best. I can’t have her
getting killed over chasing down a
possible
witness.”

“Sir!” Genie tried to interject but was
ignored.

“Lieutenant Winters,” Rafa began, “we both
agree Detective Green is invaluable to your department. Believe me,
I don’t want to see her dead either,” he ended sarcastically.

“
Can you
two
please
stop
talking about me as if I’m not in the room? For the record, I’m
fine, just a little beat down, that’s all.” She appreciated the
fuss but the paternal implications unsettled her. She was an
officer just like the two of them, and just as capable at
performing her job. Not depending on men made her tough.

“Santiago, take her home as soon as the
doctor discharges her. I just finished briefing Agent Compton, who
was asleep, if you can believe it.” He snorted his disapproval.
Winters pointed in her direction. “I want you to rest, and then
tomorrow start fresh. New leads on this Diego guy and I want to see
your FBI liaison out of his office and hitting the streets with the
two of you. Understand?” He didn’t wait for their response.

When they were alone, Rafa gave her a
sheepish grin. “I think that went well.”

Genie laughed and then clutched her
chest.

“Are you alright?” Rafa’s hands were on her
upper arms and she was drawn to his eyes.

The pain subsided and she forced a grin. “I’m
okay. It hurts to laugh. The doctors said I might have some bruised
ribs, but it shouldn’t be too serious.” She tried to stand, but his
hands held her in place. “Rafael?”

“Maybe you should just rest a little while
longer. Delay your discharge.”

“Actually, the doctor said I was free to go
before you showed up.”

“What if you tell him your chest hurts?”