***THIS CHAPTER BEGINS WITH THE MORNING AFTER. TO READ THE CHAPTER OF SANTI & GABBY'S NIGHT TOGETHER YOU WILL HAVE TO GO TO MY RESTRICTED CHAPTERS. YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW MY PROFILE TO READ THAT SPECIAL CHAPTER ;)****

The next morning we were up bright and early, we had to get back on the road to Tamaulipas so as soon as we were ready to go, we went down to have breakfast with our friends.

We walked in hand in hand to see all of our friends already eating, we were the only ones missing even Joel was eating with them.

"Goodmorning everyone" Santi smiled at our friends. He took a seat at the head of the table and I sat to his left side while Joel sat to his right, directly in front of me. I smiled at Joel and he gave me a small nod and grin.

"Someone had a good night..." Nessa wiggled her eyebrows at my boyfriend.

"Ness" I shook my head at her and she laughed.

"What? It's not every day we see him in a good mood" Nessa said. "Whatever you did last night, Gabby. You better keep doing it."

I put a hand over my face in embarrassment, Santiago laughed out loud and reached out to kiss my hand.

"The vehicles are ready to go so as soon as we're done eating we can leave." Leo said to Santi.

"Good. Our parents already know what happened so they will be arriving in Tamaulipas a few hours after us"

I had talked to my mother before coming down to breakfast and she told me the party had gone well. All the people that hd attended were originals of the cartels so most of them were already retired and their sons had taken over...so it had been a friendly reunion. The main gossip of the party had been the new rising cartel Los Zetas, my family's enemy cartel. Everyone agreed that Los Zetas needed to be taken down so they all supported El Cartel de Golfo and El Cartel de Sinaloa, especially since they knew Santiago was the head of the cartel. He'd made a good reputation for himself so everyone respected his decisions. Even though my older brother Martin was older than Santi, he had just taken over my dad's place. Santiago had been the head of his cartel for a while now and he had a very powerful cartel behind him.

Los Zetas were only gaining more and more enemies. They had recently come into the mafia world and they were the rebels who decided to do their own thing and break some of the most important rules of the mafia. They didn't care about family or the innocents they killed as long as they got what they wanted. And at the moment they wanted my family's territory. A territory my father had owned for many years.

We finished eating. While Leo turned in our keys in the lobby, we arranged ourselves in the trucks. I stood by Santi while everyone went in, right before Joel was about to go in Santi called out his name.

"Joel"

His brother turned to look at us and raised an eyebrow at Santi. "What's up?"

Santi cleared his throat and struggled to say what he wanted to say to his brother. "I-I..um...I wanted to thank you. For helping out Gabby in the elevator."

Joel looked shocked and he did a small shrug. "It's no problem. You know why I did it.."

He still has feelings for me.

Santiago nodded." I know, but I still wanted to thank you and apologize for the way I acted." he put his hand for his brother to shake and it took a moment before Joel reached out but he finally did.

"You don't have to apologize to me, brother." he stared at Santi eye to eye. "You better treat her right. Because if you do anything to mess things up between you two...I'll always be here to take my chance at winning her heart."

And without another word, Joel got in the truck closing the door behind him. Santiago walked over to the second vehicle and helped me get it. We didn't say a word about what happened with Joel on our way to Reynosa, Tamaulipas.

*~*~*



We were greeted at my family's hacienda (A/N: a large estate or plantation with a dwelling house.) by my two brothers, Martin and Alex.

"Welcome home little sis" Martin hugged me, followed by Alex.

I was back at the home I grew up in and it looked exactly the same as when I left with my mother. The hacienda was located in the middle of nowhere, because my father had to hide himself, just like all other drug lords had to do.

It had twenty rooms, three living rooms, a game room, two dining rooms, a large kitchen, a large backyard with a pool, a party room....a stable with horses and other farm animals, and land where I would go horseback riding with my dad when I was little. It was a dream house.

"This place is beautiful" Claire said.

"Claire, Mike these are my brothers Alex and Martin." I introduced my brothers to my new friends.

"Nice to meet you." Alex and Martin shook their hands.

"Is this the hacienda you always talked about, Gabbs?" Sofi asked me.

I nodded. "It's named after my mother, Hacienda La Victoria."

"Well come on in everybody!" Alex lead the way. "Gabby, there's someone who's been waiting to see you...

We followed my brothers inside and he lead us to the large kitchen where an older lady was pacing around excitedly. My abuela Marlina, my dad's mother. (Grandma)

She looked up when she heard our footsteps and her eyes zeroed in on me.

"LUCIA!" she rushed over to me and hugged me tightly. I hugged her back and was shocked to see I had grown taller than her, the last time I saw her we were the same height but despite her small size she had a big attitude that made her seem intimidating to the people around her.

"Lucia?" Claire asked confused.

"That's her middle name" Sofi answered.

"Ay. mi princessa no saves cuanto espere a que volvieras a esta casa." she pulled back to look at me. (You don't know how long I waited for you to come back home.) "Mira que alta estas! Y igual de hermosa que tu mama." (Look at how tall you are! And just as beautiful as your mother.)

I blushed. "Gracias abuela. Yo tambien estoy muy feliz de volver a verte. Te extrane mucho! Y tambien tu comida." (Thank you Grandma. I'm happy to see you again.I missed you a lot! And I missed your cooking!)

My grandma is the best cook in the world. Seriously, everyone who's ever tries her food always compliments her for being such a good cocinera. (cook)

"Y quines son todos estos muchachos y muchachas?" she turned to look at all of my friends curiously. (And who are all these young men and women?)

"Estos son mis amigos, abuela. Ellas son ; Sofia y Vanessa que son mis amigas ya de varios anos. Esta es mi amiga Claire que acavo de conocer y su esposo Mike. Y ellos son Daniel y Leo los novios de Vane y Sofi. Y el es Joel...." ( These are my friends, grandma. They are Sofia and Vanessa who I've known for a few years nos. This is my friend Claire who I just met and her husband Mike. The guys are Daniel and Leo, Sofi's and Vane's boyfriends. And he is Joel....) I hesitated before introducing him because what could I call Joel? An acquaintance? A friend?. "mi amigo. Y el es Santiago, mi novio." (my friend. And finally this is my boyfriend Santiago.)

Everyone gave my grandma a friendly greeting but her eyes were glued on Santiago and I.

"Con que tu eres el novio de mi Lucia? Ya me avian contado mis nietos que nos quieres robar a mi nina." my grandma glared at Santiago jokingly. (So you are my Lucia's boyfriend? My grandsons already told me that you're trying to steal my little girl.)

Martin and Alex snickered.

"Mucho gusto senora" Santi shook her hand politely. (It's nice to meet you m'am.)

"No pues tu si que te conseguiste a un novio muy guapo, Lucia. Hasta parese galan de telenovela. Nomas imaginense que guapos van a salir mis vis-nietos..." (Well, you found yourself a very handsome boyfriend, Lucia. He looks like a soap opera star. Just imagine how good looking my great-grandkids are going to be.) she said making everyone else laugh.

Claire and Mike were confused but Ness did a very good job translating everything my grandma said so they laughed along with all of us.

Did I forget to mention my grandma has no shame? She likes to say what's on her mind no matter if it's good or bad. She doesn't beat around the bush.

"Les prepare una limonada a todos" (I made some lemonade for everyone.) she walked to the kitchen counter and served us each a glass of lemonade.

She asked me about my mother and I told her she would be joining us soon, she wasn't shocked when I told her my parents had gotten back together. She told me she always knew my parents would end finding their way to each other once more.

Grandma Marlina never blamed my mom for leaving my father, she knew mom was only trying to protect me from the mafia world.

My father and his brothers were the ones who got involved in this business, my grandparents had been very poor and grandpa Osvaldo died at a young age leaving my grandma alone with her three sons. Dad,being the oldest out of all of them decided to go out on his own and look for a job... he met some people that showed his the cartel business and then he brought my uncles into the business too. Marlina hated the fact that her sons chose the wrong path but she's always been by their side despite all the bad things they've done.

"Bueno hija, los tengo que dejar porque quede en irle ayudar al padre Jesus en la iglesia. Al rato regreso." (Well sweetie, I have to go because I promised Father Jesus that I would help him at church but I'll be back later.) she kissed my cheek and waved at the others goodbye.

"I want to look around. Can you show us around, Gabby?" Nessa asked me excitedly.

I nodded. "I'll give you guys a tour. I just hope I haven't forgotten where everything is."

First I lead everyone to the main living room where my grandma had made a few changes but other than that it looked the same. I was surprised to see pictures of my mom and I, pictures that had been taken while we lived in Chicago. There was one picture in particular that caught my attention, it was a picture of my mother and I on my 18th birthday. We had hired a professional photographer to take pictures. How in the world did that picture end up here?

"How is this picture here?" I asked my brothers.

"Dad kept tabs on you guys while you were away. He can get whatever he wants." Martin explained.

Mom is going to be mortified when she sees all these pictures. She hates having her picture taken and my dad literally filled the whole living room with pictures of us.

"Awww Don Salvador really missed you guys a lot. " Sofi smiled looking at the pictures.

"Don Santiago? Can you hear me? Don Santiago?" a voice was heard from Santiago's walkie-talkie.

"Yes, Beto. I can hear you. What's up?" Santi pressed spoke into the walkie.

"We have some bad news, boss. One of our trucks was intercepted in the middle of the road by Los Zetas."

"Who was in the truck?"

"Don Ernesto, Don Rafael, Don Salvador and Mrs. Victoria"

"WHAT?"

"WHERE?"

"ARE THEY OKAY?"

We all wanted answers. We were all worried.

"Are they okay? Is anyone hurt?" Santi tried to act calm but anyone could see the panic in his eyes.

"Don Salvador was shot the rest of them are okay. We already sent out our people to help them out. They're bringing them to the hacienda and a doctor is on his way."

Don Salvador was shot.

Don Salvador was shot.

Don Salvador was shot.

My dad. He can't be dead. He can't leave me.

"Gabby, are you okay?" Sofi hugged me.

"I WANT TO SEE HIM! MY DAD CAN'T BE DEAD!" I couldn't control the feeling of fear, of panic. My hands trembled and I felt an awful pressure in my chest.

I turned to look at Martin and Alex who were the only ones who could be feeling the same way I was feeling.

"No, no .no. Papa can't be dead. He can't be!" Alex hugged me tightly but he had tears in his eyes too.

"He's not dead Gabby. He'll be okay, he has to be okay." Martin choked out.







Thank you so much for reading and being so patient with updates! I took a long time to write this chapter because it's not easy to write a chapter where the characters do the dirty deed lol. MOST DIFFICULT CHAPTER EVER! I hope I did a good job because this is the first time I write about ...THAT *BLUSHES*

AGAIN, THE FIRST PART OF THIS CHAPTER IS IN MY RESTRICTED CHAPTERS AND YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW ME TO BE ABLE TO READ IT.

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