Chapter 15: Detén los latidos de mi corazón

"I don't understand why you don't take us with you either," sitting on the stairs of their house, Axel carves something like a spear out of wood. His woodcarving is soothing, especially when he has a question. He can spend hours, if time permits, doing it. Do checks the weapons, gives instructions to the guys, and prepares to drive off on the boss's orders.

"You would insist; you never know what Chan says. We would have backed you up," Axel continues.

"There is an agreement. Everything is under control. We will just pick up the goods, pay, and leave, so you better stay in A-Card," says Do and pulls on a bulletproof vest.

"Be careful, father," Axel tosses the piece of wood aside and stands up to help fasten the man vest.

"I'll be there for dinner," Do winks and gets behind the wheel.

He will not be.

This thought flashes like lightning at the bottom of Axel's mind, but it immediately disappears. He is too confident in his father's guardian angel to pay attention to him. Axel is used to living in Vita when all hope is in his guardian angel and the mercy of Santa Muerte. Axel asks her to go around his father. He removes the knife and walks to his car, deciding to drive to school and pick Rene from classes.

After the last quarrel, his relations with Rene have not returned to normal. No matter how hard Axel tries, Rene is still sarcastic, and the man breaks down. As a result, every time they spend together ends in a fight. The girl, as if despite Axel, no longer wears his gifts. Every week she receives a package from Nebo and does not crawl out of the clothes given by her grandfather. Axel explains to himself that Rene is still a stubborn teenager and persuades, at least today, not to react to her antics and not to get angry.

As soon as Rene hops onto the seat of the car, Axel pulls her close and kisses her. Rene responds, wrapping her arms around his neck, not letting him pull away. The girl herself does not really understand why they have constantly been quarreling lately. She blames the man, who now almost does not appear at home, forbids her to walk, and continuously makes comments about grandfather's gifts.

***

Chan's car is in the tail of a cortege heading for the No-Man's land when the man orders the driver to stop before reaching it. Until the radio reports that he will pick up the goods without the boss, the man does not argue for a long time, although he does not really understand why Chan turned around.

Together with his people, Do drives into an abandoned factory, where the sellers must be waiting for them. As soon as they drive closer, Do first notices stains on the floor and then the bodies of those he came to meet. Do orders his team to turn around immediately, but the cars are still hit by a hail of bullets. For twenty minutes, the firefight does not subside at the factory. Before, without waiting for help from Chan, he hardly gets out of there, having lost most of his people, and orders them to drive to the border, where the boss must wait for them.

"Ambush. We were already expected," Do clutches the wound on the shoulder, standing in front of Chan. "It was another cartel. I did not have time to understand which one, and if you had not taken most of the people and left, we could have taken someone and interrogated."

"What for?" Chan looks at him attentively. "I know perfectly well what kind of cartel it was, as do you."

"What are you talking about?" not understanding, Do looks at him.

"That you are a traitor." Do sees Chan's men surrounding him, blocking his escape route, but he has no intention of running away.

"Do you understand what you are talking about?" Do turns purple.

"My people in Nebo work no worse than the people of their head here," Chan croaks. "You warned them about the transfer, which is the perfect place to quietly remove me. Sadly for you, you did not take into account that I would find out about it."

"This is complete nonsense. If it were true, then I would not have thrust myself into the very heart, having learned that you stayed here," Do exclaims, amazed by the words of the boss.

"And then I would have burned myself for sure, but you came back; you were not killed," Chan chuckles. "Do you know why you survived? They did not kill A-Card's future head because it was you who was supposed to become him by agreement. Abel and his boss have been trying to join A-Card for a long time, and you are perfect for the role of their puppet."

"They set me up," Do takes a step forward and freezes at gunpoint. "I would never betray the cartel."

"Nobody knew about the place and time of the deal, except you. Moreover, I have a printout of your calls. You betrayed me, and your whole family will be responsible for this," the man pokes his muzzle into his chest. "I should have dealt with your Woman long ago, considering whose slutty daughter she is," Chan pulls the trigger without giving Do the last word. The man falls to the floor, beveled by the bullet. In the dying consciousness, Do continues to blink "don't touch my family" until it finally fades, plunging it into eternal darkness.

***

Inna is helping Rene with the school layout when she hears a noise from the yard. She walks to the door, and a minute later, Rene, who is left in the room, runs into the corridor at mum's scream. The frightened girl, not understanding, looks at Inna sitting on the floor and two men of the cartel on the doorstep.

"What happened?" Rene asks, trying to lift the howling woman off the floor.

"He died! Do died!" Inna laments, and Rene, refusing to believe it, looks at the men in shock.

"You need to go with us to the morgue," one of the men says, and only then monstrous news seeps into the consciousness of the woman, blocked from perceiving reality. Rene sniffles and hugs mum on the floor, bursting into loud sobs.

Heartbroken women are put into a car and taken to the hospital morgue. Rene sees everything blurry, doesn't know where she's going, doesn't listen to what she's told. She continues to hold her cell phone in her hand but does not find the strength to call Axel. Rene will never have the power to do that, she'd rather be someone else. Axel won't know about their father's death from Rene.

Do's face is covered, but Inna immediately recognizes her husband by the thin ring on his ring finger. Going up to the man lying on the metal table, she hugs the cold body. The staff and security leave the women to say goodbye to Do, but Rene can't find the strength to peel away from the wall by the door and go to father. She still stands there, nailed to the concrete and choked with tears.

Do loved Rene, and the girl felt it. Rene doesn't remember her real father and doesn't ask her mum, knowing how unpleasant these memories are. For Rene, Do is the best father of all. The man has treated her with warmth and tenderness, pampered her, and protected her from Axel, who offended her. The girl loved the feeling of it and refuses to believe that she will no longer feel it. She lost the evenings when Do was sitting on the couch watching TV, and Rene could pester him with any questions that the man would patiently answer.

"It's my fault," Inna wheezes, stroking her husband's dark hair. "I wanted you to become the new ruler, I asked my father to help because you are stubborn, and I lost you. I should have died."

"What are you saying?" struggling to pierce the vacuum, the words reach Rene, who has locked herself in with her pain. "Mum, what are you saying?"

"I killed my husband," Inna sobs and, clinging to the table, sits on the tiled floor. "I sent him to his death. I told my father about this meeting, and they should have killed Chan, but they killed Do."

"Not true," Rene reaches out to her with difficulty, trying not to look at Do, in which she sees the features of her beloved. Rene seems to be going through a terrible déjà vu, where she stands in an equally cold room, and her man lies on a metal table.

At this moment, Rene realizes that she can survive absolutely anything, even the death of her father. But Axel will not survive. Rene realizes that if she could choose again, she would decide never to meet Axel, not fall in love with him, and not feel his heartbeat because if it ever stops, her heart will stop too.

She hardly drives away nightmarish thoughts and looks at mum again:

"I beg you, tell me that you are lying."

"But it's true, Rene," Inna looks up at her with tear-stained eyes and continues to hold her husband's hand in hers. "I killed him."

* The title of the chapter is "Stop my heartbeat" (Spanish: Detén Los latidos de mi corazón.)