Page 5 of Married with Blood
Usually, I could tolerate his belittling treatment. But each and every time, I was peeved and bitter after the fact. If I were just a Cartel princess who cared about looking good and lounging bythe pool, fine. Then he’d have an excuse to bemoan my opinions. That wasn’t the case, though. Not at all.
I pulled my weight around here. I always had. My father had never sent me away when I wanted to tag along and listen to him carry on with business. My mother had never tried to shelter me when I asked to help her with any functional part of the Cartel’s business.
“This Cartel is thriving because ofme,” he snarled.
Again, I didn’t cower or slink away. I, more than anyone else, knew he was all bark and no bite.
“Because I am the boss, Carina. Not you. I know?—”
“Some days, you know nothing at all,” I finished for him.
He stopped short, narrowing his eyes at me as he put his hands on his hips. Glowering at me like this, he tried and failed to intimidate me. I wasn’t sure he ever could prove his superiority to me.
Not when I was the one who wrapped a tourniquet around our mother’s leg after a snake bit her when we were kids and Arturo panicked and letmedrag her to safety.
Not when I was the one who alerted our father to trespassers coming into the compound late one night and Arturo hid under his bed and cried.
Not when I was the one who could take a gun and execute a traitor who’d almost gotten us all caught at the border and Arturo choked and couldn’t pull the trigger.
Countless examples came to mind when I’d done the hard thing or had to find the courage to be brave when he'd failed to. Somepeople were meant to be the leaders and bosses, and he wasn’t one of them.
“Do I need to remind you—again—that I’m the one who studied smuggling routes under Father’s eye? Do I need to point out all the times that my input has saved our asses?”
How dare you insinuate that Ican’tmake any decisions around here?
I couldn’t make a single decision with the insufferably patriarchal confines of this organization. But he could at least do himself the service of listening to me!
“DoIneed to remind you again to mind your own fucking business?” he replied before stalking off again.
I bit my lip and shook my head, too incensed to let him have the last word like that. “This Cartel ismybusiness too.” I was just as much of a Garcia as he was.
“You have no authority, Carina. To question me?—”
“Oh, like I don’t already need to constantly do that.”
He gritted his teeth, walking faster. “You have no authority to challenge me.”
“If I don’t, who would?” Going over these points would get us nowhere. This was far from the first time that I raised an issue with his plans. I only had to allow the curiosity as to why he was so determined to brush me off this time.
“You are nothing but my sister. My tagalongyoungersister. And you’d be wise to keep your mouth shut.”
The rebuke stung. His words were poisonous barbs that sliced my soul because of how hard I wanted to combat his message.
I was just as good as him to lead this Cartel. I’d paid more attention to our parents when they were alive. Yet he had to be the new leader, all because he was the son? It was bullshit!
As I stood there and he stalked off, leaving me in his wake, I fumed and tried not to lash out or make too much of a scene. More than anything, my brotherhatedto look like he was wrong when I was right. Causing a spectacle in front of the men would provoke him to want to fight back harder.
Don’t push it. Don’t push it right now.
Shaking my head and watching him stalk off, I decided to let it go. Only for the moment.
Later, I would demand to know why he was acting so defensively. Why he was bothered and insisting on leaving the trackers off these vehicles.
Hotheaded and too prone to impulsive decisions and whims, my brother was ill fit to lead any company or any family, legal or not.
Let him fuck up and come crawling back to you for help.
I let out another rush of an exhale, steaming with the irritation only he could make me feel.
