Page 35 of Dark Reunion

Dean took Yasmine’s elbow like it was theatre and guided her toward the middle SUV, the one with the best sightlines forward and back and clear angles left and right through the glass. He didn’t rush the twins, he let them clamber in on their own.

“Can we get chocolate ice cream?” Tate asked.

“If they have it, yes, you can have it,” Dean answered, lifting Isabella into the car seat already anchored in place. Of course there was one, Carlos’s foresight reached into nurseries like a disease. He clicked it with a practiced hand and masked the twist in his gut.

Yasmine slid in, lifting the twins onto the bench and buckling them with a calm efficiency that made Dean smile.

“I can ride in here with them, if you want to ride with Ava and Andrés?” Dean suggested to Yasmine.

God, they were minivan people status now.

“Okay,” she said, and hopped out, giving him a kiss on the cheek before heading to the SUV behind his.

When Dean turned back to get in, he let his eyes go up—just once, just long enough to catch the balcony again. Carlos’s expression was like a god trapping a fly under a glass. Carlos’s death couldn’t come soon enough.

Dean gave him nothing and got in the passenger seat of the SUV. He would see more from up here. A guard named Orozco took the driver’s seat beside him, an eager puppy in a bulldog’s body.

“How long are we going to be in town?” Orozco asked, eyes forward.

“Few hours.” Dean rolled his wrist, checking his watch. “We’ll go along the river, then through Plaza Vieja.”

“You’ve got it, Señor .” Orozco radioed the direction they were headed and the convoy started to move.

The gates opened, the iron groaning. The SUVs rolled onto the road, heat shimmering in the late day heat. Dean counted intersections, timed lights. He watched for police cars and paid attention to how busy certain streets were. Much of this area was unchanged, but enough had changed. He needed to make the most of this outing.

Dean clocked the kid on the corner with the Yankee’s baseball cap on. He noted the old woman with the cane who didn’t look at them. He spotted some local trouble who smartly looked down when the vehicles passed.

In the back seat, a small voice piped up. “Can I have two scoops?”

“Three,” Tate corrected, because twins loved to one-up each other.

Dean let a corner of his mouth tick up, his mask finally falling, at least for a little while. “One each.”

“Awe…Dad,” they chimed together.

He looked over his shoulder at them as they pressed their lips together and looked down. They were silent for exactly two seconds before chatting amongst themselves once more.

Where the road met the river’s curve, Dean studied the water and how the wind pushed fingerprints across it toward the south. He timed the bend’s blind spot between two murals. He mapped, mapped, and mapped. The first test wasn’t to escape, it was seeing. How many eyes? How many blind corners? How quickly men like Orozco responded when Dean said stop at a green light, testing whether they would tolerate his whims. They did, but with hesitation. That was something Dean needed to work on.

Once they reached the plaza, Dean pointed to, La Familia Rosa, the family restaurant that was one of the few places he had fond memories from his childhood. From here they could walk to the ice cream parlor and let the vehicles follow like dark shadows.

It was nice to do this with Yasmine. To share something positive from his childhood before the darkness consumed it.

They walked into the restaurant, and the servers looked terrified, like they wanted to run out of the back door. Luckily, most of the guards stayed outside, and those that did come in sat at another table. As Dean help get everyone seated, it felt like the first normal thing they’d done in forever. Dean took control and ordered drinks and appetizers, with a mix of what he knew the boys would eat and some new stuff for them to try. The look on their faces when the fried calamari was placed on the table was priceless.

As they finished the incredible meal Ava gave Yasmine a brief hug. “Thank you for being so kind,” she sobbed, then jogged off to the bathroom leaving Yasmine and Dean to stare at one another.

What the hell was Carlos doing to this poor girl?

When Ava returned, her face was composed, and her hair was a little damp like she had splashed water on her face.

“I was thinking that it is time we expanded from just our one room,” Dean declared and then tapped his chin. “Ava would you be open to staying in the room next door to ours and keeping Tate, Aiden, and Isabella in there with you? This of course would mean that unless you have plans you would need to oversee their care throughout the evening.” Dean glanced at Yasmine. “What do you think?”

Yasmine smiled and picked up on what he was trying to do. This way it gave them a little more privacy, but it would also keep Carlos from stealing Ava in the middle of the night. The guards stationed outside the door would give her a little peace of mind. The rest of the female population was still at risk, but Dean could only save with one person at a time.

“I love the idea, our room is getting pretty cramped. Only if you want to, of course.”

Ava started to cry all over again. “Really?”