Jay was a little rough around the edges, but she was loyal. She was Black and wore her natural curls down and around her face. Mila was mixed, but she was so light you would never be able to tell. After they finished their time at the facility, they remained friends. They were out celebrating three years of being alive after suicide attempts.

  Taina’s wounds were still fresh, and she couldn’t be around her family. Seeing them might cause her to relapse, so she hadn’t even tried to in three years. Sometimes she wondered if it was her deciding not to have a relationship, though. Her mother never reached out. Taina tried not to let it affect her and was just glad she’d made bonds with women as great as Jay and Mila. She smiled at Mila’s big belly and rubbed it.

  “You need to get home. You look so tired.”

  “I am. And there’s Frank. I’ll call when I get home,” Mila said, giving them another hug.

  Taina watched as she left the restaurant front and walked to the awaiting Toyota Camry of her husband. When she was gone, Taina turned to Jay, who was texting feverishly on her phone.

  “You good?”

  “Yeah, I’m just telling this asshole I’ll be there after I take you home,” Jay answered.

  “Mami, just go. I’ll catch a ride. I don’t want you to miss your date with the new flavor of the week.”

  “Girl, you are more important than some dick.”

  “Well, I say, choose the dick,” Taina laughed. “I’m a big girl. I’ll be fine. Go.”

  “Taina . . .” Jay gave her a worried look.

  “Go. I’ll call you when I get home.”

  “As soon as you get home. Promise?”

  “I promise.”

  “All right. I love you. See you later.”

  Taina waved and blew a kiss at Jay as she walked to where she had parked her car. Then Jay got in and drove away. Still smiling, Taina stepped toward a curb to hail a cab. Moments later, a yellow car pulled up. Once she got in the back, she gave the driver her address and leaned back in her seat. She stared out of the window, full of good Mexican food and ready to go to sleep.

  “You look different, Taina,” the driver said.

  His voice was so familiar. She sat up straight and looked at him. He looked like . . . No, it couldn’t be. She took another look at him, and her eyes widened.

  “Mario?” She hadn’t seen him in so long that she didn’t know whether to be happy or sad. “What are you doing here?”

  “Working,” he said and chuckled. “I was sent to collect you.”

  “Collect me? What are you talking about?”

  “You’ll see.”

  She didn’t like how he said that. Too much wasn’t making sense to her. She hadn’t seen him in three years, and then he magically popped up driving a taxi?

  “How . . . How did you know where to find me?”

  “I’ve been following you, waiting to get the okay.”

  “The okay? For what? Mario, you’re not making sense.” He didn’t answer. He just continued driving. “If you aren’t going to tell me what you’re talking about, let me out. Let me out now.”

  She started banging on the window of the car. Something told her that she wasn’t safe. She unlocked the door and prepared to jump out—but it didn’t open. It was on child lock. Mario pulled the car over and slammed on the brakes. He turned to face her, and she saw a look in his eyes she didn’t remember being there. They were as cold as ice.

  “I had to wait for the okay to kill you.”

  He quickly sprayed something on her face that numbed her body when it went up her nostrils. She felt herself get hazy right before passing out completely.

  “Wakey, wakey, Sleeping Beauty.”

  The voice sounded far away, and Taina could barely feel the slaps to her face. But when she came to, she recognized the familiar setting of her bedroom. She tried to get up, but she was so weak that she couldn’t move. She also noticed that she was in nothing but her bra and underwear with her hands tied. She wished it was a nightmare, but she knew it wasn’t when she saw Mario standing over her, holding a gun. Tears welled in her eyes.

  “Why are you doing this?” she asked, sobbing lightly.

  “Your mother’s request,” he answered simply.

  “W-what? You’re lying. And my mother hates you.”

  She didn’t believe a word of what he said. She hadn’t spoken to her mother in years. Why would she send anyone to hurt her?

  “Aah.” Mario smiled at her and kissed her chin. “You would think so, right? Since I killed your father, I got a pretty decent position as a top assassin in the underground. When your cousin Chris killed Rodriguez for having Denny killed, I thought I was a goner. But he kept me around because I’m useful.”

  “You’re lying. He would have killed you before working with you.”

  “I’m not. He and your mother have long since forgotten about loyalty to your father. She is now on the arm of your dear cousin Chris.”

  “She wouldn’t do that to Papi.” Taina choked back her tears. “She wouldn’t.”

  “But she would,” Mario whispered in a singsong voice. “In fact, they’re the ones who ordered the hit on you.”

  “No. Cousin Chris loves me,” Taina said, not wanting to believe anything Mario said. Her head still throbbed, and she didn’t have the strength to push him off her. “If anybody loves me, I know he does.”

  “I’m sure he does love you, but he loves money more,” Mario said, wiggling his pants down. “At first, they had access to Denny’s money and assets. But now that Denny’s amended will has surfaced, it’s come to light that Denny left everything to you. Everything was seized, and your mother’s bank accounts were frozen. The only way she can get everything back is if you die. So . . . that’s why I’m here. You have $200,000 on your head, and I plan on cashing in on that.”

  “Mario, you don’t have to do this,” she pleaded. “If my father’s money is mine, I-I’ll pay you double not to do this.”

  He stared at her for a long time, and she hoped he was contemplating her offer. But she knew it wasn’t likely once the sinister smile spread on his face. He pulled a gun from his hip and aimed it at the center of her forehead.

  “I was going to have some fun with you before I put you out of your misery, but not anymore. I gave your father the choice of having last words,” he hissed. “But you? You won’t get that pleasure.”

  When the shot rang out, Taina tensed up, waiting for the pain to come . . . but it never came. Instead, she felt Mario’s heavy body fall on her and something warm dripping on her face. With wide eyes, she looked at him and could see the back of his head had been blown off. She squealed and pushed him off her with her weak arms.

  “And this is why I carry a gun in my purse. I told you to call me when you got home.”

  Taina had never been happier to hear Jay’s voice. She looked and saw her friend standing in the doorway with a smoking gun in her hand. Tears were in her eyes, and she ran to Taina.

  “Y-you killed him,” Taina said.

  “He’s not the first body on my belt. I had a rough childhood. Oh my God, Taina, are you okay?” she said, pushing Mario’s lifeless body to the floor.

  “I-I-I’m OK,” Taina said, staggering to her feet, only to fall into Jay’s arms. “He-he was going to kill me. How did you know to come?”

  “Because you always call me when you get home. And today, you didn’t. I don’t know . . . Something just told me to come by. I felt like something was wrong.”

  Jay helped Taina walk out of the room and into her living room. She turned on a lamp and put Taina down gently on the couch. Sitting beside her, she examined Taina’s bruised face. Jay shook her head sadly and embraced Taina tightly, trying not to cry. She thought the nightmare was over, but unfortunately, it was not for Taina. She just sat there staring into space with her head on Jay’s shoulder.

  “Who is he?” Jay said into Taina’s hair.

  “My ex-boyfriend,” Taina told her. “The one who murdered my father.”

  “Word?” Jay asked with wide eyes. She pulled away from Taina and had a shocked expression on her face. “Why is he here? And how did he find you?”

  “My mother and my cousin sent him to kill me,” Taina told her, and Jay looked even more lost. “And I don’t know how he found me. But I know that they won’t stop until I’m dead. My father left everything he owned to me. And until I’m dead, it will remain that way.”

  “Fuck,” Jay said. “I need to call Mila. She has connections.”

  “No,” Taina exclaimed. “She and Frank are happy. Let them stay that way. We don’t want to put stress on her and the babies. This was my fight before I knew you guys. I need to finish it alone.”

  Taina pushed away from Jay and struggled her way to the bathroom. All she wanted to do was shower. She ran hot water and realized there was no way to escape her past. She would have to face it. They would keep sending assassins to finish the job if they wanted her dead. She knew she would never be safe.

  When she got out of the shower, she wiped her hand across the mirror and saw the girl who had once been so beautiful and innocent. She saw the girl who swallowed a bottle of pills, but she also saw the woman who had gotten through it all and cut the ribbon to the doors of her new company, ABC, with her newfound best friends. They were all the same person, and if she kept letting the past haunt her, she would never get past it. There was one voice that filled her heart that she needed closure from. She knew she would end the cycle by handling that bit of business.

  When she opened the door with her towel around her, she saw Jay standing there with fresh clothes she handed over. Behind Jay, Taina saw a bag of her belongings that her friend had already packed.

  “I packed your shit for you,” Jay said. “Some of the shit might not match, but that’s the least of our worries.”

  “Jay, you can’t—”

  “I can’t what?” Jay cut her off. “Come with you? Regardless of whether you like it, Taina, you’re my sister now. And I’m not going to let you dive into a suicide mission by yourself, a’ight?”

  Taina knew Jay wouldn’t take no for an answer, so she nodded. She gave Jay a small smile and embraced her. Wherever Marisol was, Taina was sure she was happy that she had finally made some real friends.

  “OK, Jay,” Taina said. “You win. Let me get dressed, and then I need you to help me figure out how we’ll get this body out of my house.”

  Jay and Taina watched the car burn in an empty parking lot. They had started the fire.

  “Bitch, I just burned up my car for you,” Jay said, staring at the corpse in the front seat burning along with the leather of her foreign whip. “So you know I love you.”

  The two women threw their jacket hoods over their heads. They walked away from the scene like they had nothing to do with the flames burning behind them. When they got to the street where the cabdriver they had paid off to follow them was, they heard the explosion behind them. The fire had finally reached the gas tank.

  “Goodbye, Mario,” Taina said, looking back once more before she got into the backseat of the vehicle. “And fuck you very much.”

  “OK, now that that is done, what’s our plan of action?”

  Taina had told Jay everything that Mario had told her when he thought he would kill her. Jay shook her head at how grimy the world could be. She knew Taina had a touchy life, but she never guessed it was as bad as it was. Taina leaned back in her seat and felt the hatred buried deeply in her heart. It was time to show what Denny Capello’s daughter was really made of.

  “News of Mario’s death will likely travel fast, especially since I am still alive and the only heir to my father’s empire. I need to gun for them before they come after me again,” Taina said, and Jay nodded, agreeing with her friend. “I think it’s time I show my face at my childhood home. In Manhattan.”

  The drive to Manhattan didn’t take very long, and although Taina was ready to kill right away, she knew she was in no shape to walk into what could have been a battlefield. She needed time to formulate a plan, and she was glad Jay was there to help her. They made the taxi driver drop them off at a hotel, the same Marriot that Mario had taken her to so long ago.

  The two girls stayed up all night, trying to think of something. Jay made a few calls and got some throwaway guns dropped off to them. Taina palmed her pistol and asked herself if she was prepared to kill her mother.

  “It’s either them or you,” Jay said, doing sit-ups on the floor. “If you don’t do this, they will keep gunning for you like you said.”

  “I know,” Taina replied.

  “And if the security around that house is as tight as you say it is, then there is no getting through without being seen.”

  “Not helping,” Taina groaned.

  “I’m just being realistic,” Jay said. “We should have just called Mila.”

  Jay’s phone vibrated, and she saw Mila’s glowing face on the screen.

  “Speak of the devil,” she said to Taina and then answered. “Hello?”

  Taina silently signaled for her to put the phone on speaker so that she could hear the conversation. When Jay did, Taina heard Mila in the middle of saying, “ . . . didn’t call me when you got home. Neither did Taina.”

  “We’re good,” Jay said a little too fast. “In fact, I’m over here right now.”

  “Really?” Mila asked, sounding hurt. “And you didn’t invite me?”

  Taina rolled her eyes. Mila had been letting the pregnancy get to her, and lately, she’d been very sensitive. That was one of the biggest reasons Taina wanted their dwelling to remain a secret.

  “You were so tired,” Taina said. “You’re always invited, but you need to rest, girl.”

  “OK, well then, here I come,” said Mila.

  “No!” Both Jay and Taina yelled in unison.

  “What?”

  “I-I mean . . .” Jay searched for a lie. “I’m not staying very long. I was just leaving.”

  “Uh-huh,” Mila said. “You know what? You two bitches are acting weird, so I’m about to take my pregnant ass to sleep. Love y’all.”

  “Love you too,” they said and disconnected the call.

  “You think she knows we’re lying?” Jay asked.

  “Yup.”

  “You think she’ll let it go?” Jay asked again.

  “Nope.”

  Jay giggled, and Taina did too, for the first time since the Mario incident.

  “Are you sure you’re OK?”

  Taina nodded.

  “Yeah, I’m alive, right? I refuse to succumb to that self-loathing feeling again,” Taina said and then got quiet. “You know he took my virginity in this hotel?”

  “Seriously? Wow.”

  “Yeah,” Taina said and thought back to that night. “I thought he was a really nice guy. I even snuck out the—”

  Suddenly a lightbulb went off in her head. Jay noticed the wide-eyed blank stare and waved her hand in front of Taina’s face.

  “Earth to Taina.”

  “I know how we can get in.”

  Taina told her the rest of the story about how she snuck out that night, and Jay laughed excitedly.

  “You’re a fucking genius.”

  “Thanks, I like to think so myself.”

  The girls planned to sneak through the basement of the house. Taina was sure that the only people that would be roaming inside the place were the housekeepers.

  “What if they aren’t there?”

  “They will be,” Taina told her.

  “Are you going to be able to do it?” Jay asked the question that had been hanging in the air. “Can kill your mother?”

  “She tried to kill me,” Taina answered.

  “But will you be able to kill her?” Jay asked the question again. When Taina hesitated, Jay grabbed their room key. “Come on.”

  She had on her shoes and was out of the room before Taina could ask her where they were going. Taina hurried and threw some tennis shoes on and ran after her. To Taina’s surprise, Jay took her up to the roof of the hotel.

  “What do you see?” Jay asked once she felt Taina’s presence behind her.

  “Huh?” Taina panted, trying to catch her breath from all the stairs she’d just run up.

  “Look down,” Jay said, ignoring the chilly breeze hitting them. “What do you see? What do you smell?”

  Taina put her hands in her hoodie and moved closer to the edge of the building.

  “I see New York.” Taina shrugged her shoulders. “I see people, and I smell . . . everything.”

  “What are those people doing?”

  “Living their lives, I guess,” Taina said.

  “Exactly.” Jay turned to Taina and stared at her deeply in the eyes. “They don’t even know or care that girls like us exist. They don’t give a fuck, Taina. They’re living their life, just like you’re trying to do. You’re trying to live a life your mother has tried to take away from you twice. She doesn’t care about you, especially if she puts a dollar on your head. She showed you no mercy. Mario didn’t hurt you; your mother did. He was just following orders. So, now, what you gonna do about it?”

  Taina’s blood felt like it was boiling in her veins at the truth in Jay’s words. That was precisely what Jay wanted.

  “I’ma kill that bitch,” Taina said. “Tomorrow at midnight, I’m going to kill her.”

  Chapter 13

  The next day, Jay called for someone to drop off one of their ABC company’s vehicles to them. The two women checked out and proceeded to Taina’s old neighborhood. It had been years since she’d seen any of the houses they passed. When Jay drove past Mrs. Sanchez’s place, Taina remembered going there sometimes after school when she had soccer practice. They parked far enough from the gate to not be seen but close enough for their binoculars to reach. The whole day they monitored who entered and left.

  It was almost ten p.m. when their targets finally pulled up at their home. Taina almost got out of the car when she saw her mother and Chris drive through the gates in a brand-new Audi. Later, they saw Isabella step out on one of the balconies upstairs with Chris. He was fondling her and kissing all over her body. All Taina could do was shake her head. Isabella was codependent. It made sense that she would fall into bed with the man who had taken Denny’s place.