Operation London (30 page)

"But we could have," he said, slicing through the air and missing Miguel's flesh by a tiny degree
. "We could have had fame and so much money, man!  We could have had respect, bitches, territory. But you had to fuck it up, turn everyone against me," he said excitedly, wiping the spit from the corner of his mouth.

"You killed them, Angel."

The statement hung in the air for a second.

"I kill the weak
. That's how the strong stay strong. They kill whatever stands in the way."

"Women?  Children?" 

"Whatever stands in the way," Angel said again.

Miguel took another swing, hitting Angel in the jaw
. The force split the side of his mouth, creating a line of blood that ran down his chin.

"You killed my friends and their families," Miguel accused, jabbing at his neck but missing.

"And now I came to finish it up," Angel said, slashing through the air menacingly. "No body will stop me. Think you can?  You're wrong. And when I kill you I'm gonna slice your pretty little woman up too," he said smoothly, a maniacal grin spreading over his face as he listened to the roar that erupted from Miguel's throat.

Lucia and Magdalene were shivering in a hidden foyer, listening to the argument between Miguel and Angel
. Lucia seemed to be taking it all in stride until there was mention of Angel killing women and children. In an instant she had pushed into the small room on the other side of the door. Magdalene ran to follow, but skidded to a halt once she got a good look at what was inside the room.

The small, dingy space was crowded with filthy clutter and cheap furniture, all covered with ugly shadows from the two flickering candles
. In the midst of it all sat Ava, rocking the thin body of Marie against her own. Lucia had already fallen to her knees in front of the woman holding the child.

"Oh, Jesus forgive me!" she wailed
. "I did this to her!  I did this, Mary forgive me!"  She swayed back and forth, wailing and crying.

Magdalene felt herself move forward until she could see Ava's shocked, pale face.

"I have to hide her so Angel doesn't find us. I have to locate him, but I can't move her," Ava said wildly. "Magdalene, what are we going to do?"

"Ava, he's out there," she said quietly, looking at Marie with worry.

"Who?"

"Both of them."

"Miguel!" she cried, biting her bottom lip and shaking her head. "Watch her!"  Ava moved Marie into Magdalene's arm before picking up her gun and running into the hallway. Magdalene checked for Marie's pulse and found it, weak but there. She smoothed the girl's hair and held her close, feeling her way to the gun pressed against her thigh just incase. It took her a minute to realize that Lucia had left the room.

In the hallway, Miguel and Angel paced around one another, each one lashing out suddenly
. Miguel's brown eyes were full of grim foreboding, but Angel's gleamed with an excitement that terror intensified. A soft voice made both heads snap up.

"Get the hell away from him, Angel," the voice ordered, gun pointed straight at him.

Ava hoped to hell that no one would notice her shaking hands. She couldn't bring herself to look at Miguel because she had to keep her emotions out of this. There was no telling what would happen if she glanced his way.

"Hey, chica, nice of you to join us
. I didn't know you liked to play rough like the big dogs," Angel laughed, making his way towards her.

"Angel, take one more step and I will shoot you," she said quietly, trying to ignore his intense leer.

He held his hands up, stopping in his tracks. "I just thought you wanted some fun, that's all baby. Don't be mad at Angel," he pleaded, smiling with crazed amusement. Ava could feel her stomach quake. He was actually enjoying this whole thing. As far as Angel was concerned, this was all one big game and he made up all of the rules. So far it all seemed to please him. "Now what honey?  I'm standing still so you don't kill me."  His cool voice taunted her, dared her to make a move he could tell she wasn't ready to make.

"Shut the hell up, Angel
. She has nothing to do with this," Miguel said sharply. His heart felt like it had leapt into his throat, strangling his voice, cutting his reason off. Ava looked like a different woman standing there with her gun pointed confidently. Miguel knew that she could take care of herself, but he didn't want her to. Every atom in his body wanted to leap to her defense and prove to her that he would protect her always. But another part of him knew that those silver eyes were pointed much too intently on Angel. This had become her fight, and he could only make sure that she didn't get hurt doing what she needed to do.

"Angel, I want you to lie on the floor with your hands over your head," Ava said firmly, all of the worry draining from her body as she pictured Marie's limp body
. This needed to be done for a girl who had no one else to do it for her.

"Well, I would say yes if I thought I'd get something out of it, but I know you're spreading your legs for Miguel here
. So I don't think I'm going to be able to listen to you, sugar."  The smile that spread across his face was treacherous and absolutely nasty.

"Angel, if you resist I'm going to shoot you," Ava said
. She meant it with every fiber in her being.

His smug smile began to spread slowly, infuriating Ava with each muscle movement
. Midway that ugly little smirk came to a halt.

A tumble of bodies hurtled past Ava and Angel crashed to the floor, a small figure on top of him, pelting him like mad.

Ava pointed the gun back and forth, trying to determine what was going on. It took only a moment to identify the person who had tackled Angel.

"Lucia!" Ava cried
. "Get away from him. He's dangerous!"
"Oh honey, don't I know!" Lucia screamed. She held a large clump of Angel's

hair in her fist and used it to lift his face, bashing it into the stone tiles on the floor
. Angel's scream filled the air, blood pumped from his eye as Lucia began to pull his head up again.

For a moment it felt like everything was underwater
. Miguel was moving toward the pair quickly, Ava was walking over more slowly. Magdalene had left Marie asleep on the couch to come to the doorway, gun in hand, ready to protect her friends. It was Lucia's scream that stopped them all in their tracks.

"No!"  She was panting, hair plastered to her cheeks in sticky tendrils
. "He's mine!  I don't want anyone else near him, I don't want to deal with anyone else being around. I want all of you out!"

"We can't leave you here with him," Ava said instantly.

"Well, you don't have no choice, chica. He's my
brother,
" she spat. "I want to be here to see him breath his last breath!"  Blood covered her hand and her eyes looked wild and unfocused.

"He's a killer, Lucia
. He'll only hurt you," Miguel said gently. "We need to let the law take care of this."

"Oh, like they did after L.A.?  Like they did after Emily?"  she said, sobs making her voice shake
. "He is never punished for what he does and it's time someone stopped it!"

"You're just as bad as he is if you do this," Magdalene said gently
.

"I'm already a sinner because of him," Lucia said, shaking her head softly.

"You can start over," Ava said, trying to make eye contact with the woman.

"How the hell would you know, princess?" Lucia hissed.

"She knows. And you can," Miguel cut in. "It isn't easy. It doesn't ever really leave you. You'll never kill all of the demons, no matter what you do. But you can begin again, forgive yourself for all that you did before," Miguel said, his voice on edge.

Lucia looked down at Angel's face, his eyes closed, blood pooling around his head
. She put her petite, feminine hands over her face, covering her made up eyes. Her body began to shake and shudder as the tears spilled over. Magdalene hurried over, putting an arm around her. They stood up the dark haired beauty bracing herself against Magdalene's smooth shoulder.

Miguel locked eyes with Ava
. Every emotion he had ever felt swirled through his body at once. He wanted to scream at her, to shake her roughly, to crush her in his arms and make love to her until they fell asleep next to one another. She felt her heart hammer against her chest as she ran to his arms, letting his warmth envelope her.

"I love you, I love you," she murmured as he twirled her small body around.

Miguel put his mouth to her neck, buried his face in her sweet smelling hair. He was about to tell her how much he loved her, how he didn't want to think about another day without her, how he wanted her to be his wife.

A shot rang out, puncturing his ear with a stiff whine of pain.

Pulling away from the woman he loved, he saw that her eyes were fixed over his shoulder, her arm extended, a smoking gun in her hand.

He turned around and saw Angel Espino's lifeless body
. A shiny blade lay loosely in one hand, flung to his side by the impact of the shot.

Miguel could feel each second pass as if it pounded on his heart. He had come closer to dying tonight than he had ever come before. Angel had every intention of killing him and he would have. If not for Ava.

She had already dropped the gun to the cold floor with a clatter
. Her silver eyes were wide, stuck on the body bleeding on the floor. Miguel moved towards Angel, pressing his fingers to the neck that was already cold. Angel's eyes stared blankly, devoid of hatred, pain, life. Miguel closed his lids with his own hand.

An old, painful part of his life closed with a thud once Angel's eyes were shut
.

He looked up into Ava's face, and what he saw there made him hurry to her
. He folded her into his arms again, this time, turning her away from Angel.

"There's nothing left to protect me from," Ava said softly when she noticed the powerful beat of Miguel's heart beneath his shirt
. He pulled away from her, his chiseled face contorted in confusion, his brown eyes filled with pain.

"I have the whole world to protect you from," he said softly, rubbing a thumb along her cheek
. "Unless you get to it first."
She cracked a tiny smile. "Do you mean unless I get to protecting you first or I get to protecting myself first?" she asked.

"A little bit of both," he said, his voice suddenly serious again
. He pulled her to him, pressing his mouth against hers, filling her with a fiery heat she didn't ever want to pull away from.

A slamming door made them both look up in shock
. Cormac, face pale and drawn, leaned against the doorframe, panting heavily. He looked from the pair to the figure lying on the floor. His blue eyes shifted to the gun in his own hand.

"I thought you might need a little help," he grinned, wincing a little as he adjusted his weight from one leg to the other
. "But I can see you have it all under control here."

"Cormac, what happened to you?" Ava cried, running to him
. Her voice brought Magdalene and Lucia out of the room and into the hallway, where they both gasped with shock.

"Just a little bump, love
. Nothing to worry over. I see Angel Espino's reign of terror is over," Cormac said acidly.

"Thank Jesus," Lucia said, crossing herself and bowing her head quietly
.

Miguel came out of the little room a moment later, Marie in his arms like a baby.

"We need to get this kid some help," he said and walked to the exit briskly, the other four following him quietly. When they made it to the main level, he whispered to Magdalene, who promptly pulled the plug on the booming music.

"Party's over!  Everyone out, now!"  Magdalene yelled, waving her arms above her golden blonde curls
. A shocked group of partiers stopped mid-dance move and stared, mouth agape. Cormac was already on the phone with local law enforcement, reporting the death and giving directions.

They made their way to the Jeep and climbed in soberly.

"Wasn't it a bad idea to give the cops a heads up?" Magdalene asked.

"Angel's been wreaking havoc here a long time," Miguel said firmly
. "I have a feeling that the police will leave this case closed." 

The rest of the drive flew by in silence punctuated by the occasional bird's cry
. Dawn was creeping up on them, filling the landscape with a bright rosy light that contrasted the dark corridors and blood soaked endings of their long night. The Jeep hurtled along dusty roads, picking up speed as they neared a small airstrip. The group jumped out, Miguel leading with Marie in his arms. They rushed onto the plane and waited to see what the future would hold.

***

Josephine stood at the hospital bed, her hand clasped around her daughter's tightly. She pushed strands of light hair away from the girl's closed eyes. Marie looked so peaceful, far away from all of the craziness that had gone on in her life so recently. The doctors had been optimistic, but they let her know that there could be so many complications with Marie's case. The girl was severely dehydrated, poorly nourished, had lost a great deal of blood and had a kidney infection. Josephine's eyes filled with tears whenever she thought too long about what her child had endured alone.