Sixty-Three

The entire ride to God knew where Melina felt like the teen she once was. The stupid girl who disobeyed her parents and ended up being taken away by thugs. Lord! Will all this have an end some day? They were in a car with about three people, their heads covered by a black cotton bag, and going somewhere. The difference this time around, there was no Charming with her. No Charming to give her solace or protect her, and she was older and wiser.

The man beside Melina was huge and smelled like violence. Henry would come for them. She knew this like the day she was born. Her fingers moved to the bracelet on her wrist. His charm bracelet. She was playing with the little tags to calm her nerves when a struggling sob reached her. Gabs. Poor Gabriella. She wasn’t used to this kind of situation, so Melina circled her tense shoulders and brought her close.

“Try to keep quiet, Gabs. Trust me. Do whatever I do. We don’t want them to get angry at us. Henry will come in no time.” Melina whispered to her friend, and the blond only movement was a slight nod of her head.

By the twists and turns of the car’s movement, Melina had the impression they were heading towards Oia, but it was hard to tell. The idea of finding herself in a warehouse like last time didn’t happen when they took the bags out of their heads. Stupid assholes. Melina knew the island as the back of her hand, and she was right. They were in Oia. They had stopped in front of a pleasant house in a friendly neighborhood where not a soul would guess what was going on.

They dragged them indoors, and the place was almost bare of furniture, only the essentials. The men shoved them inside a room, and they let the air trapped in their lungs out once they heard the door being locked. They looked around the place. It was a suite with only a bed. The windows were locked and bars on the inside blocked their escape.

“What’s going to happen to us, Mel?” It was a squeak, and Gabs was doing everything in her power not to flip.

“Come, let’s sit. My knees are about to give up underneath me.” She grabbed Gabs’s hand and pulled her to the bed with her. “Nothing will happen to us. At least I hope so! I’m sorry to drag you into this mess. I didn’t mean to.” Melina couldn’t do anything but hug her friend. She’d do everything to protect Gabs until Henry came for them. “I don’t know what these people want from me, but I’m sure they will tell us soon.

“It’s okay, Mel. Let’s hope this ordeal will end soon enough, and we won’t even remember it happened.” Gabs didn’t know what time it was, since they took their phones from them, but she guessed it was about eleven in the evening, and something told her it would be a long night.

They made themselves comfortable in bed, trying to keep the anxiety growing in them in check. They didn’t need to slip into a breakdown and turn the entire thing into a mayhem. Sleep was nowhere to be found, so they kept talking and remembering things from their college years and when they got onto the island. Keeping it light so their hearts didn’t act on them. Melina got worried sick with Evangeline and Gabs with Jason, since a man hit him hard on the head when he tried to defend her. They lost track for how long they talked until someone fumbled with the knob and both of them sat up straight, staring at the door. None of them expected who came in next.

“Tadeo! What are you doing here? How did you find us?” Gabs jumped out of bed, hugging him tight as if salvation was upon them. But all of a sudden, a heaviness fell on Melina’s chest, squeezing the air of her lungs.

“Thank you, little sister, for all the info you gave me throughout the years.” He grabbed at her wrists, extracting her arm from around his neck as if she carried the plague.

Gabriella blinked several times, focusing on his words, trying to make sense of them. She stared at his composed but hard face, and tears came to her beautiful eyes. Tadeo stared at her as if she was only an annoying bug about to get swatted. She diverted her face to Melina, who paid attention to them with a ghostly semblance and wide eyes, but she didn’t see surprise in her face, only disappointment. Was Mel thinking she had something to do with all that?

“Mel, I don’t know what he’s talking about. I have no clue why he’s acting this way. Believe me!” She turned to face her brother again. “Are you not here for us? What are you doing, Tadeo?” She yelled at him, and the only treatment she got was to get pushed back to the bed.

“Of course you didn’t know what you were doing, otherwise you’d blow my cover and dry out the only way of keep tabs on your stupid friend here.” He sported a smug grin, crossing his arm above his chest and staring at them with hatred in his black as coal eyes.

Melina didn’t know what to make of the situation, and why he needed to keep tabs on her, since she had never seen him before in her life, but she felt sorry for her friend. Now she understood why every time his face flashed on Gads phone screen, the man gave her the creeps. He had rough features that never inspired trust in her, but she never mentioned it to Gabriella since he was her brother, and Melina didn’t want to hurt her friend’s feelings.

“Why would you do this to me, Tadeo? We’re blood. Why did you betray me this way, brother?” Tears streamed down her face as she looked at him as if someone had died.

Melina couldn’t blame her. From that day on, Gabriella had lost the brother she loved so much. It was difficult to conclude the person you trusted didn’t reciprocate the feeling. She had been there. Well, in a different context, but she did. It wasn’t an easy feat to cope with a betrayal that big. Melina didn’t dare to open her mouth. She preferred not to intrude and let them talk their grudges away.

“I was fifteen and deep in shit inside the mob, but when you were born, papá fell in love with you and spared his little girl from a life of crime.” Tadeo hissed at her with contempt. “He didn’t give me a choice if I wanted that life or not, but he gave it to you. He stashed you and mamá away, got alternative names for you and told no one about it.” A vein popped in his temple as he spat his frustration at them, making the man more menacing. “But what was left for me? Nothing. I had to survive inside Franco’s cartel along with papá while his pretty little girl was living her life alongside mamá.”

“You can’t blame that on me. I wasn’t given a choice either. My entire life, I missed growing up with you. I missed having papá around. He may have spared me from crime, but he put both of you away not only from my life, but mamá’s life as well, and she hated it.”

“A few years later, my life inside the mob was pretty good. I was climbing the ladders, getting Franco’s trust. Everything was just damn perfect, until Matt showed up with a scrawny boy in the warehouse and everything I fought for went to waste, and he became the pebble on my shoe, more of a boulder.” It was a chilling growl, and both women shivered in dread. “Hank became Franco’s protegé, and I saw my chance as his second slip through my fingers. That wasn’t an option for me. I had to do something. That’s when Hank made the biggest mistake of his life. His job was to plan her kidnapping” -he dismissively signaled to Melina with an evil smirk dancing on his face- “not to fall in love with the target. But it was the chance I was waiting for.”

Her heart swelled in her chest, and she touched the bracelet for comfort. She knew Henry loved her, but hearing from someone else was gratifying. But still, she didn’t understand what all that had to do with her. Why has he tormented her all these years? This man in front of them wasn’t even worth their pity, and she hoped Gabs understood that.

“But why me? Just get back on Henry?” For the first time since he came to the room, Melina voiced her outrage.

“Well, you’re not so dumb after all! That was my plan in the beginning. I had to take him out of my way, so I had to go straight for his soft spot, his weakness, and that was you, darling!”