there was no way to put into words without just breaking down, how deep the knife Fate had stabbed into him was turning in his chest. His brother was straight fucked. There was nothing he could do. His brother was bleeding, fucking hemorrhaging, heart ripped out... and there was nothing he could do. And all he could think about was if Damali had ever died, and he couldn't even see her body to make it real, get one last look to say goo d-bye right and proper, he, like Yonnie, would be losing his mind. Then to find out she was alive and had married some other bastard?
Carlos shook his head as he walked down the hall to his suite in a daze. Please, God, let
'Mali be cool when I go in here 1 can't deal, if she ain't. Carlos fumbled with the room key and kicked the door when the credit-card key didn't make the little light turn from red to green. Trying to pull it together, he closed his eyes for a second, took a deep breath, and was about to try again when a hard grab spun him and a cinder-block punch dropped him.
Up in a flash, Carlos blindly dove into the midsection of the male who had dropped him, crashing them both through the adjacent suite's door. Mike's voice and the distinctive sound of a pump shotgun engaging made Carlos pull back the two-finger throat jab he had poised to remove an Adam's apple, and then jump up, thoroughly confused.
"Rider... what the fuck..."
Rider got to his feet, fury dulling the probable rib frac tures he had. "What the fuck?" he shouted as Guardians filled the hall. "I'll tell you what the fuck! What the fuck gives you the right to tell some vampire motherfucker - friend of yours or not - he can call my wife outta my fuck ing bed and into his arms on the fucking beach - that's what the fuck, Rivera!"
"Baby, hold my gun," Big Mike said, handing off the pump shotgun to Inez. He looked at Shabazz, who braced and got ready to grab Carlos. "Rider, man, let's take this convo under wraps - not in the hall, old-school security."
"Old-school security?" Rider shouted. "She got nicked! I fucking saw it," he yelled, making a lunge for Carlos as Mike lifted him off his feet. Hysterical, he twisted in the huge Guardian's arms. "I'll fucking kill you - you brought ™s bullshit to my door and she wouldn't take an escort be cause your hug signature in his call was safe! You lowered her resistance , her barriers, her natural instincts. And that sonofabitch put his hands in her hair and she came away holding her throat!"
Hot tears and spittle flew as Rider raged and younger Guardians helped Mike get him into Damali and Carlos's suite. Damali stood with her hand over her heart as they subdued Rider on the sofa, half-sitting on him as he yelled. "Black-box the room, baby," Damali whispered. "I'll get a purge ready," Marlene said quietly and then nodded to Berkfield. "The man might have a herniated disc, ribs fractured from going through the door with Carlos."
Berkfield nodded. "I'm on it."
Bereft Guardians stood around the main sofa, and then watched as Rider was able to almost throw Mike and Shabazz off him.
"Oh, goddamn, my wife can't take another nick - never again in life! You let her go to that sonofabitch, violated fam ily, all that we stand for, because of what? Tell me!"
"Let him up," Carlos said quietly.
Damali shook her head, as did Mike and Shabazz.
"Let him up," Carlos repeated calmly. "Because I didn't do what he thinks I did, and what he thinks he saw didn't happen."
The rage yell that Rider released and the surge of strength that went with it made the two senior Guardians have to re double their efforts to hold Rider down. Only Tara's image on the other side of the black-box made Rider cease struggling. That's when Shabazz and Mike heeded Carlos's command. Weary, Carlos opened the translucent enclosure for her, and then he sealed it.
Rider was on his feet but didn't go near her. Fury and fighting had made his face beet red and his eyes bloodshot. She stood calmly staring at him with her chin lifted and shoulders back and then spun slowly with her arms out.
"Not nicked," she said quietly. "Ten minutes to say good bye to an old friend who deserved my respect, then